All synths sound the same to me now...

[SODDI]

I'm thinking that your ears may be "tired" (it's more complex than that, but let's just say "tired").

Take 3 or more days off from ANY digital sound source - preferably from any amplified sound source, including TVs and radios - and see if you notice a difference.

[losan]

I'm thinking that your ears may be "tired" (it's more complex than that, but let's just say "tired").

Take 3 or more days off from ANY digital sound source - preferably from any amplified sound source, including TVs and radios - and see if you notice a difference.

I think SODDI hit the spot with his comment - it is not about the synths or the sounds (I rather disagree with them all sounding the same) - I think it has a lot more to do with your current state of mind !

I've been through this once, but not with synths, but music in general.
I was thinking - why should I still strive to make music - there's just shitty music
played at the radio stations all day long- no one cares about something new, unheard, innovative, alternative or something with real passion.
Why should I still play the guitar, does anybody care about some Blues injected playing these days ?
It is all the same Lalala...

Man, this got me so down, that I didn't touch the guitar or have been buying music for quite some time - until the point in time, when I realized that I missed playing the guitar, that I love music - regardless what Radio stations
are playing, or what is considered "hip" today.
This was the moment, where I said to myself... f**k it, who cares, I do what I love, f**k everything else...

So... what could help you out...

Maybe do something completely else - go out for a walk,
take a break, do something else you might be interested for awhile.

Or...give yourself a new challenge - you could for example aim to learn how to program sounds yourself -it is no rocket science - if it feels good to you, it is good (don't think, what others might think about it...)

Or... (I leave it up to you now...)
After some time you might get a re-freshed view and interest on the things you love.
I really do hope for...

Wish you well

[Tricky-Loops]

Maybe you should do something completely different? For example, playing with real instruments? Or playing with loops just for having fun and finding new creative combinations? Or listening to a different style of music (the world is big, there are hundreds of music genres)?

If you can't program presets, you could use some HGF synths and push the "Random" button...with them you could make millions of never heard sounds, atmospheres, textures - without clicking through boring presets...

[Lotuzia]

Oooo-kay. Might be post due to me being a bit depressive. But it's definitely worrying me. Maybe some of you as well.


I love synths, at some point, I even collected them. Since I come from hardware days, I'm also used to "one synth for one patch". Unless I have a multi-channel synth, but the obvious negative sideeffect is to record each channel separately.


Anyway...

I have more than a handful of synths on my HDD:
rgc:audio Z3TA, Novation V-Station, Prodyon Agonyx (not in use anymore), U-HE Tyrell Nexus 6, Ichiro Toda Synths 1, S.Kullmann's SQ8L, E-MU Proteus VX (since I also sport two hardware modules by EMU), several free stuff from mags like DUNE BE, the updated Waldorf stuff (though I do have the Steinberg Waldorf Edition as well), DiscoDSP Discovery and Phantom, Oatmeal, Atlantis, refx QuadraSID, videogame chip emulations (like Magic8bit and that Amstrad one), Steinberg's Halion Sonic SE,... and probably a lot more that I forgot.


I also have "real instrument" type VSTi like RealGuitar, Kontakt (I lost count of sample packs) and Jamstix - and I really wouldn't ditch them at all. They're definitely bread and butter stuff. I also love my E-MU XL-1 and my Yamaha MU-15, though they are rarely in use these days.


I have to admit, I'm a preset junkie, since I'm too stupid to create my own stuff and are rather an FX wizard. But comparing all these VSTi, all these synths... they all sound the same to me.

Almost all of them offer the same Bass, Lead and Pad sounds (OMG, blasphemy!), and most presets I find are usually aimed at the Trance genre only. Or Dubstep.

I was actually recently eyeing Omnisphere, maybe even XILS Lab Oxyum, Sugar Bytes Symplant. But... even here, I hear similar presets.


I had a longer ongoing discussion at a music fair with Urs Heckmann (U-HE) and company regarding "synths sounding similar", and he offered me to take a closer look at ZEBRA. I didn't, because - as mentioned earlier - I'm stupid in terms of programming. And preset browsing was all like "meh, again the same sounds". Same happened for me with Tyrell Nexus-6


I really don#t want to purge my folders. I love Synths 1, I recently updated V-Station to v2 (since it was free, so I can probably not sell it anymore), I love Z3TA's DnB presets (Dogs on Acid). I like QuadraSID for it's lofi bass and leads, I love the sound of SQ8L since I'm also a fan of Chris Huelsbeck's work (and the sound of the 80/90ies in general).


But... I don't see any light.

Especially with more and more interesting synths coming up - but I can not appreciate them.

Maybe I have the wrong presets, or I don't know what to do with the default ones. But I always catch myself going back to Synth 1, and if this doesn't help, I ditch everything and rather mess with Stylus RMX, some glitch tools and then some Kontakt based add-ons.



Am I alone with this?
How do you get out of this vicious cycle?

Well as you dont program presets I'd suggest that you invest some time in making the MOST of existing presets.

Try the Mod Wheel while playing, and aftertouch, and also the pitch bend + and - ( You mentioned Oxium and many different effects than pitch slide are affected in some presets of the factory library ) Try velocity. And also try to adpat at least a bit presets to track contest.

With this alone you'll discover a new world. No, actually several new worlds.

The maybe try a completely different synth, like NI FM8. It will refresh your ears for good.

Lastly I really dont know what muical genre you are interested in, but our soundbanks dont have the focus on dance or trance instruments. Maybe you can listen to some demos on our site, like the FM8 ones. Even if you dont buy any, maybe it will at least give you new ideas about synths instruments, or how to use them.

But first, in any case, yes take a couple of days without touching to your synths or daws, and looking at all the other extraordinary things in the world, like people, animals, landscapes. Let the desire of making muic slowly tempt then reach you again, and it will be back stronger than before

Hope this helps,

LtZ

[SODDI]

Nope, I'm saying that I think this is probably a purely physical phenomenon and possibly one that is only experienced within this computer synth demi monde.

The problem is prolonged exposure to high frequency sounds at relatively high amplitudes. In all of the resonances, sidebands, digital distortion, time related effects and more, all of the things we do to sound with these programs we use, we are generating enormous amounts of nearly inaudible high frequency sound at volumes that end up being pretty loud.

And I don't have any data on this, I'm just guessing, but I would be willing to bet that your standard prosumer computer audio interface is capable of putting out a much higher frequency than a similar analog audio device.

And that high-frequency GRZZZZ is in EVERYTHING. And sooner or later, it makes EVERYTHING sound the same. It wears your ears down.

4 hours a day of this kind of exposure might even be too much for some people. I end up taking frequent ear breaks just because of this. That's why I suggested 2 or 3 days off - to give those little hairs in your inner ear time to chill out.

Of course, I have no scientific data to back any of this up. Someone back me up here - do a spectral analysis of a VST intrument and see how much high frequency energy there is at the output. Then do 2 together and maybe a drum loop. I'm betting there's a lot of energy up there in that 15-20K range.

I'm reminded of glass harmonica players - it was conjectured that the frequency of those glass bowls rubbing against the players' fingers could affect the nervous system and cause them to go mad. "The harmonica excessively stimulates the nerves, plunges the player into a nagging depression and hence into a dark and melancholy mood that is apt method for slow self-annihilation. If you are suffering from any nervous disorder, you should not play it; if you are not yet ill you should not play it; if you are feeling melancholy you should not play it."

The bottom line, though, if you are working with any kind of electronic music YOU HAVE GOT TO PROTECT YOUR HEARING AT ALL COSTS.

[werp]

Regarding learning different synthesis Simon Cann's books are quite nice:

http://noisesculpture.com/how-to-make-a-noise

I bought Analog, FM and Sample for my Kindle app, even though I know most of it already, except for FM. Just to get some inspiration and maybe one or two eye openers.

Too cool!
I'm new at this stuff so I bought the lot.
Thanks for that link, much appreciated.

[goldenanalog]

[GeckoYamori]

I have a whole bunch of synths, but at the end of the day I mostly just stick with Synth1 for subtractive and FM8. The preset thing is most definitely true, but then that's simply supply and demand in action.

Best thing to do in your case would be to learn how synthesis works and just start constructing your own synths in Reaktor. There are so many cool functions you could easily do yet we almost never see them in cookie cutter synths. Like, why can't we control a LFO or PWM with an envelope, or just change the oscillators over time somehow?

[darsho]

@ OP: tldr,

can you post what your problem is in just one or two sentences ?

[Compyfox]

This whole thread is tl;dr.

Nah seriously:
Problem: sh*tton of synths (famous even), but they sound the same to me. I always catch myself going back to the same synth, and then hours of toying around with Loops and FX rather than being productive.



To get into the Q's a bit...
Learning synthesis might be an option, but it's a long process I simply can't do. I'm pretty much nested in one section (post pro) so I want to make music rather than fiddling around for hours to get a certain sound.


In terms of default soundsets:
Well, common names really - at least from back in the days, not necessarily the more current sound designers.



Then in terms of synths:
I noticed that almost all of them are subtractive and VA synths. Not necessarily Phantom, QuadraSID or The PPG Wave. But almost everything else I have. And since they're usually 2-4 OSC subtractive synths... maybe it's due to that, that they sound similar?



Finding new presets:
Well, first a response to Karten: listened to your stuff recently like what I hear. I might consider it. I also like the EDM stuff by designasound.com - and another one (was it producer sound) as well?

I'd love to be flexible in genres. I like chipsound material (if pulled off well), I do like good electronic, trip hop, trance, pop music, etc. I also like Rock of course, HipHop (oldschool and the so called "new school"). Heard a bit too much of Dubstep (so no FM8 or Massive for me, please). So I think it's really down to "how to use your presets, and how to extend them".



The thing is... I like all these critters. And I made a habit out of it "used in a demo track, buy the plugin". So I did. On top of the old thinking "one sound per synth". But currently, I can't imagine myself using more than 3-5 different synths for a project, on top of guitars, a drumkit (electric or acoustic) or loops and some special FX stuff.

Furthermore:
Tools like Alchemy are still intersting me, since I can use custom OSC for futher editing (still love HGF STS-21 for pads and athmos), I want to take a look at the new TX16" sampler (I pretty much ditched Wusikstation with v2, since I've never used it), then that XILS Lab stuff was recommended to me.



Maybe I'm just imagining the wrong music, or are way too long away from making music other than "mixing" it.

Maybe I should it like in one of those "FX" TV show episodes, where they showed two musicians heavily inspired by the Chemical Brothers and Crystal Method - ask someone to draw two cards out of a stack, with synth names written on it. Then only use "that" as limitation. (they used disks and said "choose two samples")




Thanks anyway for the kind suggestions.
I really only wanted to know if I'm along with this.

[spaceman]

Every synth using the same synthesis methods (and even different ones) will always sound similar, especially if it's all brought to life purely mathematically.

It's really down to the patches for me and also maybe a bit of functionality that can set it apart from other synths (a weird lfo or something). But the basic sound of these things, I agree, all sound pretty much the same to me.

[Numanoid]

And I don't have any data on this, I'm just guessing, but I would be willing to bet that your standard prosumer computer audio interface is capable of putting out a much higher frequency than a similar analog audio device.

I think you need to do some testing before putting forward such a hypothesis.

I agree that everybody should think about caring for their hearing, especially young people, but if analog devices are better or worse than digital in relation to that needs to be proved.

[trimph1]

I've been getting that a lot lately. A lot of things seem to me to be the same.

But I've attributed it to me having 'Old Man Syndrome'....

[JoeCat]

I think presets are the biggest problem.

When FAW's Circle was first released, many of the reviews liked the synth but complained about a lack of "usable presets", which I take to mean the presets expected for certain popular genres. But that misses the point of the synth - there are other synths which can do a much better job of creating those popular sounds, in part because they are the synths being used (Massive, Sylenth, etc.).

Plus there's always so much overlap. Zebra can probably do a close approximation of most of the sounds of a subtractive or wavetable synth (and them some), if you program it properly. There are tons of Moog emulations - all different but close enough to bore the crap out of someone who's "done" with that sound.

+1 to the Aalto and Symplant mentions, as far as synths that don't really sound like much else. Ditto a lot of the Reaktor stuff (I've gushed over Photone and Carbon here before):

[tetsuneko]

If you're bored and stuck with what you have, you need to "kill your darlings".

Forget the presets. If your chops are in the FX department, why not try making music with FX'ising field recordings and raw oscillator tones for example?

There are as many approaches to music making as there are musicians.. The way you talk about your music making processes make me think that you might just need to rediscover the way you make music - if you know what instruments and methods you are going to use to make todays' song before you even start, there's a very big chance that you're just repeating old habits. Repeating habits is hardly rewarding & exciting..?