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Thread: I absolutely cannot decide which synth to get next

  1. #1

    I absolutely cannot decide which synth to get next

    So I started with Massive, and I've gotten pretty good at it. It's also the only synth I own. Most everything I produce I either make my own sounds from scratch, or I alter around some presets to get what I want it to sound like. However, there are obviously some sounds that Massive doesn't really do well; like piano/chorus-ey type sounds. I'm absolutely torn between what synth to get next and I just can't decide. I've always wanted to grab Sylenth for it's legendary status, but I don't want another synth that's similar to what Massive can produce.

    At the moment I'm on a future/deep house kick, but I also enjoy making hard hitting electro and presently expanding into the "future wobble" or whatever you wanna call it type music (Juaz, Chocolate Puma, Valentino Khan etc. ). Obviously Massive can do most of those things, but I don't know which synth to pick to fill in the gaps for more harmonic type stuff. I use Ableton's built in instruments for some stuff, but it just lacks that extra something special that can't be described in words.

    Any recommendations or personal favorites? I've also tried FM8, but only for a short while so I'm not sure what it's capable of. I don't mind paying for something obviously, but recommendations for something free wouldn't hurt either.
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

  2. #2
    Sorry if these answers seem a bit obtuse, but :

    Quote Originally Posted by DoomJockey View Post
    there are obviously some sounds that Massive doesn't really do well; like piano/chorus-ey type sounds.
    Then the logical conclusion would be to start with a piano and a chorus, rather than a synth?

    Quote Originally Posted by DoomJockey View Post
    At the moment I'm on a future/deep house kick, but I also enjoy making hard hitting electro and presently expanding into the "future wobble" or whatever you wanna call it type music (Juaz, Chocolate Puma, Valentino Khan etc. ). Obviously Massive can do most of those things, but I don't know which synth to pick to fill in the gaps for more harmonic type stuff. I use Ableton's built in instruments for some stuff, but it just lacks that extra something special that can't be described in words.
    There''s a voic inside me that's saying that most of these synths can be made to do more or less the same things, assuming they all contain similar routing, oscillators, filters, etc. - I think what you're sying is ''which one is easier to get there quicker for the sounds I want'' to which the answer usually is ''The one you're familiar with''. And you should be able to do this if you can program them from scratch.

    Quote Originally Posted by DoomJockey View Post
    Any recommendations or personal favorites? I've also tried FM8, but only for a short while so I'm not sure what it's capable of. I don't mind paying for something obviously, but recommendations for something free wouldn't hurt either.
    Well I mean Thor in Reason's pretty good IMHO if I had to name one, but I still think you should be able to acheive what you want on more or less any poly synth with similar routing etc. because they're all good quality.

    If today's music electro and synth sounds are anything to go by, then aside from the odd really complicated sweep etc. people were actually getting those sounds or very similar long before these plugins became available. Suggesting they are acheivable on a lot of different synths.

    Massive to my knowledge is a great synth. Perhaps it's actually that you're working it in the wrong way?

    Apart from that, sorry can't be of more help personally. I usually get what I want out of Subtractor or Thor in Reason. I find either of these sound like they can in fact make virtually any synth sound I've ever heard.

  3. #3
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    IMHO I wouldnt really look at sylenth, at this point its way overpriced for what it is (besides it took a fairly large twitter campaign from big name producers just to get them off their asses and support their own product). The new hotness thats like sylenth (but offers alot more) is u-he hive, fairly basic synth with good sound and options. U-he's other synths are always worth a look and I think if your looking for something different from massive you could look at Zebra. Its semi-modular and has a ton you can do with it, especially for leads/pads/etc, there's a ridiculous amount of soundbanks out there if you want to see its range. They also have diva, which is what you want if you want a great emulation of classic bits of hardware, and bazille, which is another modular but more with routing your own cables and does FM/PD style synthesis. The one thing sylenth does have going for it is the insane stable of presets, it may only be closely matched by zebra by the amount available out there but it probably beats zebra in that too.

    Another one to take a look at is xfer serum. Its wavetable based, like massive, except you can design all your own wavetables, even has a speech synthesizer in it. Has similar modulation as well, in many respects its similar to massive, yet also a lot different.

    I would have recommended alchemy since it had a very large library of sample content and could cover pianos/strings/anything really, but alas its been bought by apple and no longer exists unless your using logic. Could also look at IL's harmor. It can do resynthesis like alchemy and can really let you mess up a sample but your not going to get all the content that alchemy had. Also in the vein of sample style synths is izotope iris, which I believe does come with alot of piano and various sample content and can import your own. Lets you select which harmonic content you want from a sample and really make it your own

    Finally a jack of all trades is synthmaster, has multiple layers and does subtractive, fm, and am, has a ton of modulation and what not

    One other thing to think about. You may want to look at getting kontakt/reaktor/guitar rig, or just wait for NI to do a Crossgrade from anything promotion. They run these from time to time and let you crossgrade from any synth up to the full komplete for 200-300$. If you went komplete (and not even komplete ultimate which IMHO for house/trance/etc is way overkill) you would get more sample content than you would know what to do with, plus the entire NI stable of synths and a lot of effects. You would get reaktor and that also brings you in to the huge user library for reaktor which is alot of synths and effects along with all the built-with reaktor synths like Razor.

  4. #4
    ^^^ His answer was slightly more useful than mine

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Puregroove View Post
    ^^^ His answer was slightly more useful than mine
    Dont worry, it comes from owning way way too many that I dont really need, but for me half the fun is playing around with a new piece of software. I do like reason as well, I hadnt touched it in a few years but their recent summer sale got me to grab the synthrig kit and upgrade to 8.0, that new browser (which is how it should have been back at V6) really makes a world of difference in usability. One of the great things about reason is that you are forced to be limited (as long as you avoid a ton of REs) it really focuses you on what you want/need to do. It is a really good thing to not have to look through some huge list to figure out what you may want to use this time, you already know what your going to use
    Last edited by ezelkow1; 09-24-2015 at 10:58 PM.

  6. #6
    Thanks for the replies guys! To PureGroove: I guess what I meant to say, is that I am looking for something that made more "realistic" type sounds. And it is very much the possibility that I need to dive into some of Massives other wavetables. I tend to use the same ones for most sounds. I learned Massive completely on my own, and by watching other videos on synthesis in general and just apply what I know, so my knowledge of it is sorely lacking.

    To Ezelkow: I've considered some of the other native instruments stuff, so thanks for reminding me about those! I'll also take a look into that Zebra. Thanks for the recommendations!
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

  7. #7
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    Oh another one you can look at is wusik. Its interface isnt as nice as ones from some bigger names but it is packed full of functionality and can cover most types of synthesis and comes with a ton of sample content (though its not super high quality its usually good enough). Its also on summer sale now (though they constantly run sales) so you could give the demo a shot
    http://www.wusik.com/ww/products/wusik-station-v8

  8. #8
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    I like Sylenth purely because I know it. It wont do anything Massive won't, a synth I'm still to come to terms with. It looks like Chinese to me but i know it has way more to offer.

    If your wanting pianos etc, it's time to go Rompler. Something like kontakt.
    Last edited by mitchiemasha; 09-26-2015 at 01:40 AM.

  9. #9
    Welcome to the best answer in this thread

    Serum

    You're welcome, now go research it and have your panties blown off

  10. #10
    Thanks for all the input guys! I haven't had time to look through and demo some of them due to work and school, but I'm excited to try some of these out.

    As for Serum. I almost bought Serum a little while back, but was kind of hesitant. The main feature I liked was the sampler portion of it, but my biggest question was if it was a CPU intensive synth? I think I may have actually downloaded the demo a while back so i'll have to dig in. I have since built a beastly desktop PC so it wouldn't concern working on that, but my laptop where I do most of my work is on it's last limb.

    Other than that I did take a brief look at that Wusik and that one actually seems pretty cool, but that dude who makes the videos has to change his voice or something.
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

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