Name your guilty pleasure. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Not the synth you go to when you need such-and-such a sound, or the one that's in every track you do, or the one that you hear in a mix and go "Wow!". I'm talking about the synth you will find any excuse to throw into a mix because you just love using it. Usually its some new toy that I haven't tired of yet so we'll put a proviso on this that you have to have been using said synth for a year or so minimum in order for it to qualify. Let's use Vanguard as a cut-off, even though that's not a year.

Mine's still JX Synth. The current crop of little killerz has replaced every other VSTi I have ever used [and a lot of native synths in ORION] and I even thought that JOYkILLER might be able to slot into JX's niche but when I put them side by side there is no comparison [z3ta+ doesn't stack-up (pun intended) either]. JX Synth just sounds so fucking huge its not funny yet I can slot it into the densest mix and nine times out of ten it doesn't need any EQ, it just sits in there perfectly. Its filter is very ordinary, it doesn't really have a lot of scope but what it does, typified by the first factory preset, it does incredibly well. That big, fat, wide-open filter sound with huge unison is mannah from heaven to my ears.

Special mention should also go to WaspXT because its awesome resonant bass has virtually become NOVAkILL's signature sound. I think we have about 2 songs in our entire repetoire that has another synth on bass, where we wanted a more digital sound.

For me, it's effects. At the moment it's variable-speed delays. Damn, those things have been finding their way into the most unlikely of places lately...

Forever,




Kim.

I can't help using Neon! My God the shame of it.
It has a really nice timbre for basses.
Paul.

Here is the obligitory OnePingOnly post

impOSCar (ok, it probably doesn't qualify, as it's not yet been out for a year) but...... I used to have a real OSCar for a few years, and as impOSCar sounds exactly like a real one, that means I've had it for over a year, sort of.

I use impOSCar in every track...usually more than one instance. It'll be the first synth I'll load up when I just want to play. I can play without any intention of getting a tune done, and it gives me a hard-on every time

In fact I will even get more jollies playing on impOSCar than on my h/w MS20 (which has real knobs to twiddle) so it must be pretty darn good to make me prefer a VSTi over a real keyboard. Sad though it is...to me, the ultimate peaceful retreat is to go into my studio after dark, turn on the lava lamp and the lights off, crank up the amp, load up impOSCar, load up Retrodelay on a multi-feedback extravaganza and crank that one up also. Stick it all through Endorphin on number 11...... instant wank value, I'm afraid. I can play it for hours and irritate the shit out my missus and the neighbours. I don't see the cat for days afterwards usually. Thankyou GMedia, thankyou the Oxford Synthesiser Company, thankyou god for giving me fingers and a pair of ears....

Does that answer your question?

PPG wave

(i havent owned any synths long enough to qualify yet really )

but there are times i just sit here stick a delay or two on it and play for hours,such a pleasure

vurt wrote:

...but there are times i just sit here stick a delay or two on it and play for hours,such a pleasure

I often find myself doing that with the Pro-53.

DFX Buffer Override for me as a FX, and oddly Ethnosphere as a synth (do romplers count?)

And I should also say Orion's sampler and Screamer as well.

Mysteron. Dont use it in everything but just like BONES says, I'll throw it in any mix I can 'just because'.

Effected to hell and back, of course.

vurt wrote:

PPG wave

mine too

Instruments you all know.

But effects: I just got a NFR copy of Anwida DX Reverber 2.0. This is the only effect I use right now, and to my taste, the best one I ever found. I think is one of the rare ones that features Inverse-Reverber, which I like to use a lot. Not to mention the Gate-Reverber.

Wk

It's hardware... but

multivox mx-20, I love this thign to death. my goodness.

I actually do use the Wasp XT in everything, cos nothing comes close for the bass sound i like (and some leads too)

VSTi wise, Tau2 gets a hell of a lot of use, and is prob taken over as my weapon of choice for acid lines (taking over from Monobass)

I try to use all my new stuff as much as poss, but after making demo trax using them only, i tend to just use them 'of an occasion'

A simple man with simple needs

TechnoWeeniePas wrote:

Here is the obligitory OnePingOnly post

I was going to say that, but not in jest at all. As sad as it sounds, it really is great when you just need one ping only.

Cheers,
Steve

I'm gonna complicate this by segragating what I reach for when 'fleshing' & what remains at the end..

My first guilty pleasure is either the Xanex or Hydrocodone VSTi...

Then as a default, I grab Bazzoid as in my current stage of approach, I like to lay a bassline first, & Bazzoid is very easy to program for me. If I do not do that, then the second first choice is XR-909, or Drum Rack. If my rythm section is not well laid out prior bieng my weakness, my track gets deleted pretty quickly..

Synthy kinda synths, I grab Absynth or Cameleon before any others, but Reaktor gets a stab as well & for the love of God, please don't ask me which ensemble I load, I grab one at random & take it from there

Depending on my happiness with what's there, Battery or Kontakt or both will be in the finished track, but I have tracks uploaded here that illustrate an XR-909/Drum rack combo VS a Battery kit can come out on top when done properly..

That says alot, if you ask me.

& I mean that with no compression or EQ..

Odd-SE by EFM. I seem to make any excue to use that one.
And then, strangely enough, there's BASSpilot.... by me .... but what can I say, it just makes so many different useful sounds, and always surprises me with the way it sits with no eq. (of course I always eq it anyway, because I don't know when to leave well enough alone.)

spoonboiler wrote:

Odd-SE by EFM.

I can't believe how low the CPU usage on that thing is, especially given how good it sounds.

kritikon, I think impOSCar has probably been around long enough to qualify. It is really the only commercially priced VSTi that has ever even tempted me.

I must admit that I have spent hours, no days, with Atmosphere, just working my way through the hundreds of thousands of patch combinations. I love these sounds. I just sit and extemporize hour upon hour at the expense of everything else in my life including making tracks. It's better than sex. This thing can really sing. I thought my obsessive/compulsive interest in it would pass after a few weeks, but I have had it for more than a year and I'm still at it.

sickle666 wrote:

My first guilty pleasure is either the Xanex or Hydrocodone VSTi...

How do those measure up to the Oxycontin, Diazepam, or Codeine VSTi's?

da hornet, i'd say da hornet, i know it gets the bad rep and all, so i actually try to avoid putting it, but honestly there are some times when i can just load it up and there you go, the tone i was looking for.

Can't beat it for the buzz