Help me choose!!!!!

[jx23]

Hey peoples I have a bithday coming up and I am lucky enough to have peoples who would like to by me gifts and i really want to get some software!

Trouble is, I can't decide what to get I produce alot of Hip Hop and Dance music, and at the momoent I just use Reason 2.5 and Cubase SX creativly to try get as high quality sound as possible. I have a couple of freeware VST's but nothing that i really find enhances my production much and I have got plently of great mastering tools like nice EQ's Limiters and Reverbs.

My budget is around £100-200 and at the moment im thinking either EWQL symphonic orchestra silver addition as I would love the real sounding orchestra to give my tunes that real instrument sound to help me create some real epic tracks and possibly help me if I end up dabbling in film music, which I am a bit partial to. But are these sounds that much greater then the NN-XT Orchestra soundbank in Reason 2.5??

The other possibility at the mo is the Stylus RMX which seems to have some pretty sweet sub enhanced kicks that might really make my production bounce!

Anyway what do you guys think? or any other suggestions of things to consider for the budget?

[Andrew Kinsey]

If your producing HipHop then you might want to consider the EMU Proteus X with the MoPhatt soundbank, they also do a world percussion soundbank too. The Proteus and MoPhatt used to come in racks and there are loads of great sounds for hiphop/dance: instruments, synths, bass, drum kits, scratching and effects.

The Proteus X comes in two forms one with usb keyboard, the rotaries work with the Proteus's sound engine, the other one comes with the EMU 0404 soundcard.
Both of these are around £100 and the additional soundbanks are about £39 each.

Having used both versions, i prefer using this plug-in with the controller because the rotaries give you full controll when manipulating the presets.

If you want some more info let me know.

[tekn0]

I agree, for exactly 200 you could get the proteusx and have a complete virtual proteus 2000 and a mophatt which are urban music production staples in the studio, and they sound great IMO Plus the E-MU sound is big with drum&bass/jungle also.

[jx23]

Thanks peoples, is the EMU a vst? can i use it with cubase? or s it a stand alone product

[tekn0]

It's a vst and also can function in standalone

[jx23]

right ok so is this a peice of hardware like a soundcard? or a piece of software im confused!! i dont want a new suondcard :o/ http://www.nusystems.co.uk/product/EMU.Proteus.X

[funkynuts]

The card acts as a copy protect dongle for the proteus x software and also functions as a soundcard if you wish

[ShamansDream]

Why not upgrade your Reason 2.5 to 3 and get some refills?
More bang for the buck.

[funkynuts]

what sounds do you really lack?
In your price range the software titles i would consider are;

DRUMS

NI Battery 2
Stylus RMX

BASS

Trilogy

SYNTHS

Atmosphere

SOFT SAMPLER

Kontakt 2 (includes 12 gig library with content from VSL)

ORCHESTRAL

VSL Horizon series

Stay clear of EWQL Silver :it is usable but you,ll tire of the big reverb on everything quite quickly