Focus on a single synth

[djshire]

"Versatile" and "uncomplicated for an amateur" may be mutually exclusive. Synths that tend to fill many roles tend to be complicated for when you want to go beyond the basics. All the synths you listed can be deep and involved...if you want to be deep and involved. Most come with very good presets, so all you might have to do at the beginning is some tweaking here or there to get the sound you want.

If you want to learn synthesis, start small, learn how it works, experiment. Some of the best sounds I've made were purely from screwing around, not knowing what I was doing exactly, just an idea that I had.

And my vote is the usual, my workhorse synth, Predator.

[V0RT3X]

Zebra probably would be the best.

It's very versatile, it's easy to use. I mean you can make it as complex as you need and it really is a workzebra synth.

[arkmabat]

Z3ta+ 2 is $34 right now. Pretty versatile, especially for the price. http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/4 ... 562-Z3TA-2

[arkmabat]

Gonna throw sylenth1 in the mix.

One of the devs hinted at it going on sale soon (keeping my fingers crossed!) for their anniversary.

[julioelgenio]

Gonna throw sylenth1 in the mix.

One of the devs hinted at it going on sale soon (keeping my fingers crossed!) for their anniversary.

Where did you hear this, I would jump on this!

[Andurian]

Let me add a heterodox opinion. Unlike most plugins, a synth is something that can be quite nice *without* mastering.

Although it *is* a good idea to master a general use synth so you can design sounds from scratch, that's not the only way to do things.

For most of the life of synths, they were, as I expect you know, physical objects. And until recently, those physical objects wouldn't really let you design sounds from scratch.

What does that mean? It means that *gasp* everyone used presets! Because that's all there were.

Sure, people tweaked the presets on their synths, to pull some customness out of them. I'm not saying you shouldn't do *that* on a modern VST (or Kontakt instrument, or whatever) synth - you should. But unlike designing sounds, learning to tweak sounds requires only a minor time investment.

Even if you agree with me, you might wonder why not get a single synth and use *its* presets, and not worry about other synths. Two reasons - first, synths sound different. Diva and Massive, both fantastic synths, are night and day, for example. Second, most synths come with an amazing number of, and quality of, presets. Add in the free banks that you can get here (and elsewhere) and each new synth adds preset options at a price per preset that you can't come close to by buying add-on packs for your existing synth.

As I said, I think this isn't the most common opinion here - lots of people seem to think you have to create a new sound from scratch and, if "100% No Modern Talking" is the philosophy you want to put into action, bully for you. But the symphonic orchestra has been essentially using single preset instruments for hundreds of years, with great success.

[pewpewjigger]

wow, thanks you all for you replies...

Ok, so if I sum up (maybe it can help some other newbies):

- Massive : very good but a unusual GUI
- Synth1 : Good and low CPU, but maybe not the must powerful (maybe i'm wrong...)
- Sylenth 1 : Very good and versatile, maybe more complexe than Massive?
- Diva : Very good but gonna kill my CPU
- Zebra : Good, simple for basic but I can go deeper in it for more complexe sounds
- Zeta2 : Low price and versatile
- Synthmaster : Low CPU and a lot of ressources for learning
- Xils-lab Oxium : Interesting for modulations, good sound and can work for live perf.
- Twin 2 : Good simple synth

Let me add a heterodox opinion. Unlike most plugins, a synth is something that can be quite nice *without* mastering.

Although it *is* a good idea to master a general use synth so you can design sounds from scratch, that's not the only way to do things.

For most of the life of synths, they were, as I expect you know, physical objects. And until recently, those physical objects wouldn't really let you design sounds from scratch.

What does that mean? It means that *gasp* everyone used presets! Because that's all there were.

Sure, people tweaked the presets on their synths, to pull some customness out of them. I'm not saying you shouldn't do *that* on a modern VST (or Kontakt instrument, or whatever) synth - you should. But unlike designing sounds, learning to tweak sounds requires only a minor time investment.

Even if you agree with me, you might wonder why not get a single synth and use *its* presets, and not worry about other synths. Two reasons - first, synths sound different. Diva and Massive, both fantastic synths, are night and day, for example. Second, most synths come with an amazing number of, and quality of, presets. Add in the free banks that you can get here (and elsewhere) and each new synth adds preset options at a price per preset that you can't come close to by buying add-on packs for your existing synth.

As I said, I think this isn't the most common opinion here - lots of people seem to think you have to create a new sound from scratch and, if "100% No Modern Talking" is the philosophy you want to put into action, bully for you. But the symphonic orchestra has been essentially using single preset instruments for hundreds of years, with great success.

Andurian, I think these two approach can work together. Personnaly, I like a lot taking presets and tweak all parameters, knobs and effects when I begin a song. It's good for inspiration and find a theme/hook for the track. But after that, I imagine a new specific sound on it and I want this exact sound. So, I must create it from scratch because it's frustrating for me to hear a cool sound and not be abble to put it in my track.

PS : Again, I'm reeeally sorry for my english!

[pewpewjigger]

Hey,

I've just read this :

Practice practice practice.

Make a ton of shit songs.

Share shit songs and get feedback and listen to what some people say. If the people don't give constructive criticism then tell them to get f**ked. *Edit* actually probably not a good idea to make too many enemies in the industry..

Learn techniques from any kind of tutorial you can find and again.. practice..

So... maybe you can help my "in situ". Here is my first work: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Byqi8bJ ... em9wZU0/ed

I've got theses synth sounds in that track:

- The chords in the intro (witch sound a like a pad...): It's a massive from scratch sound : the sound is cold, dont know why... I tried to put a little saturation to get some warmness but don't work...
- The bass: damn, I can't do this, I even can't tell what's wrong, but something is wrong!
- The piano part: actually, it's a real piano played by my girlfriend with some editing (cutting, reversing some notes etc), lot of EQ and big delay. I'm pretty satisfied with this one.
- Other parts are essentially sampling of jazz / bossa tracks.

Some advices?

[stevemac]

Sylenth 1 gets my vote - sounds fantastic, layout is 'classic' so you'll get a good understanding of how the majority of substractive synths deliver their options, stacks of quality presets, stacks of tutorials online, has an arp, built in FX section (great to see 'what if I...' - even if you replace them with dedicated FX plugins later on), etc etc

[Loki Fuego]

I think ableton native synths (Operator and analog) can be very powerfull

I suggest you to stick with Operator and Analog for a while. You already have them so no need to buy new synths. I use both synths very often. Actually they were the first synths I really mastered.
Ableton's manual is very good at explaining how both synths operate:
https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/live- ... ce/#analog
https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/live- ... /#operator
If you learn those synth it will be much easier for you to learn new synths. Also you will find often it's much faster to load Analog or Operator and dial a sound you want than to do it in a VST synth. I usually turn to VST synth only when I need specific sound of that synth.

The interface might not be as pretty as some other synths, but it is consistent with other Ableton's synths and FX, so you get used to it very quickly.

[lovtscho]

Regarding your so far conclusion I would argument that the DIVA is a CPU killer because it is as cose to analog as it can get rightnow. I am pretty sure there are not many synths that can compete. So it does not fit into the list s good.

Massive is a flexible beast, but to me it is really hard to get into it.

Zebra would maybe also be in my checklist, as it can be as simple or as complicated as needed.

Regarding the others:
Synthmaster might be interesting and flexible
Z3ta sounds great, but i had some issues regarding stability when I tested it.
Synth 1: Dunno, but now there is a 64 bit version for free, so we should check it
Sylenth: Many people swear on it. I dunno, but personally I think I can do the stuff I need also with the other ones.
Oxium: I dunno
Twin: sounds good and you get the awesome filters with it as an audio effect, I think.

[V0RT3X]

Hey,

I've just read this :

Practice practice practice.

Make a ton of shit songs.

Share shit songs and get feedback and listen to what some people say. If the people don't give constructive criticism then tell them to get f**ked. *Edit* actually probably not a good idea to make too many enemies in the industry..

Learn techniques from any kind of tutorial you can find and again.. practice..

So... maybe you can help my "in situ". Here is my first work: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Byqi8bJ ... em9wZU0/ed

I've got theses synth sounds in that track:

- The chords in the intro (witch sound a like a pad...): It's a massive from scratch sound : the sound is cold, dont know why... I tried to put a little saturation to get some warmness but don't work...
- The bass: damn, I can't do this, I even can't tell what's wrong, but something is wrong!
- The piano part: actually, it's a real piano played by my girlfriend with some editing (cutting, reversing some notes etc), lot of EQ and big delay. I'm pretty satisfied with this one.
- Other parts are essentially sampling of jazz / bossa tracks.

Some advices?

Sorry m8 I never replied sooner. I tried clicking on your link but it says the file is removed.

I would still like to hear it ! Also I should point out that I am self-taught and still learning so much more so i can only offer so much credible advice. As far as song structure and stuff go I have very little formal music theory so I might not be the most qualified to answer any questions relating to structure and what not. However I feel somewhat qualified in letting you know what sounds melodically pleasing and captivating as I am a HUGE music addict and listen to many genres.

Also as far as technical stuff goes I have been around for a while and learned a ton about studio processes *Still learning a ton though* so If anything i'm more of a techie nerd than an actual musician.

Making music is pretty much my hobby and I couldn't quit it if i tried.

The reason I said you should pick Zebra is pretty simple. It is capable of extremely high quality sounds and can sound quite warm even though it does not attempt to emulate the VCO's and VCA's of old *Get Diva for that*. Honestly in the beginning I did not like Zebra, because it sounded too clean (I demoed it before it got the distortion module) and all the presets were fun but they just didn't capture the sounds i had in my head.

I then got into learning synthesis and once I understood how to make certain sounds in Zebra my head pretty much exploded at how much power i had available at my fingertips. I also own Bazille, Reaktor, Synthsquad and Massive as well but I love Zebra for it's versatile ability to sit in a mix and its uncanny ability to do most of the crazy sounds I want. Dialing up a sound in Zebra once you understand it's workflow is fairly quick and the results sound great with very little CPU usage!

Native Instruments Massive is great but I could not see myself using it all over a mix so I often mix and match the sounds from my other synthesizers to get the best. It took me a while to "listen" to all the subtle differences in each synth I own, but I think I found a nice balance that sounds nice and does not kill my computer while composing complex projects.

Try using the saturation in Massive very subtly and then use the EQ to cut off a bit of the high frequencies if you find it too bright and digital sounding. Also if you find the sound itself is too static then add some subtle animation with the modulation by modulating the phase and pitch of the oscillators.

The trick to understanding how to emulate a warm analog sound with a digital synthesizer is knowing how analog synthesis works. Once you hear the subtle variations it's far easier to approximate with the right tools! This is why i have a tendancy to like modular and semi-modular synthesizer plugins! Of course you can just get a plugin like Diva, Synthsquad, etc too.

It takes a bit of technical know-how but it's worth it!

[srv-musikmaker]

Sometimes I just focus on just synth1 (with external fx) and I'm pleasantly surprised. It's so easy for me

[BlurMyReality]

Sylenth1 all the way - it's easy to use, sounds GREAT and it's light on CPU. What more could one ask for?

[V0RT3X]

Sylenth1 all the way - it's easy to use, sounds GREAT and it's light on CPU. What more could one ask for?

PWM, Wavetable synthesis, FM, Comb Filter.. etc etc lol