Hi everyone

Hope you are all well, I would like to know if you guys can give me suggestions to what phat Soft synths I can use for an 80's / 90's esque project that I am working on. I don't have a big budget and only have a Dual core 3ghz cpu, so Diva is not a consideration. While I know Saurus is another buzz word, but I am rather wary of it,. The synth needs to have a nice thick solid bass sounds to it.

Free or Commercial suggestions would be welcome.

Thank you very much!!

Regards

TB4C
Last edited by TB4C on Wed May 16, 2012 2:14 am; edited 1 time in total

Have you tried the new Diva version? It is lighter on the CPU with the new multi-thread option, which you'll notice primarily in Divine mode. And I'm running Diva on a Duo Core 2.53 GHz without any problems. Just have to bounce more often than with other plugins; it really isn't as much of an issue as people make it out to be.

edit: by the way, I've heard people praise Tyrell by U-he and Noisemaker (I think that's what it's called) by Tal for free options.
Last edited by KBSoundSmith on Sun May 13, 2012 3:41 am; edited 1 time in total

Poly KB II

Well, taking your limited budget into account, I'd say either Sawer on the commercial, or TAL-Elektro on the free side.

You might also want to pick up Computer Music, which has amassed quite a few killer freebies on the cover CD: Dune CM, PolyKB CM, the underrated but awesome Dominator, Alpha CM, Fabfilter One and on and on and on....

Don't demo Diva, though, because you might just find you won't want to live without it.

Why the caution about Saurus? It'd be a good alternative, and CPU isn't a concern.

edit: The Korg Legacy editions are also worth a shot, especially since you're going for the 80s thing. Mono/Poly is just 50 bucks.

Dune is solid and 90's & 80's sounds are easily achievable. There's one in the Market section for sale atm.

As suggested the Korg Mono/Poly is great.
I can strongly recommend u-he TyrellN6, it's freeware. Yes, it's hard on cpu for polyphonic synths, but for mono basses and sequences it's great.
Also you could look for a second hand NI Pro53, still sounding good and very light on CPU. Or a Melohman Minimomsta.

Cheers,
Gerald

That'll be mine, and yes I do recommend it as well. I'm just not using it that much. I'd also recommend the Emerge soundset from mcnoone on these forums, which is literally chock full of warm 80s/90s sounds as well as more up to date stuff as well.

+1 each for Tyrell and Noisemaker... put those in your VST folder even if you don't have an immediate need for them.

For true "phat" check out Sytrus. No seriously, Image Line's Sytrus is a great sounding hybrid... while you're there check out Sawer and Toxic: http://www.image-line.com/documents/synths.html

U-he Zebra... excellent choice for all around quality and capability (IMO): http://www.u-he.com/cms/zebra

Audjoo Helix... If you want to save CPU cycles and still get killer sounds, this is the synth you need to buy: http://www.audjoo.com/Helix/HelixAbout.html

Synapse Audio Dune... another excellent choice: http://www.synapse-audio.com/dune.html

SynthMaster... another excellent choice: http://www.kv331audio.com

Then there's Lush-101, but that doesn't exist yet.

And so many more... That would be my personal list of must-check-outs... all of the above will run on an old P4, but obviously when you have complex patches w/ lots of filters in any synth, old hardware is going to limit you in terms of polyphony and # of instances. There are certainly ways to trim things back to get CPU cycles back... cutting back on oversampling (quality setting), jiggering some filter settings, changing voice counts/unisons, limiting number of notes played (e.g., instead of playing a 4-note 7th chord on a thick pad, just play the 3rd and 7th... it'll sound better anyway ), etc. etc.

+10^6... and cheap! ($50USD!!!) Demo that bad boy, and if you get it be sure to pick up this soundset for 70's/80's/90's funktastitude... http://www.electric-himalaya.com/monopoly_funk_retrospective .html

Do check out the demos... http://www.electric-himalaya.com/demos/monopoly/StickyDuke.m p3

Nastiness.

Actually, $200 for the whole Korg bundle is a steal, IMO. Highly recommended.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and time!! I really appreciate your suggestions and will investigate your recommendations!!!

Regards

TB4C

Ps. If you guyz wanna chat with me on facebook I am Winston Hulley

Tactile Sounds Substance:
http://tactilesounds.blogspot.de/p/ts-substance.html

U-He TyrellN6:
http://www.u-he.com/cms/tyrelln6

PG-8X:
http://sites.google.com/site/mlvst0/


Ingo

Oh it's you.

I am teh Geoff

In the free realm there's also GTG 44S, Charlatan, and Minimogue VA

Got the Korg bundle (MS20 + controller, Polysix, Wavestation) at a blowout sale for 149 Euros in 2007. Then i got the updates to the Analog and Digital bundles (M1 + Mono/Poly). With those plugins you can cover most of 80s and 90s stuff. Just add a FM synth like FM7/8 (DX7, very important for 80s), something like Sampletank for sampled sounds (important: not too many multisamples) for 90s sound and you are almost there.
Just don't forget tons of gated reverb on drums.

No budget synth: Synth1
Almost no CPU, easy to program, solid sound, tons of patches. If someone would program a polished gui for it, it could be a selling hit even today (imho!).

You too might check OP-X PRO-II which is on sale right now.

Comes with a whooping free library of 1'700 presets including many famous 80ies sounds and classic synth emulations.

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