Superior Drummer handles most pop/rock needs, but I would definitely like orchestra/symphony drums, and some more exotic percussion options as well.

While I wouldn’t complain about having an excess of options, I’ve got a few pianos, organs, and synths I’m happy with so no real need for those. As it is, I feel like I’ve got to add a lot of processing to get Xpand! sounding good. I’d really like to find something that can cover the expansive ground Xpand! covers, but with more authentic sound right out of the gate.

I’ve been looking at Omnisphere and Komplete, are there other/better options? If not which is more versatile? Obviously Komplete has some options 3x the price of Omnisphere, is it just more sounds/instruments? Or is it more authentic sounding? Or is it a waste of money?Ĭurrently I use Xpand! for most stuff, never been really happy but it works. I’m looking for a great all around virtual instrument package. There’s not a tone of talk about this, but rather than start a new thread I thought I’d try to resurrect this one first. The Alan Parsons Imperial grand, is $50 on sale, and has over a gigabyte of samples, the Kontakt Alicia Keys piano has 7gb of compressed samples for $100.īottom line, the expansions for $5 and the free sampletank player, can't go wrong, when you start getting into the more expensive instruments, now you're competing with free Kontakt 5 Player and extremely competitive instruments.Well it’s 2019, I’m sure software has changed a little in the last ten years. It looks like some of those expansions are on sale for $5 now,lol! It's great for sketching and as a general midi rompler, sounds better than many, and useable in a mix. My overall opinion of these expansions are that they seem to have a lot of presets, and many with 'effects', but not a lot of meticulous, complete sampling as you would expect from a dedicated library for pianos that might only have a couple of choices. The strings are limited as far as articulations go, for a pop song, not for any detailed orchestration.

The sampletank 2 player was free, and esoundz had a sale and I bought the expansions for $10 a piece. I don't know how much the version 3 improved. I use it as a gm device with composition software, or for sketches. I have sampletank 2 Player and these expansions:Įlectric Guitar Collection 2 SampleTank ExpansionĪcoustic Guitar Collection 2 SampleTank Expansion

Symphony strings for sampletank