comparison of VSTs in the context of ableton live

[charles1]

Hey

[mthrfnk]

Don't get Massive

[charles1]

Don't get Massive

hah whys that?

[VirtualMark]

If you can only afford one synth, i'd suggest something like Zebra as it's really flexible. If you learnt it inside out you could make a wide range of sounds.

[mthrfnk]

Don't get Massive

hah whys that?

Idk personal opinion, I don't use it as much these days because so many people are using it to make the generic same sounds. I know you can technically make any sound in any synth but normally I end up going back to what I know in Massive and making shitty bro sounds. It's a great synth, don't get me wrong (I've made leads/pads/basses/reeses/fx etc. in it).... but like a child gets bored with toys, I've become bored with Massive - it's the first synth I got, nearly 2 years ago.

Last few track's I've used it in, all I've used it for is a glorified white noise generator... I love the Bright noise generator haha.

[charles1]

....

[mthrfnk]

Idk, I use FL, not Live so I don't have Operator.

[Blingley]

Get the suite. I repeat: Get the suite.

A: Most of the synths in it are quality. Applied Acoustics, from whom a number of synths in the Suite are from, are a great company.
B: M4L is worth the cost alone. Hell, the convolution reverb might be worth the cost alone. There's a number of free synths for it, too. Like Granulator.
C: The rest of the stuff. Ampsim, Cabsim, gazillion packs, and so on.

For the cost, it gets you pretty much all you need. You can do great music with just the suite. You also get more things, which allows you to get used to different things. If you later on decide that you need more in-depth FM synthesis tool, you can get FM8. If you need wavetable synthesis, you can get Massive. The point is that you will find out what exactly you need. Suite is definitely enough to get you started. Personally, I'm doing a transition from FL to Live currently, and I find I'm using Operator more than FM8, simply due to how well it integrates.

In addition, the M4L devices add a lot of usability to even 3rd-party synthesizers, should you choose to add them later.

Personally, I don't think there is any contest.

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In addition, if you are ever going to get Native Instruments products, get Komplete. I know it's a front-end investment, but you'll save a fortune compared to buying their products individually.

[NinjaEdit]

I'd entertain Komplete.

As far as a single synth goes, it depends what you want to do. Do you want a jack-of-all-trades (Absynth, a semi-modular like Zebra, which can also play samples), dirty basses and leads (Massive), or FM sounds? NI are going to release a minimoog clone called Monark as well for analogue sounds.

Try demoing them.

[charles1]

I decided to download the sylenth demo per the advice of some friends. It's pretty nice. I like it a lot. Only problem is that every minute or so, you hear this damn voice say "thank you for trying this demo" (there are a few other limitations but they're not as problematic). I am trying to finish up a song right now, and I would really like to use a patch from sylenth for one of my leads, but everytime i go to export, at some point during the lead, it gets all quiet, but it doesn't say the demo thing.

So I'm trying to find a sneaky way to work around this. I cut the lead down to a little less than a minute, and let is play until I heard the thing. Then I immediately exported, thinking maybe it would finish during the span of the interval. But nope, didn't work. I'm going to try out a few more things. Right now I'm thinking maybe take some recordings (however many are needed) of it on quicktime, and then bring them in as audio files, and arrange them the same way as it was originally. I know that ableton has it's own recording features, but I haven't used them much and i don't fully understand them. Do you guys know any tricks that I can use to get around this?

Thanks I appreciate it a lot.

[OfficialDAPT]

Personally I don't think the Suite is worth it in live 8, that's probably because I have Komplete 8 Ultimate. If I could recommend one of those synths you mentioned it would be Absynth. It has a huge potential for sound design and I love the envelope page. You can draw custom wave forms as well and do pretty much everything under the sun. I'm still in the process of learning it so I'm not an expert, but I definitely recommend it because it blows Operator out of the water by soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.

[NinjaEdit]

I decided to download the sylenth demo per the advice of some friends. It's pretty nice. I like it a lot. Only problem is that every minute or so, you hear this damn voice say "thank you for trying this demo" (there are a few other limitations but they're not as problematic). I am trying to finish up a song right now, and I would really like to use a patch from sylenth for one of my leads, but everytime i go to export, at some point during the lead, it gets all quiet, but it doesn't say the demo thing.

So I'm trying to find a sneaky way to work around this. I cut the lead down to a little less than a minute, and let is play until I heard the thing. Then I immediately exported, thinking maybe it would finish during the span of the interval. But nope, didn't work. I'm going to try out a few more things. Right now I'm thinking maybe take some recordings (however many are needed) of it on quicktime, and then bring them in as audio files, and arrange them the same way as it was originally. I know that ableton has it's own recording features, but I haven't used them much and i don't fully understand them. Do you guys know any tricks that I can use to get around this?

Thanks I appreciate it a lot.

Bounce a one shot and run it in a sampler (or paste and retune the audio file), or crack it if you aren't going to pay for it right now.

[samurai]

honestly I think the suite (especially in for Live 9) is totally worth it.

you get some really cool instruments.
you get max4live.
and you get gigs of free samples from the Ableton site to get you started (very useful if you're just starting off producing)

I actually think that something like Komplete can be overkill. you get so much shit that it may be a little overwhelming.

[charles1]

I'm not gonna get Komplete lol. i got sylenth

I like it a lot, it's not difficult at all. I'm still getting the hang of these oscillators and what they are all about, but other than that it's pretty easy for me to use.

[Mike Renai]

NI MASSIVE gets a lot of hate just simply because its so popular, but for the purpose of learning subtractive synthesis, getting use to using wave tables and modulating the sounds etc its actually a good choice because of the stupendous amount of info and tutorials floating about. First decide what type of synthesis you would like to learn, FM8 and Ableton's Operator are a bit more complex as FM synthesis works differently. All the synths mentioned are very powerful, just make sure you have learning resources and tuts for whatever one you go with.

[Sure_Fire]

I'd go with massive. It is overused, but it's solid as fuck. Otherwise, maybe FM8 or Sytrus (which are both beasts) if you want an FM synth, or for something simpler (well, not really) sylenth1 or zeta. Absynth is a little too abstract for me, and razor is a little too limited (and CPU heavy). It all depends on what you're using it for.

In the long run though, NI's massive or FM8 well definitely be good investments, I've used suite and the instruments are exactly inspiring so I'm not sure that it's worth upgrading even if it is cheaper than buying some NI gear.

[charles1]

^ yeah i'm not leaning towards suite at the moment. I don't understand all this business about cracking programs and paying for them later. if you cracked it, then why would you pay later, and not right now?

thanks again.

[VirtualMark]

^ yeah i'm not leaning towards suite at the moment. I don't understand all this business about cracking programs and paying for them later. if you cracked it, then why would you pay later, and not right now?

I've done it loads of times - used a cracked synth and decided I liked it. So I bought it to support the developer and so that I get future updates and support immediately.

Software companies do go under - imagine how you'd feel if your favourite synth was never going to get an update due to piracy.

That being said - if it wasn't for piracy I wouldn't have bought it. Unless it's like Reaper, where they give you an unlimited and unrestricted demo. But most don't - they give you a 30 day trial or stop you from saving, which doesn't always give you enough time.