Soundfonts or VSTs

[Pet Terry]

Hello.

I would really have use for neat soundfonts and/or VST instrument packs, but the problem is that I can't find what I need. This tune I have (midi) uses for example the following instruments that I don't have:

- Banjo
- Fiddle
- Honky-tonk piano
- Blown bottle
- Whistle
- Distortion guitar

Any idea where I could find some of those? Commercial or non-commercial stuff, everything is welcome.

Cheerios.

[Nikolas]

www.kvraudio.com

There is a shitload of free stuff in there. Including something called  plugsound FREE. I'm sure that you will find instruments to use... Commercial and non

[Damien]

- Banjo
- Fiddle
- Honky-tonk piano
- Blown bottle
- Whistle

For the above, I recommend Edirol's Virtual Sond Canvas

- Distortion guitar

Slayer 2 as an VST instrument
Guitar Rig 2 as an virtual amplifier for your own guitar playing

Also, two good places to start searching for free soundfonts and VSTi:

http://www.soundfonts.it/
http://www.kvraudio.com/

[Gregjazz]

sf2midi.com has a bunch, too.

Fiddle is tough... Garritan's Stradivari will suit your fiddle or violin needs: http://www.garritan.com/stradivari.html

And for distortion guitars? Of course I would recommend http://www.manytone.com/mgdescription.html

[Pet Terry]

Awesome! Thanks a lot, I'll check them out now.

[Gregjazz]

Hey Pete, also be sure to check out some of my own VSTs and VSTis at my website:

http://www.gregjazz.com/index.php?page=Miscellaneous%20Downloads

Sort of random, but you might find some cool stuff there.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I prefer VSTs, but you REALLY need a decent program that takes advantage of them for it to be useful.  Renoise comes to mind.

[EldKatt]

For a honky-tonk piano, I guess you could just have two layers of any (suitably bad-sounding) piano patch and detune them slightly from eachother. Also, if you're into VSTs, you should really check out mda Piano--it's free, and sounds rather good for its size. Unless it has to be in the foreground as well as sound extremely good (in which case I suppose Steinberg's frighteningly huge The Grand--or a real piano--would be the best) it'll probably satisfy you. I recall it has some interesting detuning functions, also, that might be interesting for a honky-tonk piano.

By "whistle", do you mean, like, human whistling with the mouth? If so, I suspect it's very very difficult to simulate convincingly. The only practical way to do it that I can think of is simply to record real whistling.

If, however, you mean some sort of fipple flute (like tinwhistle or whatever) I recall seeing an okay soundfont. I can look into it further if this is what you're after.

[Gregjazz]

For a honky-tonk piano, I guess you could just have two layers of any (suitably bad-sounding) piano patch and detune them slightly from eachother. Also, if you're into VSTs, you should really check out mda Piano--it's free, and sounds rather good for its size. Unless it has to be in the foreground as well as sound extremely good (in which case I suppose Steinberg's frighteningly huge The Grand--or a real piano--would be the best) it'll probably satisfy you. I recall it has some interesting detuning functions, also, that might be interesting for a honky-tonk piano.

By "whistle", do you mean, like, human whistling with the mouth? If so, I suspect it's very very difficult to simulate convincingly. The only practical way to do it that I can think of is simply to record real whistling.

If, however, you mean some sort of fipple flute (like tinwhistle or whatever) I recall seeing an okay soundfont. I can look into it further if this is what you're after.

+1 for the MDA piano.

Fipple flute... now there's a term I haven't heard in quite a while. I know it's not exactly a flute, but on sf2midi.com there's a soundfont called "ocarina of time" which I love. Add some reverb and delay and it's so expressive!

[lo_res_man]

I know this is slightly off topic, but I hav to ask.
HAs any one seen brave heart, or lord of the rings or "the secret of rune inish" and ther is this one instermint and it is played solo and its VERY haunting and celtic, and No its not bagpipes! i just wodering if anyone knows what i mean and i was just wondering if anyone knows what it is.

[EldKatt]

If it sounds anything like a flute, it's probably a low whistle. It's essentially a tin whistle, only twice as big (and thus sounding an octave lower) and a lot newer, historically speaking.

It could--although I guess this is slightly less likely--also be uilleann pipes, a type of bellow-blown, quite technologically advanced bagpipe used in Ireland. (I assume that by "not bagpipes", you mean it's not Great Highland Bagpipes (the only type most people know about)--if not, then your knowledge of bagpipes is far greater than that of most people, and I apologize.)

Both of these instruments are pretty common in film scores and such where something is supposed to sound vaguely Celtic.

[lo_res_man]

Oh, thanx very much, I had never heard of this bellow blown bag pipe, I knew other cultures had bagpipes just never heard of a bellow blown version, thanx. it might be that low whistle, I'll poke around and see if thats the sound I was looking for. Thanx again!