Heavyweight Synths

hardware, software, tips and tricks
Forum rules
By using this "Production" sub-forum, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agreed with our terms of use for this site. Click HERE to read them. If you do not agree to our terms of use, you must exit this site immediately. We do not accept any responsibility for the content, submissions, information or links contained herein. Users posting content here, do so completely at their own risk.

Quick Link to Feedback Forum
slothrop
Posts: 2655
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:59 am

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by slothrop » Fri Feb 12, 2010 6:08 pm

Don't entirely agree with the premise of this thread, anyway. I'd rather have something that sounds good and is small enough to really learn, rather than having so many features that you always feel like you're skimming the surface. (Particularly hardwired things - if something's actually modular it goes back the other way and feels more streamlined again, because I'll only use the stuff that I need for that sound.)

I mean, the 303 is one of the most sought after synths of all time, and it's got almost no features.

User avatar
Depone
Posts: 3526
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:49 pm
Location: South-West UK
Contact:

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by Depone » Fri Feb 12, 2010 7:57 pm

Pat your a legend

Can i suggest -

Korg Legacy collection (love the MS20 replica)
Image


And also

impOSCar

Image

User avatar
Depone
Posts: 3526
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:49 pm
Location: South-West UK
Contact:

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by Depone » Fri Feb 12, 2010 7:59 pm

slothrop wrote: I mean, the 303 is one of the most sought after synths of all time, and it's got almost no features.
Thing is, its popular because of its iconic acid sound that basically paved the way for electronic music ala acid house.
Yes it simple, but i don't believe that's why its popular

User avatar
fiziks
Posts: 289
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:10 pm
Location: West Virginia

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by fiziks » Fri Feb 12, 2010 9:02 pm

Heavy son

Image
"You never quite see/hear what other people hear and I am sure you aren't going to whack off to yourself in the mirror unless you have some issues." - abz

slothrop
Posts: 2655
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:59 am

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by slothrop » Fri Feb 12, 2010 11:48 pm

Depone wrote:
slothrop wrote: I mean, the 303 is one of the most sought after synths of all time, and it's got almost no features.
Thing is, its popular because of its iconic acid sound that basically paved the way for electronic music ala acid house.
Yes it simple, but i don't believe that's why its popular
I'm not saying it's popular because it's simple, just that more complexity is not always the same as more usefulness. You don't always need five oscillators (each switchable between wavetable, additive and phase distortion modes with a full range of FM configurations) three seperate filters (switchable between five different models of lowpass, hipass, bandpass, allpass, notch, formant) which can be run in parallel, series, or some combination in between, a fully open ended mod matrix with several dozen sources including envelopes, LFOs, sample + hold, step sequencer, aftertouch, mod wheel, pitch wheel, an effects section including phasing, flanging, reverb, delay, distortion (five types), granulation, nanulation, resynthesis, desynthesis, presynthesis...

Sometimes you just want a couple of sawtooth oscillators and a resonant lowpass filter, all of which sound as good as they can...

User avatar
futures_untold
Posts: 4429
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:25 pm
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by futures_untold » Sat Feb 13, 2010 12:00 am

slothrop wrote:...granulation, nanulation, resynthesis, desynthesis, presynthesis...
:lol: :lol: :lol:

I see your point, but sometimes simple synths sound plain, vanilla and old. Let's face it, even a great sounding subtractive synth with two oscillators and a nice LP filter can only ever sound like it's from the 70ies.

I disagree with you on the point of filters though. A synth without a band reject filter is useless for making Noisia style bassmash (my favourite style). Comb filters are also pretty useful as they can provide a wide range of interesting effects.

Pat :)

sackley
Posts: 157
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2010 2:48 am

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by sackley » Sun Feb 28, 2010 3:47 pm

How does Synapse Audio's - Toxic (v 2/v 2.5?) stand up to other payware plug ins? I'm looking for a versatile and affordable soft synth and the demo is showing the capabilities of it well. And for US $50! I just want to know if anyone has input. As in... Would it be better to save and buy FM8 (for example)?

User avatar
decree
Posts: 553
Joined: Wed May 13, 2009 10:11 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by decree » Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:21 pm

why isn't thor there :(

User avatar
Assassin
Posts: 669
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 12:31 pm

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by Assassin » Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:41 pm

Dcam synth squad?

slothrop
Posts: 2655
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:59 am

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by slothrop » Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:47 pm

(since the thread's been resurrected anyway...)
futures_untold wrote:
slothrop wrote:...granulation, nanulation, resynthesis, desynthesis, presynthesis...
:lol: :lol: :lol:

I see your point, but sometimes simple synths sound plain, vanilla and old. Let's face it, even a great sounding subtractive synth with two oscillators and a nice LP filter can only ever sound like it's from the 70ies.

I disagree with you on the point of filters though. A synth without a band reject filter is useless for making Noisia style bassmash (my favourite style). Comb filters are also pretty useful as they can provide a wide range of interesting effects.

Pat :)
Okay, two oscillators and an LP filter is putting it strongly.

I guess what I'm talking about is a synth that has a comparatively small but well chosen feature set - whether it covers subtractive, FM, wavetable, additive, granular or some combination, something where every feature adds a new dimension to the possibilities of the synth rather than feeling like it was chucked in to make the feature list more impressive.

I guess that's not the case for a lot of the stuff in this thread - I'm probably jaded by trying out freeware from too many newbies with synthedit[1] who've realized that they can add AS MANY FEATURES AS THEY WANT but not yet figured out what effect this is going to have on usability, workflow, CPU consumption and so on...

I've got a lot of respect for designers who can maximize the possibilities-to-knobs ratio on a fairly minimal synth, basically. But I guess I should start my own thread for that...

[1] ftr I absolutely love some synthedit synths, but it is to free plugins as production software is to people putting their tunes on the net ie it does make it quite easy to make something rubbish and put it out there...

jaydot
Posts: 5860
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:34 am
Location: Your place or hers?

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by jaydot » Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:49 am

Yo I downloaded the free Oatmeal synth to try and have unzipped it to my VST folder but it's not showing up?

There's no VST plug-in patch it's a .DLL extension which I'm not familiar with.
Soundcloud

Soundcloud

tweet @jaydotdubstep

User avatar
futures_untold
Posts: 4429
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:25 pm
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by futures_untold » Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:21 am

jaydot wrote:Yo I downloaded the free Oatmeal synth to try and have unzipped it to my VST folder but it's not showing up?

There's no VST plug-in patch it's a .DLL extension which I'm not familiar with.
VSTs on the PC are always a .dll. Some VSTs also have extra files needed to run, but many only require the .dll.

Copy and paster the .dll (and any other files in the zip) to your VST folder and your plugin host should see it next time it starts up/scans for new VSTs. :)

jaydot
Posts: 5860
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:34 am
Location: Your place or hers?

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by jaydot » Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:18 pm

futures_untold wrote:
jaydot wrote:Yo I downloaded the free Oatmeal synth to try and have unzipped it to my VST folder but it's not showing up?

There's no VST plug-in patch it's a .DLL extension which I'm not familiar with.
VSTs on the PC are always a .dll. Some VSTs also have extra files needed to run, but many only require the .dll.

Copy and paster the .dll (and any other files in the zip) to your VST folder and your plugin host should see it next time it starts up/scans for new VSTs. :)
Yeah I probs just need to rescan for it....I will report my findings of it back....
Soundcloud

Soundcloud

tweet @jaydotdubstep

User avatar
mistayif
Posts: 637
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 9:44 pm
Location: West London

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by mistayif » Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:22 pm

sylenth is fucking sick

i've hardly touched any of my other synths since getting it

although i'm still looking for a synth which is aimed specifically at bass and subbass, not because i don't know how to use other synths to do it but i want something that uses up next to 0 cpu so theres more processing power for other more complex sounds

test_recordings
Posts: 5079
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 5:36 pm
Location: LEEDS

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by test_recordings » Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:15 pm

You don't need a bass specifically for bass and sub-bass, a synth is a synth! The waveform generated should always be mathematically related to the original input reference pitch so it doesn't matter if it's 1760Hz or 34Hz, the resultant harmonic content (or lack of i.e. sine wave) will reflect this. Some features may make it better for bass though, like the aforementioned 303 and it's squelchy qualities...

Anyone though of doing it old skool and using an analogue beast (modular laboratory style haha) wired to respond to a sequencer (inc. a DAW)? You can get midi to control volt converters if there's no such external control interface included/available, could be routed through a bass guitar or keyboard amp then for real air movement and even reverb. Bit more effort but trust it'd sound like the dogs balls, think of all the ridiculous jungle/hardcore floor rumbles and you get my drift! Bass guitar and other instrument amplifier simulators are pretty decent though not quite the same
Getzatrhythm

jaydot
Posts: 5860
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:34 am
Location: Your place or hers?

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by jaydot » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:42 am

I eventually got Oatmeal to work there's a few bass/sub-bass type presets and a few pads, but I got the synth for the track in my sig from there....it's unusual....I liked it enough to go for a mellow beat when I was going for quite a heavy one.
Soundcloud

Soundcloud

tweet @jaydotdubstep

Bonsai
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:09 pm

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by Bonsai » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:53 am

Hey, i'm thinking about buying rob papen's blue, i also quite like z3ta+, predator and albino however i don't wanna buy albino because i'm in the uk and i would have to pay in euros instead of gbp, so my options are predator, z3ta+ and blue. i don't want to spend more than £120 really so masssive isn't an option, Blue seems quite versatile to me but is it any good for reallly heavy basses?

sackley
Posts: 157
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2010 2:48 am

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by sackley » Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:50 pm

Bonsai wrote:Hey, i'm thinking about buying rob papen's blue, i also quite like z3ta+, predator and albino however i don't wanna buy albino because i'm in the uk and i would have to pay in euros instead of gbp, so my options are predator, z3ta+ and blue. i don't want to spend more than £120 really so masssive isn't an option, Blue seems quite versatile to me but is it any good for reallly heavy basses?
Zeta has been put up a couple times for $20 (I'm in the US, so can't speak for the rest) and is a good bargain. Maybe wait till the holidays and there may be some discounts?...

User avatar
legend4ry
Posts: 10589
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2006 3:56 am
Location: Woolwich

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by legend4ry » Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:51 pm

sackley wrote:
Bonsai wrote:Hey, i'm thinking about buying rob papen's blue, i also quite like z3ta+, predator and albino however i don't wanna buy albino because i'm in the uk and i would have to pay in euros instead of gbp, so my options are predator, z3ta+ and blue. i don't want to spend more than £120 really so masssive isn't an option, Blue seems quite versatile to me but is it any good for reallly heavy basses?
Zeta has been put up a couple times for $20 (I'm in the US, so can't speak for the rest) and is a good bargain. Maybe wait till the holidays and there may be some discounts?...
Yeah, last year christmas Native Instruments sold Komplete for 120 I think, or was it 150? either way... If you're looking to invest at this time of year, wait.
Soulstep wrote: My point is i just wanna hear more vibes
Soundcloud

Bonsai
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:09 pm

Re: Heavyweight Synths

Post by Bonsai » Tue Oct 19, 2010 1:10 pm

By komplete do you mean the full native instruments package, i dont think they would disvcount a package worth over £300 to £120 unless you mean komplete elements which isn't really sufficient as your basically just usin g samples and presets that you can't modiffy

Locked

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests