Your Favorite New Instrument?

[greengalaxyrider]

Hey everyone,
I am looking for a new instrument or two to add to my collection and thought this would be a great opportunity to hear some of your favorite instruments.

I just started a rock band that I'm grooving on, but I want to add ambiance or atmosphere to the band's sound. Do you guys have any recommendations for electronic instruments that can create a sense of space and expansiveness or texture. I don't think I would like to use it for melody or lead parts.

Currently I have been looking at all of the Korg Kaoss products which look really cool. Any suggestions here?

I also think it would be cool to find a synth keyboard with ambient sample instruments, that play notes, that would also allow you to effect the sounds you are creating in real time with effects such as a phaser, flange, sweepable eq, delay, reverb, etc.

Any suggestions?

Thank you all so much!
-Greengalaxyrider

"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day"

[sleepwalker]

Amazon.com: Schecter Ultra VI Electric Guitar, SVB: Musical Instruments

That thing's been rocking my world lately. Works great with an E-Bow.

[Chris190]

take a look at Jomox M-Resonator or T-resonator and run a synth thourgh it..... even a cheaper synth it will make some wicked sounds ran through the jomox...

Waldorf XT or XTK is a great synth for thik atmospheric sounds.....

[sys40198]

I've always wanted to convert a "guitar hero" guitar into a midi controller and use that live. probably would be awesome. U can use that with omnisphere or something via ableton live and just run that through regular guitar pedals. Probably be pretty coo

[zosthegoatherd]

something like the vsynth, or on the cheaper used end a kurzweil k2000 wold probably be the best.

[Hazmatic]

Originally Posted by greengalaxyrider

Currently I have been looking at all of the Korg Kaoss products which look really cool. Any suggestions here?

Can't go wrong with a KP3. Kaoss pads are fun.

Originally Posted by sys40198

I've always wanted to convert a "guitar hero" guitar into a midi controller and use that live.

I don't know about other people, but personally, if I wanted to see someone "rock out" live using a Guitar Hero guitar, I'd just go to the electronics dept. of either Best Buy or Target.

[StephenWiley]

Picked up a roland GAIA for $499 - It is without question right now my favorite instrument. Everything is so hands on, and despite with others here might say. it produces "pro" sounds in the matter of minutes. I highly recommend it. It excels with arps, pads, and leads. (Go 64 voice polyphone!)

Don't let the negativity on this forum get to you. The GAIA is worth every penny and in ten years people will be after them like hotcakes just like every other item produced by Roland.

[sys40198]

I don't know about other people, but personally, if I wanted to see someone "rock out" live using a Guitar Hero guitar, I'd just go to the electronics dept. of either Best Buy or Target.

Truth, but probably not Target, the kids playing there ussually suck

[L-feld]

Originally Posted by sleepwalker

an E-Bow.

nuff said

[ReasonableLogic]

I really want a Moog Guitar.

[AcoosticZoo]

what about logic and a laptop, there's MainStage which you can trigger all sorts of instruments with a midi controller. MainStage was built with live playing in mind. It's a simple elegant design and you can pre program your sounds for each song as templates. Take the outputs from your laptop/soundcard and save lugging around more gear.

More info if you google logic studio and looking under mainstage (which is bundled with logic studio)

Regards
Josef Horhay
Mixing Engineer
www.acoosticzoo.com

[zerocrossing]

Originally Posted by ReasonableLogic

I really want a Moog Guitar.

Don't bother. Get yourself a Sustainiac and put it on the guitar of your choice and pick a nice filter pedal.

[daubie]

I just picked up a Suzuki omnichord and let me tell you this thing is awesome. Not to mention that I got it 2nd hand for $5.

[digibird]

Originally Posted by daubie

I just picked up a Suzuki omnichord and let me tell you this thing is awesome. Not to mention that I got it 2nd hand for $5.

I noticed that the Omnichord & Qchord have fixed midi note numbers on midi out. Would one still be a good midi controller for Omnisphere, in your experience/opinionm?

[atma]

if i were in a rock band, i'd get a fernandes sustainer and a midi pickup/guitar synthesizer type setup:

[atma]

god i haven't heard that in years!

Originally Posted by L-feld

nuff said

reminds me of my favorite ebow player, bill nelson:

[msl]

ebow is amazing, especially in Fripp's hands!

My favourite changes, usually whatever is new, atm its imposcar2 and sammichSID.


.

[LiveFromKyoto]

I keep buying hardware, and I keep coming back to Alchemy. Stuff just flows when I start browsing through presets there, the sound libraries are really up my alley.

[teamsterjim]

Look into Solaris.
It will keep you from buying plugs every month in the never ending quest for satisfaction.
Several forms of synthesis with 96k processing and zero artifacts thanks to audio rate modulation...

[laikenf]

Originally Posted by teamsterjim

Look into Solaris.
It will keep you from buying plugs every month in the never ending quest for satisfaction.
Several forms of synthesis with 96k processing and zero artifacts thanks to audio rate modulation...

Isn't the Solaris going for around 5K? Kind of steep for a recommendation don't you think? Honestly, I think a KP3 plus a nice inexpensive VA would serve the OP pretty well; I always though that digital synths are better for textures and weird sounds than analogs.

[zerocrossing]

What's your budget? What instruments do you play?

[teamsterjim]

I apologise for posting the " expensive " option, but when the OP mentioned realtime control, that pretty much negates VSTi's.
Realtime is naturally going to be optimized software ( rare ) or quality hardware.
Twist the decay or room size parameter on a Native Delay or Reverb. Ooooops......can't do that.

I figured the OP might prefer a Dog that hunts.

[zerocrossing]

Originally Posted by teamsterjim

I apologise for posting the " expensive " option, but when the OP mentioned realtime control, that pretty much negates VSTi's.
Realtime is naturally going to be optimized software ( rare ) or quality hardware.
Twist the decay or room size parameter on a Native Delay or Reverb. Ooooops......can't do that.

I figured the OP might prefer a Dog that hunts.

They killed it, but I thought NI's KORE was a step in a good direction to combine real time hardware control with the flexibility of software.

Also, there are a lot of good and cheap plug ins that allow decay time change via cc or modulation. Augustusloop, which I mentioned in another thread this morning, excels at it and it's very cheap.

Sugarbytes just released one of many effect processor plug-ins that have amazing real time control. Turnado is the latest, and for me, it is perfect because as a guitar player I need fairly simple controls that can be mapped to one or two pedals. One of these days I need to find a joystick or something that has Vista 64 compatibly that I can velcro to my guitar as an alternate "wammy bar" to control software I should start a thread about that... IK should just MAKE IT.

Anyway, other good ambient noise generators are the Alesis AirSynth and AirFX. They're long out of production but I imagine you can find them on ebay. Hell, I should put mine up there, I so rarely use them these days.

[criminallysmooth]

Is it even possible to get a Solaris? Isn't there a ridiculous waiting list even if they are finally shipping some of them to people who pre-ordered one years ago?

[LiveFromKyoto]

Originally Posted by criminallysmooth

Is it even possible to get a Solaris? Isn't there a ridiculous waiting list even if they are finally shipping some of them to people who pre-ordered one years ago?

Website says they're taking pre-orders for the next production run in October.