Hi to all

I am searchinh fot a absynth alternative....

any ideas

thanks for help

You can do a lot of Absynth-like things with Crystal.Another thing that does amazing textures is Sun Ra.
ew

Crystal V2

http://www.greenoak.com/

I like Crystal very much, but... it is not a alternative for Absynth, sorry! There is absolut no alternative for Absynth on the markt (incl. hardware!). This synth is one of the rare with it own character! Try the demo and you hear it for yourself!

Crystal 2 as everyone is going to suggest, if you want to spend a few bucks consider:

AnaMark, at ~ $40 it's one of the easiest and fun to tweak synths around.

Z3ta+ at $150 can do a lot of what Absynth does and a lot of things it isn't quite as good at.

Not officially available yet but I think it's available for demo, Rhino by Big Tick. It's to my ears more digital in a additive/FM kind of way but can do very similar styles of ambient, pad and fx stuff. I'm not sure what it will cost but it's very cool sounding and possibly easier to learn than Absynth.

That said, Absynth is one of my favorite synths - period. But it's not the only game in town any longer. All synths mentioned above have drawable envelopes with z3ta+ and Rhino having waveshapers.

I'd suggest VirSyn TERA but that's probably more expensive than Absynth. It's not as freaky as Absynth but the sounds you can get out of TERA are pretty terrific.

If you want evolving sounds, Albino is certainly a consideration (in fact, I think it's much more useful than Absynth), but it's not one of the "cheap seats" VSTis.

Crystal v2.2

It fucking r0x0rz

There are three choices :

1 - Crystal
2 - Crystal
3 - Crystal


Cheers


PA

I'm an Absynth owner, but I don't use it any more since Crystal V2. Absynth has a distinctive character, just as Crystal does, so they each have their place. But you can do so much more with Crystal than you can with Absynth, I just go straight to Crystal now.

Thanks for the suggestions

I tried crystal. Sorry, but i wasn´t impressed of it. I dont know, but
there was a problem with one of the osci. In every preset, it was
detuned. Strange....

Z3+ta is really great and i like it very much.
What can you do with Absynth, which isnt possible on the zeta?

Virsyn Tera "looks and feels" very good. I like the sound very much,
but the included presets cannot be compared to absynth.
I was searching for user banks, but no chance to find some...

hmmm absynth is absynth and expensive

Greetings

i second the crystal / z3ta+ / anamark [i have all 3] votes but -

if NONE of these please you theres always the syncmodular / reaktor approach where you build your own

good luck


slainte rob

I own Z3ta and like it very much but I think both Absynth and Crystal can produce evolving sounds which is not so straightforward (for me) with Z3ta. Maybe I am not experience enough with Z3ta programming, if someone has evolving presets for Z3ta please share.

Cheers


PA

I suggested Crystal,but I'm also an Absynth abuser.The great thing about Absynth in comparison to the alternatives mentioned(besides the sound)is the low CPU hit.Absynth uses MUCH less CPU than the others mentioned here.
ew

SDevice wrote:

Quote:

Z3+ta is really great and i like it very much. What can you do with Absynth, which isnt possible on the zeta? Virsyn Tera "looks and feels" very good. I like the sound very much, but the included presets cannot be compared to absynth. I was searching for user banks, but no chance to find some... hmmm absynth is absynth and expensive

z3ta+ does not take the same, imo intuitive approach to evolving sounds as Absynth. That's part of Absynth's nature and why for many of us it is worth the cost. z3ta+ is harder to set up because most of it's tools are still designed for the person looking for timbre rather than expanse. However, learning it's modulation matrix will start getting you predictible results.

VirSyn TERA does not come with a lot of presets that show it off imo, however, it can do some pretty wild things once you get your head around things. Also, you can use as many as 16 patches at once as it is multitimbral. That said, it would be my least favorite way of achieving Absynth like sounds.

From day one Crystal has been compared to Absynth. First as a free alternative and now as a better than synth. I like Crystal 2 a lot, have liked it from the first time I heard it but it is not, nor should it be Absynth. The world has one Absynth. Why build another? Crystal's basic sound is harsher to my ears and for some areas this is a good thing. For that matter AnaMark has a less polished, more aggressive sound which is what makes it a nice alternative to something like z3ta+ which tends to be more refined sounding, again imo.

Crystal is without dispute the most versitile synth available for free. I'd strongly suggest you spend more time with it before dismissing it. If you come from an Absynth way of looking at things Crystal is different and takes some getting used to in order to get many similar sounds. Of all the synths listed here it's the closest to Absynth in terms of the process by which it creates sounds.

I ve checked out the Virsyn Tera Demo and i think it has an amazing
sound, really. You re wright, the presets doesnt show off the synth, but it doesnt matter. I ve decided to get Tera, cause of it s great sound even without fx.
Multitimbral is a feature only tera has in comparsion to the other´s
mentioned here. I listened to the DCota demo mp3s, which is very similar to tera, and was impressed by the sounds.
Maybe my next synth is Z3+ta then....

Greetings

also, wait a bit for Rhino, as someone already mentionned

Rhino is the cousin of z3ta+ and AnaMark. It sits somewhere between the two in sound and flavor. Depending on the price it may be worth investigating as you 2nd synth after TERA.

The problem, and you will come to see this, is all these synths do things that make them of value because of the unique timbres they can produce. Every synth discussed has for the most part been a programmer's type synth.

Absynth's presets imo are one of it's selling points. That and the love or hate interface. In your shoes I'm not sure how I'd work things out. Not suggesting any of these synths is hard for me as they all deserve credit for starting to make stand alone instruments capable of nothing available in hardware.