# My New Video: How to Get the Most Out of Your Virtual Instruments & Synths



## Reid Rosefelt (Dec 15, 2020)

Omnisphere comes with 9233 presets. Komplete Ultimate comes with over 36,000 sounds. The Arturia V Collection has over 8000 presets. And so on....

Have you auditioned all the presets in all the virtual instruments and synths you own? It sure would take some time.

Even if you did, do you have a sufficient photographic memory to be able to call up the best ones for a specific piece of music you're working on?

How do you know when you buy a new library that you don't already own something you like a lot better? 

How do you expect to get the most out of the instruments you own if you don't even know _what _you own? 

(Of course, this is not directed at orchestral composers, who have totally aced these issues.)


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## Markrs (Dec 15, 2020)

I have Omnisphere and analog labs with 10,000 presets plus kontakt 13 UCE plus a heap of other stuff, so I really know this feeling. Great video @TigerTheFrog


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## el-bo (Dec 15, 2020)

I still haven't worked my way through all of Omnisphere V1


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## el-bo (Dec 15, 2020)

P.S. You might want to be careful. If the elders discover you're encouraging musicians to stop buying new stuff, and actually use what they already have, there will be trouble


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## Reid Rosefelt (Dec 15, 2020)

el-bo said:


> P.S. You might want to be careful. If the elders discover you're encouraging musicians to stop buying new stuff, and actually use what they already have, there will be trouble


I'm not really telling people not to buy, though. I'm buying and I'm certainly encouraging buying through my Tiger the Frog Black Friday thread. 

My message is "Buy as much as you want, but then use the stuff." Don't let it go to waste. 

It's one thing to organize all your guzhengs and felt pianos and pluck sounds and pad sounds in templates. It helps you work your way through and organize the instruments you own in your head without taking on the impossible task of going through everything. It makes them more useful. For me, it has made me more productive.

But that doesn't mean I don't buy lots of new stuff. Developers are always coming out with ingenious new products and engines that don't fit into the categories of my templates, and capture my interest. I love Sunset Strings and Arkhis. I have a template that is just Ben Osterhouse. 

And making templates has caused me to buy. Through doing a template recently I realized I was lacking a B3 that I liked. So I started a thread on here asking for recommendations. And now I have the IK one.


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## el-bo (Dec 16, 2020)

TigerTheFrog said:


> I'm not really telling people not to buy, though. I'm buying and I'm certainly encouraging buying through my Tiger the Frog Black Friday thread.
> 
> My message is "Buy as much as you want, but then use the stuff." Don't let it go to waste.
> 
> ...



I enjoyed the video. Been struggling to get my head around the idea of templates, as of late. A technique for building templates is something that I'd have assumed was pretty set in stone after all these years. Instead, given the amount of different DAW and different project end-goals, there are still so many possible routes to take. For a wannabe template(er/ist?) it can be very overwhelming.

And overwhelmed is what I've been...to the point that decision paralysis stopped me from ever starting. However, after watching your video I remembered that Spitfire Audio had a simple template (No summing stacks or complex routing, and one-track per instrument rather than per articulation). Within minutes, I'd started a string arrangement for a piano piece that had previously been nothing more than a piano piece, for...months.

What a revelation! And it really shouldn't have been. It just did everything I 'knew' having a template would do i.e remove every decision, bar the one-click selection from within a limited (relatively-speaking, of course), well-curated tool-set and let me just enjoy playing/composing.

That was enough proof-of-concept for me. And I'm glad I realised that even the simplest of templates already makes a huge difference. In that sense, I don't think I can make mistakes. With a little fore-thought, as well as using the modular summing stacks (loaded with similar instruments) approach, I should be able to put together templates pretty easily, as well as trying to construct a 1000 instrument behemoth 

And to the idea of using whatI'we've already bought - I'm there. I did comment, in one thread, about resolving in 2021 to use one instance of every synth, library and effect I own. It was somewhat of a joke, but I might actually give it a shot. 

All that to say, I know the video was not you telling people not to buy gear/stuff. Was just a little joke, and had I not been up till nearly 3 a.m making music, I might've returned to expand on the comment. Never mind...got there in the end


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## Reid Rosefelt (Dec 16, 2020)

el-bo said:


> I enjoyed the video. Been struggling to get my head around the idea of templates, as of late. A technique for building templates is something that I'd have assumed was pretty set in stone after all these years. Instead, given the amount of different DAW and different project end-goals, there are still so many possible routes to take. For a wannabe template(er/ist?) it can be very overwhelming.
> 
> And overwhelmed is what I've been...to the point that decision paralysis stopped me from ever starting. However, after watching your video I remembered that Spitfire Audio had a simple template (No summing stacks or complex routing, and one-track per instrument rather than per articulation). Within minutes, I'd started a string arrangement for a piano piece that had previously been nothing more than a piano piece, for...months.
> 
> ...


I make all different kinds of templates. Some are like palettes, or what Spitfire would call a toolkit. 

When I tried to orchestrate something from Jade Ethnic Orchestra I had to make two full templates. One was set up the way Strezov set up the library, by kinds of instruments. Then I did a second one that was organized by kinds of instruments, but also note ranges. So many of the instruments have such limited note ranges that you get into trouble very quickly when you are orchestrating a piece that already exists. So my template took me from the highest to the lowest. I don't know the instruments well enough to know the ranges. It would have been impossible for me to try to do what I did without both templates. Not that I succeeded, of course.


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## el-bo (Dec 16, 2020)

TigerTheFrog said:


> I make all different kinds of templates. Some are like palettes, or what Spitfire would call a toolkit.



I assumed templates were nothing more than extended palettes/toolkits. Is there more to it?



TigerTheFrog said:


> When I tried to orchestrate something from Jade Ethnic Orchestra I had to make two full templates. One was set up the way Strezov set up the library, by kinds of instruments. Then I did a second one that was organized by kinds of instruments, but also note ranges. So many of the instruments have such limited note ranges that you get into trouble very quickly when you are orchestrating a piece that already exists. So my template took me from the highest to the lowest. I don't know the instruments well enough to know the ranges. It would have been impossible for me to try to do what I did without both templates. Not that I succeeded, of course.



Interesting. Hadn't got as far as considering such a setup. I think we reside on different ends of the 'Having got one's shit together' spectrum.



TigerTheFrog said:


> Not that I succeeded, of course.



But you will...eventually


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## Reid Rosefelt (Dec 16, 2020)

el-bo said:


> I assumed templates were nothing more than extended palettes/toolkits. Is there more to it?


The way I see it, if I collect all my favorite pad sounds from my favorite virtual instruments and synths, that's not a palette, it's just a collection of pad sounds. 

I take these collections of sounds and use them to build a variety of palettes. 

But if I take four pads, Noire, an ambient guitar, a Duduk, and Cinematic Studio Strings and put them into a template, that to me is one idea for a palette. 

I'm going to make some future videos about this.


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## dzilizzi (Dec 16, 2020)

Finally got to watch this all the way through without interruptions. I'm a little confused about the separate templates - I like the idea of like sounds together, especially for auditioning and comparing, but how does this work when you are writing a piece. Can you combine piano, drum and guitar templates? Or strings and brass templates. Or maybe it is a matter of opening multiple projects at once in your DAW? Do they do that? 

Actually, I like that last idea. Have a project you are working on, open your "plucks" template, audition a bunch of sounds, find the one you want, and drag the track to the project. Then close the "plucks" template and open the next one. Could you do something like this in Vienna Ensemble or Pro?


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## el-bo (Dec 16, 2020)

TigerTheFrog said:


> The way I see it, if I collect all my favorite pad sounds from my favorite virtual instruments and synths, that's not a palette, it's just a collection of pad sounds.
> 
> I take these collections of sounds and use them to build a variety of palettes.
> 
> ...



Thanks! I think I get it.

At the moment I have a hard-drive full of instruments (Free and paid), none of which are organised in any way which lets me grab them quickly. This is similar to a drawer stuffed with art supplies or a badly organised workshop, brimming with tools. In each example, I no longer know what I have  

From a top-down view, I'd looking to use a template as a way of bringing order to my instruments/paint/tools, using sub-groups. I should be able, at-a-glance, to distinguish my piano libraries from my guitars, my oils from my acrylics and my plumbing wrenches from my carpentry chisels. 

My template is my workshop. And when I'm 'called' to do a particular job, I'll select the tools that I think will get it done 'properly'. These tools will be placed in my tool-belt/toolkit; the chosen colours, on the palette. In the case of the music template, any latent, unused tracks can be hidden, leaving just my chosen palette at hand. Any particular combination of instruments/colours that work well together can then be stored as a separate sound/colour palette/combination, for later use.

Not sure if that 'works', but in scribbling it down I can definitely get my head around what I should do. Doesn't seem so overwhelming anymore


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## Reid Rosefelt (Dec 16, 2020)

dzilizzi said:


> Finally got to watch this all the way through without interruptions. I'm a little confused about the separate templates - I like the idea of like sounds together, especially for auditioning and comparing, but how does this work when you are writing a piece. Can you combine piano, drum and guitar templates? Or strings and brass templates. Or maybe it is a matter of opening multiple projects at once in your DAW? Do they do that?
> 
> Actually, I like that last idea. Have a project you are working on, open your "plucks" template, audition a bunch of sounds, find the one you want, and drag the track to the project. Then close the "plucks" template and open the next one. Could you do something like this in Vienna Ensemble or Pro?



This video is the first of a series. So all I get into in this video is exploring all your libraries together one specific type of sound at a time. Particularly the kinds of sounds you like to use. That's step one. Then they are ready to be used in your music. So, for example, I'm writing a song and I want a pad. I bring stuff in from my pad template and try each one in the arrangement. Pick the best and delete the rest. Or layer them. All that prior homework makes this go fast.

Part two is you can create group templates--like all your Sonokinetic, or Cinematic Studio, or Sonuscore, or Ben Osterhouse templates. I have a rock band template. I have one for sound design that I use for my videos. I wanted to do a quick three second music cue over a title, so I just brought in my Sonokinetic stuff, and bang I did something in Minimal in a few minutes. 

Finally there are palettes or toolkits or whatever you want to call them. You put together a set of instruments you want to make music with. You could jump ahead and just do this if you don't have time to do the other things. I like to make these really small. 

One of the points I'm trying to make is that the process of making the templates takes me outside of my wheelhouse and through that I discover I have things that are perfect for what I want to do--like the "Byrd Watcher" AAS patch. It could be that a freebie has the best sound for my ararangement--better than the stuff I paid a lot for.

Cubase makes this super easy. But I have no idea how it could work with other DAWs. But I do know that you can set up stuff in VEP that you can quickly load in your projects. I'm not a VEP expert, but I thought I might suggest this as a place to look if your DAW doesn't work with my concept. 

Again, this is just the first video on the topic. I think it will become clearer to people as I show exactly what my templates are and how I use them.


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## dzilizzi (Dec 16, 2020)

TigerTheFrog said:


> This video is the first of a series. So all I get into in this video is exploring all your libraries together one specific type of sound at a time. Particularly the kinds of sounds you like to use. That's step one. Then they are ready to be used in your music. So, for example, I'm writing a song and I want a pad. I bring stuff in from my pad template and try each one in the arrangement. Pick the best and delete the rest. Or layer them. All that prior homework makes this go fast.
> 
> Part two is you can create group templates--like all your Sonokinetic, or Cinematic Studio, or Sonuscore, or Ben Osterhouse templates. I have a rock band template. I have one for sound design that I use for my videos. I wanted to do a quick three second music cue over a title, so I just brought in my Sonokinetic stuff, and bang I did something in Minimal in a few minutes.
> 
> ...


I do have Cubase, so I will have to figure this out. ProTools also would make this easy between folders and using aux tracks/midi tracks rather than instrument tracks. You can assign multiple midi to one aux or multiple aux to one midi. The aux track holds the instrument. I'm sure Cubase does this, but I haven't figured it out yet.


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## dzilizzi (Dec 16, 2020)

el-bo said:


> my plumbing wrenches from my carpentry chisels.


This one is easy - plumbing wrenches get tossed into the tool box with everything else. Carpentry chisels get lovingly placed into their spot in the felt lined drawer, where they don't touch anything else that might mess up the perfect edge you just spent hours trying to hone. 

Yes, my husband is a woodworker.....


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## Reid Rosefelt (Dec 16, 2020)

This is how importing tracks works in Cubase 10.5. I have a button on my Stream Deck for this because I do it so often.


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## el-bo (Dec 16, 2020)

dzilizzi said:


> This one is easy - plumbing wrenches get tossed into the tool box with everything else. Carpentry chisels get lovingly placed into their spot in the felt lined drawer, where they don't touch anything else that might mess up the perfect edge you just spent hours trying to hone.
> 
> Yes, my husband is a woodworker.....




Haha! Perhaps you could get your DH interested in template-building. Sounds like he's got the right kind of methodical-ness for the job


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## dzilizzi (Dec 16, 2020)

el-bo said:


> Haha! Perhaps you could get your DH interested in template-building. Sounds like he's got the right kind of methodical-ness for the job


He isn't very computer literate. I'm the IT person in our house. 

Well, me and Google


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## muratkayi (Dec 27, 2020)

That was a very entertaining and instructive video, thanks a lot!

Here's something that Komplete did for me: I got a Maschine mikro mk3.Thought it was a nice toy and wanted to give it a try. Now I own a Maschine mk3, a Jam and hardly touch my linear DAW at all. And I am not necessarily talking about loopbased beatmaking only. I produced a few cues for a friend's film project recently almost entirely in Maschine. 

But that is besides the point. 

The thing that changed my music production more than anything is - the browser. 
Maschine's browser does exactly what you are proposing and you don't have to lift a finger to profit from it. I browse for all kinds of sounds by character, role, supposed instrument, type and so on. Maybe I narrow it down by genre (NI expansions are mostly genre based) or specific instrument, but half of the time, when I decide on a sound, I haven't even checked what VST it is. Might even be a multisampled Maschine sound only. I don't have to care. I don't search. I find. 

And as 3rd party VSTs are classified the same way as long as they are NKS compatible, this includes almost every software I own. I don't even have to have midi ready to check sounds as there are prehear libraries for every preset. 
For all of them. 
Let that sink in. I just use a little encoder, listen to sounds and haven't pressed a key or anything. Then, otoh, you can autoload sounds if you have a part that is playing already.

I think the Komplete Kontrol Browser works the same way, but I haven't checked it.

So, what I wanna say is: if you (the general you) own Komplete, that work of classifying and curating sounds has already been done for you and it might prove as transformative for you as it has been for me. Give it a try!

Lastly, the tagging system can be expanded by user tags. It's just awesome.


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## dzilizzi (Dec 27, 2020)

muratkayi said:


> That was a very entertaining and instructive video, thanks a lot!
> 
> Here's something that Komplete did for me: I got a Maschine mikro mk3.Thought it was a nice toy and wanted to give it a try. Now I own a Maschine mk3, a Jam and hardly touch my linear DAW at all. And I am not necessarily talking about loopbased beatmaking only. I produced a few cues for a friend's film project recently almost entirely in Maschine.
> 
> ...


So with Maschine, I could say I want a piano sound and it will give me all NKS piano sounds, whether they are a separate piano library or just a patch in something like Metropolitan Ark or even a piano loop? That would be cool.


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## muratkayi (Dec 27, 2020)

dzilizzi said:


> So with Maschine, I could say I want a piano sound and it will give me all NKS piano sounds, whether they are a separate piano library or just a patch in something like Metropolitan Ark or even a piano loop? That would be cool.


Yes. Everything that sounds like a piano. Could be anything. A single oneshot sample, a multi sampled instrument, a synth, could be by NI, or another vendor. Or you narrow it down to VSTs only or on Oneshots only, or on a specific vendor a. s. o. 

As I said, the Komplete Kontrol Browser uses the same tagging and classification and prehear libraries, so if you own Komplete, try it there. Maschine is its own beast and I would actually encourage trying it, too (it's a separate purchase from Komplete), but as I have seen people struggle rather hard with letting go of their linear approach in Maschine and this thread is mainly about creating a curated catalogue of sounds I say try the Komplete Kontrol browser.

IIRC it is also included in the basic products like Komplete Select and even Komplete Start. Of course, it's way more fun when you use it on a HD full to the brim with NKS compatible sounds.


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## dzilizzi (Dec 27, 2020)

muratkayi said:


> Yes. Everything that sounds like a piano. Could be anything. A single oneshot sample, a multi sampled instrument, a synth, could be by NI, or another vendor. Or you narrow it down to VSTs only or on Oneshots only, or on a specific vendor a. s. o.
> 
> As I said, the Komplete Kontrol Browser uses the same tagging and classification and prehear libraries, so if you own Komplete, try it there. Maschine is its own beast and I would actually encourage trying it, too (it's a separate purchase from Komplete), but as I have seen people struggle rather hard with letting go of their linear approach in Maschine and this thread is mainly about creating a curated catalogue of sounds I say try the Komplete Kontrol browser.
> 
> IIRC it is also included in the basic products like Komplete Select and even Komplete Start. Of course, it's way more fun when you use it on a HD full to the brim with NKS compatible sounds.


Thanks. I will check into it. I like this idea. I will also look Komplete Kontrol - I don't have the keyboard but I think it still comes with Komplete which I do have.


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## muratkayi (Dec 27, 2020)

Check this video out. Here, he only uses the "instrument" category. As I said, I mainly use this system from Maschine and can't tell atm what othet categories are there when you only use Komplete Kontrol, but in Maschine there are oneshots, loops, effects (yes, classified, too), and Maschine specific stuff like groups, sounds and such.


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## muratkayi (Dec 27, 2020)

dzilizzi said:


> Thanks. I will check into it. I like this idea. I will also look Komplete Kontrol - I don't have the keyboard but I think it still comes with Komplete which I do have.


Yea, the browser is installed in Komplete Kontrol regardless of wether you own the hardware


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## Reid Rosefelt (Dec 27, 2020)

muratkayi said:


> That was a very entertaining and instructive video, thanks a lot!
> 
> Here's something that Komplete did for me: I got a Maschine mikro mk3.Thought it was a nice toy and wanted to give it a try. Now I own a Maschine mk3, a Jam and hardly touch my linear DAW at all. And I am not necessarily talking about loopbased beatmaking only. I produced a few cues for a friend's film project recently almost entirely in Maschine.
> 
> ...



The Komplete Kontrol browser is identical to the Maschine one. As you said, uou don't need any hardware to use Komplete Kontrol. It's free and you can get everything you need with your mouse and keyboard. NI controllers just make it easier. You can audition sounds with the arrow keys on your computer keyboard. 

Everybody can use the workflow that suits them, but I have never found it helpful to do a search for one sound through all the NI instruments. It actually takes longer for me that way. For me it works better to go one instrument or library at a time, for which I do use the tags. But practically all libraries and synths, like Omnisphere, etc., are tagged.

Also, most Kontakt instruments are not NKS, although the number is growing. If nearly everything you own is NKS, that's great, but I don't think that's the case for most people. 

I also disagree with you a bit about the third party. It could work that way. It should work that way. But it doesn't always. It is limited to the degree that third party libraries tag their libraries, which is often very badly. This has been a sore spot with me and has resulted in a lot of emails to developers.

And what if you are using Omnisphere? Or Falcon? Or any UVI instrument? Or HALion? Or SINE? Or Play? or Synthmaster or Korg synths? And on and on and on. There is a world beyond NKS.

So I think I'm talking about something very different, that goes to everything you own, not just your NKS instruments.


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## muratkayi (Dec 27, 2020)

I think I am kinda lucky that indeed most if the stuff I own shows up there. Some however don't and your suggested method is a very welcome inspiration to complement the NKS instruments and komplete vaults


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