KVR Audio

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:12 pm

Zebra is extremely simple for the depth it has.

mcnelson · Post by **mcnelson** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:29 pm

xamido wrote:FAW Circle. Everything is so easy and intuitive with that synth. You can drag n drop everything everywhere with a nice and simple gui. You should try the demo.

+1. Criminally overlooked.

porps · Post by **porps** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:54 pm

thanks for the ideas.. I'm just looking over a few youtube vids for each one then i'll try the demos later.. front runners atm are zebra and firebird 2 (i started on buzz back in the day so the modular nature of zebra is actually a desirable thing to me)

george · Post by **george** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 3:08 pm

Try Discovery Pro, there are plenty of video tutorials at our YouTube channel too.

http://www.discodsp.com/discoverypro/

highkoo · Post by **highkoo** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 3:09 pm

You had to mention Synplant while Magnus is off working on..
other things.

Synths that give 'visual feedback' are the most important thing for learnin teh noobz, imo.
For someone who is completely new to the concepts, that is a huge help.
So synths like Massive and Circle to me are easy contenders.
I think that visual feedback makes it easier for the noob to learn, and to get what they want, and thus be more pleased and apt to learn more, etc.
Also, Massive continues to be pretty fun..
I def dont have as much "fun" programming any other synth.
I really wish it had wav loading options like Z...

While Zebra is simple to someone who knows even basics, there is no way Id hand it to a complete noob, even with tfm. To be honest, its gui often feels wonky to me and I know it well.
On the other hand, I think Zebralette is one of the finest 'simple' synths ever, ever.
Its the perfect lead into Zebra2, and its free.
If I were teaching itd be probably the second or third lesson after 'OSC>Filter>Amp'.

hagever · Post by **hagever** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 3:13 pm

highkoo wrote: On the other hand, I think Zebralette is one of the finest 'simple' synths ever, ever.
Its the perfect lead into Zebra2, and its free.
If I were teaching itd be probably the second or third lesson after 'OSC>Filter>Amp'.

I am glad you mentioned Zebralette. It is very simple and yet powerful. I really like how flexible and versatile it actually is. Moreover, it is free of charge and very light on the CPU.

UncleAge · Post by **UncleAge** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 3:44 pm

I'm no heavy-weight when it comes to synth programming. I still find it difficult to get anything worthwhile out of additive synthesis. However the two I have found the easiest to approach were Zebralette and Alchemy. Thus I'd cast my vote for Zebra and Alchemy.

Also, an honorable mention for FF's Twin2. Incredibly intuitive interface and I would recommend it to anyone new to synth programming. However, I do not think it is as deep as the two mentioned above.

porps · Post by **porps** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 3:50 pm

highkoo wrote:You had to mention Synplant while Magnus is off working on..
other things.

Why, who is magnus? I'm guessing the guy who made it?
I know theres people asking for the same thing on the soniccharge forum so hopefully it doesnt fall on deaf ears

I'm not new to the concepts and i wouldnt consider myself to be a beginner (ameteur but not beginner). Been at this in one form or another since i got screamtracker on an amiga magazine cover disk many many years ago. Even so, some of the more full featured synths can be daunting at first.

I really am erring towards zebra, the only thing holding me back is that due to it's modular nature i'll probably need to set up an automap (zero sl mk2) everytime i use it rather than having a go-to template. Minor inconvenience i suppose.

Theres a lot of ideas here and not a lot to choose between them all, so i'm definately going to have demo everything before making a decision... just watching a discodsp video and it sounds great :s Not making my choice any easier!

liquid wind · Post by **liquid wind** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:01 pm

Zebra is definitely the first thing that comes to my mind, haven't gotten it yet myself but even just using the demo mode it seems like I can get good sounds out of it really quickly, real life interfering with my hobbies is probably the only reason it hasn't replaced half of my other synths

Harmor also kind of fits this description though it can get very complicated, you can treat it like a basic subtractive synth at first with a few new options that subtractive synths don't have, but then you can also go under the hood and map envelopes, LFO's, key mapping, velocity scaling etc to just about every parameter and even draw custom filter shapes

bill45 · Post by **bill45** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 4:56 am

Arturia minimoog v and sem v, are easy to use and sound great.

jonahs · Post by **jonahs** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:48 am

porps wrote: Oh i also already have synplant which is just amazing (but such a dissapointment when you realise that the gene parameters cant be controlled via midi cc and therefore cant be automated either).

http://compusition.com/web/articles/hacking-synplant

Also, aalto.

erickUO · Post by **erickUO** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:05 am

try vember audio surge

porps · Post by **porps** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 4:42 pm

jonahs wrote:
porps wrote: Oh i also already have synplant which is just amazing (but such a dissapointment when you realise that the gene parameters cant be controlled via midi cc and therefore cant be automated either).
http://compusition.com/web/articles/hacking-synplant

Also, aalto.

Thanks but i cant seem to get that to work. Was really excited when i saw it too but i still cant midi learn gene controls and if i move them with the mouse while recording cubase still doesnt record the automation

Am pretty much settled on zebra though, it's a beast and i must have it now :p

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 4:50 pm

erickUO wrote:try vember audio surge

+1 with Zebra.
Surge is just too good!

highkoo · Post by **highkoo** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:20 pm

porps wrote:
jonahs wrote:
porps wrote: Oh i also already have synplant which is just amazing (but such a dissapointment when you realise that the gene parameters cant be controlled via midi cc and therefore cant be automated either).
http://compusition.com/web/articles/hacking-synplant

Also, aalto.
Thanks but i cant seem to get that to work. Was really excited when i saw it too but i still cant midi learn gene controls and if i move them with the mouse while recording cubase still doesnt record the automation
Am pretty much settled on zebra though, it's a beast and i must have it now :p

Yeah as far as I have seen, that 'hack' only allows access to certain things, and none of them are the gene parameters. It does imply that it is possible though. Maybe no real code guys have had a whack at it.

That hack implies that Synplant was built with forward thinking architecture that planned for updates/changes/mods. Maybe it was built with MIDI totally locked out of the genes, but that doesnt seem to go along with the future-proofed concept.

But the implication that mods are not only possible but theoretically easy and that they were planned for is basically why I made the crack about Magnus. He has been porting Bitspeek for the Props. Good for him, good for business, dont get me wrong. But Synplant is dying for an update. If it were automatable it would become something exponentially greater than it already is for me. Synplant+PS2 controller. Not so productive, but...

(There have been some other mod experiments. I think something called 'Thorns' was floating around.)
edit-
Yep, looks like Jobromedia did it with blessing from Magnus.
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3443944
Links are all dead.

Im sure I have it around if its lost.

easy to program synths with hidden depth