Best soft synth for beginners? Reaktor 6/Dune 2/Omnisphere/Zebra 2?

[ghettosynth]

Surely there must be more than that? What is that synth, I think from Imageline that just uses numbers to recall the millions of presets? It has lots of great sounds, but it will teach you shit about synthesis. That's simply not enough and the reality is some synths will teach you more than others and about different kinds of synthesis or different aspects of the same kinds of synthesis.

This thread, like most threads like this, is just silly. The advice about CM and freeware is spot on because you get a lot of a value and a lot of ground to explore. The comments about Reaktor/Kontakt/Komplete cover the same basic idea but get you a lot of high quality very quickly.

Omnisphere? Whatever, it's really way too overpriced to recommend to a beginner. Even though a lot of people like it, I'm not convinced that they like it because it's great at synthesis so much as it has a shit ton of patches. I hate the interface for learning and, personally, I think that it's WAY overrated. I'd wait until you have created a few hundred patches and know what you want before you plunk down that much cash for ONE plugin.

All that aside, however, there really isn't a good or best synth for learning. It's a bit like programming languages. The best way to learn programming isn't to create threads like this and spend hours trying to figure out which language is best, it's to jump on a project that you like and start creating it. Similarly, with music, just create music with synthesizers in it. Each opportunity to use a sound is an opportunity to learn something about synthesis. If you find yourself searching through dozens of presets, stop, load init, and try to create what you need. If you can't get there, load something similar, and try to create it from that. Do this a few hundred (thousand?) times and it will start to make sense.

[c_voltage]

Really slightly strange title, since mentioned engines quite complex. If Reaktor good for beginners, then what good for not beginners ? )) (Nexus ?)

[W23]

I'd have to go with Reaktor. It's like the Swiss Army Knife of music software. You'll get a ton of miles from it even if you never design your own synth. If you get bored with the Factory Libtrary, you can go to the user area and download all kinds of crazy other stuff made by others.

[Nielzie]

None of those in the poll...

want the most basic features ,great sound and simple interface? tal noisemaker is the answer:
https://tal-software.com//images/produc ... emaker.png
,

my second vote goes to:
synth1
http://static.kvraudio.com/i/b/synth1-113.png


my third vote goes to:
uhe_TyrellN6-V3
http://rekkerd.org/img/201304/uhe_Tyrel ... esizer.jpg


or you can also try:
OB-Xd (my custom skin)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FZ8k ... licity.png

You totally forgot Charlatan!

[wagtunes]

Surely there must be more than that? What is that synth, I think from Imageline that just uses numbers to recall the millions of presets? It has lots of great sounds, but it will teach you shit about synthesis. That's simply not enough and the reality is some synths will teach you more than others and about different kinds of synthesis or different aspects of the same kinds of synthesis.

This thread, like most threads like this, is just silly. The advice about CM and freeware is spot on because you get a lot of a value and a lot of ground to explore. The comments about Reaktor/Kontakt/Komplete cover the same basic idea but get you a lot of high quality very quickly.

Omnisphere? Whatever, it's really way too overpriced to recommend to a beginner. Even though a lot of people like it, I'm not convinced that they like it because it's great at synthesis so much as it has a shit ton of patches. I hate the interface for learning and, personally, I think that it's WAY overrated. I'd wait until you have created a few hundred patches and know what you want before you plunk down that much cash for ONE plugin.

All that aside, however, there really isn't a good or best synth for learning. It's a bit like programming languages. The best way to learn programming isn't to create threads like this and spend hours trying to figure out which language is best, it's to jump on a project that you like and start creating it. Similarly, with music, just create music with synthesizers in it. Each opportunity to use a sound is an opportunity to learn something about synthesis. If you find yourself searching through dozens of presets, stop, load init, and try to create what you need. If you can't get there, load something similar, and try to create it from that. Do this a few hundred (thousand?) times and it will start to make sense.

The imageline synth is Autogun. All the millions of sounds sound pretty much the same. It was a real letdown. But what do you want for free?

As for why these threads exist, without them, there'd be very little here that people would want to talk about.

In the grand scheme of things, the number of threads here that are really important (discussing a new synth, bugs, features, operation, etc.) are relatively few compared to all the "What synth should I get" threads.

That's just the reality of forum discussion.

Without it, forums would die.

[egbert101]

<delete>

[bmrzycki]

That's so much for all your advice! ... so basically just 2 synth are left on the shortlist:
Dune 2
Zebra 2

If we're just picking between these two...

I still recommend Z2 between these two choices. Z2 can be as simple or as complex as you want. You can create a template of 2 oscillators, one filter -> delay, reverb and explore a huge range of sounds just with this setup. As your confidence grows you can add in parallel filter routings, an FM oscillator, or creatively route FX. You can decide to put distortion before the filter, or after it. Or maybe you want distortion after delay but before reverb. And then you can reach for the comb filters to start creating plucked, blown, or percussion sounds. After that you'll start to discover the power of layering sounds in lanes (first lane is the body of the sound, second lane is the attack, etc). This is how Z2 grows with your knowledge and experimentation. I have yet to find a (non west-coast blubbery modular) synthesis sound that I can't at least come come close to with Z2. I've been using Z2 now for almost 10 years and I'm still regularly surprised by a feature or interesting quirk of a module.

Dune2 is a fantastic synth and has a great set of core components. But it's mostly fixed in how it's laid out and what routes where. If you are serious about synthesis and learning you'll start to discover the limits of Dune2 and will probably want to purchase other synths to "fill in the gaps". Unless you're totally in love with the sound and the UI I'd recommend against it.

Considering the retail price of Z2 is $199 and D2 is $169 I personally consider Z2 a better value proposition. And as I mentioned before the demo restriction on Z2 is one of the most lenient I've encountered and you can spend months with it learning without really needing to purchase.

[ghettosynth]

The imageline synth is Autogun. All the millions of sounds sound pretty much the same. It was a real letdown. But what do you want for free?

Yep, that's the one. I disagree that they're all the "same," there's quite a bit of variation, but regardless of how much there is, in order to learn anything you need a mapping of controls to features in a meaningful way.

As for why these threads exist, without them, there'd be very little here that people would want to talk about.

Oh nonsense. There's plenty to talk about, and, regardless, nobody's really talking in here anyway. That's really my criticism, there's very little exchange of ideas here.

Case in point, you didn't address the most significant aspect of my post which might actually lead to a useful discussion about learning synthesis.

In any case, I doubt that's really the OP's mo, it's really more about introducing oneself. I'd rather see noobs post "Hi, I'm foobar, I create this kind of music, and I'm interested in this, that, and the other thing."

[Numanoid]

The imageline synth is Autogun. All the millions of sounds sound pretty much the same. It was a real letdown. But what do you want for free?

Yep, that's the one. I disagree that they're all the "same," there's quite a bit of variation, but regardless of how much there is, in order to learn anything you need a mapping of controls to features in a meaningful way.

Isn't Autogun a free version of Ogun?:
http://www.image-line.com/plugins/Synths/Ogun/

The limitation being that users can only use the randomize function to create different patches.

[Numanoid]

the most significant aspect of my post which might actually lead to a useful discussion about learning synthesis.

Like that the Roland D-50 is basically a rompler with shitty filters ?

[Yorrrrrr]

Isn't Autogun a free version of Ogun?:
http://www.image-line.com/plugins/Synths/Ogun/

Yes, Ogun is the complete version. Autogun is just the randomizer feature in Ogun.

[fluffy_little_something]

what (semi-)modular means, is that you have the option to "wire" (change/remove/etc) different parameters to other parameters (in synths that is). Instead of 'hardwiring' a LFO to a filter cutoff, you could 'wire' another LFO, or ENV (etc..). The mod-matrix is just another way of doing (semi-)modular stuff.

The big difference ofcourse is, how it looks. There are no wires. Most of the time mod-matrices work with drop-down menu's. That's all. Another way of doing the same, is with a patchbay grid (XILS3/4) for instance.

Ofcourse, a mod-matrix (in most synths) isn't as versatile, or modable. So the term semi-modular fits better (some parts might be hardwired as well). But still, it is a modular concept.

Well, that's one way of looking at it. But I doubt LD thinks of Sylenth1 as a (semi-)modular synth just because it has a mod matrix
Or, basically every synth is modular to a certain extent because they all have modules and a certain flexibility in terms of mod sources and targets, even something as simple as Charlatan.

[arkmabat]

the most significant aspect of my post which might actually lead to a useful discussion about learning synthesis.

Like that the Roland D-50 is basically a rompler with shitty filters ?

Heresy!

[InLight-Tone]

Reaktor is a rabbit hole. Too much crap to wade through, hastily designed synths with too few patches with the exception of the NI stuff done in house...

[fmr]

Reaktor is a rabbit hole. Too much crap to wade through, hastily designed synths with too few patches with the exception of the NI stuff done in house...

Do you REALLY have Reaktor? What you say is nonsense.

The user library is HUGE, and has MANY very good ensembles. And, contrary to some, the old factory libraries have VERY GOOD ensembles too, IMO. That nonsense about the "quality" is something I don't af«gree upon. If you want quality, run Reaktor at 96 kHz.

And for a beginner, it offers the resources to start from the very basic and grow up to the infinity. The best investment, IMO.