Help me choose a synth

[BBFG#]

I would add that flexibility should also include being able to 'un-bloat' a synth as well.
U-he shines in this respect. You can add, re-group, re-categorize and eliminate individual patches and heading relatively quick and easy. Don't know how Spire stacks up to that, but I do know it is one of the largest complaints I have about Tone 2 and KV331 products - and as what I read about Spectrasonics too. (Stripping out the factory bloat).

[chk071]

Rule of thumb also: If it's cheap, it's not very popular, if it's expensive it is popular, for a reason. Might not apply all the time, but generally it does in my experience.

Not always true Otherwise SynthMaster wouldn't have been voted amongst the top 3 synths by MusicRadar readers 3 years in a row!

Yeah, Synthmaster is like the exception to the rule, as it's really good bang for the buck.

[Lotuzia]

..... what a bunch of crap.
anything you can do with your so called "expensive" synths... i can do better with freeware synths and free effects. .......

No probs, here are some simple sounds, only one instance of the synth for each clip. The synth isn't even especially expensive. It's pretty affordable. Just fire your freeware synths, that should be easy.



And dont forget, rules are : not a single automation, daw wizardry, pile of effects thrown in. Just pushing keys in real time and occasionnaly mod wheel/aftertouch, pitch bend + or pitch bend -. Just playing music so to say, in an intuitive and simple way.

And remember, its just .... because you promise it

Cheers,

[Lotuzia]

Rule of thumb also: If it's cheap, it's not very popular, if it's expensive it is popular, for a reason. Might not apply all the time, but generally it does in my experience.

what a bunch of crap.
anything you can do with your so called "expensive" synths... i can do better with freeware synths and free effects. yeah, the reason it's popular is because everyone thinks new is better. the new synths only sound better because the effects used in them are better. hell, synth1 even sounds like a $200 VSTI pumped through TAL ChorusLX

Another one from Waldorf Largo. ( Sounds a bit like Synth1 with Tal Chorus, except ... not )

World of L

[sfd]

What about Synthmaster ?

[Robmobius]

what a bunch of crap.
anything you can do with your so called "expensive" synths... i can do better with freeware synths and free effects.

Yada yada... Prove it.

To answer some questions:

I do electronica and ambient music.

Serum sounds brittle and plastic to me.

Whoever mentioned that Synth1 is excellent, I agree: I use it in every project.

And I'm not trolling, I just wanted some opinions on what the best current all-round synth is. Sigh...

Didn’t think you were trolling either tbh.

Spire brittle? I dunno, if I agree with that. But if you don’t like it, then that’s fair enough. It’s one of my favourite synths.

Now that you’ve broken free of the ‘catch all synth'. I’d say that while you are looking at HIVE and Spire as your two choices. I’d highly recommend you take a look at Dune II and Gladiator II. Both are very good.

However, you can’t go wrong with HIVE or Spire, as they are class (I have them both).

Synthmaster is excellent as well, and really is a great all rounder. But it’s a little ‘Bass lite’ for me.

[Kinh]

Just save up and buy omnisphere cause if your serious about this then you're gonna buy it eventually anyway.

[2ZrgE]

To answer some questions:

I do electronica and ambient music.

Serum sounds brittle and plastic to me.

Whoever mentioned that Synth1 is excellent, I agree: I use it in every project.

And I'm not trolling, I just wanted some opinions on what the best current all-round synth is. Sigh...

Maybe the Dark Zebra then? If it's good enough for Hans Zimmer then maybe it will serve your ambient projects.

[2ZrgE]

I definitely hear a difference in the sound quality of Synth1 and Sylenth1. And it is not because of the effects, I hear a clear difference with all effects turned off.

Thing is you cannot turn off the hard wired effects.

I'm always under the impression that e.g. Sylenth has a kind of limiter implemented which makes even it's basic sounds so powerful. Maybe it's an illusion, you have to ask Lennar Digital for that.

Anyway I'm much to lazy to examine if two pure saw waves produced by free- and payware sound the same without any FX, I let the frequency analysts do that.

[fluffy_little_something]

I definitely hear a difference in the sound quality of Synth1 and Sylenth1. And it is not because of the effects, I hear a clear difference with all effects turned off.

Thing is you cannot turn off the hard wired effects.

I'm always under the impression that e.g. Sylenth has a kind of limiter implemented which makes even it's basic sounds so powerful. Maybe it's an illusion, you have to ask Lennar Digital for that.

Anyway I'm much to lazy to examine if two pure saw waves produced by free- and payware sound the same without any FX, I let the frequency analysts do that.

Maybe, who knows. I was trying to emulate the classic Oberheim pad from a video posted in the Diva vs Analog thread, and I did notice that with only two saw waves Sylenth can sound very vivid, strong and pleasant, which is rare with soft synths. And that at all but zero CPU load
Sylenth also has crazy output power. Usually I can only set osc volume, layer volume, and overall output volume to 50% max each, and the signal is already loud enough according to my DAW's meters.

[Examigan]

I say check out Synthmaster 2.7, Electra2, Dune 2, and Zebra 2.7

Get the demo versions of each, and see what you like. Out of those four, you should be able to find something that works for you.

[wagtunes]

I say check out Synthmaster 2.7, Electra2, Dune 2, and Zebra 2.7

Get the demo versions of each, and see what you like. Out of those four, you should be able to find something that works for you.

Wow, we seem to agree on quite a few. Yeah, these are all great.

[chk071]

I definitely hear a difference in the sound quality of Synth1 and Sylenth1. And it is not because of the effects, I hear a clear difference with all effects turned off.

Thing is you cannot turn off the hard wired effects.

I'm always under the impression that e.g. Sylenth has a kind of limiter implemented which makes even it's basic sounds so powerful. Maybe it's an illusion, you have to ask Lennar Digital for that.

Anyway I'm much to lazy to examine if two pure saw waves produced by free- and payware sound the same without any FX, I let the frequency analysts do that.

Maybe, who knows. I was trying to emulate the classic Oberheim pad from a video posted in the Diva vs Analog thread, and I did notice that with only two saw waves Sylenth can sound very vivid, strong and pleasant, which is rare with soft synths. And that at all but zero CPU load
Sylenth also has crazy output power. Usually I can only set osc volume, layer volume, and overall output volume to 50% max each, and the signal is already loud enough according to my DAW's meters.

The pure saw waves are already different in different synths. There's also different kind of damping when a lowpass filter is active, even when cutoff is fully opened. Also, what i noticed about Dune 1/BE/CM, there's some kind of brutal cut on the high frequencies going on i never saw on another synth (and which makes me think that's the reason why it lacks brilliance). Urs explained that here: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 1&t=427890 But, different to the way it is implemented in Sylenth1 and Hive, in Dune, it's always present, not just on some notes. Above 18 KHz or so, there's just nothing. I always wondered about that, and always applied EQ to make up for it. So, that will also be different. Not to note envelope behavior (something you can't mimic with effects, at least i wouldn't know how), general filter behavior, non-linearities, distortion and so on.

[Mivo]

I'm not sure it's desirable to have one synth for everything, but of the synths I've tried, SynthMaster is definitely the one that I feel comes closest to being an "all-around synth".

Of the two the OP is trying to decide between, I've only tried (and purchased) Hive. It can do a lot, but less than SynthMaster. Love the GUI, though, and I'm generally a fan of Urs' stuff.

In the end, buy whatever YOU like. Asking us here gives you countless different opinions, but none of us has the exact same preferences and ears as you do. So, flip a coin if you can't decide at all. I don't know about Spire, but Hive's license is transferable and u-he doesn't do post-release sales, so it's a fairly safe purchase.

[chk071]

Same with Spire. No transfer fee, no NFR.