Oooh! You like to live dangerously. I wouldn't use anything that I didn't pay a lot of money for. What kind of synth are you looking for? I would look into ikmultimedia, East West for symphonic sounds, Kore or Komplete from Native Instruments.

Have a look at those ... I found them rather stable even for live gigs.
Amazing sound and handling... Special modes for live work.
[="http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments/omnisphere_videos.php"]Spectrasonics - Omnisphere - Videos[/]="http://www.spectras…"]Spectrasonics - Omnisphere - Videos[/]
[[url=http://="http://www.spectras…"]Spectrasonics[/]="http://www.spectras…"]Spectrasonics[/]

NI is great, too.

With EWQL... I am truggling, as we speak, to get the Symphonic choir play upgrade installed on any of my studio machines.
After a complaint in rather plain words I received a full page of instructions how to get this soft working on a win7 64 bit machine.
I am not fond of software that takes hours of googling to get somewhere....really not inspiring confidence...

Ah, you are definitely on there. EWQL does not like Windows 7 of any variety. I managed to get it to work even though installation gave me an error.

It is a drag and rather cheaky to sell it as working Win7 version, since 64 bit is not exotic, anymore, is it?.
You need the new Play software and other tweaks, but you are supposed to digg all this out by yourself, unless you get a bit rude.
I mean, if you buy it just now, why don't they add a sticker or a coloured piece of paper with the instructions on it?

I print the "How To" for you all who might need it, now or in future:

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The disks that came with the product are not compatible with Win7 64. See our support page:
https://www.soundsonline.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=80&nav=0,1,5,10

Rather use the very latest version of PLAY from here;
https://www.soundsonline.com/updates.php

First make certain the User Accounts Settings are disabled (it’s also noted in the readme file).

To disable or Turn Off UAC (User Account Control) in Control Panel

1. To user Control Panel to disable UAC in Windows 7, there are several methods to access the User Account Control settings page:
a. Go to Start Menu -> Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Safety -> User Account.
b. Go to Start Menu -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> Action Center.
c. Click or right click on Flag icon in notification area (system tray), and then Open Action Center.
d. Type “MsConfig” in Start Search to start System Configuration, then go to Tools tab, select Change UAC Settings, then click on
Launch button.

2. Click on User Account Control settings link.

3. Slide the slider bar to the lowest value (towards Never Notify), with description showing Never notify me.

4. Click OK to make the change effective.

5. Restart the computer to turn off User Access Control.

In the installation screen you will be able to select the product you have purchased.

Once finished:
1) Go to the browser menu in Play and locate the favorites window in the bottom left above the keyboard and control + click (MAC) or right-click (PC) on the product title and choose to "set product library directory". If no entry exists for your product, click in the favorites window and choose "add another product directory".

2) Navigate to the product title's Instrument folder and click choose. Please note: For Platinum Complete, point each respective orchestral section to it's appropriate folder within the Platinum Instruments folder.

3) Now run the sample / instrument updates for your product. Please choose the default installation directory (system drive) as the updates will be directed to the correct location per the directory you just set..

sorry, I didn't specifically mention what kind of synth... basically a rompler with good pianos (of all kind), synth leads/pads, strings, and if it has a variety of special sounds (weird) then better! I guess I'm just looking for something that would be the closest thing to a hardware performance synth. for ex, I own the korg m50 so I was wondering if there was something along those lines that would have a bit of everything... I also have kontakt 4, but I don't know if it would be easy to use in a live context

cheers!