Synths, synths, synths

[Fulcrum]

I started a thread like this at The Old Place Whose Name We Do Not Speak Lest Our Genitals Develop Suspicious Sores, and thought it was about time for another one.

Tell me what synths of fairly recent vintage have you jazzed and why. It may be a hardware synth (for example I'm keen to check out Arturia's first foray into hardware, Origin, just to see whether it successfully crams as much under the hood as they wanted it to) or software (rather keen to try Omnisphere because I'm a big fan of Spectrasonics' other synths and this seems to be a leap forward), but what's hiking your skirt these days in the world of synth textures?

Let's discuss.

[Knastratt]

The video presentation of Omnisphere's (http://www.spectrasonics.net/) awesome. I'll definitely get the update from Atmosphere. Lounge Lizard is a nice EP. Reason always make the way into Cubase via ReWire. The opposite of a CPU-hog.

Pro 53 is really nice. Absynth 4 too. And FM8.

/Pär

[HalfBlood]

The one that gives me the best results from the point of view of actual sound is the Arturia Minimoog emulation. As well as emulating the Minimoog it has an arpeggiator, delay and chorus included and some other stuff. It's the only one I basically use any more.

Absynth is nice for clean icy sounds but not very phatt, if you get my meaning.

Also try sending some audio through Antares Kantos.

[MacGregor]

but what's hiking your skirt these days in the world of synth textures?

Let's discuss.

I don't use hardware synths anymore, and my favourite softsynths are (still) East West's Stormdrums and Native Instrument's Absynth. But you already knew that :Coolio:
Essential for film music they are.
Both

Mac
.

[Dave Perry]

I got the table/module version of Dave Smith's Prophet '08 and I think it's a good synth. As with all synthesizers that I've heard from the 80's on I have some complaints about the sound (IC based synths just sound weedy to my ears) but I have to admit it packs a lot in for $1300. I find the highs to be a bit crispy for my tastes so I lean towards the mellower sounds (mellow brass and strings, epiano and organ type sounds) and it is fairly rich and warm in those departments. Since those aren't sounds I use that much, though, I'm debating whether it was really worth the money in my case.

[Tim Halligan]

Essential for film music they are.


Wow!


Hey everyone!!!


Mac's channeling Yoda again!


:lol:


Cheers,
Tim

[Senap]

The Arturia stuff is really good. I have the the whole V-Collection and it sounds sweet. Check out the Korg Legacy stuff. It's really good.

[TubaSolo]

Reaktor.... truly an amazing lab for sound...

And every month inventive users provide a whole new bunch of their own crazy / innovative / baffling modules to the community.

All hail Reaktor!!! :grin:

[Fulcrum]

I'm liking the responses I'm getting so far... With the exception of Omnisphere and the Prophet '08 I have tried all of the synths mentioned and had varying degrees of success with them.

The Korg Legacy synths didn't play very nicely with Sonar, although that could have been a RAM issue too. But I always wound up time-shifting the rendered tracks forward by rather significant amounts, and sometimes the Wavestation module (the only one of the three that I used with any regularity) would just drop notes for no good reason that I could discern. I have not yet tried the M1 simulation.

On the subject of Dave Smith's recent work, I have messed around some with the Polyevolver-- enough to wonder whether I might not get similar textures in Absynth or Atmosphere. It does sound lush and lovely, from what I could determine in the environment of an otherwise noisy Banjo Center.

In the past I've automatically reached for NI, Spectrasonics, and Arturia synths and not encountered any issues whatsoever with them; but of late I have been delving into the soft synths bundled with Logic. Thanks to MainStage I have been using the Hammond, Rhodes/Wurli, and Clavinet instruments (along with the piano samples) on live gigs with no issues to speak of, not even latency. That said I'm keen to work with the synths more as I have a recording project that I think will call for that kind of noir-ish Portishead-meets-Frost* moodiness.

TubaSolo reminds me that I need to update my modular synthesis tutorial once and for all with information about Reaktor. Soon come...

Anyone looking forward to any new synths (soft or otherwise)? I've mentioned Omnisphere and Origin, and those are about the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.

[Knastratt]

As I mentioned about the Omnisphere trailers - they just made me drool! I don't need that many VSTis - I think I have it covered with the addition of Omnisphere.

Oh, and I love the Symphonic Choirs as well. I'm a heavy choir addict. :Uh oh:

I guess I could live with the KORG Legacy - but it's not anywhere near the shop list.

[HalfBlood]

A good sample box for classic instruments is IK Multimedia's Philarmonik.. except I have still to find a plugin that does reaaaallly nice solo instruments and strings in general.

[otek]

One nice little VSTi that mysteriously finds its way into a lot of things I do is the G-Force ImpOSCar.


otek

[Knastratt]

Original OSCar was a strange beast. Maybe I'll pick...

[GOD's voice] NO, your done![/GOD's voice]

[Zoesch]

MASSIVE

It sounds great, it can make an 8-core Mac Pro grind to a halt with the high-quality button engaged and it's a bottomless box of endless sonic possibilities.

That said, the interface is daunting, and the amount of tweaking that can be done is an instant turn-off for all but the most hardcore of synth programmers... also, it's truly broadband so be careful when programming it unless you want it to kill your bass and cymbals simultaneously.

[amopae]

MASSIVE

It sounds great, it can make an 8-core Mac Pro grind to a halt with the high-quality button engaged and it's a bottomless box of endless sonic possibilities.

That said, the interface is daunting, and the amount of tweaking that can be done is an instant turn-off for all but the most hardcore of synth programmers... also, it's truly broadband so be careful when programming it unless you want it to kill your bass and cymbals simultaneously.

You should totally write some sort of tutorial for Massive...I've had some success with it, but still, most of that success has come out of some lucky moment of moving something I wasn't planning on...

[Bivouac]

I'll get this out of the way: I'm a guitar player.

...but I bought a Microkorg a little while back and had so much fun with it, I bought a Juno-106 and that's been even more fun. I think my next purchase (a WAYS off) will be something more modern, like a Nord Lead, but I really like the sounds I have at my disposal now.

Softsynths sound cool too, but I have to drag all this stuff on stage too. I just don't feel good about having to set up a laptop and midi controller in the middle slot of three bands, you know?

[Knastratt]

I'll get this out of the way: I'm a guitar player.

...but I bought a Microkorg a little while back and had so much fun with it, I bought a Juno-106 and that's been even more fun. I think my next purchase (a WAYS off) will be something more modern, like a Nord Lead, but I really like the sounds I have at my disposal now.

Softsynths sound cool too, but I have to drag all this stuff on stage too. I just don't feel good about having to set up a laptop and midi controller in the middle slot of three bands, you know?

Then your next purchase should be one of these (http://www.smproaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73) puppies.

[HalfBlood]

Wickedly funkacious!

[Bivouac]

Then your next purchase should be one of these (http://www.smproaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73) puppies.

That thing looks just brilliant!

I can't even find a link to buy one though (not that I'm in any position to purchase synth gear at the moment!). Do they even sell them in North America?

[Fulcrum]

I see that they have a US distributor in upstate New York and a Canadian distributor in Quebec. But yeah, that looks like a low-cost alternative to, say, a Muse Receptor.

Personally I'd like more RAM and a faster processor, but if I'm running late-model VSTs that should be a fine alternative.

[MacGregor]

I see that they have a US distributor in upstate New York and a Canadian distributor in Quebec. But yeah, that looks like a low-cost alternative to, say, a Muse Receptor.

Personally I'd like more RAM and a faster processor, but if I'm running late-model VSTs that should be a fine alternative.

Looks nice, but for about 500 Eurobucks I can get a nice laptop with 3 GB RAM, a fast disk and a fast DualCore[tm] CPU, and I don't think that this thingy can run VSTI's like Guitar Rig 2 (NTTAWWT).

And even most people won't believe that, when you build up a laptop just for this one task (no games, no internet, no porn) it runs stable. Put this thing in a case, secure your connections and you're done.

Mac
.

[Fulcrum]

Looks nice, but for about 500 Eurobucks I can get a nice laptop with 3 GB RAM, a fast disk and a fast DualCore[tm] CPU, and I don't think that this thingy can run VSTI's like Guitar Rig 2 (NTTAWWT).

Yeah, if you're trying to run Guitar Rig 2 that thing probably won't have enough horsepower. I hinted above that I probably wouldn't run newer VSTs like, say, the Core-centered NI kit-- I'm thinking of Massive here, though FM8 would also probably choke the shit out of it. But like I said, the late-model VSTs should work OK, as long as you're fine with not running the latest and greatest. The original B4, for example, I would run on one of those and feel just fine about it.

And even most people won't believe that, when you build up a laptop just for this one task (no games, no internet, no porn) it runs stable. Put this thing in a case, secure your connections and you're done.

Seconded.

[HalfBlood]

Not so sure about that. The pedal has 1,5 G CPU and the RAM is 512.

I have little more CPU than that on my laptop and it can run Guitar Rig, Amplitube with reason in rewire at the same time.

Plus that thing doesn't have Windows to run and that means a lot.

[vocalnick]

Seconded.

Thirded.

[Fulcrum]

Plus that thing doesn't have Windows to run and that means a lot.

That's a good point, but nonetheless there is an operating system in there somewhere. If the thing only has 512MB RAM in it, it would surprise me if the one in that little box wasn't some stripped-down variety of UNIX-- although theoretically it's possible to strip Windows down as well even beyond switching services off. M$ won't tell you how to do it, insisting as they will that every last bit of bloat is necessary for the OS to function, but the information is out there, somewhere.

New questions: to what ends are you using your synths these days, and to which synths do you find yourself returning in order to git'r'done? Are there any you think might streamline your process, and why would you think that?