hi guys i just finished counting up the last of my x-mas money and it turns out i have exactly $80 usd to spend on a new synth and thats with tax im looking for a very easy to program synth that i can imediatly start programming patches on, a synth capable
of producing trance and EBM, a synth thats does very beautiful but powerful leads. leads would be its most important assset. pads and bass are also very important basicly a jack of all trades. can you guys give me some ideas

you already have vanguard right?

get energyXT and layer the vanguard..


actually.. buy me a license to energyXT too


outside of that.. you might want to see if someone has a secondhand pentagon1 for sale... I say secondhand because it retails for 99 euro (above your current budget)

Something easy to program, cheap, and will make trance? Wasp all the way.

You don't own pentagon yet do you? I would very highly recommend that one. Can PM you a few links to clips of songs I used pentagon in quite heavily.

Markus

Pentagon would indeed be a very good choice I think.

If you are on PC, whu not give the YAVA2 demo a try and see if it fits the bill..?

hitman8081 wrote:

hi guys i just finished counting up the last of my x-mas money and it turns out i have exactly $80 usd to spend on a new synth and thats with tax im looking for a very easy to program synth that i can imediatly start programming patches on, a synth capable of producing trance and EBM, a synth thats does very beautiful but powerful leads. leads would be its most important assset. pads and bass are also very important basicly a jack of all trades. can you guys give me some ideas

Groovecube Exciton __ $75

ive decided guys after actualy putting in the time
to program z3ta i realize that z3ta is just poweful beyond imagination.you can create ANYTHING with it.il be spending alot more time learning ESPECIALY z3ta and vanguard.i realize with enough time spent and enough practice i can make z3ta do anything i want.and when i think about how poweful musicly that its just mind bogling unbelievable. with owning both z3ta and vanguard i wont need to buy another synth for a very long time.

hitman8081 wrote:

i wont need to buy another synth for a very long time.

so you think..

we'll see

hitman8081 wrote:

ive decided guys after actualy putting in the time to program z3ta i realize that z3ta is just poweful beyond imagination.you can create ANYTHING with it.il be spending alot more time learning ESPECIALY z3ta and vanguard.i realize with enough time spent and enough practice i can make z3ta do anything i want.and when i think about how poweful musicly that its just mind bogling unbelievable. with owning both z3ta and vanguard i wont need to buy another synth for a very long time.

If you want to stick with z3ta and vanguard, why not add to them by buying some of the sound sets available for both?
Vanguard just came out with 2 new soundsets
yesterday, and only @ $15.00 USD or so each.

BTW-do you have the Vanguard 1.1 upgrade? (Free.)

Cheers

Also, have you tried Ninja? It's free, so if it doesn't do anything Vanguard won't do, there's no cash lost... just time! Ninja is a pretty cool 2-osc synth. Check the instrument links in the top-right corner of the forum for details.

yeah i may just go all out and buy ALL the sound sets

M42 nebula package (you get two synths)
$49.95USD/37euro
http://www.algomusic.nl

or dash signatures Astrobelt!

TC

thanx anyway tim but i got got a hell of alot of mileage left with the synths i already have

hitman8081 wrote:

yeah i may just go all out and buy ALL the sound sets

...Or you could go buy a book about synthesis, and never have to buy someone else patches ever again.

TRUE THAT

I would pay for such a book as well.... I posted another thread here a couple of days back about it, and got some good suggestions, but no "killer" How To Make Patches kind of book. Suggest away.

Hitman, you are certainly correct that you could spend a year investigating Z3ta+, and you'd have better sounds at the end of that year than if you had 10 synths, and spent a little time with each. That's one of the downsides of getting a package like Komplete 2 (which I have done), I fear....

Green Red Brownell wrote:

I would pay for such a book as well.... I posted another thread here a couple of days back about it, and got some good suggestions, but no "killer" How To Make Patches kind of book. Suggest away.

SOS magazine has some VERY good synth programming tutorials in some backissues (which are freely available online).
They're covering the basic things (such as describing subtractive synthesis) as well as some how-to's and a more in depth look at synthesis in general.
Sorry, no direct link handy, but you will find them on their site.

I will definitely do that, as well as following the other suggestions on that other thread.....

Thanks again.

Microtonic

ahja wrote:

hitman8081 wrote: yeah i may just go all out and buy ALL the sound sets ...Or you could go buy a book about synthesis, and never have to buy someone else patches ever again.

Hi,

Sorry for interrupting, but can you recommend a book on this subject - if it exist??

Kind regards
Thomas

There used to be a PDF at Access' website named "Programming Analogue Synths". I have it here somewhere, and it was on a few CM covers as well.

Yup, found it... subtitle is "Virus Tutorial by Howard Scarr". It has sections on "Programming Classic Analogue Sounds", Modern Analogue (TB, Juno), Classic digital (Imposcar, PPG, DX7), Electromechanical (Rhodes, etc), Acoustic Instruments, and Drums and Percussion. 132 pages, but two-up so only 66 pages in reality. It also gives history/background on the synths before going into the programming.

It's not "detailed" but it gives information to start like "All that dust comes from the sawtooth waves stacked up and heavily detuned in Unison mode without using the filter envelope. This seems to e the simple secret behind Hoover sounds." Then he gives some modifications you can make with distortion and filters "Filter1 is set to Bandpass and its cutoff is controlled via the mod wheel..."

It's the "overview" I needed to experiment some, but not really a "cookbook". The cost was right.

Doug

VitaminD wrote:

you already have vanguard right? get energyXT and layer the vanguard.. actually.. buy me a license to energyXT too

I definately agree with VitaminD. I have Vanguard, z3ta+ and eXT and they work together brilliantly - especially for trancey stuff. Get eXT and download the load of free midi fx plugins that are available on the net. Combine them all together and the limits are endless. eXT will allow you to do so many different things (like using ANY controllers to control ANY VST parameter - want to use an LFO to switch between different sounds depending on the key velocity?) Assign instruments to different key ranges/velocities. Link a few arpeggiators together (perhaps assign different ones to different keys).

eXT just loads as a VSTi in which you can then connect other VSTis and fx together. It does a lot more besides (has it's own sequencer if you want to use it and can be used as a standalone plus a VST insert effect). Try the demo and have a look at the KVR eXT forum - they are a very helpful bunch.

ADVERT OVER.

VitaminD wrote:

actually.. buy me a license to energyXT too

stop cryin' ya big baby

you may find yourself with a copy sooner then you think...