Ok, so I'm a guitarist and have electric and acoustic guitars and am wanting to make some fairly convincing sounding demos of tracks. For genre and style, think of bands like Oasis as the most famous example probably.

I'm looking for advice on best plugins and best kits/instruments within plugins to fill a bands needs in terms of:

- drums
- bass guitar
- piano
- orchestral

Anyone got any recommendations for plugins and specific instruments within plugins to fill the above gaps?

Cheers!

 

I HATE VSTi INSTRUMENTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS especially for bass, guitar, drums

check EZ range toontrack or whatever its called...but for me its a headache
EZ bass etc

 

kontact/superior drummer
kontact
kontact
kontact

 

For bass: Ample Sound, Toontrack EZBass, Kontakt Scarbee Rickenbacker or IK MODO

 

If you have a solid foundation of a song in terms of voice/guitar arrangement then I think any vsti drum, bass or piano can do the job. I recommend you Addictive Drums, Ample Sound basses, Soundiron Emotional Piano and 8Dio for orchestral stuff.

 

Drum-wise I think it doesn't matter if you're going for Superior Drummer, BFD, or ADD2. Just choose the one you like best and have the most fun with (I would refrain from EZDrummer, though).
Bass-wise I tend to use Modo because it comes with a huge variety of basses and you'll probably find out pretty quickly which of them fits your (sound) needs and which don't.

 

Midi drum software is OK for prototyping, but you will eventually have to replace it with a live drummer. I chose the middle ground and use V-Drums for live input into drum software.

As for bass, get a real one as they sound good (percussive), and are great fun to play if you already have some guitar skills. Piano and orchestral doesn't really matter, just use what sounds good and fits the piece, although Pianoteq is good for latency and tweaking.

 

Last edited: May 11, 2021

Hello, this is the first reply I am leaving here at this site. I can relate to your question because in 2019 I was released from prison after 6 years and a lot had changed in those years. I would laugh sometimes as I felt like back to the future but I had to learn because I absolutely live for music, and after doing my time I was free from alcoholism, and began to get a plan together for a studio... So I had a lot of experience and almost no money and found out that there was so much competition to market the things we use to record music with that the prices were down to near nothing and I started out with a laptop and a focusrite and an 2020 right away I am guessing you maybe got something similar. Here is my youtube
www.youtube.com/@HappyFamilySingers
If you think that from the things you see and hear there are um compatible with your goals in recording because hey I am new here and you may be miles ahead of where I am on my path. However if would like to have any advice when you see where I am at I am happy to tell what I know, you can comment there or hmu here and if not, best of luck

 

Get yourself a cheap bass, you'll come up with much better ideas than going down the midi route.

 

Superior Drummer but select the kit without any processing. Your target is to create something that sounds opposite of a good studio version, like a demo would. Any hint of pristine sounding instruments is bad because it will sound like VSTi. For bass library do the same, try find the patch that has the original recorded sound, don't compress, try your best to level it manually so it's bearable. Use fuzz pedals for distortion so the guitar sounds nastier. Use only 1 room reverb for everything. 1 send channel and send everything to it, the bass and kick drum too. A demo should sound like a demo to be convincing. Focus on the musicianship, make sure every note is humanized and make them sloppy without making the player looks sloppy. Indie band is more about cool good looking bunch of musicians that think they are very good at playing instrument (but they are not) and have something to say. Just that. Any attempt to make a proper studio version or hint of vsti will pull away the cool factor from it, imo. I listened to Radiohead's B Sides, songs from The Bends era 3 days ago and I think that would make a good ref. If you're thinking of making a studio sounding demo then you can ignore all of the above.

"Noel was born to be good songwriter, I was born to be good-looking" - Liam

 

Couldn't agree more on the "get a real bass" thing. If you play guitar this is a no brainer for me.

Piano/orchestral I'd also say it doesn't really matter, perhaps focus on not too many different things, just regular sounds you get familiar with (or which are already familiar) and focus more on the arrangement factor of these two elements. I don't think fancy stuff would suite this style anyway.

As for drums, I'd at least consider just ripping some drum stems from tracks you love with something like Serato Sample or other stem separation tool. It gives you those "band feeling" vibes ten times faster, easier and probably way more authentic in comparison to use some of the usual suspects. I tried this method and it is fascinating how it can influence the way you are playing the guitar. It can also give you great songwriting inspiration/ideas ...

 

If you do not feel you can do the bass and guitar parts yourself, which are really important for this genre, then what people have already recommended is ok.

 

holy shit, okay one guy was in prison for 10 years, but why is everyone else necroposting...