Favorite VST instruments

[Doctor C]

I wonder what are your favorite VST instrument plug-ins. I mean sound, MIDI implementation, ease of use, overall design, etc. There are hundreds out there but some of them really stand out. I personally like Native Instrument's B4, Music Lab's Real Guitar and Artutia's Minimoog to name a few. What about you guys?

[theologiae]

i've gotten into reaktor, which is more of a vst maker then a vst, but it makes some of the best sounding stuff out there. and with a user library of 2000 vst, it's kinda limitless.
i've also heard great things about isotope's mastering vst's. but it's $300 so i won't be getting it any time soon.

circle 6

[Jost]

Spectrasonics 'Atmosphere', its the phattest pad synth out there; especially the evolving mood patches. However, its extremely CPU hungry.

http://www.jostsauer.com
"When one is not expressing himself, he is not free." - Bruce Lee

[LivePsy]

Theologiae, you said Reaktor is "more of a vst maker then a vst". Do you mean you compile VSTi's from it to use in your host, or does the Reaktor environment act as a VSTi? I'm a little confused as to what exactly it is.

B

[Rez 3.5]

Fav VST/AU Sampler has gotta be Motu Mach 5, luv the built in FXs. Fav Soft Synth is Albino 2.

[neutron]

atmosphere,Stylusrmx,absynth,OuterLimits,Morphology,Altered States,Kontakt,Reason 3 and KarmaTriton( not a vst but...) ,korgLegacy....

work in progress

[robi]

@LivePsy: No, Reaktor is the vst but you (can) build your modules even from low level corecells by yourself. There are lots of ready made modules available aswell, like vcos, vcfs... up to the most special modules as well. So your are not stuck to synths, you can build synths, samplers, effects like compressors, delays or exotic stuff, just about anything you can think of or can't think of...


My favorites are:

- Musiclabs Realguitar - I tested it recently and will buy it very soon, but the pre-customer service is really bad. I mailed them a couple of times now and never got any answer...

- FXpansion BFD

- Garritan GPO and the Jazz Library

- MrRay 73, 2.2 and MrTramp - donationware and REALLY GREAT

- NI Reaktor

- FXpansion DR-008, a bit out of date but I prefer it over Battery

- Novation Bass-Station, this needs really a lot of treatment but then it is really awesome

- basement arts reflex, not really an instrument but a loop slicer. Not as detailed as intakt but really fast and intuitiv

Please don't ask for favorite effects-plugins, too many

Fantom X8 V2 512MB and SRX-11

[Lord of the Badgers]

Odd, I've not found Atmosphere to be a CPU hog.

Atmosphere
Arturia CS80
NI B4ii, FM7
Absynth occasionally

Synthogy Ivory - FABULOUS piano, but my old PC isn't quite up to it- I often get slow disk messages even after i've been quite drastic with my settings.

as for non-synths, I LOOOOOOVE NI's Guitar Rig 2. By far my fav plugin after Atmosphere

I'd love to get a good orchestral one - one that's not a CPU hog.. should i go for Miroslav, Garritan or East West? Anyone?

Ta

Regards,
Rob
-------------------------------
http://www.lotb.co.uk
Motif ES8
Roland F(***ing) X(cellent) R(ack)
Roland MVS-1 (Vintage Synth Rack)

[Lord of the Badgers]

I have to add MusicLab's RealGuitar2 to my list as well. Trounces the Motif's Arps and then some. Dunno if Steinberg's Virtual Guitarist is better, but the demo of RG2 is pretty damn cool. The strumming and picking is awesome, and i love the idea that you make a chord with the left hand & play the individual guitar strings with the other - great idea that.
I hear they have an electric one in the pipeline too. I did try putting the realguitar thru guitar rig 2, which was, er, interesting

Regards,
Rob
-------------------------------
http://www.lotb.co.uk
Motif ES8
Roland F(***ing) X(cellent) R(ack)
Roland MVS-1 (Vintage Synth Rack)