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Where would I get a library of these kinda pad sounds (32-bit - sorreee!)

ulrichburke2

New Member
Dear Anyone.

Sorry for two posts close together in different forums.
I'm after sounds like the backing sounds in any of these links - I'm pretty sure they're sounds from some kinda library because they keep turning up in the same composers' works. All these are from 32-bit days (as is my DAW - I don't 'get' these 64-bit DAWs with no notation! I lurve using notes, would buy Dorico but they want £500 for it!!)



or

(jump to abouit 1 minute in onwards!)

or



Just want a nice library of 32-bit sounds (I've got 32-bit Kontakt but lost all its sounds to an external hard drive crash awhile back and can'tfind where to re-buy them. And Sampletank.)

Please, I know to you programming experts they're pretty simple but my programming skills on VSTs suck, absolutely and royally. I've sat for hours and hours tweaking things and can't get anywhere close. I've got Independence, if anyone knows of pad libraries for that. I love Independence, haven't had it long but it's multitimbral - how rare, these days! - and the sounds that come with it are lush but not sure where to buy pad sounds. Can't seem to find any.

If it helps, I've got a budget of about £100 or so for just a pad library, don't need any lead sounds. Sorry for the 32-bit, I just can't get started with 64-bit DAWs that are drag'n'drop pre-bought MIDI files and loops only - how is that WRITING music!?!

Yours hopefully

Chris.
 
almost every synth can do these sounds. If I recall Independence was a sampler right? Had to dig through my memory for that. Probably not the best tool for these as you won't be able to get the smoothness you need or programming flexibility from Independence as cool as it was.

I'd try looking into Absynth for the pads. Atmosphere for the choir type sounds (now called Omnisphere) FM8 for the synth bell sounds. The twinkly bell sounds are just wind chimes and the dong sounds Tibetan prayer bells.

I only listen to the first two examples. Sorry, not to dampen your enthusiasm but this music kind of makes me fall asleep.

Nice Pan flute solos though. Haven' heard those in a while. Bring back Zafhire!!!

But, I must admit I do miss these more simple days.
 
Dear Anyone.

Sorry for two posts close together in different forums.
I'm after sounds like the backing sounds in any of these links - I'm pretty sure they're sounds from some kinda library because they keep turning up in the same composers' works. All these are from 32-bit days (as is my DAW - I don't 'get' these 64-bit DAWs with no notation! I lurve using notes, would buy Dorico but they want £500 for it!!)



or

(jump to abouit 1 minute in onwards!)

or



Just want a nice library of 32-bit sounds (I've got 32-bit Kontakt but lost all its sounds to an external hard drive crash awhile back and can'tfind where to re-buy them. And Sampletank.)

Please, I know to you programming experts they're pretty simple but my programming skills on VSTs suck, absolutely and royally. I've sat for hours and hours tweaking things and can't get anywhere close. I've got Independence, if anyone knows of pad libraries for that. I love Independence, haven't had it long but it's multitimbral - how rare, these days! - and the sounds that come with it are lush but not sure where to buy pad sounds. Can't seem to find any.

If it helps, I've got a budget of about £100 or so for just a pad library, don't need any lead sounds. Sorry for the 32-bit, I just can't get started with 64-bit DAWs that are drag'n'drop pre-bought MIDI files and loops only - how is that WRITING music!?!

Yours hopefully

Chris.

Sorry I just made it to the end of your thread. Save your hundred quid and just get some free synths.

Vital, Dexed and SurgeXT. You'll be set. You can get the wind chimes and singing and healing bowls online for next to nothing.
 
As has been mentioned earlier, these lovely evolving pad sounds are quite easy stuff for most soft synths, and they're in the presets so you don't have to touch the programming. Off the top of my head, Surge is freeware, and also 32-bit. Ships with some nice pads, and there are lots of user presets available on the web.

For pads, I most often use Hybrid 3 or Xpand! 2, either of which can be had for under $15 when on sale. Also available as 32-bit plug-ins.

I'm curious to know which 64-bit DAW's you are referring to that have "no notation." The only ones I can think of are Waveform, FL Studio and Ableton Live. That leaves plenty of other ones. Cubase, Digital Performer, Cakewalk, Pro Tools, Samplitude, Logic, REAPER, Mixcraft, and Studio One off the top of my head, are all great, and all are 64-bit for compatibility with current plug-ins (oh how it would widen your selection). Their workflow is not centered on drag 'n' drop loop composition methods, either, it's the same Cubase/Cakewalk/Pro Tools et. al. timeline that's been under development for over 30 years. Some of them have added features over the years that accommodate loop-based composition, but they didn't drop notation when they did it!

Once you go with a 64-bit host, you have access to things like the A|A|S soundpacks, which have some of the lushest pads I've ever heard. And tons more freeware instruments and libraries.

Also, if you're into libraries, a 64-bit host will allow you to load larger libraries with greater speed. Time for a new axe! If you're on Windows 7 or later, and your OS is 64-bit, just download Cakewalk by BandLab and poke at it. It has a freeware license.
 
Dear Everyone.

Ummm...... confessional time. I can only write music using notes. Apart from Dorico, which costs £500 unless you can find some way of buying the student version (which IS affordable but they guard that version like it's made of platinum - you have to tapdance through hoops to buy it!) I can't find any 64-bit DAWs with decent notation. All the ones I've found so far are basically things you drag'n'drop pre-bought MIDI files or soundfile loops into, hence why everything's sold as that these days. You're ASSEMBLING music from other people's parts, you're not WRITING music, are you. I mean - "Hey, listen to my new rap track. I've sampled the backing from JAY-Z,the vocals from Kanye West and the beat from this Really Cool Rave track - it's gonna be huge, right?" You've created a technical tour-de-force - but you've not WRITTEN it, have you! (That's why I never use these 'Fabulous Midi Packs' they advertise all the time on YouTube.) I like writing my own stuff from scratch, which means notation.

Surge won't show up in my DAW. It doesn't have a .DLL. When it installs, it comes up as a folder with information in it but there's no .DLL. I THINK that means it's a VST3 - not sure - but anyway, 32-bit needs a .DLL - every working VST I have is a .DLL! Looked up what's going on and apparently they don't do a .DLL version because of licensing difficulties. How are you supposed to use a VST without a .DLL? That's the only reason I'm not using it. I've E_mailed the people who do it to see if they can give or sell me a 32-bit .DLL version. They say it's possible to compile one but I've never compiled anything (useless, aren't I!) I mean I've used COBOL which has a compiler but that kinda compiled when you just typed 'COMPILE FILENAME'. I don't know how to compile one of these things. I've contacted the GitHub lot to see if they've got a 32-bit .DLL version laying around someplace, really hope they do. Sorry for my limitations computerwise.

AAS sounds are awesome. And they WERE around in 32-bit days. I've checked that - I'd never heard of them before. I've E_mailed them to ask if I can buy 32-bit versions of their pads from them - I lurve the pad sounds, you're sooo right about them.

Do you know anywhere with 32-bit Kontakt, Sampletank or Samplelord pad sounds? Not asking for anything dodgy, am prepared to pay (up to £200 GBP/approx. $300 USD or maybe a bit more.)

I know you've got more sounds with 64-bit - I just have been trying to find a 64-bit DAW you can WRITE music in ever since they got started - and overpriced Dorico aside, I've never found one. BUT.... These MIDI pack creators must be using SOME kinda notation to create the MIDI packs, no? What do they use?

If anyone's prepared - and again, I'm not asking for freebies - to walk me through programming some of those things so when my first efforts turn out like seal farts (guaranteed - ALL my efforts sound like seal farts!) they can tell me what I'm doing wrong, I'll learn with them via E_mails. I mean I've got Serum but Serum sounds are SOOO cold. CAN you get warmth outta Serum? Nobody else seems able to. (That's why it doesn't get used much by me!)

Sorry for all the questions, will leave it there for now. Thanks again for all your help so far!

Yours respectfully - and again with thanks -

Chris.
 
Your assessment of how most people working with DAWs only drop pre-fab midi and loops in there is based on completely wrong assumptions I’m afraid. I’ve worked in Cubase since the early Mega ST days, and have always written my own music. Most people on here compose entire (complex) pieces in their DAW. Maybe watch some videos by professional composers and how they work in a DAW. Tom Holkenborg has an excellent YT channel.

That said. What about Staffpad? Noteperformer. Sibelius? MuseScore?


You could even export your notated music as MIDI and import it in a 64 bit DAW and produce and further develop it there. A free one, such as Waveform or an almost free one such as Reaper. Again, there’s also the Staffpad route. It was on sale the other day for a rather fair price.

TL;DR
There is absolutely no need to EITHER pay £500 for Dorico - OR stay in the 32 bit era. There’s a plethora of cheaper fully functional options for people who like to use notation as a means of composition.

And your assumption “using DAWs equals using someone else’s MIDI packs” couldn’t be further from the truth
 
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Your assessment of how most people working with DAWs only drop pre-fab midi and loops in there is based on completely wrong assumptions I’m afraid. I’ve worked in Cubase since the early Mega ST days, and have always written my own music. Most people on here compose entire (complex) pieces in their DAW. Maybe watch some videos by professional composers and how they work in a DAW. Tom Holkenborg has an excellent YT channel.

That said. What about Staffpad? Noteperformer. Sibelius? MuseScore?


You could even export your notated music as MIDI and import it in a 64 bit DAW and produce and further develop it there. A free one, such as Waveform or an almost free one such as Reaper. Again, there’s also the Staffpad route. It was on sale the other day for a rather fair price.

TL;DR
There is absolutely no need to EITHER pay £500 for Dorico - OR stay in the 32 bit era. There’s a plethora of cheaper fully functional options for people who like to use notation as a means of composition.

And your assumption “using DAWs equals using someone else’s MIDI packs” couldn’t be further from the truth
I too get the feeling that the OP hasn't really explored DAWs at all. Even Cakewalk has decent notation and even if it didn't one can write everything in the Piano Roll (mentioning Cakewalk here because of the price). One has to take time to learn your tools.

It's the same with original question, those sounds are pretty standard pad sounds and even Youtube is chock full of tutorials how to make those. But if you don't know the tools then it's a moot point.
 
Dear Doctor Emmett et al.

Told you I was ignorant! It's just there's SOO many sites selling drag'n'drop loops and samples I assumed that's how it was all done these days - I've heard many rap tracks obviously using the same loops/samples (and R&B and similar) and seen a ton of YouTube videos about sampling/chopping up beats so I thought that's how it was done now.

Sibelius, Staffpad Noteperformer. MuseScore. Can you MIX in them? Musescore's got Vol. Pan. Reverb. Chorus but I don't see how to use EQ or Compression VSTs in it, I've only looked at the page on the website (https://musescore.org/en/handbook/2/mixer) and nothing seems to mention how to use third-party EQ or anything with it. QSE lets you use most third-party stuff, it's just 32-bit. Staffpad looks fun, I'd never heard of it before, but it seems to be for tablets and touch-screen only, the animation shows someone using a stylus with it. I'm not sure if it uses VSTs or if I could store all my VSTs on a tablet. Or if I installed it on my computer, if I could use a mouse instead. Or if you can mix on it. I'll try it on my PC.

Noteperformer, something else I'd never heard of! ('Who is this idiot!?!' sighs Doctor Emmett!) Its website comes up saying it performs MIDI files with a great orchestra, which sounds awesome, BUT.... "Your trial version runs in one-hour sessions. Between which you need to restart your notation software." Remembering I've only seen the website, not tried it yet, that tells me it's just for playback, you need a notation program AS WELL to write the stuff in. So all I'd be downloading it for would be the orchestra, as QSE plays things back AND has EQ and all the rest of it. I'd be using Noteperformer to do orchestral playback, hopefully it would be able to export/save as a .WAV - if not, I hope recording its output with Audacity would be good enough. I dunno about that last bit - I've not tried it yet. But that statement tells me you don't WRITE music with it, just play back MIDI files you've created somewhere else (and would it take 32-bit MIDI files? Dunno that yet either.)

Last bit - I wasn't saying using DAWs EQUALS using .MIDI files/drag'n'drop loops, it's just they seem to be primarily created for that these days, presumably to maximise sales to people who want to jigsaw-puzzle tracks together rather than writing them. I know you've got piano roll. Plobrem with piano roll is - it's BIG. If you've got - say - 8 instruments going and 8 piano roll windows, you have to either make them microscopic to see them all on the screen at once or constantly flip between them. With staves/notation, you can see it all on the screen at once by scrolling. (IN passing, WHY use piano roll? Why not just show composers how to use notes? Worked fine for Beethoven, Bach, Mozart......)

Sibelius - you're right, I could give that thing another bash. It kept doing my (so-called!) brane in and QSE was sitting there saying 'I'm great - use meeee!' so I kept going back to it! I can easily afford Noteperformer so if its demos sound nice I'd buy it for the sounds (if I can chuck 32-bit QSE MIDI files into it, dunno that yet.) Would be a great shortcut way to get an orchestra. It feels a bit like chewing bricks but if I must, I'll give Sibelius another shot.

By the way, QSE IS a DAW. Just a slightly unconventional one. You can use 3rd-party plugins, VSTs, EQ, compression, all the rest of it. It's just it doesn't come with anything, you have to use 3rd-party stuff for everything. It got started as a teaching aid for Chris Sion's classes, it was called MusicWrite then. He made a massive effort and upgraded it to a DAW, the effort of making it 64-bit seems to have been too much for him! But it is a DAW, as much as Dorico is. Dorico's the 64-bit answer to QSE in many ways.

I'll try the others out over the next few days and get back to you, promise!

Yours respectfully

Chris.
 
it's just they seem to be primarily created for that these days,
That’s a weird assumption. I’d wager 99% of the forum members use a DAW like Cubase, Studio One, Logic or Reaper. And we’re talking about the professional media composers, people who do major Hollywood blockbusters, score prominent TV series etcetera. (Not me. I’m a nitwit hobbyist musician to be clear).

So yeah. It may seem that way given your apparent exposure to a lot of advertisements and content about MIDI packs. But that’s all that is: a weird inadvertent bias in your perception.

I recommend you’d watch some tutorials on media composing - or if that’s your fancy “beat production” - by professional musicians. They all either use DAWs, notation programs or both.
 
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For the record, I am not sighing haha. I hope you aren’t either. I’m merely trying to offer some perspective on how you seem to perceive the phenomenon “DAW” ;)
 
What doctoremmet said about the makeup of this forum: the primary focus of this very forum, as I understand it, is the use of virtual instruments to compose and produce orchestral music. Not with drag and drop loops. I registered and started participating because I'm interested in orchestral composing and arranging. One of my bucket list items is to write a piece and have it performed by a small chamber orchestra. That requires me to be able to provide the musicians with sheet music, and I have two 64-bit DAW's where I can print sheet music, and at least one of them, Cakewalk, where I can compose as you say "using notes."

I gave you a list of 9 Windows DAW's that have notation software built in. Three of them are under your budget of $100 and one of them is free of charge. I've also augmented my sheet music writing capacity with the freeware Finale Notepad.

If you wish to use dedicated notation software, a possible workflow is as follows: 1. write you music in a notation program. 2. export what you have written as one or more MIDI files (all decent scorewriters that I know of can do this, including Notepad). 3. Import the MIDI files to a DAW for mixing, trying out different instruments, etc.

As for plug-in formats, the newer standard is VST3, and the extension for VST3's is, surprise, .vst3. They can be supplied in 32-bit format and 64-bit . The location to place the 32-bit files is C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3. Of course, your DAW or whatever must support VST3.

Your impression of the music producing world being all about loops and samples stitched together is like believing that most Americans drive their automobiles through forests and creeks and across beaches because that's what you see in advertisements. Most beer is not consumed at beach volleyball parties, either.

You've been given more than enough information to get the sounds you asked for and upgrade your work environment without even having to buy any software. Good luck!
 
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