Virtual Instruments

[Bitfiend]

the thing i've really been noticing is even creating your own patch, all the vst's just seem to have a "thin" sound to them. the ones that have a bit "thicker" sound to them, imho, are the Nexus and Vanguard although i think they'd be of more use to some one who produces Trance or Hard-house; due to their gate and arp features.
that could also be due to my ignorance being relatively knew to production. maybe it's just a matter of really working eq'ing, compression, reverb and/or other assorted effects to get that full, thick sound. everytime i a/b one of my tracks with something like one of the releases on Coma, it just seems to be a world of difference.
Jesse does a helluva job on mastering all my stuff and really helps with that but the initial sounds are what the real problem is i think.

[admin]

I would say Nexus is just good for those styles, theres plenty of stuff without the gates and arps. It is a sample based one so perhaps they have run some of the synths through other gear to give it a sound.

To compare to something like Coma will generally be a sobering experience as the amount of work and knowledge put into those tracks is a tough thing to compete with. Not to say that it isnt a good thing to shoot for though.

I think the list of things you mentioned above is the root of it, just need more experience in all those. It's all a game of inches but with many parts all working together to get that sound.