Vst instruments, Waveform Free and recording

Gear & Tools Talk 💻 Hardware, Software & Recording
1

Evenin’

I got a guitar amp for Christmas off the missus and plugged it into my laptop to try and record from it.

Installed Waveform Free and recorded my guitar. Was fairly pleased with myself as I’ve only been playing guitar a couple of years so it’s all quite novel.

I’ve wrote some songs which I thought I’d have a go at recording and so managed to save the guitar track but when it comes to other instruments it appears that I need to buy VST instrument pluggins?

A few questions if you would be so kind,

  1. Are any VST instruments playable?

  2. Are there no free sources?

  3. Upon googling it seems that these can run into the thousands and so if I have to buy them, can anyone recommend a couple of basic packs which might be useful? I really don’t want to spend much only to find out that I’m rubbish at it.

  4. Can I record a sound and use that sound as an instrument and then use the virtual midi to play it?

If I can get some basics up and running then I’ll possibly buy a cheap midi keyboard but for now I just need to get some instruments to lut against my lirics and guitar tracks and see how they sound. Piano, drums, synth etc.
Obviously I’m going through Justin’s Guitar course so I’m doing OK for Guitar sounds.

Thanks in advance.

2

I’ll keep this brief, as a comprehensive answer to all your questions would take all day.

Yes, there are free VST instruments - thousands. Your DAW may have come packaged with some, but Google will help you find others. You can even get free entire orchestras (BBC Symphony Orchestra, by Spitfire), in case you want to add brass or strings.

Yes, these things are playable, if you have a MIDI input device, such as a keyboard, but you can also assemble simple parts by hand - just click the beat and draw in a note. The details of the process vary from DAW to DAW.

Recording a sound and using it as an instrument is called sampling. Again, the answer is Yes. There’s a lot of research ahead of you, but you know how to use the Internet :grinning_face:

3 Likes
3

Cheers,

I’ve downloaded the spitfire orchestra one and will give it a go.

Appreciated

4

I’ve no answer for you.
However.
Consider recording with what you’ve got.
I’ll use back tracks from the www for drums or bass. Or I’ll play my own bass track. I don’t have a bass. But waveform will let my drop octave. So I play my bass line on my guitar, then drop octave via wave form. Then I got my bass line. Or for drums I have used a shaker eggs (a rattle). I’ve considered maracas, or tambourine or bongos (these I got). I’ll also use my guitar as a second instrument. Play one thing on one track, another thing on another track.

All I’m saying is think outside the box. My computer overwhelms me with things that I can’t do. I’m not technically aware of how to control a computer well enough to get this vst stuff w/o a lot of work (learning and education), and perhaps gear. So I’ve resorted to my own demise using what I can use to make my music.
I’ll also play tunes that I can do stand alone. Me and my guitar. Then I don’t need the vst stuff.

Just food for thought. Perhaps getting you up and recording w/o the technology? From the way I think of this is that prior to computers, no one had vst. They made music the old way. With what they recorded live. Not with a computer that was manipulated to be a piano, or drums, or whatever. I use the tools that I have at my disposal. And vst is still, for me, not at my beckon call. But my guitar and rattle are… :slight_smile:

Good luck. Sorry I couldn’t answer your question. It’s just that I have the same question. :wink: Working around the question I guess is my answer.

5

If you are going to buy a midi controller consider one of the big names and you will get a collection of VSTs with it.

I picked up an A61 from Native instruments and an Arturia 25 key Minilab while they were on sale which will get you dozens of high quality instruments. Once you buy into their ecosystems you will also get additional free offers from time to time.

I’d also recommend keeping an eye on the Sanjay C YouTube channel, every week he puts out a new video that almost always highlights a freebie VST or plugin of some kind.

6

Cheers Richard,

I don’t want to really buy anything yet until I’ve got an understanding for the basics.

I might buy a cheap usb keyboard instead of using my laptop keyboard so I can make it sound like various instruments but I would just like to get a bit of a beat, maybe some lyrics and my guitar over it as a starting point.

I’ve literally spent hours today getting almost nowhere which is annoying.

I wouldn’t mind spending a few quid on some of the most common instruments but it’s just seems so complex compared to what I expected.

I installed that orchestra one highlighted earlier in this thread and for some reason the Piano on that was extremely tempramental, sometimes the key would play and other times not.

I expected I’d be able to find some free instruments which simply loaded into the keyboard and I could play them.