How many synths do you need?

[Negoba]

As a long time guitar player whose wife has asked "Why do you need another guitar?" I get that this question is subjective and perhaps triggering.

But for a beginner trying to make electronic music with a enormous number of choices out there, how many synths would experienced folks recommend I start with. If you have a good wavetable synth like Vital or Serum, can you pretty much do everything? Do you need something else to make good percussion or bass sounds?

I suspect this has been discussed before but when I did the search function it said I had too many words.

[Synthman2000]

What music are you making ? Some synths work better for some genres than others.

Synthesis often becomes a hobby in itself, a sub hobby of making music if you get into the technical side of enjoying making sounds, usually that work in musical context but not necessarily of course.

Some synths are cleaner, some warmer some make some sounds that others cannot.

There is a lot to it. So what genre and what are your plans ?

You can do a huge amount with just 1, you can do a lot more with 3. And with many you can open a world of sonic enjoyment you may not even know exists yet.

Being a beginner 1 would be a good start, without overloading yourself, one with a good amount of presets and probably a hybrid Wavetable / analogue subtractive architecture.

Maybe take a look at Massive X, Serum, Adam Szabo's Viper as starting points. Massive X and Viper might be a little more tricky to learn actual synthesis on to start with. Serum has less page jumping and slightly easier workflow.

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... massive-x/

https://xferrecords.com/products/serum/

https://www.adamszabo.com/vstplugins/viper/

This synth has a free version if you don't want to spend money to find out if you like it all, I am not fan of it personally. Though it is more of a case that it came too late for me to bother with, I have everything I need to achieve what I want completely covered already.

https://vital.audio/

Depends on genre a bit, the more info you can give the better the responses will be.

[Negoba]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

I'm making space ambient right now so good pads, ability to do classic sounds, sounds that lend themselves to arps and sequencing (or ability to do it onboard) are the things I can think are useful now.

I'll take a look at the synths you mentioned.

I though Vital was basically a freeware attempt to recreate Serum?

[cryophonik]

Every situation is different and “need” is hard to define. One could argue that all anybody “needs” is a single synth and proficiency in sound design and/or enough diverse presets to cover all the sounds you want. But, that’s not very pragmatic for many people. I think most accomplished music producers would agree that the bare necessities include a good subtractive synth, maybe a more diverse synth capable of other synthesis types (e.g., FM, granular, additive, wavetable), a sampler for “real” sounds, and something dedicated for drums. Everything else is gravy,… but who doesn’t love gravy, right?

[Negoba]

That makes a lot of sense.

I've been playing with the classic free subtractive synths like TAL-Noizemaker and Tyrell, along with Decent Sampler and LABS. I haven't really delved into other types of synthesis yet.

I've recorded drums for rock tracks before getting into electronic, using SSD Drums and Sitala.

[Uncle E]

For that style, probably one rompler or sampler and one analog would be fine. You could get a wavetable instead of an analog, you'll miss out on the classic sounds but that isn't necessarily a bad thing (two roads diverged in a wood...).

btw, there are synths that cover all of that. Pigments, Falcon, Omnisphere, etc.

[Jac459]

Can you tell us what DAW you use ? Many DAWs have quite excellent synths provided.
You could start with that for a while and see after where your tastes drive you ?

[BBFG#]

Literally depends on your taste in sound/character of synthesis. Effects seem as much or more important in creating "space" since it's a misnomer in anything but a metaphoric impression.

If I was starting from nothing, I personally would consider the plugins also known for long, subtle movements.
Korg Wavestate Native, Modwave and Arturia Pigments come first to my mind. Doesn't mean I wouldn't end up getting more, although I would stay away from many I have now.
(Do you look at certain guitars you have and know you wouldn't buy that one again?)
And since you do have multiple guitars, know that you're reaching into another dimension of spacetime accumulation.
Good luck.

[chk071]

How many synths do you need?

All of them, and then some.

[cryophonik]

How many synths do you need?

All of them, and then some.

The truth is finally revealed,.. and we’re still on page 1!

[chk071]

[Negoba]

I'm using Reaper. I've found that the effects are good (ultra simple GUIs notwithstanding) but there's no onboard instruments to speak of.

I've used intro versions of lots of other DAWs so played with Xpand and Mai Tai a little back in the day.

[Negoba]

How many synths do you need?

All of them, and then some.

The truth is finally revealed,.. and we’re still on page 1!

I've used something similar re: Guitars when having discussions with my wife.

[zerocrossing]

ALL OF THEM.

[liquidsound]

From Vital to Surge and Tyrell you are more than covered.
Of course if money is not an issue, Omnisphere is the way to go.