What’s Next: An article series to help worship leaders keep current on the latest trends.
Last week I talked about my favorite keyboard for worship: the Roland Fantom. One big plus with the Fantom are the audio inputs. Northpoint Church music director Reid Greven explained to me why.
As it turns out, Reid rarely uses the actual sounds from the Fantom (although he does lie them) – he simply uses the keyboard as a MIDI controller for his laptop which runs virtual instruments. A virtual instrument (also called a VST – Virtual Studio Technology) is software you install and run on your laptop which basically turns it into a glorified synthesizer. In Reid’s setup the audio from his laptop goes into the keyboard, then out to the soundboard via the keyboard’s outputs, so both the laptop’s VSTs and the Fantom’s sounds are routed together. He has the Fantom for a quick backup if the VST crashes.
VSTs come in many shapes, sizes and prices. You can buy piano, strings, orchestration, guitars, drums, organs, choir, sound effects and just about anything you can imagine as a VST. I even bought a dobro VST for one of my HymnCharts arrangements. Some VSTs have a little bit of everything just like any keyboard.
VSTs typically sound vastly superior to any keyboard because the VST software is larger and more complex. For instance, my favorite keyboard piano sound ten years ago was 32 megabytes. One of my VST pianos happens to be 32 GIGabytes – you can imagine how the sound will be so much richer, sharper and realistic because the VST utilizes more and larger samples.
Reid uses a very inexpensive but good all-in-one VST called Mainstage – it’s $29.99 and Mac only.
On Widows I’ve used Dimension Pro for years since it comes with Sonar, but you can purchase the lite version called Dimension LE for $49.99. It’s also an all-in-one VST with a little bit of everything. Reason is another popular all-in-one VST. Mention your favorite VSTs in the comments section below. Many different companies sell VSTs but a good place to learn about them all is KVRaudio.com.
Things to keep in mind:
>VSTs require a level of computer proficiency. They’re probably not for Aunt Bessie, your church pianist.
>Some VSTs can be played in “stand alone” mode, some have to be played through host software like Cakewalk or Logic.
>Drums: I’ve heard of churches using drum pads (like Roland V-Drums) that trigger drum VSTs – favorites are Superior Drummer (which I use on all my recordings) and Addictive Drums. The realism is startling and your soundman has better control of the drums.
>Sound interface: Depending on the power of your laptop’s soundcard you can play VSTs right out of the earphone jack. But for better sound quality and latency (the responsiveness of the VST) you’ll need a dedicated sound interface (MOTU, M-Audio, Prosonus, etc.)
>MIDI: Keep in mind you have both MIDI and audio to worry about with VSTs. You have to get MIDI data from a keyboard into the laptop to play the VST. Some modern keyboards have a USB port – if yours doesn’t you’ll need a MIDI interface. MIDI interfaces are sold separately, but the best all-around solution is an audio interface that also has MIDI (some audio interfaces don’t have MIDI so double check.)
Bottom Line: Be prepared for when your keyboard player shows up to rehearsal with a laptop.
9 Responses to “What’s Next: Virtual Instruments In Worship”
May 21, 2012
BillMy line up in Korg Legacy, Edirol Orchestral, Sony Acid and many other from (plug alert) freevst.com
I’m still more of a hardware guy. My Triton still trumps in my opinion the Fantom but the new Motif XF is really nice but I dont have that kind of $$
May 22, 2012
Richard WhorlIn the late 1980′s my wife pastored a church that expanded to multiple services. I used a casio keyboard, Commodore-64, and a sequencer called Dr. T to play preludes, interludes, special music, and hymn accompaniment. I am not a great keyboardist so, I could pre-record and edit music, even input some intricate solos. What I valued most about Dr. T was the ability to reorder musical sections on the fly. First section could be a vamp to play under an extended introduction and pressing a key would move to next section at the end of measure or next beat. If the preacher or music leader said, “Let’s sing that verse again,” I could jump to a section with a keyboard shortcut.
My experience with modern sequencers is limited. Those I have tested seem to be focused on studio production and have limited live playback flexibility. Has that changed? What should I be looking to for live performance variations?
May 22, 2012
ChrisI use Reason 6.0 in our church. I have thousands of instrument possibilities at my fingertips, as well as audio editing capabilities. Recently I have been using it to create loops for our videos and podcasts. Live I usually look more towards the string sounds to give a realistic-sounding replacement for that cellist I can’t seem to get a hold of. But most importantly, I use Reason to record our sermons for podcasting. Until I get a better set up on another system, I am using my personal Macbook Pro to run the program. I’ve used Reason and my M-Audio oxygen 25 key MIDI controller for all kinds of songs from a loop and live synth on Hillsong United’s Bones to cello and viola on You Are My All In All arranged for choir by Brentwood Benson. I love it!
May 23, 2012
MarkWe use Logic, Ableton, and Reason, and sometimes mainstage
May 29, 2012
SusanI recently got the irig iMIDI piece for my iPhone and iPad. The sample sounds are great but I don’t know how to change the midi channel on my kurzweil sp88x to match it. The kurzweil manual leaves a lot to be desired. Any suggestions?
June 2, 2012
EricBill: couldn’t find your site, but did find vst4free.com. Good site with lots of stuff, just have to do some searching for the ‘gem.’
Susan: I have never had a problem with my SP88 and MIDI, nor have I ever messed with this. But, looking at the online manual, seems to me that you should hit the MIDI button, move over and down to Channel, and make sure it’s set to ON. That should be the default. If you haven’t saved a MIDI setup, try resetting to Factory Default, should be page 7-6 in Troubleshooting, or close by. Good luck!
July 9, 2012
SteveKomplete 8. I think all churches should have Komplete 8, or at least Kontakt 5. It’s much cheaper than a keyboard workstation while giving you all the same things, if not a ton more than most keyboard workstations. In my opinion, Kontakt 5 should be used by all modern worship bands who can afford it.
I have sadly not convinced the worship leaders at my church that virtual instruments are a very efficient way of going about things, though. I hope that when they give me the choice, I’ll show up with Kontakt and my audio interface and use that.
Also, I would recommend that if you’re using virtual instruments live, you do so with a good laptop or the virtual instruments could crash. The recommended specs for music are 8GB ram and an Intel core i7. At the very least, you should have 6GB ram and a core i5. Avoid non-Intel cores for music if you can.
Also have something like LoJack on the laptop in case anyone tries to steal it after or before worship while you’re not looking. It could happen.
July 9, 2012
Don ChapmanGood advice. For people who are new to all this, Komplete is a package that contains many types of virtual instruments including Kontakt. Kontakt is a sample player, sort of like a host for virtual instruments. Many companies make virtual instruments that require Kontakt to play. I use Kontakt to run several of my synth, string libraries and acoustic grand samples.
May 10, 2013
MadocI normally use kontakt 4 (only because I haven’t bothered upgrading to 5 yet) for acoustic / electric pianos and use omnisphere for pads and strings – all running through mainstage. If you look on the Hillsong Collected blog, the keyboardists have the patches they use from omnisphere / mainstage available for download, too….