Software Synth Discussion

[the4thImpulse]

As the thread title suggests this thread is a meant to be a mass discussion of software synths (drum machines and samplers also included, anything that makes sound). A similar hardware synth discussion thread will be in the hardware sub-forum.


This is a thread for really any information about synths. Ask and answer questions, post news about future releases, talk about synthesis in general... Whatever it is, keep it software related here.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I'm surprised no one has replied yet.

Massive is pretty nice. For English we have to demonstrate a particular skill set in an oral presentation - so I'm gonna dig out my laptop and make a simple little 303-ish bassline with it.

I don't have much else to work with in the way of commercial synthesizers to be honest, I use a lot of freeware synths to supplement Massive. For example, I use 3xosc for a lot of my saw based sounds since Massive doesn't generate an exact Saw wave (thanks for pointing that out HMage). Plus with some external effects 3xosc sounds bloody fantastic, detune it within the synth itself and add a chorus effect in the mixing channel (maybe a slight flanger if you feel like it) and you can get a pretty sick saw pad.

I'm a fan of TAL-Noisemaker too, I haven't really messed with it for sound design as much as I'd like, but it has a really rich Sine wave that makes a really good sub bass. I've gotten some interesting sounds out of it though, I just need to really muck around with it some more to get familiar with it.

Massive is kinda my go to through (HMage pls dun kil me :c), I can get some great modulated sounds out of it and I get really good leads from it. Sylenth1 is gonna be my next investment though, it looks pretty sweet.

[S.P.P]

Yeah gotta be honest and say Massive is my go-to synth as well. I also have NI Razor, but I haven't messed around with it very much at all. Might give it a proper go soon. I like Kairatune and a couple other freebies like TAL Noisemarker aswell, but again I don't use them too much.

The main other synths I use are Harmor and Sytrus. Harmor is the best thing since the dawn of time; seriously any FL users who haven't looked into it much should do so- its a seriously powerful synth. Sytrus is pretty cool too, especially in conjunction with Harmor resampling :3

[Symphon]

I seem to have taken a really big interest in GMS with FL Studio 11. Like. Holy hell. It's just so simple but so flexible. The fact that I can set so many effects to it and modulate them all at once within this single synthesizer makes it my go-to synth as of late. Not to mention some of the basses and leads you can get with it are just wicked.

Like.

For real.

Check this thing out.

[Genkar]

I seem to have taken a really big interest in GMS with FL Studio 11. Like. Holy hell. It's just so simple but so flexible. The fact that I can set so many effects to it and modulate them all at once within this single synthesizer makes it my go-to synth as of late. Not to mention some of the basses and leads you can get with it are just wicked.

THANK GOD someone else appreciates GMS. Definitely one of my favorite additions with FL11. It's versatile, pretty easy to use, and it's fun to mess with. I've gotten some really interesting sounds out of it and I haven't even spent that much time toying with it.

[the4thImpulse]

Massive is pretty nice.

After playing around with it a bunch at a friends studio (he has the full komplete 6 bundle) I've gotta say that I am close to picking it up myself. It just does what it does so well and smoothly, making those same modulated bass sounds in ZETA+2 just doesn't work for me.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Massive is pretty nice.

After playing around with it a bunch at a friends studio (he has the full komplete 6 bundle) I've gotta say that I am close to picking it up myself. It just does what it does so well and smoothly, making those same modulated bass sounds in ZETA+2 just doesn't work for me.

The user interface is really straightforward and nice, yeah. And the modulations are a lot more precise than some other synths like gms (much as I love the thing the lfo sucks the long one).

[S.P.P]

Massive is pretty nice.

After playing around with it a bunch at a friends studio (he has the full komplete 6 bundle) I've gotta say that I am close to picking it up myself. It just does what it does so well and smoothly, making those same modulated bass sounds in ZETA+2 just doesn't work for me.

At the risk of sounding like an elitist or a dick, there's a reason it's the most used synth amongst EDM producers. Whilst it's not the most complex synth on the face of it, you can stack up some quite complex sounds, which many other synths probably couldn't acheive. Or atleast, not with the same level of ease. Its quite probably my favourite piece of software, and i would recommend it for almost any producer (I've found it's only weakness to be pads, and i have NI Razor for that anyway). :3

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

^ it's pretty average for pads yeah (I've managed in past though). But like I said, you can get sick saw pads outta 3xosc with the right settings and some effects in the mixing channel. Hell I use at least 4 or 5 isntances of 3xosc in the song I'm entering into Humble Wishes.

Also massive and wow filter are perfect for eachother. OTP.

[Acsii]

I am merely posting here so it's in my posts for easy checking... So bump.

[HMage]

Diva, Zebra, Sylenth, FM8, Strobe.

[HMage]

Kyoga, have a listen to it yourself -- http://soundcloud.com/standalone-music/standalone-music-strobe

[HMage]

It seems that it's much better for a dirtier and more direct kind of sound. I'd love to see a more complex style attempted like a deep pad or something. There is a lot of white noise coming from the higher pitches leads (so it would appear).

A lot of the sound coming out of it sound really nice, though.

It's for EDM, yes. Up-in-your-face and aggressive sounds. For ambience and lots of evolution I'd suggest Cypher and maybe even Fusor from the same synth package.

[HMage]

can either of those maintain 16+ oscillators on one instance of the software?

Strobe is purposefully single-oscillator — to promote creativity in sound design. And it's monophonic by default as well.

Cypher is FM, so if I count all carriers — I think it can.

Fusor is basically combiner of other SynthSquad synths, so I guess it can as well.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Kyoga, have a listen to it yourself -- http://soundcloud.com/standalone-music/standalone-music-strobe

Oh my god those saws are the sexiest thing...

[ChocolateChicken]

You mean there are synths besides Massive and Sylenth??? :O

But seriously, there seem to be so many synths out there that I've barely heard of that turn out to be incredible, like the ones HMage has pointed out in this thread. Like, how do you keep track of all of these great synths? haha.

I'm really into making progressive trance, electro, and ambient stuff with my synths. FabFilter Twin 2 is one of the best subtractive synths I've worked with, along with Massive (wavetable subtractive) and Sylenth. I have HMage to blame for getting me more into Sylenth.

Lately, I've also been curious about the other synths in NI's arsenal.

[vladnuke]

My review on all NI synths after buying Komplete 8:

Massive: hurrdurr dumbstep. But srsly this is a nice fuckin synth, the filters aren't as bad as ppl say (but there are nicer filters out there definetly) and most of the effects are alright, except for a few. The amount of wavetables it gives you is rather impressive, with lots of variety of sound. Its very modular, the LFO/stepper/preformer/envelopes can be applied on to any parameter in the synth very easily. Its all quite intuitive, which lets you build pretty much anything you want.

Absynth: at first this seems daunting, but it's worth the time investment, because even though its not as modular as massive, it has far more functionality and it just sounds absolutely great. The onboard samples are good, and overall this is a very cool piece of kit.

Reaktor: not a synth, more of a DSP

Reaktor prism: crisp, good for any mallet style instrument

Reaktor Spark: not too interesting

FM8: cool fm synth, has a few good effects,


And those are all the synths, overall id say get komplete 9 if it ever drops in price

Idk about ultimate, the only real reason id get it is for moar strings and orchestral stuff, but youll be better off getting EWQL gold (save yourself $100 and do that if you're thinking of getting ultimate)

[Genkar]

Spire by Reveal Sound is a pretty new synth that looks really cool.

[Dabrenn]

I don't have many synths (Massive is my only not-free synth I own), but I'll chime in here to say that, if you have Ableton, don't underestimate its built in synths; particularly Operator. Its quite good actually. Probably doesn't perform as well as FM8 or some other big-name fm synths, but it works.

[DerpyGrooves]

Anything by tweakbench. I'm thinking about trying massive. Is it chill or lame or what.

[Dabrenn]

Anything by tweakbench. I'm thinking about trying massive. Is it chill or lame or what.

Its the only synth I took upon myself to buy because I liked it so much. I've tried out a lot of them.

[DerpyGrooves]

Anything by tweakbench. I'm thinking about trying massive. Is it chill or lame or what.

Its the only synth I took upon myself to buy because I liked it so much. I've tried out a lot of them.

What's so great about it. Is it just really well thought out?

[Captain Ironhelm]

Anything by tweakbench. I'm thinking about trying massive. Is it chill or lame or what.

Its the only synth I took upon myself to buy because I liked it so much. I've tried out a lot of them.

What's so great about it. Is it just really well thought out?

If we are talking about Massive, it's still my favorite overall. It's just able to do a huge variety of sounds if you know what you're doing. It's difficult to make a lot of the modulated bass sounds that Masive does in a lot of other synths, and it handles leads/pads/plucks/whatever nicely as well.

also look up tone2 rayblaster. i don't own it but the demo is fun to mess with. it really does sound pretty nice.

[the4thImpulse]

Anything by tweakbench. I'm thinking about trying massive. Is it chill or lame or what.

Its the only synth I took upon myself to buy because I liked it so much. I've tried out a lot of them.

What's so great about it. Is it just really well thought out?

From my experience with it it just does what its made to do unbelievably well. Does that make sense?
Its well thought out and with a little creativity and knowledge on synthesis you can make sounds unlike the traditional 'massive' sound you hear from all the pirates (example - modern talking).

[Dabrenn]

Anything by tweakbench. I'm thinking about trying massive. Is it chill or lame or what.

Its the only synth I took upon myself to buy because I liked it so much. I've tried out a lot of them.

What's so great about it. Is it just really well thought out?

From my experience with it it just does what its made to do unbelievably well. [/quote]

This is a good way of saying it for sure. I don't know much about how synths work code-wise, but everything that comes out of it, even if you pretty much copy/paste settings from other subtractive synths, Massive's just sounds better overall and (most of time) it was more intuitive to create.