All synths sound the same to me now...

[rcat]

I know how the OP feels. For me, the problem isn't the variety (or lack of) presets, it's the lack of subtle, random ("random" being the key aspect) overtones per individual notes or chords that are naturally present in real instruments. All synths that used to sound thrilling and exciting to me are now sounding rather "harsh and cold", even those that claim to emulate a "warm", "analog" sound accurately. Even playing around with mod wheels and such doesn't cut it with me anymore. Eventually, I'll probably go back to my guitar for the most part, and use synths for a little added background "spice".

[Tricky-Loops]

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

Better do something completely different with them::lol:

[Trakstar]

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

Better do something completely different with them::lol:

[VitaminD]

Reading is a lot of work when it comes to synthesis and programming sounds..


Perhaps an easier option would be to pick a synth (simplier the better -- I like Synth1 for this), roam through the patches for this synth, and then pick the patches that catch your ear apart one by one; disable oscillators.. filters.. re-enabling them one by one and playing them back to get an ear for what is doing what and why...

Change the waveforms of one OSC and blend it with another over and over.. load different modulation options.

And modulation is where a lot of sound design lays/lies.. Let the Envelopes and LFOs be your friend. You don't have to learn it ALL at once. So don't look at the tall wall of sound design and let it overwhelm you.


Since it is software, you can't break anything, and can always revert back to square one easily. So don't be afraid to experiment.



ANYONE with ears who can hear pitch can program a synth.

[Compyfox]

Well this is my problem. Sometimes I have a specific sound layed out in my head, but I can't create it in synth form.

Omnisphere and Alchemy both come with ton of great sounds, but I ask myself "do I really need another synth?".

[Dean Aka Nekro]

[Trakstar]

Well this is my problem. Sometimes I have a specific sound layed out in my head, but I can't create it in synth form.

Omnisphere and Alchemy both come with ton of great sounds, but I ask myself "do I really need another synth?".

simply choose your best one and stick at it until you get what you want, practise makes perfect as they say.

[Trakstar]

[quote="Dean Aka Nekro"][/quote


nice, might get one of those hand recorders for some nature or ambient field sound recordings

[musikmachine]

Well this is my problem. Sometimes I have a specific sound layed out in my head, but I can't create it in synth form.

Omnisphere and Alchemy both come with ton of great sounds, but I ask myself "do I really need another synth?".

Yes if the synths you have aren't giving you what you want but maybe don't look at adding more synths to the pile, replace the ones that are superfluous.

[Dean Aka Nekro]

They are perfect for just that and more typical applications (which was a really nice bonus surprise). Zoom done good with them

Guaranteed fun Trakstar mate

OTOT even though I have not done so myself, Chop up whatever sound(s) one fancies and use them in any synth that lets you use samples as oscillators. Crazy little random percussion kits with some slicing and processing...etc.

Was using mine for regular stuff like tracking rehersals/practices, Using it as a room mic and such until chatting with vurt about the mighty power of the Zoom H stuff. vurt's words opened up my mind some and its even more cool as I'm not a synth man at all to be honest but with that and some material recorded I can make a noise like it might of come from a synth

Thanks vurt dude

[SODDI]

Well, this is rapidly becoming OT for me to continue, but I did do a limited investigation, recorded flat un-effected tracks in Cubase with a couple of NI synths, pulled up a spectrogram in Audity. Recorded 4 discrete pulses of each at C3, 120 bpm, 0 level.

Absynth was the scariest. The "Big Crunch" patch came off the synth way too hot at 0 level, distorting and clipping until I dropped the level by about 25%. The analysis showed that there was a bunch of energy (-84db) above 20K (the basic upper limit of human hearing)to about 24K. I have no idea how loud those high frequencies would have been if I didn't drop the level. I will need to be very careful with this synth.

Reaktor, Laserbass ensemble, "Laser Bass" patch. I was very happy to see that in this patch all frequencies cut off cleanly at about 11.25K. But I will be very careful with other other Reaktor ensembles.

Massive, the "Acid Stage" patch - high end tapers off from -48db at 15K to -60 db @ 24K. A lot of energy up there in the inaudible ranges.

Just remember that while -84db or -60db may not be very loud on its own, it is a component combined with other frequencies at their various amplitudes.

So I was wrong and I was right - I expected to see higher amplitudes between 15K to 20K, but what I saw instead was, on 2 out of 3 NI synths, lots of energy in the normally inaudible ranges.

So that's why my dog liked to hang out in my studio with me - I was playing music for her!

[zerocrossing]

Of course synths are going to come with presets that most closely match either the developer's tastes or the prevailing styles of synth sounds and classic synth sounds. If you're lucky the developer has a wide range, but more often than not it's part of an instrument's marketing. The key is to either learn the synth and program them to sound the way you want, or buy 3rd party sets that may be more adventurous.

[ntom]

...snip...

Okay, didn't read all posts up to now so I don't know where the conversation stands as of now, but i thought I would put in my own two cents.

First off, I am kind of experiencing something of a similar nature. Althought it all mostly has to do with my go-to-synth, Synth 1 (go figure...). It's been sounding rather tin-ny lately, but looking back at all the patches suddenly I realize that tin-niness has always been there. And it's so incredibly subtle that I think maybe it's all in my mind. Either way the sound seems slightly like degraded audio quality. But I keep going to the synth because it's pretty much the only synth I can confidently create a patch from scratch on.

Anyways, you're not entirely alone on this. Maybe dip your feet into other waters. I have personally found my love in "live" or "acoustic" instruments (whatever you want to call them) - so personally using Kontakt banks (if only I owned it...) would be plenty fine by me! But find what you enjoy doing. The music I write is fairly different from the music I enjoy listening to, and I think it could be the same with the taste of instruments used. Sure you may like creative sounding synthesis, but perhaps you might just enjoy using sample libraries instead for your music?

Or as one person recommended try using instruments from developers whose name hasn't popped up in any of your other synths. Personally one synth that I will be purchasing soon is Synplant. I don't know how to describe it; but something about every sound I seemed to be able to "grow" out of it feels so....warm, and organic (no pun intended), to me, not only is the interface different than other synths, but I feel like the sounds it can create may only have a nuance of a difference than other synths, but it's enough to make it stand out.

[Aroused by JarJar]

Dear Original Poster,

there is nothing wrong with you. You're just having a Matrix king of moment:

most synth sounds do in fact sound very much more like each other than they sound different.

say hi to everybody and take care,

AbJJ

[Compyfox]

Oh, a deja vu! *cough*


Nah seriously... I love and use Kontakt, I also recently went back to using more "real" instruments (read: samples of them) like drums, guitar, strings, piano and the linking.

I'm still thinking though... something is either missing (the right patches), or one synth. There is always one additional synth missing. But let's not go there.

Still don't know what to think of Omnisphere - cool concept, but I can't use my own samples. Alchemy, I can only use short samples in SFZ form as OSC.



I think I really need to go back to FX mangling after I found a somewhat fitting preset. And for this, I can pretty much stick to one synth. Or two at max.

I was recently digging throught he "Sound & Recording" magazine special "Hitbaukasten" (hit sandbox), and I was surprised how simple certain productions are in terms of used sounds, yet they were successful on the market (boring is a different issue though).



Maybe I am thinking too complicated, or want to be similar as my icons. But I think "less is more" does apply to synths, as it does apply to FX.