Soft synth advice

[SlavikSvensk]

so i''ve always liked absynth and fm7 (now fm8), and have a limited budget that will allow me to purchase one of these, or perhaps another one.

your thoughts on these and other soft synths? looking for something versatile and intuitive.

cheers!

[SlavikSvensk]

heavily leaning towards fm8, must say...

[rhythmtech]

take a look at "FXPansion DCAM synth squad" before you decide.

[The_Laughing_Man]

Can`t go wrong with Albino 3 really.
Lots of different modes, very versatile, easy to program and you can get very deep, multi-layered and complex with it.
Filters are great, and the overall sound is very impressive.
It`s a fantastic synth to have at the center of a work environment.

[SlavikSvensk]

nice. well i got fm8 (for $80!). that means i have a little ca$h to play around with. will check out both of those. cheers!

[SlavikSvensk]

take a look at "FXPansion DCAM synth squad" before you decide.

just watched the demos...the amber and cypher sound fantastic.

[Mindful]

All of the NI stuff is pretty special.

If you go and buy a copy of 'Computer Music' magazine then on the cover disk it has a couple of nice free versions of

Rob Papen Blue

BLUE synth: FM Synthesis, Phase Distortion Synthesis, Wave Shaping Synthesis & Subtractive Synthesis (http://www.robpapen.com/blue.html)

and u-he Zebra

u-he.com - Zebra (http://www.u-he.com/zebra/)

As far as I know these are not cut down versions of the original (non CM) versions

The Zebra is really very very good

[CTRLS]

Dogs On Acid - current nicest sounding vst synths (http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.php?threadid=651512)

here's a thread i started on a dnb production forum about really nice sounding vst synths, it got some cool replies. synth squad is definitely on my list as well.

for features NI stuff is hard to beat, but for pleasant sound (to my ears at least) there are a lot of better choices. and of course dont forget about the nice free vst synths out there, some of them give the commercial synths a serious run for their money. personally i really like TAL elek7ro and Asynth.

[SlavikSvensk]

Dogs On Acid - current nicest sounding vst synths (http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.php?threadid=651512)

here's a thread i started on a dnb production forum about really nice sounding vst synths, it got some cool replies. synth squad is definitely on my list as well.

for features NI stuff is hard to beat, but for pleasant sound (to my ears at least) there are a lot of better choices. and of course dont forget about the nice free vst synths out there, some of them give the commercial synths a serious run for their money. personally i really like TAL elek7ro and Asynth.

nice one. love absynth.

(viste inte att du bor i köpenhamn!)

[Barely Human]

Sylenth 1

[SlavikSvensk]

anyone mess with symplant?

[The_Laughing_Man]

I`ve had synplant for ages.
It`s great, You can use the fton interface which is very intuitive or dig into the "seed" DNA which is more conventional but it takes some of the surprise out of the sound creation.

Synplant isn`t massivley versatile, it definitely has it`s own colour, but it does do some lovely resonant crystal tones and crazy pads and such.

I love it, but you need to dig into it, like any synth, and it takes a few months to work out where you are with it.

[SlavikSvensk]

i think the attraction of synplant for me is that the logic of sound creation is different, not just emulations of older hardware, but seems very easy to muck about with. my concern is how versatile it is.

as said earlier, i have limited funds to use at the moment: i just got FM8, so have about $200 left to spend on gear, and a few needs. so i need to be very strategic. i'm enticed by DCAM synth squad, but would have to hold out for another paycheck first. alternately, i could pick up synplant and microtonic. or another combination.

[The_Laughing_Man]

Than for versatility you can`t go wrong with Albino 3
It didn`t win awards and accolades etc for nothing
Albino 3 (http://www.linplug.com/Instruments/Albino_3/albino_3.htm)


“Pads, leads, basses, weird noises, bell tones, FM-style purity or analogue grit - Albino can do the lot. In this respect, it could conceivably be the only soft synth you need”

can`t really disagree with that

[herman]

Another for Albino here. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of the Ableton Synth's at the moment as well though.

[BloodStar]

Yes, Albino, is excellent. Also loving Tone2 Gladiator, Predator, Blue. Not too much into synplant.

[CTRLS]

Another for Albino here. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of the Ableton Synth's at the moment as well though.

imo operator's irreplaceable. i use it for about 80% of my sounds inc drums. so punchy! analog gets less use but still has certain tones it does really well.