Hi - I’m looking for advice from someone with a lot more experience than I have on virtual instruments. I’m using Cubase Elements 6, and I use the virtual instruments (Halion Sonic SE for bass guitar and Groove Agent for drums) that came with Elements. (I’m recording folk-rock kind of music.) They don’t seem to sound that great, but maybe it’s just poor mixing, I don’t know. My question is, is the sound quality of those instruments poor? Or put another way, if I bought decent virtual instrument software, would I be getting noticeably better sound quality, or just more variety and features than I have now? I’d appreciate any opinions on this. Thanks.
I think you know the answer to your question… 
You will not become a proficient mix engineer overnight, so cut yourself some slack. It does get better though.
If you aren’t happy with the sound of your instruments… try some demos. Off the top of my head, you could try the free Kontakt player (it comes with a variety of sounds). For drums, maybe try something like Fxpansion’s Geist. There should be a demo available on the Fxpansion website.
Enjoy.
Thanks for the tips. I’ll try comparing some demos to what I’m using.
envelope shaper is a handy thing for drums.