Heavyweight Synths

[slothrop]

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.

[Depone]

Pat your a legend

Can i suggest -

Korg Legacy collection (love the MS20 replica)



And also

impOSCar

[Depone]

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

[fiziks]

Heavy son

[slothrop]

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...

[futures_untold]

...granulation, nanulation, resynthesis, desynthesis, presynthesis...

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]

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)?

[decree]

why isn't thor there

[Assassin]

Dcam synth squad?

[slothrop]

(since the thread's been resurrected anyway...)

...granulation, nanulation, resynthesis, desynthesis, presynthesis...

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]

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.

[futures_untold]

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]

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....

[mistayif]

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]

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

[jaydot]

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.

[Bonsai]

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]

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?...

[legend4ry]

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.

[Bonsai]

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