Soft Synth Beginner Options

[soylentjosh]

I'm looking to get into the world of soft synths, but I sort of don't know where to start. I'm wondering what the best software is for the money for my purposes. I actually have pretty basic needs, I'm mainly looking for top notch sampled acoustic piano, rhodes, wurlitzer, and hammond b3 sounds. Other samples would be fun to mess around with but my primary concern is high quality sounds for the basic keyboard instruments for the most reasonable amount of money.

Can anyone help me out with what to consider?

Thanks,
Josh

[rickenbacker]

I would say Logic Pro 7 is as good as place as any to get the sounds you mention. Logic has some brilliant virtual emulations of the classic keys, plus a bundle of other keyboard-related samples for the EXS24 sampler (also included). A cheaper alternative would be Reason 3 - that has decent Rhode and Hammond sounds, plus they also just issued the Mechanical ReFill (featuring more of the same) free to download for registered customers. 'Snice.

As for individual plug-ins, I think the best acoustic piano is Ivory. Electric piano, a lot of folk like the Lounge Lizard. Hammond/B3, I don't know.

Synth-wise, it's hard to beat Arturia's Moog emulations or GMedia's impOSCar. They're both classics in the making (again). The M-Tron is cute, too. And if you like old spooky hippy noises (I do), Spectrasonics Atmosphere is great.