Virtual Instruments

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Softsynths, sample players, sequencers or loopers, and drum samplers are all programs that let you create and work with the sounds of physical instruments you don't own or have access to. Depending on the quality of the source sounds (samples or synthesized tones) and your skill in using them, results can range from a 1980s Casio on autopilot to something stunningly close to the real thing.

All of the above tend to be grouped into the category of virtual instruments. They can be either stand-alone programs or plug-ins (DXi, VSTi, etc.).

Softsynths

Softsynths (software synthesizers) use various algorithms and/or pre-recorded sounds (samples) to create music, often emulating the vintage analog synthesizers of yore, but also offering things never dreamed of until recently.

FM7

The FM7 recreates the sounds of the venerable Yamaha DX7 hardware synthesizer.

Rapture

Rapture is a wavetable synthesis engine capable of synthesizing waveforms from short wavetables. It is ideal for performing and designing modern synthesized sounds for use in pop, dance, and electronic music. Rapture also uses Cakewalk's Expression Engine and SFZ file format specification ( which are also found in Dimension Pro and other instruments from Cakewalk) to enable sample-playback and low-level access to this synth's features.

z3ta+

The charmingly-named z3ta+ is a popular wave-shaping synthesizer.

Pentagon

Pentagon is a synthesizer that aims to emulate vintage analog synths. Pentagon_I Pentagon I is included with SONAR 5.

Cameleon 5000

Cameleon 5000 is an additive synth, featuring resynthesis and sound morphing, which excels at pads and evolving textures.

Sample Players

Sample players (melodic ones in this case -- drum samplers are addressed below) are programs that use pre-recorded sounds (samples) to create music. Often they are simply a means to play Soundfonts or other types of samples through SONAR's MIDI interface. They have largely replaced SoundFont-capable soundcards (such as Creative's) as the method of choice for this job.

Dimension Pro

Dimension Pro is a sample playback instrument combined with a synthesizer. It is a very powerful and extremely expressive instrument capable of incredible sounds. It contains over 8GB of multisamples and is expandable with expansion packs from Cakewalk and third-party suppliers. It can read standard sample formats for end-user expansion as well. Its heart is an expression engine that reads the popular and powerful SFZ patch file format. In addition to sample playback it is also capable of waveguide synthesis and wavetable synthesis.

sfz and sfz+

sfz+ allows you to use the vast number of SoundFonts available on the web and for purchase in your recordings. Its has a freeware little brother, sfz, which comes [[Components_Included_with_Sonar#sfz|bundled] with SONAR 5.

VSampler

The versatile VSampler allows you to use virtually any recorded sound as (part of) a virtual instrument.

It is capable of playing Soundfont (SF2), Gigastudio, HALion 1 and 2, Kontakt 1.x, DLS, AKAI S1000/S3000 CD and S5000/S6000 .AKP files and E-MU III / IV CD samples. It is also capable of loading LM4 and Battery drumkits as well as ReCycle (RCY, REX, RX2) and ACID drumloops. You can also use it to create your own instruments using WAV or AIF files.

Sequencers and Loopers

Sequencers and loopers allow you to turn samples into music, making extensive use of repeating loops to achieve this goal. As most sequencers and loopers work perfectly well with percussion --or are even aimed principally at this area-- there is a certain overlap between them and drum samplers.

Project5

Cakewalk's Project5 is a sequencer aimed at both production and live applications.

Acid Pro

Sony's Acid Pro is a family of products for working with loops.

Ableton Live

Ableton Live is a sequencer aimed principally at live music performance.

Drum Samplers

These programs allow you to add sampled drum sounds to your recordings, using sets of drum samples ranging from a few hundred megabytes to 50GB-60GB. Typically, you use a MIDI track in your project to trigger the samples, though some of these programs also include built-in drum sequencers or groove libraries that let you compose directly in them and then transfer the results to SONAR.

BFD

FXpansion's BFD is a drum sampler with basic sequencing capabilities. Its sample libraries are considered to be among the best in existence, along with those of DFHS.

Note that there is a new BFD forum at FXpansion.

DFHS

DFHS (Drumkit From Hell Superior) is BFD's main competitor. Like BFD, it includes drum sequencing capabilities and a large sample library.

There are a few minor problems users often have when using DFHS with Sonar. We've put some of the solutions here - Common Problems with DHFS & Sonar.

Groove Agent

Steinberg's Groove Agent combines a drum sample library with extensive rhythmic composition capabilities.

Battery

Native Instruments' Battery is a drums sequencer and sample player.

EZdrummer

Toontrack's EZdrummer is a drum sample player with a built-in library of MIDI loops that can be dragged and dropped into SONAR's track view allowing rapid creation of realistic sounding drumbeats. The drum sounds come ready processed so they are ready for use in a mix from the outset. Ambience samples are included and it can be set to multi-out mode if you want tighter control over the mixing of each kit part. A number of expansion packs are available, featuring more drum and percussion samples as well as extra MIDI loops.