Soft Synth With The Best Workflow?

VST, AU, AAX, CLAP, etc. Plugin Virtual Instruments Discussion
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

Serum builds on oncepts brought by Massive, Twin2 and Circle. The proble with serum is that it has some tabs and some elements are way to big.

Twin and Circle are smaller and you can see all elements at once.
dedication to flying

Post

KBSoundSmith wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
I would happily trade the waveform displays to not have to switch between tabs to edit Env's/LFO's. I hate tabbing...
I totally get that. But I think the ability to see the shape of other Envelopes in the background is a nice compromise -- it would be nice if that could be added to the LFO panel as well.
I consider Serum good for beginners or when initially using the synth. I have no need of all the graphical representations. All the graphical representations take up like half the space of the GUI... and which means there are then lots of tabs. Because of that, I don't like the Serum GUI. If I could customize the GUI to my liking, I'd get rid of all the graphical displays and have the Matrix plus all the Env's and LFO's visible at once on one page.

Post

ghettosynth wrote:
nineofkings wrote:The best workflow is the one that matches how you like to work.

A DAW analogy: people love Logic, I frickin hate its workflow. Then again, I use REAPER so probably shouldn't talk :hihi:. To each their own
I totally feel you on this. Although I was joking about Reaktor, it does trigger my engineering POV. I often find that the fastest way to a sound is to just quickly throw together the synth that has just the features that I need.

This may seem silly unless you understand what is actually being minimized here, it's not the work to create the sound initially, it's the surface area for dealing with that sound and its close cousins. I have about 100 special purpose synths including those that I've modified from existing ensembles. I create patches much faster through this hierarchical perspective. First I select the group, e.g., pads, then the style, e.g., soft slow pads, and then choose the synth that has the features that I want to work with. Now, I can create many patches in a short period of time because there are very few controls. If I start to go in a direction that I need a new feature, I can just add that feature and all of my existing patches will simply not change the settings of that new feature. I can then save this synth as a new special purpose synth in my collection.
Good points. This is probably the reason I like Camel Audio Alchemy so much. It just contains everything I need to create sounds the way I have them sound "in my head". It's definitely not optimal workflow wise but because I can shape everything and have absolutely exact control over everything, it becomes very quick to use for me.

Probably wouldn't say the above if I was a beginner but it's one of those synths I've been using a lot so it's almost second nature to me.

.. mind you, I mean the synthesis part of Alchemy. As soon as you want to create multi-mapped sample based stuff, all hell breaks loose. :help:
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

Post

I really had to think a lot before answering this.

I'm really not all that picky. Just give me a synth where I can find everything easily that doesn't need a magnifying glass to read.

To that end, there are tons of synths that have the "best" workflow for me. In fact, I own very few synths that aren't fun to work with. It would probably be easier to list those.

Post

After all those years it`s still Surge for me, great gui.

Post

My favourite work flow is with NI Massive. It has the best design IMO and the signal flow/modulations are very clear.

Other great synths with their workflow are:
- Absynth 5 (although it is seems complex, but the workflow is great).
- FM8 (the best FM Matrix)
- Sylenth1 (easy to work with. Nice workflow)
- Retrologue 2
- Razor

Post

Image
HW SYNTHS [KORG T2EX - AKAI AX80 - YAMAHA SY77 - ENSONIQ VFX]
HW MODULES [OBi M1000 - ROLAND MKS-50 - ROLAND JV880 - KURZ 1000PX]
SW [CHARLATAN - OBXD - OXE - ELEKTRO - MICROTERA - M1 - SURGE - RMiV]
DAW [ENERGY XT2/1U RACK WINXP / MAUDIO 1010LT PCI]

Post

serum has a great gui, but i just don't really like how it sounds; which is quite harsh to me ears. spire has a warmer sound and it's clear and pretty self-explanatory interface.
predator isn't that complicated really and and it is lighter on cpu than spire ( and serum in my case)..
PS. +1 for Massive : )
Last edited by inkwarp on Sun Feb 26, 2017 2:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Post

layzer wrote:Image
How many times this one has won the kvr's razzie award ?

8)

Post

pdxindy wrote:
KBSoundSmith wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
I would happily trade the waveform displays to not have to switch between tabs to edit Env's/LFO's. I hate tabbing...
I totally get that. But I think the ability to see the shape of other Envelopes in the background is a nice compromise -- it would be nice if that could be added to the LFO panel as well.
I consider Serum good for beginners or when initially using the synth. I have no need of all the graphical representations. All the graphical representations take up like half the space of the GUI... and which means there are then lots of tabs. Because of that, I don't like the Serum GUI. If I could customize the GUI to my liking, I'd get rid of all the graphical displays and have the Matrix plus all the Env's and LFO's visible at once on one page.
Haha, well my background is with Csound, so everything was text only. So a nice GUI is an appreciated contrast to that.

Personally, tabbing envelopes and LFOs doesn't slow me down. But having the Matrix view somewhere on the same page would be nice, definitely agree with you there.

Post

Sunrizer.

Post

Tal's synths, although much of the credit goes to Roland :hihi: And of course such a simple architecture benefits the workflow...
Last edited by fluffy_little_something on Sun Feb 26, 2017 8:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Post

layzer wrote:Image
This is how entire Jeskola Buzz interface looked for me. :lol: Dark ages.
Blog ------------- YouTube channel
Tricky-Loops wrote: (...)someone like Armin van Buuren who claims to make a track in half an hour and all his songs sound somewhat boring(...)

Post

What's the problem? It's a graphical user interface, not a command line synth :hihi:

Post

fluffy_little_something wrote:What's the problem? It's a graphical user interface, not a command line synth :hihi:
Doesn't have fancy display like Serum, Harmor or Loom :roll:
Blog ------------- YouTube channel
Tricky-Loops wrote: (...)someone like Armin van Buuren who claims to make a track in half an hour and all his songs sound somewhat boring(...)

Locked

Return to “Instruments”