i know the "top ten", "best" and "essential vsts" theme is a bit recurrent.
but,

i was sitting on the sofa with my macbook 13inch playing around little making some music. (my girlfriend has this project to work with so i told her she could sit in my studio and use my desk rig/daw/stationary computer.

i dont have much on my laptop, i have little stuff on it so i come up with other interesting loops n ideas than normal. i was watching a guy on youtube who recreates popular songs. its pretty fun and inspiring to watch so i started following his process but, i then noticed i hadn't any piano nor a real bass etc. ( i use presonus studio one without the library)

so, i was wondering if there is a nice quality, reasonable "light" vst package for the regular "pop" track (pop is pretty much edm nowadays but an all-round package that could work for general pop stuff, r&b etc)

i checked the Calliope Synth Module, i looked and sounded good and it was around 1 gb but do you know other examples? modules or groups of vsts



if you were to put together a nice reasonable "small" good quality package for a laptop (not main rig) to get it going and cover the meat and potatoes, how would it look?


ps: feel free to suggest other solutions/daws, im open ears

 

Last edited: Nov 1, 2016

Since you said pop/EDM:
Basic Nexus 2 is my answer for the instruments part (and, of course, the DAW's native synths);
DAWs native plugins for effects part.

I don't think you need anything more to sketch, but choosing Nexus you're limited with synthesis (unless you have good default plugins).
I'd have said Korg M1 but you specified modern, and the M1 has some dated stuff.
If you care a lot about effects, I saw a lot of people talk about the Melda Production bundle

 

hi! no its ok, i meant all-round more than anything. i would also like to be able to do more r&b or funk related pop. i just meant that modern music has edm influences. true with nexus, the m1 maybe interesting.

or just get the whole library of either S1 or Ableton and be fine with that, feels a bit more than i thought of with the sound module idea though. i was thinking of a smaller "band" package

btw, i will be using the internal effects

 

How about Kontakt Player? + the Factory Select Library.
Missing some of the heavier elements but you won't need them unless you want to actually design sounds and delve into the intricacies of sample editing.

https://www.native-instruments.com/...s/kontakt-5-player/kontakt-factory-selection/

Use Multi-Out in Kontakt to route to different channels in your DAW. Or just load multiple instances of the plugin.

Best part is it's FREE.

Still sounds awesome though, right? Run the M1 through MS-20FX and call it a day, or month.
Or decade.

 

fabfilter for fx


don't use much real instruments so i'm curious to see what people come up with

 

Sylenth will run on a stapler.

 

top! thanks guys, im startin to get a picture.

Pinkman. excellent tips! thanks

you or anyone know if i can eventually have the fixed kontakt side by side or if there will be any conflicts since the free installs the service center..

also have you checked the Calliope Synth Module?

regards

 

Last edited: Oct 31, 2016

I don't think it will work side by side.
If you're thinking of getting the FIXED release I suggest just doing that now and avoiding the potential headache that comes with removing the player install. The only release that worked installing over the Player for me was TRACER's 5.5.1

The Factory Select Library will work in non-legit Kontakt.

Never tried Calliope before but I'm about to. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Last edited: Nov 1, 2016

haha, to late. i got so exited. lol, ill see if there is any conflicts coming. i activated the collection in the service center and it could see the reaktors two other vsts i have, but it just offered to purchase, it dint make them to go demo mode, so, so far no problem.

fantastic tip, the instruments in the selection is just what i needed and those plus the korg package will have me occupied for the next decade i feel.

good thing to have this "lighter" group of mainly classic presets plus some other vst on the laptop and the heavier stuff on the stationary.



edit: i run into problems naturally with the kontakt player and its service program. but, i just uninstalled player and the service program. installed an older r2r version and then took the latest digital machine release. everything is working fantastic. even the collection from ni.

 

Last edited: Oct 31, 2016

If you're happy with Calliope, you won't find much around that 1GB mark which sound as good. For the 100MB mark, you can try Hyper Canvas, or the GUFS/Fluidsynth soundfont + a sf2 player.

Also, if you like synths, http://synth1.com/ < try this. It has a GM-like default bank. Change patches via MIDI PC.

I disagree. Fabfilter has fancy UIs, and those do actually suck up CPU. Try Izotope Alloy, or DAW FX instead.

 

Soundtoys? Not much you can't do with ST5. Or Uhbik. The Uhbik bundle has a nice of mix pragmatic tools and creative ones.

Just a couple ideas.

 

I don't use Vst's now, but if I went back to them, apart from the Korg Bundle (M1, Wavestation, Polysix) just Rapture Pro.