absolute softest and warmest synth in existence?

[fluffy_little_something]

just bought omnisphere through american music supply 3 easy payment plan. and that's the game! what do i win?

i think i know what i win. escape from a 6 year creativity drought. if i cant make and complete a song with omnisphere, then i give up the ship!

ok, have fun

im drooling over it.

Yet another advantage of software, no short-circuits despite omnipresent liquids

[Ingonator]

The warmest synth i ever experienced was maybe a real Jupiter 8.

I really do realize that people have quite a contrary perception of what is warm and what not. I read more than once that the Jupiter is considered to be on the colder side of analog. But then, no idea, because i never played one, but it's funny how different the opinions are. Warm for me is a nice bottom end supersaw pad, low pass filtered with some resonance. The kind of thing which gets you a warm feeling in the stomach. No idea if that's the general definition of warmness though.

I agree with that notion. The Jupiter 8 does not exactly stand for warmth, it had a more edgy European-Japanese sound. It sounded very good and interesting, though.

The pad sound in this is what by my own definition could be called "warm" and "soft":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8mai17neXc

As already mentioned it is also a matter of how you program and/or use the synth.


Ingo

[fluffy_little_something]

I assume that when you reduce the cutoff frequency of an Oberheim or SCI that far, they still sound warmer than the Jupiter.
But the difference would probably be even greater as you increase the cutoff frequency.

[Ingonator]

I assume that when you reduce the cutoff frequency of an Oberheim or SCI that far, they still sound warmer than the Jupiter.
But the difference would probably be even greater as you increase the cutoff frequency.

Which i meant with proper programming.

Such sounds could also be done with the right combination of the LPF and the HPF which results in a BPF like result. The Hupiter also had a 12dB/24dB switch which made a difference too.
Not to forget that you were able to create layers with it which then resulted in a 4 voice layered pad sound.

You could make a harsh sound with most analog synths when cranking up the Cutoff while not every synth sound really great at low Cutoff amounts.

For many sounds there seems to be a quite sharp point where it starts sounding too bright and/or is no longer considered to sound soft.
An additional HPF (like in the Jupiter or the Juno-60) or a dedicated BPF are nice ways to cut off a too big low end which in some cases is not desired.

In several cases a moderate amount of Resonace could be helpful too.


Ingo

[Igro]

Interesting. I keep Largo just because of it's pure digital sound. it's not warm to me at all. But different ears...

[AstralExistence]

omnisphere just arrived

[ghettosynth]

The warmest synth i ever experienced was maybe a real Jupiter 8.

I really do realize that people have quite a contrary perception of what is warm and what not. I read more than once that the Jupiter is considered to be on the colder side of analog. But then, no idea, because i never played one, but it's funny how different the opinions are. Warm for me is a nice bottom end supersaw pad, low pass filtered with some resonance. The kind of thing which gets you a warm feeling in the stomach. No idea if that's the general definition of warmness though.

I hesitate to say that "playing is necessary", because I don't really believe that, in general. However, it is a bit of a proxy for experience with a synth. A supersaw is an animated saw, it's like many detuned saws. Two good analog sawtooth oscillators will sound more like a supersaw than say two average plugin oscillators or DCOs. Of course they aren't "as" animated, I'm not suggesting that at all, in fact, the saw animator goes way back to Bernie Hutchins and was meant to be applied to existing analog oscillators.

The point is, if we start talking about what makes a synth sound "warm", I think that it comes down to a few basic things.

1) Animation in the oscillator(s)
2) Filter characteristics
3) Saturation effects in the filter and amplifier

To me, the JP8 is unquestionably a warm synth monster. It has the Roland IR3109 filter as cascaded OTAs in a 2/4 pole low pass configuration. Now, the later JP6 changed this and used the same IR3109 chip in a state variable configuration. It sounds decidedly less warm, although still excellent. Roland continued the use of this basic state variable design throughout their later synths.

I guess what I'm asking is if you're conflating the JP6 and the JP8. If I were to use the language in this thread I would agree that the JP6 has a more "Japanese" sound, than say an Oberheim OBX or nVoice.

At any rate, the OP has made his choice, although, I'm quite happy to continue to talk about classic analogs.

[BBFG#]

With as many ways and subjective ideas to describe the different outputs like 'warm' and 'glassy' It comes down more for me in a final description of 'presence'. Also subjective I believe, but while almost every synth mentioned has some form of warm glass, few of them hit me with an actual presence. And then there is whether or not their sound is unique enough to be without compare or if it is even necessary to have for what I'm doing.
Truly, ZebraHZ covers enough of the Diva presence and spectrum I use them for. Doubtful if I would use any more than a couple of instances at a time of Diva if I owned more than the demo. Although I have to say, it definitely has the presence I look for in synths. Likewise with the Tone2 synths I have. I couldn't help notice that by my subjective leanings, what the OP kept describing was Gladiator2 more than anything else to me.
And since I've been finding more places and time to test drive Omnisphere, I do like its sound well enough. Not sure if it is any better on CPU than Diva though since the stores seem to run it on machines that may just be far too weak for it.

But thank you all for discussing this. It has helped me to realize what I find lacking in Omnisphere so far... presence.

[RLSguitar]

IMHO from my limited experience with softsynths, Alchemy, UltraAnalog VA (1 & 2) and DuneCM are "soft" and "warm", with probably UA-VA leading out-of-the-box. With Alchemy you can achieve almost any sound you can dream up if you know how to use it. Keep in mind though that I'm more of a preset type of player and any tweaking I do is usually random, so I really don't know what I'm doing. Thus, my opinion on this is probably worth a grain of salt.

However, my ears are pretty good and I tend to favor soft and warm sounds. These three synths have factory and expansion soundbanks with great sounds within this category that are good to go.

Other sound qualifying words that describe soft and warm are "creamy" and "dark". These types of sounds are my favorites!

[BBFG#]

IMHO from my limited experience with softsynths, Alchemy, UltraAnalog VA (1 & 2) and DuneCM are "soft" and "warm", with probably UA-VA leading out-of-the-box. With Alchemy you can achieve almost any sound you can dream up if you know how to use it. Keep in mind though that I'm more of a preset type of player and any tweaking I do is usually random, so I really don't know what I'm doing. Thus, my opinion on this is probably worth a grain of salt.

However, my ears are pretty good and I tend to favor soft and warm sounds. These three synths have factory and expansion soundbanks with great sounds within this category that are good to go.

Other sound qualifying words that describe soft and warm are "creamy" and "dark". These types of sounds are my favorites!

Don't own Dune, but I find Alchemy very warm and can do glassy easy. Ultra, I tend to think of more as round in its sound against so many that sound cutting but one dimensional.
The OP already dismissed Alchemy because he didn't like that the company hasn't released Alchemy 2 yet.

[zerocrossing]

Funny Diva keeps coming up. I always think of u-he synths as being kind of bright. Look to the Xlis-labs synths for vintage warmth.

[BlackWinny]

i now realize what kind of synth i want. what kind of synth makes the kind of sounds that would fit this criteria. i admit i have zebra but its just not as crystal/glass sounding as im looking for. can be any synth analog, digital, fm etc. etc. im looking for beyond beautiful. distortion/noise is not what i consider beautiful.

In freeware the warmest pads and really cristalline sounds I ever heard are those from Nabla and from Deputy Mark II, and Mono/Fury (for the magical cristalline sounds), all three being string synths made by Full Bucket. You should probably love all his synths.

Listen to the end all his demos! They are awesome! Especially this demo of Deputy Mark II and the tune made with Nabla just below this line if you love dreamy pads !

Listen to this tune, made 100% with Nabla
http://soundcloud.com/full-bucket/full- ... abla-nabla

In payware I have no hesitation :

• The Korg Legacy collection, especially Mono/Poly and Polysix for the cristalline sounds and Wavestation or M1 for the pads
• Or FM8 for all (but far more expensive).

And for both (the Korg Legacy Collection and FM8) I use abundantly the presets provided by Le Lotus Bleu :

• For the Korg Legacy Collection
• For FM8

If you love lush pads and cristalline sounds you'll reach the seventh heaven with these synths !

Listen to all the tracks from Full Bucket Music on his website if you want something very close to Ashra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Kitaro, etc. without spending a buck!

If you're ready to pay a little... go to the Korg Legacy Collection (each instrument can be purchased separately and it is very cheap) or FM8 (this one is really my go to synth from 2007!... but it is a bit more expensive. And the Korg Legacy Collection is just in second place since 2007 also... For now 7 years i have still found nothing better for chillout, new age, lush pads, cristalline sounds). There are many demo tunes everywhere for the Korg Legacy and for FM8.

These synths I suggest you will drive you in a wonderful world beyond the dreams.

[damoog]

I would recommend a real analog such as the prophet 08 or tetra...you just can't beat the real thing for authentic...that said diva is capable(more than capable actually)of spitting out analog pads and chimes

[Numanoid]

Fanbois

Do you need to dig up this 1 month old thread, to continue arguing "my one is bigger than yours"

[BlackWinny]

i now realize what kind of synth i want. what kind of synth makes the kind of sounds that would fit this criteria. i admit i have zebra but its just not as crystal/glass sounding as im looking for. can be any synth analog, digital, fm etc. etc. im looking for beyond beautiful. distortion/noise is not what i consider beautiful.

Glassy and crystal imply the opposite of warm in my opinion...

Yes, but that's precisely what makes the interest of asking both.

Because they are the exact opposite, they are the best contrast between background pads and foreground "astral" leads.

He hasn't said that he wants both in one. I asks for suggestions to reach these cristal sounds AND I asks suggestions to reach these warm atmospheric pads.

Ask for both is absolutely pertinent.

That's why the best suggestions we can do is make suggestions for synths aimed at cristalline sounds for foreground leads, and make suggestions aimed at warm pads for background atmospheres. Fine if a synth can do both, of course. But ask for these totally contrasted sounds is very pertinent.