Virtual Insturments beginner question

[kylborn]

Hello,

I'm learning to play with MIDI using a MIDI keyboard and Cubase LE. I have managed to lay down bass and drum tracks using the included Halion One.

I am interested in expanding my VST library and I'm a bit confused as to what direction to go.

Can I find Virtual Instruments to add to Halion One or do I have to get another piece of software (like Kontakt, etc.)? How do these programs work? Are they plugins for Cubase? Can you use them on their own to create tracks that you import into Cubase (Or whatever recording software you may happen to be using)?

I'm just learning to develop backing tracks to play my guitar with at this point, so I'm not really looking for a suite of orchestra instruments or anything like that. Maybe more bass and drum options.

Thanks for any advice/explanations you can offer.

PS- I've read the Getting Started with MIDI post, but I am still unclear about how the Virtual Instruments ar handled. For example, in my case, is Halion One a program running in parallel with Cubase to play my bass and drum tracks? If I get a program like Kontakt or EZDrummer, can I use that just like I am using Halion One?

[kylborn]

Hello again,

I did more research on VSTi's, looked up more product info, re-read the VSTi section of the Cubase LE manual, and I think I get it now (at least more than I did before).

I think I'm going to get one of the Lite versions of a sampler like Sampletank. They seem relatively inexpensive and should provide me with more than enough material to learn/play with.

[Vulconizer]

Just saw your post.

EZ drummer is accessed the same way that Halion one is when running Cubase. A good thing about EZdrummer is that it's relatively simple to use. Find a pattern you like, drag and drop ( in most cases ) and you're off and running. It's not cheap, but I can say I have liked using it.

Most VSTi ( VSTinstruments ) are accessed the same way. You just have to load them onto your computer and set them in the correct folder in order to bring them up in Cubase.

There seems to be a huge amount of VSTi out there in both the free and costly arenas. I'd try out some free ones to mess around and get the hang of it, then when you have some money, get a couple of nice, higher end ones.

[kylborn]

Thanks for the input, Vulconizer. How to use VSTi's in Cubase is becoming clearer to me the more I keep reading and playing with the software. You're right about trying free things out before laying down some heavy cash for software I may not use. I will give it a shot.

I may still go ahead and get Sampletank L. It's relatively inexpensive (about $99 at the time of this post) compared to other samplers and I don't think I need to buy a license dongle to use it (at least I don't think I do). I'll go ahead and see how I fare with some free VSTi's in the mean time.

[brandondrury]

Can I find Virtual Instruments to add to Halion One or do I have to get another piece of software (like Kontakt, etc.)? How do these programs work? Are they plugins for Cubase? Can you use them on their own to create tracks that you import into Cubase (Or whatever recording software you may happen to be using)?

I'm pretty sure that you can buy samples for Halion One and I know there are zillions of samples available for Kontakt. With that said, many sample packages use their own player and you don't necessarily need Kontakt at all. I always use my sample packages as plugins in Cubase, but some have standalone functions.

Brandon

[kylborn]

I went to KVR Audio and downloaded a free VSTi that was under the HALion category, but I didn't manage to get it to work. It might be an older file format (FXB or something like that) but the Cubase manual said it should still work and that I could save it as the newer format (VSTPRESET or somesuch). I will continue to play around with it. Maybe it is in the wrong folder or maybe I didn't tell Cubase where to look for it or something like that. Maybe it is just a bad file. We shall see.

[kylborn]

I downloaded the demo version of Sampletank from thier website and it worked without me really neading to do anything. It just showed up as an instrument plugin like HALion does in Cubase. Maybe I was making the situation more complicated than it really was...

[Derek Powell]

The only problem with Sampletank demo is you can only use the samples supplied with it,I think this might have a drum kit;you can't load any other(external) samples in it.Vemberaudio have a nice sampler called Shortcircuit that will load a few different file formats and is free also Kontakt demo allows loading