Seeking info on Softsynths

democrates

I've recently started playing with supercollider but before I dive into the guide to patterns, I thought I'd ask people what kind of softsynths you use on your daw and how it's worked out.

PMI

The first thing I would say is try not to get caught up in the latest new things as you will just end up with toooooooooo many.

For the studio side of things I have cut back and reboxed alot of them but heres my remaining choices:

Hypersonic 2 = bread and butter sounds
Rob Papen Blue = Weird/cool Leads
Atmosphere = thickness and textures

Thats all I use now for the synth side of things....then you have the pianos, orchestral, percussion etc..etc.. side of things....which is a whole other story

I cant recommend Hypersonic 2 enough though it really is my 1st choice and my workhorse!

fxpansion do a free one called orca which I have used on a few things, its very basic but if your into presets and go (loreal style) then its cool enough....

Good luck in your search

democrates

Thanks for the reccies PMI, and I see what you mean about orca, subtractive only but they've done a lot with it, plus that's one fancy ass interface!

Anima

Kinda getting tired of using softsynths. I think you need something to touch to be creative. I find I can't get what I want fast enough and I kind of lose the idea then, very frustrating. Maybe I should just get a good midi controller.

At the moment I've been using Z3ta and Arturia's Minimoog emu. I like to stick with one or two synths and really learn them. That way I know what to do to get the sounds I want. I'm not really a fan of presets so I like to do it all myself but it can be quite time consuming and then I get lazy and give up

Max Cohen

Soooo many
Absynth 4 (great for pads, soundscapes and rhythmic - great all rounder really)
FM8 (great for arps and rhythmic)
Pro 53 (mines buggy even when updated - pass)
Reaktor (is the shiznit, its just so big - look it up)
Nexus (trancey supersaw sounds)
Zt3a+ (access virus sounds)
the Korg softsynths (self explainatory)
Arturia Arp 2600 (emulator)
Arturia CS80 (emulator)
Arturia Moog modular (emulator)
Arturia minimoog (arturia softsynths - amazin)
Minimonsta (the best mog emulator out there, phat phat phat)
Reason 3 (hardly use it anymore but great nonethelss)
ABL bassline (wicked 303 sounds - version 1 not 2)
Vangaurd (trancey sounds)
Kontakt 3 (actually a sampler buh)
that's what i can think of at the top of my head but theres definetely more

drum synths
guru (use on every track, a must buy)
nepheton (the best 808 emulator you'll come accross)

i wont go into effects but i'll give you 3 must haves:
camelspace
dblueglitch (free)
instajungle (free)

also, I use cubase sx3.

to answer your question of how its worked out - i make loads of shtuff but never finish them

here's 2 examples of kind of finished ones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9BgKLc3-KU&fmt=18

the bassline needs a HUGE volume boost, needs a good mixing.
just a groove really

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UYmJt2Vh-8&fmt=18
a remix i did of arcade fire's ocean of noise
i just like the riff in it and wanted to beef it up and space it out a bit
also needs a good mixing

i mainly make tunes though

Max Cohen

Anima wrote: »

I find I can't get what I want fast enough and I kind of lose the idea then, very frustrating.

the bane of my life brother, the bane of my life.

i spend waaaay too long trying to edit a really cool sound and just cant be arsed by the time i do.

i did a remix of an imogen thomas song - cant think of the name but the song stems were online to download free
i gave myself 3 hours to do it, probably ended up pushin an extra half an hour but i was pretty strict on myself.
huge difference when you do that
turned out alright

PMI

Scale back lads.... trust me !

be a master at something rather than a (whatever the words im looking for) haha

msl

I have scaled back in the last year also, less is more!

I can recommend
Sylenth1 (amazing sound, great bass & filters)
FM8 (great pads and atmospheres)
daHornet (my favourite freebee)

DamagedTrax

PMI wrote: »

Scale back lads.... trust me !

be a master at something rather than a (whatever the words im looking for) haha

definitly 100%

once the new fxpansion synth squad comes out ill be sticking to that, audiorealism bassline303, d16 drumazon (909) and kontakt sampler.

squibs

Wusikstation and Dimension Pro for 99% of my needs.

democrates

Thanks a mil all plenty to go on there.

Some groovy trax on youtube there Max, well done. If you get around to remixing the first one, I liked the clear snare bringing a kind of military feel to it, though it interfered a bit with hearing the vocals for me (half deaf, 15kHz cutoff) so maybe dropping snare volume or switching in a lower freq patch during vocals might help people like me, just a thought.

I had to laugh, like others I've definitely diverted from song composition into sound composition too, hadn't really realised it until it was pointed out there.

That's a killer because the scarcest resource for me is definitely being in the creative zone for rhythm and melody. I should stick with that on the rare occasions using existing sounds and then later work on making that awesome bass. All part of the learning process I suppose.

Max Cohen

democrates wrote: »

it interfered a bit with hearing the vocals for me (half deaf, 15kHz cutoff) so maybe dropping snare volume or switching in a lower freq patch during vocals might help people like me, just a thought.

cheers,
100% agree with ya about the mix

bedbugs

I have too many.

Reaktor
FM8
Pro 53
Absynth
Sonik Synth
Sampletank
Kontakt
Reason
Plus all the stock Cubase ones (which aren't too shabby)

I honestly don't know where to start with mastering them, but I reckon I get most of my sounds from Reason, FM8, Sonik Synth and Absynth

hubiedubie

PMI wrote: »

The first thing I would say is try not to get caught up in the latest new things as you will just end up with toooooooooo many.

Can't agree with the above enough. You're way better getting one or two good synths and learning them well.

I can highly recommend Sylenth for sound quality and simplicity. Just don't be put off by all the trance presets, it can do any style.

If you want to be a bit more adventurous Spectrasonics Omnisphere is also great.

democrates

Well you won't here me complaining about lack of choice folks!

Point well taken that it's easy to end up being spread thinly, at the same time everyone has at least two, there seems to be no single softsynth that 'does it all' so I guess it's a case of matching up your musical style(s) and budget with what's out there, and chances of changing mind later = high

Think I'll park supercollider for the mo, it appealed at first because it can go massively parallel, the programming language is documented and it's being used by various universities including NUI, so it's unlikely to become vapourware, plus it's free - cash!

Thing is to get it to approach what these other solutions are doing out of the box would take a huge amount of man-hours that are in demand, so a few hundred quid down is probably a bargain that gets you back to composing asap.