MIDI keyboard

[grimjim]

My son bought me a midi controller for Christmas. I’ll mostly use it to run Reaper.

It’s a 61 key m-audio controller and I’d like to mess around with the keyboard.

Can someone recommend software for this?
I’d like piano, Hammond and at least some synth stuff, without paying $400.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Frank Tuesday]

Bundles : Komplete Start : Included Products | Komplete

Comes with Kontakt Player and some instrument libraries. If you want more freebies for Kontakt Player. Free Kontakt Libraries

 

[silky smoove]

I like the offerings from XLN and Keyscape.

 

[SoCal80s]

Garageband is a good starting point. Most of the big synth makers, like Korg, have sound libraries that work with MIDI controllers.

 

[dave_p]

If you are working in Reaper or any DAW that uses VSTs really there are a few free plugins that are OK. Synth1 and Crystal are good. Reaper has a few free software instruments that come with it. DSK Drumz Akoustic is a great free drum virtual instrument. Be usually the Maudio controllers come with some plug ins as well.

 

[tothemax]

These guys do a free trial of their bundle, it would give you a chance to try out a few products. Plugin Alliance, I picked up a pretty cool Ampeg plugin on sale, it was about 70% off.

Mega Bundles - Plugin Alliance Megastore

 

[Eli_Kyiv]

There was this cool bundle meant for live performance called M-Audio Key Rig. M-Audio used to give it for free to those who bought their MIDI keyboards. It consisted of four blocks: Piano/EP, Organ, Subtractive Polysynth, and GM module. There were effects, multisplits, multilayers, hot parameters changing and a lot of presets for patches and effects. A guy I knew gigged with this using MIDI keyboard and a laptop around 10-12 years ago.
I think this software has been discontinued for a long time, but you still can get it somewhere in the internet.
Windows only though.

 

[Akiyama]

My son bought me a midi controller for Christmas. I’ll mostly use it to run Reaper.

It’s a 61 key m-audio controller and I’d like to mess around with the keyboard.

Can someone recommend software for this?
I’d like piano, Hammond and at least some synth stuff, without paying $400.

Any help is appreciated.

Welcome to the wonderful world of softsynths! Want recommendations? Hehehehehe... Here are some top-notch freebies:

Vital - Spectral Warping Wavetable Synth

Free DAW Software MPC Beats | Akai Pro

Zebralette: Mini Zebra

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Dexed | FREE VST PLUGINS

Spitfire Audio — BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover