This is a very sujective question. I am not able to try out a Triton due to my location but need an alround workhorse synth for jingles and original material. How would any of you guys compare the VERY expensive hardware Triton to the current VSTIs such as Athmosphere or ABsynth for eg. Regards

Neither Atmosphere nor Absynth could be described as "all-round workhorses" unless you're in to really, really ambient or abstract stuff

That's not to say they aren't good (they are!), but neither of those is really the place to look if you need anything in the way of real instruments, drums or other everyday stuff.

Sonic Synth is the #1 choice for "bread and butter", all-round, workhorse sounds right now; for the price of a Triton, you could get that plus Atmosphere, Absynth and a handful of other "specialist" VSTis to suit your style of music and method of working.

I have to whole heartedly agree with angus..........a triton is so much money....but still limited in the waveforms sounds and presets....so to speak...........whereas, software (which you could get ALOT of with that kind of budget) is fully editable, more presets, sonic synth is bread and butter sounds, but so much more...............and nothing gets dirty, takes up space, could beer spilt on it
plus with software, free sounds are always coming and atmosphere/sonic synth/absynth combo. is GRAND

Angus_FX wrote:

Sonic Synth is the #1 choice for "bread and butter", all-round, workhorse sounds right now; for the price of a Triton, you could get that plus Atmosphere, Absynth and a handful of other "specialist" VSTis to suit your style of music and method of working.

I completely agree. Sonic Synth is the best "bread and butter" collection available, and It also has a very decent price. Cant go wrong.

I have a question for you Atmosphere users out there.......Are all the sounds in Atmosphere slow developing background sounds? I know it mostly focuses on "Atmospheric" sounds but I'm not sure I could use a whole collection of slow developing pads. Please excuse my Atmosphere ignorance. Thanks.

Forget the Triton, get the Korg Karma instead. This is a Triton and then some more. Unless you want to load in samples, which the Karma cannot. But the way Karma works in modulating even synth parameters dynamically, and multiple Layers coupled with superb fx, sorry there is no VSTi like this.

For composing jingles and stuff, i think you need to have a workstation like karma or triton. They do work more efficiently than any other software application i have ever seen.. and they do sound good...believe me i am writing this depending on a very recent experience of mine....
i have an o1w/fd and a z1 and lots of other softsynths and i still cannot stop using those two instruments 'cause they help me when i just run out of "computing" power, and this is the main problem that we all have these days....

so get hold on to an all round hardware synth and think of some software goodies that might fit well to your personal tastes...

the hard goodies work for nearly everyone, but the softies well ,just go for some analogue stuff, or way experimental, which is good for some but not for everyone.

best regards...

If you are doing studio work, I would recommend Sonic Synth as your basic ROMpler. Add on a good analog emulation synth and/or Atmosphere + software sampler + a good controller and you should be set. The Karma GA's do offer you something new if that is your thing, but do note that in 2003 they are planning to release a software version that will work with any synth, although not as well as with the Karma itself I would imagine. The stock sounds on Sonic Synth pretty much beat any hardware ROMpler. The negative is a lack of tweakability (the MOSS stuff) and slightly roundabout ways to make Combi's etc.

prog

My Karma has not been turned on in 3 months. I use a Roland Fantom as a controller because I like the keyboard better. For sound a collections of VSTi's beats Karma, Fantom or any other hardware ROMpler. I do use the Fantom and XV-5080 for sketching out songs as I prefer to write on hardware. A small sound set and low latency make it easier to put songs together when playing in parts rather than using step sequencing or MIDI loops. Then I port everything to soft synths to improve the sound.

Start with SonicSynth and a couple ROM's, DR008 or Battery, B4, and a good subtrative synth like Pentagon I, Pro53 or Albino. Then expand into synths like Atmosphere, FM7, Reaktor, z3ta+, ABSynth, VirSyn Tera, Kontakt, etc...

Robert

Well thanx guys. Much appreciated comments. Living in Australia a Triton is about 4 grand. So Sonic Synth sounds the go at $500 aus. I currently use an SC 88 pro for the gig as a gm synth to enhance my covers band, but its pretty damn uninspiring for writing. I've got cubase running on an old P111 666 with dual 17 inch monitors and am getting a s/h P4 1.8 gig with 1 gig ram so that with sonic synth should do the trick. Thanx again Dale www.shado.com.au

That is a great start and is pretty much how I started. As you develop, money permitting, you can add more softsynths to your setup.

Are you planning to do any live work?


prog

I think the "Live Work" question is obviously very important and this is where currently the soft vsti's lose out to the hardware synths. As an ideas creator and live workhorse the Triton is fantastic as It has a great range of sounds plus the arpgeggio/beats modes that you can set up. But in terms of actual sound quality, I think the VSTi's are now easily catching up and supassing the hardware synths.

In answer to your question 2 posts ago. Yes I play live. I play guitar and sing in a covers band 5 nites a week 52 weeks a year at local niteclubs. I also handle the sequencing duties. Coz the material is top 40 and classics a basic GM module such as the roland sc-88 pro is adaquate enough by the time its mixed in with the live instruments. Plus I need a hardware module with separate outs to send the drummer a click track and separate percusion track thru drumfill. Otherwise I believe the best solution live would be an ipod and do all the production using softsynths. I wouldn't dream of using softsynths live. that'd be as dangerous as using an eps16 plus live. Power fluctuations etc. But for my part time jingle biz I think soft is the future. Just wasn't sure how the current workstations stack up to vstis. Merry Xmas Dale

Shado,

If you visit www.esoundz.com you can listen to downloadable mp3s of Sonic Synth. But you can also get OmniSynth in a holiday bundle with Sonic Synth for not too much more. It has a lot of the same sounds that come with Sonic Synt in it but it's organized by the GM sound list standard which might come in handy for replacing tracks you've done with your hardware GM module.

On esoundz if you go to the sound list section you can click on some of the names which are linked to the mp3s. That should give you an idea of the quality of it.

Some very good points were made about how you can get Sonic Synth as your core all arounder and then add to it with things like Atmosphere and other great VSTis and still have money left over from not getting a Triton.

However, for live work even I use a Triton and I made Sonic Synth! I happen to like it a lot for what it does. But, I play in a band and have a bunch of keyboards around me and this just happens to be one I like to program. I like it because you can put your samples in it and the touch screen is just too cool. The effects in it are also a particularly cool thing to me as is the MOSS board. I don't like the Karma much though but that's a whole different animal in the way it generates complex arpeggios and interactive music... that's not something I am too into really. I like to have the tools to make my own stuff generally. But, Sonic Synth is certainly that at a price that leaves room for all sorts of other things you could get.

Good luck!