Overview of Popular Virtual Instruments by Marc Schonbrun
Let's be honest—there are a ton of VIs on the market. To give you an idea of what's out there, and to give you an introduction to some of the industry standard VIs, it's time to introduce you to some specific products.
Native Instruments Komplete
Native Instruments is one of the oldest and most respected names in the VI market. It offers a wide range of VI products, from real instrument emulations to powerful, groundbreaking synthesizers. While all of its products are available individually, it offers an all-inclusive package called Komplete.
Komplete is a suite of ten VIs plus Guitar Rig, a guitar amplifier, and effects pedal emulator. The VIs in Komplete include Kontakt, Massive, Reaktor, Absynth, Battery, Akoustik Piano, Elektrik Piano, B4, FM8, and Pro-53. Kontakt is an industry-leading sampler, which ships with an extensive library of sounds.
Reaktor, Massive and Absynth are three of the most popular and powerful synthesizers on the market. FM8 and Pro-53 are excellent emulations of a couple of classic synthesizers. Akoustik Piano, Elektrik Piano, and B4 emulate acoustic pianos, electric pianos, and Hammond organs respectively. Battery is a top-flight drum sampler. Together they form a fairly complete—Komplete, if you will—VI solution.
Figure 13-3: A few Native Instruments Komplete plug-ins
Native Instruments also offers hardware controllers that are perfect for controlling its VIs and other VIs. Native Instruments Kore 2 is a hardware controller designed not only as a front end for Komplete, but as a VI host on its own, effectively turning your computer into a workstation that competes favorably with expensive keyboard workstations. It can also be used to control VST and Audio Units plug-ins, and to control your DAW. Maschine is a hardware pad controller combined with a software interface for creating and manipulating samples and beats. Of course, it can be used as a MIDI controller too. For Guitar Rig enthusiasts, Native Instruments offers a hardware controller that allows you to use Guitar Rig like a multieffects pedal.
Ivory is a highly detailed acoustic piano virtual instrument. It requires 11GB of hard drive space to install, and it was the first of a growing list of extremely large piano libraries. If Ivory's 11GB of piano samples aren't enough for you, there are add-ons that give you access to new pianos such as an Italian grand piano and a number of upright pianos.
Spectrasonics makes some of the most highly regarded VIs on the market, and their most recent offering, Omnisphere, continues that tradition. One of the most important hardware synthesizer sound designers and sample library developers of the last twenty-five years started Spectrasonics, so their pedigree is unrivaled. Spectrasonics Omnisphere is a powerful synthesizer capable of traditional synthesizer sounds and radical new textures. It is easy to use for beginners, but it has a programming depth and flexibility that will make even the most experienced synthesists happy.
Among the many small, independent developers, u-he is one of the most impressive. With a unique slant on user control and a sound that rivals any synthesizer on the market, u-he's Zebra 2 is a prime example of the capabilities of independent developers. Zebra 2 is a synthesizer that gives you as much or as little control as you need; you can build synthesizers with unique routings, or simply tweak presets.
