Software Synths - Toxic III any good?

Hey!

I'm seriously considering buying a copy of Toxic III, which is a software synth VSTi plug-in. I just want to be able to quickly add decent synth sounds and effects to my tracks to make them less dull. I have fiddled around with the demo of this one and it seems pretty good. The "Sequence" section of the plug-in is what is really interesting me at this point.

The reason I am not leaping immediately for Fruity Loops Studio is that the standalone doesn't work on Windows Vista Premium, even with the latest vista patch. When I have attempted to use the VSTi plug-in, it has worked but with extremely limited functionality. Under Windows XP everything worked fine... anyway..

I was wondering if anyone knew about this one, or other similar products out there.. like Reaper is so much quicker to use and handles more stuff and it's completely free.. At this stage though, Toxic III is looking pretty good.

Here's the info for Toxic III, you can also download the demo that I have from this same page:
http://www.image-line.com/documents/toxiciii.html

Reaper is an excellent all rounder from tracking, editing and mixing audio (eg guitars, vocals, drums etc) to orchestrating, sequencingm editing midi with VST & VSTi capabilities. There are hundreds of free synths available, here are some of the better ones:

http://www.novakill.com/killerz.htm
http://www.kvraudio.com/
http://www.yohng.com/rhode.html
http://www.espace-cubase.org/anglais/page.php?page=freevsti

You can use these with Reaper which pretty much gives you a free home studio packed with hundreds of top quality plug-ins. Enjoy!

BTW If you want to pay for very high end VST's check out EastWest Samples and Toontrack from drums.

FWIW most of the people I know who use windows based machines for recording wont touch vista with a barge poll and are still using XP. This is because of all of the Vista driver problems (i.e. there either aren't any or they don't work well).

Personally I use a Mac and have circumvented this whole issue !

Yeh I know.. Vista was a big mistake.. but I have much more than recording software on this machine.. I have 1 Terabyte of HD space and many applications that I don't want to go through the painful process of re-installing. I still have Windows XP on one of the hard drives and can run it any time I want.. but changing operating systems every time I want to fiddle around with the synth, destroys the creative process.

If I had done it all over again I would still have a PC but with Windows XP still installed.

Yeah, I have a VIsta machine at hom etoo but I never try using it for any music production. It will run just like XP... in about another 2 or 3 years after a shedload of service packs and fixes have been released. If I was starting from scratch again I would go the Mac route but I'm so entrenched in Windows OS that I don't think I could ever get used to the transition.
Light, re your own OS, a full terrabyte of drive space is major! :eek: I thought my system was good at 500GB :( What kind of ram have you got in that monster??

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
2 x 1GB 800MHz Hi-Speed RAM (I forget the brand.. I think Corsair or something)
3 x 320GB Seagate SATAII HDs (So technically, just under 1 Terabyte.. hehe)

I just use the on-board HD sound.. I have two SPDIF outs plus all the normal 8.1 surround things or whatever it is these days. I've never really needed the RAM until I started routing my audio back into my computer again and out through another mixing program.. lol..

I'll definitely have to buy some power speakers as the next addition to my home studio. Mixing it all with headphone is great, I have the highest quality Sony studio headphones that were available in, I think, 2005.. so the quality is very good.. but then when I play it as an MP3 on my proper stereo system, it sounds soooo much different. Which is why I have been routing the sound back in via the mic-in socket on my computer... so I can hear it on the full speakers and record the instrument at the same time.

Originally Posted by: SuperhumanReaper is an excellent all rounder from tracking, editing and mixing audio (eg guitars, vocals, drums etc) to orchestrating, sequencingm editing midi with VST & VSTi capabilities. There are hundreds of free synths available, here are some of the better ones:

http://www.novakill.com/killerz.htm
http://www.kvraudio.com/
http://www.yohng.com/rhode.html
http://www.espace-cubase.org/anglais/page.php?page=freevsti

You can use these with Reaper which pretty much gives you a free home studio packed with hundreds of top quality plug-ins. Enjoy!

BTW If you want to pay for very high end VST's check out EastWest Samples and Toontrack from drums.

Hrmm yeh.. I went to the web-pages but they all look a bit complicated.. :) I'm ignorant when it comes to trackers (Fruity Loops) and synths (Toxic III). My first look at a tracker would have been in the early 90's.. I'd estimate 1992.. I fiddled around but never could make anything decent with it... I have the same experiences with synths.. I plug in my MIDI keyboard and go "OOoooh! that sounds nice.." and "Ahhh! that's that sound I have been looking for!" and that's about it. I want something that I can really "learn" and incorporate into my existing setup. A tracker is kind of like Reaper in what its purpose is.. the synth element of a tracker is really what I am wanting to "learn".. so I need something that I can really sink my teeth into but at first blush isn't really that complicated.