I'm a new user - some general advice?

[jooel]

I bought the software yesterday and it seems to be solid as a rock I wish I had found it years ago! I've owned a korg microarranger for a couple of years that I use as an inspiration booster when composing music with my girlfriend (she sings, and it's always more fun with a backing track). I will mainly use pop guitar / piano styles.

I hope it's ok if i ask some general questions just to get me started in the right direction. All answers are welcome!

1) Is there any of the style platforms (korg PA*, yamaha tyros*) you would recommend focusing on for the "best" or most compatible styles and sound? I've only used PA80 styles so far and don't have experience with other arrangers, so excuse me if the question is silly

2) I've understood it's possible to buy additional soundbanks. Is there any list of these available? Anything you would really recommend in terms of bang for the buck?

3) Or maybe some VSTi that really runs well with varranger2? I currently have sampletank3, realguitar, ample sounds guitars but from what I've understood quite a few use the hypersonic VSTi. Does it integrate better with varranger2 somehow?

4) Yesterday I routed a bass track to a VSTi (ample sound bass), but found that I would have to transpose it +12. I couldn't find any option in varranger2 or my VSTi to do that, so I guess I will have to route the tracks via virtual midi to Studio One and do the transposing there. That's perfectly fine with me, but let me know if I've missed some clever option to do it more easily.

Thanks for any advice!

[Lylo]

Hello,

1) some brand are better for some musical style and some other are better for another styles (for example Ketron are very good for ballroom). So it's difficult to answer your question, try all styles, it's free.

2) each bank are specific for Ketron, Yamaha, Korg and Roland. So it's better if you use principaly a brand, for exemple Yamaha, to buy Yamaha bank but this bank can read other style brand

3) it's a function I want from a long time, octave transpose for bass track but it never come, perhaps if you make a demand.
Actually you have two more elegants  solutions than Studio One. Use a external vst-host as Cantabile with a vsti midi or use the vst host (vsti in a vsti) Minihost from Imagline, in this you can put vsti midi and vsti.

http://www.image-line.com/support/FLHelp/html/plugins/Minihost%20Modular.htm

https://youtu.be/hhfO9yYNlJY?list=PLkYsB0Ki9lAdKtazdqGqqXZQr4NLYIfqA

[jooel]

Thanks Lylo!

I'm now running it thru Studio One and it sounds great after setting up some VSTi:s!

It will take a bit of experimenting to set it up exactly the way i want it (using a Yamaha UR-22 soundcard, ASIO4all and possibly virtualaudiocable to route audio from varranger internal synth to Studio One?). Ideally, I want sound from both varranger2 and Studio One at the same time so I can carefully exchange each track with VSTi:s thru Studio One. I had some quirks yesterday with internal midi device suddenly muting (installed loopbe1 instead), but I think I'm getting there

Today I will try to fully understand the song structure of varranger and how to save chord progressions. It will take a while getting to know the software since it's very easy to get stuck just playing with all the arrangements

PS. The ability to save song to midi is amazing. I don't care much about other limitations since this feature alone makes va2 worth its price.