So I am going to be buying a new plugin pretty soon and so many look cool! I was curious what is everyones favorite plugin and why. Since turning my studio legit I only have the ones that came with sonar home studio (which are so-so) and ewql silver orchestra. I wish I could afford symphonic choirs cause that would be sweet. I am thinking about either getting battery, "Total REX" (a large rex library), Or maybe absynth or outer limits for cool soundscapes. On a seperate note how much are you guys using rex loops and pre-made soundscapes for your compositions. I never really wanted to use a lot but the other day I made a hip hop song in a matter of hours which is really fast for me. I made it so fast because I used rex loops, but I fear falling into only using them because it's so easy to make something thats good really quickly. If you want to hear the song btw it's www.soundclick.com/jimwelch then click on "you're crazy"

Jim, what kind of music would you like to make?

Duncan

whatever is asked of me....I plan to score for film and games for a living and so I will need to be able to produce a variety of styles. I LIKE to make epic orchestral stuff, ambient-esc music, all styles of rock music, electronic a bit, program music.

I am not sure if this is what you where wondering...check out the links in my signature to hear some of my music the myspace page has my four most recent songs though it doesnt include my rock styles.

It's tough to recommend one plugin for so many different styles - I think you'll find most pros use different sorts of combinations to accomplish what you might hear in a professional game (ie. possibly Drumkit From Hell Superior/Absynth/Arturia Mini/real distorted guitars played by a real musician/etc for a twisted hell-hound of a piece). I'd make the distinction between composers who can successfully recreate the full orchestra synthetically, with possibly some live players to sweeten (Jeremy Soule, our own Beeson) and those who combine ideas and sounds more (Marty O'Donnell, Ed Lima, etc). Orchestra guys tend to be forced to stay very current with plugs and go to great lengths to find or make the best custom samples for their work - it would be quite 'normal' to find a pro orchestra guy is using EWQLSL Platinum, the full VSL and GPO/etc along with many of their own custom-recorded samples, all played back on an array of computers. I'm sure you're familiar with this idea, Jim.

Point is, if your really trying to cover all bases, I'd go with Kontakt 2 first, you can open everything else up in it, it's really powerful, and it comes with a bunch of great sounds. I'd also consider that Kontakt 2, Propellerheads' Reason and your very powerful EWQL Silver could cover almost anything, used creatively. Don't get caught up in the bad-mouthing of anything less than Gold, I've done a number of pro projects with Silver, you just have to pick and choose and use what it's good at - pizz, woodwinds, long legato string notes, etc. If you have the bank, GPO is great and complements EWQL well.

If you're leaning toward the orchestra stuff, you could go with Platinum and Symphony Of Voices or one of the other choirs to start with. Many people like Stormdrum as well, although the loop thing isn't really my style, it's almost getting generic at this point - but it's also on sale at Sweetwater right now :)

Synthy stuff: Absynth is awesome, as is the Arturia stuff, I totally love DFHS for real drums and rock, and you can twist all of that stuff in your DAW, too - it's the most powerful synth I have, IMHO.You might get enough out of Kontakt 2 as well, I'd still consider that one first.

A good case could be made for investing in high-quality mics and mic pres instead of just going with MIDI and plugins as well. Nothing (nothing!) beats real players playing real instruments - even if alongside great MIDI tracks. Just my opinion, though. Good luck!

Duncan

Duncan pretty much covered it :p

Absynth 3 is pretty dang sweet as well as Stormdrum.