Making Music on a Budget: Virtual Instruments

If you're trying to get music out of your head and into a computer-based mix as I am, you just can't make it happen without decent instrument sounds. This post from my series on producing music on a budget focuses on instrument sounds, some of which you can get at little or no cost.

 

Start with what you have

If you have a computer-based workstation, you probably have some sounds already, so that's a good place to start. In my case (as I mentioned in an earlier post), I'm running Acoustica Mixcraft 6. Mixcraft comes equipped with some pretty nice sounds to get you started immediately. They include samples from a broad array of standard instruments like pianos, guitars, and drums. Mixcraft also has some orchestral sounds, three different software synthesizers (or soft synths), and some other goodies. One of the pleasant surprises I found was a very nice soprano saxophone sample that I used to create a short smooth jazz track in a style similar to Kenny G.



This has turned out to be one of my better sellers on Pond5, and you can license it royalty-free here. All the sounds you hear on that track, except for the finger snaps in the break (that's me!) came out of the box with Mixcraft.

Free is good

Of course, the more music you produce, the more you want to expand your sound palette. In my case, I just wasn't happy with the quality of the acoustic piano sounds in Mixcraft's sound library. So I set out to find out if there were free or inexpensive virtual instruments available out there. My search led me to Piano One. a virtual piano available on a freemium basis. That is, you can download Piano One with a single piano (a very nice sampled Yamaha grand) at no cost. If you decide you want other pianos (I think they've sampled several high end instruments), you can buy and download them. Here's something I wrote that features Piano One prominently.



Another area where I felt I needed more variety was pads. For those just getting started, a pad is a certain type of sound that sits in the background of your music and your melodies sit on top of it, so to speak. I also wanted to have a wider variety of tone colors. A couple of free options I found to solve these problems were Ethereal PadZ 2 and STS-11b-7v. The former gives you a lot of options for creating your own pads with different tone colors, or you can use their presets. The latter has an insane array of sampled and synthesized sound effects that you can use to add texture to your compositions. I made use of both on a piece called "Sense of Foreboding."



Another great instrument that can work for lots of budgets, including a free option, is Alchemy by Camel Audio. I found this several months ago, downloaded the free Alchemy Player with several included sounds and have made heavy use of it since. The sounds themselves are actually tweakable, giving you more tonal possibilities than just a simple "patch." Camel has a really solid business model going. They have options for every budget, from the full-featured, full price Alchemy plug-in to lower-priced prepackaged sound libraries for the Alchemy Player (several of which top my personal wish list for future purchases). You'll find Alchemy sounds sprinkled all over my stuff, especially recently.

Look for deals to suit your budget

Sometimes, there are just no substitutes for just going ahead and spending the money. If and when you do, be aware that music software makers sometimes offer deals to move product or establish a relationship with you as a composer or music producer. That's how I ended up buying the famous Miroslav Philharmonik from IK Multimedia. I'd had my eye on Miroslav for a long time and was going back and forth between it and Garritan Personal Orchestra in a similar price range. IK had a blowout late last summer and offer Miroslav and some of their other products in a group buy. It was just too good to pass up. As a result, I was able to pick up Miroslav at an insanely low price, and got some goodies from their Sample Tank line in the bargain. In addition to all the high-quality orchestra samples, Miroslav includes a very nice Steinway grand piano, and it has built-in effects you can use to really fatten up the sound. The track below, "Quiet Energy," is all Miroslav.



For companies like Camel and IK, there's a method to the madness. I hope one day to be able to make a significant portion of my living creating and licensing music of the sort you'll find all over this site. When I do, those companies will be at the top of my mind when I look for new options to expand my sound palette.