So, I decided for my album I am going to be using soft-synths instead of buying a 3000 dollar keyboard. I tried out a few such as the Korg M1. While the M1 was awesome in that it gave you tons of strings, brass, voice etc that you could tinker and mix it came across as being thin and synthetic.

You see, I have this old Casio keyboard with midi input and although it may sound outdated, it has life, emotion and thickness. Anyways, I tried some other synths and although they sounded a lot fuller and had more emotions, they ended up being experimental effects or retro moog synths, which for a well produced Dark Metal project isn't what I'm looking for. At first I thought that it was because analog sounds better than digital.. but why should this matter if both a store bought keyboard and software are both using midi presets for each sound?

What I'm looking for is strings, brass, choirs, piano not some wind or techno effects like most of these soft-synths I've came across.

I want something that is full of life and emotion that kind of thing.

Can anyone recommend me some soft-synths I could get?