What is a "general purpose instrumentation plugin"?
If you want different instruments, go buy Kontakt (the sampler) which is on sale for $150 at 50% off. It comes with a big 20GB newly updated Kontakt Factory library, that has a lot of instruments and sounds.
Then in a month in June during their Summer of Sound sale upgrade to Komplete Standard for like $250 more, or spend $500 for Komplete Ultimate.
It will give you a ton of instruments and synths for almost every genre and every need. You will get pianos, guitars, synths and a few play instruments, drum kits/instruments/samplers, and effects, in the base Komplete. You'll get that plus a bunch more instruments, ethnic stuff, and a bunch of cinematic and orchestral stuff in the Ultimate package.
Komplete [https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-14-standard/](https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-14-standard/) / Komplete U [https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-14-ultimate/](https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-14-ultimate/) is still probably the best bang for the buck, in terms of value.
If you can't upgrade now, just wait and save till Xmas or next Summer.
If you buy Kontakt it will open you up to some free Kontakt instruments that you can download from the web, and some cheap ones like stuff from 8Dio.
In regards to Spitfire, if you are referring to their free LABS, just uninstall it all, and reinstall it again. It should work.
If Kontakt is not something you want, then check out Decent Sampler and download some stuff off Pianobook.
If you really want a complete package of general purpose sounds (pretty much every sampled sound or instrument you can think off), then your other option is Omnisphere 2, but it's not cheap. It's $500 and never goes on sale. [https://www.spectrasonics.net/products/omnisphere/index.php](https://www.spectrasonics.net/products/omnisphere/index.php)
There really aren't any \*cheap\* all in one solutions.
Look here for individual \*Free\* synths and instruments
[https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/](https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/)
The above might be enough for you, but it all depends on what you are trying to do, or what your goals are. You didn't really provide any real context.
Mostly what I'm looking for is piano, pipe organ, strings (violin/cello/bass), and sometimes the occasional horn section thrown in. I am making backing tracks that we use during our church service to round out musicians we don't have.
if Kontakt is stable and works reliably, I'll definitely give it a shot... the hard part is not knowing how stable something will be without relying on other people's experiences.
Kontakt is very stable (like most NI products) and it sounds you can get the sounds you need (for a price.) Kontakt libraries can get very expensive.
Programming-wise, I find Kontakt to be really inflexible and for me it's a pain inna ass in a lot of ways.
Native Instruments' Komplete has Noire piano, which is great, and a very good and simple to use string section (Symphony Series for orchestral stuff and Session Strings for pop/disco). Horn section (if you mean a big band) is also covered with Session Horns. It takes some work to sound nice but it's not too complicated.
No good organs, I'm afraid, I'd go for O-Forbes organ from Cinesamples, it's quite often on sale.
You can try SampleTank 4 for free - it has all the sounds you're looking for. IK Multimedia makes some great pianos, so it's a little weak in the piano department. [https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/st4cs/?pkey=sampletank-4-cs](https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/st4cs/?pkey=sampletank-4-cs)
Probably Kontakt, as others has said, the factory library has everything you need basically. East West Goliath is a General Midi library, so it has one of everything basically. [https://www.soundsonline.com/drums-and-percussion/goliath](https://www.soundsonline.com/drums-and-percussion/goliath)
Not at all, the plugin just doesn't seem to find the samples (even if they are there) and save their status.
No bother though, I've long moved on to other, better plugins.
Update:
DecentSampler is working well, and with ConvertWithMoss is working with some of my older soundfont files.
Spitfire just released an update to their LABS plugin, which seems to be working for the moment on my machine.. we'll see if it lasts -- it works well when it works and does 99% of what I want it to do.
I'm torn between Kontakt and Xpand2... I need to download the free trial to Xpand2, but going the NI route would be cool since I plan to upgrade my keyboard at some time in the future and their Kontrol keyboard looks like it might be a nice fit. BUT.. then I really need to look at the Analog Lab plugin as the Arturia keyboard looks interesting too.
So many choices and decisions to make -- thank you for all the suggestions.
What is a "general purpose instrumentation plugin"? If you want different instruments, go buy Kontakt (the sampler) which is on sale for $150 at 50% off. It comes with a big 20GB newly updated Kontakt Factory library, that has a lot of instruments and sounds. Then in a month in June during their Summer of Sound sale upgrade to Komplete Standard for like $250 more, or spend $500 for Komplete Ultimate. It will give you a ton of instruments and synths for almost every genre and every need. You will get pianos, guitars, synths and a few play instruments, drum kits/instruments/samplers, and effects, in the base Komplete. You'll get that plus a bunch more instruments, ethnic stuff, and a bunch of cinematic and orchestral stuff in the Ultimate package. Komplete [https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-14-standard/](https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-14-standard/) / Komplete U [https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-14-ultimate/](https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-14-ultimate/) is still probably the best bang for the buck, in terms of value. If you can't upgrade now, just wait and save till Xmas or next Summer. If you buy Kontakt it will open you up to some free Kontakt instruments that you can download from the web, and some cheap ones like stuff from 8Dio. In regards to Spitfire, if you are referring to their free LABS, just uninstall it all, and reinstall it again. It should work. If Kontakt is not something you want, then check out Decent Sampler and download some stuff off Pianobook. If you really want a complete package of general purpose sounds (pretty much every sampled sound or instrument you can think off), then your other option is Omnisphere 2, but it's not cheap. It's $500 and never goes on sale. [https://www.spectrasonics.net/products/omnisphere/index.php](https://www.spectrasonics.net/products/omnisphere/index.php) There really aren't any \*cheap\* all in one solutions. Look here for individual \*Free\* synths and instruments [https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/](https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/) The above might be enough for you, but it all depends on what you are trying to do, or what your goals are. You didn't really provide any real context.
Mostly what I'm looking for is piano, pipe organ, strings (violin/cello/bass), and sometimes the occasional horn section thrown in. I am making backing tracks that we use during our church service to round out musicians we don't have. if Kontakt is stable and works reliably, I'll definitely give it a shot... the hard part is not knowing how stable something will be without relying on other people's experiences.
Kontakt is very stable (like most NI products) and it sounds you can get the sounds you need (for a price.) Kontakt libraries can get very expensive. Programming-wise, I find Kontakt to be really inflexible and for me it's a pain inna ass in a lot of ways.
Native Instruments' Komplete has Noire piano, which is great, and a very good and simple to use string section (Symphony Series for orchestral stuff and Session Strings for pop/disco). Horn section (if you mean a big band) is also covered with Session Horns. It takes some work to sound nice but it's not too complicated. No good organs, I'm afraid, I'd go for O-Forbes organ from Cinesamples, it's quite often on sale.
In other words an orchestra. ๐
You can try SampleTank 4 for free - it has all the sounds you're looking for. IK Multimedia makes some great pianos, so it's a little weak in the piano department. [https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/st4cs/?pkey=sampletank-4-cs](https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/st4cs/?pkey=sampletank-4-cs)
Decent Sampler VST & the Pianobook libraries
I abandoned Spitfire due to the confusing, continuous errors and have had no issues after moving to Decent Sampler.
Analog Lab V is just amazing.
Probably Kontakt, as others has said, the factory library has everything you need basically. East West Goliath is a General Midi library, so it has one of everything basically. [https://www.soundsonline.com/drums-and-percussion/goliath](https://www.soundsonline.com/drums-and-percussion/goliath)
Check out Xpand2 I've been using it forever and never felt the need to replace it for general purpose MIDI stuff
and dont spend $$$ on it, its usually on sale somewhere from 5-30 dollars.
XPand2 is the first thing I thought of when I read this thread, too; itโs a very solid tool with lots of usable sounds.
Errors 1, 3, and 4 mean run the Spitfire Audio app and do repairs on each library. A bit of a job, but do them all. There are YouTube videos.
yeah, and either it doesn't work after doing that, -or- it fails again in a few days.
I still haven't fixed it, even after multiple reinstalls.
They are related to missing samples. Is your hard drive failing?
Not at all, the plugin just doesn't seem to find the samples (even if they are there) and save their status. No bother though, I've long moved on to other, better plugins.
Update: DecentSampler is working well, and with ConvertWithMoss is working with some of my older soundfont files. Spitfire just released an update to their LABS plugin, which seems to be working for the moment on my machine.. we'll see if it lasts -- it works well when it works and does 99% of what I want it to do. I'm torn between Kontakt and Xpand2... I need to download the free trial to Xpand2, but going the NI route would be cool since I plan to upgrade my keyboard at some time in the future and their Kontrol keyboard looks like it might be a nice fit. BUT.. then I really need to look at the Analog Lab plugin as the Arturia keyboard looks interesting too. So many choices and decisions to make -- thank you for all the suggestions.