Addiction synth: best learning synth?

[urlwolf]

http://www.stagecraftsoftware.com/produ ... tionsynth/

I usedan oscilloscope and analyzer to learn about sound before. A bit of a pain to set up, plus many windows floating. This synth has it built in.

If syntorial would use this, I'd be in heaven

[rod_zero]

The filter moving is nice, but FAW circle shows envelopes, LFO's and sequencers running and overall has a better interface. For teaching Circle would be my choice, no contest.

Syntorial would benefit from a better UI in their synth (as Circle or Fabfilter Twin2), but as it is it's quite fantastic.

[Naenyn]

+1 for Syntorial and Circle both. I've been going through Syntorial and am just about done with it. Circle is definitely good at visualizing envelopes in particular.

Stagecraft's synth does look like it is nicely visual though. Maybe I'll have to give it a try. Their delay is pretty nice for a simple effect.

[Greg Houston]

Serum would be another good choice, though you can't beat the price on Addiction Synth, on sale for $27.30 at Plugin Boutique at the moment. I'm not sure about Circle. It didn't seem very intuitive as a whole from my brief demo with it.

Edit: Disregard my comment about Circle. I was thinking of Cycle.

[Numanoid]

With the name Addiction, I thought it maybe was an additive synth, but is substractive only?

It's on sale at Plugin Boutique at the mo, costing £17,5 ($26,5)

[Timman]

Nice but...why do they have to put those angled screenshoots? I want to see the actual interface, not tilt my head trying to figure out what it is.

[wagtunes]

That's not a bad sounding synth and it appears to be very easy to use.

[Numanoid]

Nice but...why do they have to put those angled screenshoots? I want to see the actual interface, not tilt my head trying to figure out what it is.

Wonder if there are many sub-menus?

[urlwolf]

Eclipis is also pretty nice. The only downside is that it's not a one page synth.
Fabfilter Twin2 I own, and I kind of love but never use it. The oscs are not that great sounding, and the modulation gets kind of messy.

A great way to represent modulation is what Diversion does: draws a cricle around the knob that is being modulated. I wish more synths had that. Of course you have to go to the mod matrix to see what exactly is modulating the knob, but still better than nothing. This beats hardware by miles!

[Greg Houston]

A great way to represent modulation is what Diversion does: draws a cricle around the knob that is being modulated.

Massive, Razor, and Serum are some others. It's one of my favorite workflow features as well.

[mike the mental]

in Synth Squad when you mouse over any control it highlights the modulator attached to it (if there is one)

when you mouse over the modulators, the controls they are operating get highlighted and shows you the modulation range

pretty cool way to show modulation IMO

[mike the mental]

in my opinion its better to learn synthesis on a more traditional GUI

[BlackWinny]

in my opinion its better to learn synthesis on a more traditional GUI

Yes. And very simple. When one learns the principles of something, there must not be anything which could disturb the mind... and also in the experiments there must not be anything which could introduce a confusion. For example knobs which are of no use in the learning period.

There are many, many, many freewares which are very simple and excellent to learn the subtractive synthesis (which is always the first to learn, because 90% of the essential which will be yet available in the other synthesis... is learned in this one).

For the synthesis itself:

• 2 VCO having 3 or 4 of the classical waveforms (sorted by importance: saw, square, triangle, sine)
• 1 LFO
• 1 VCF LP/(optionally HP)
• 1 or 2 ADSR envelopes
• 1 VCA
• Optional: 1 noise source
• Optional: 1 PWM feature
• Optional: 1 RM feature

That's all. And all that being shown in the most traditional way because the purpose is to learn. And some features are here cited as optional because they can be learned after the principles, they don't take part to the main things to imperatively know as early as the beginning.

And for the learning of the main effects (these effects being embedded or added by another freeware, and anyway they will be learned AFTER the essential principles of the synthesis itself):

• A delay
• A reverb
• An EQ
• A chorus
• A phaser
• A flanger

Some freewares synth which are very simple but of high quality and therefore all match perfectly these criteria to learn the synthesis:

• Charlatan
• Logana
• MinimogueVA
• Phutura
• Square I
• TAL-BassLine (the free edition)
• TAL-Elek7ro
• TAL-U-No-62 (the free edition)
• Twin Bass

At the output of the synth I would put a very simple analyzer which shows the look of the signal along the experiments. Something in the kind of

• Signal Analyzer from RS-Met

And to learn the modulations by a matrix (a common variation on the presentation, the synthesis itself being exactly the same) here are other excellent very simple freeware subtractive synths presenting the modulations by a matrix, but I would recommend to progress with them AFTER having learned the principles with those above to not be disturbed):

• Free Alpha (for example)

And about the learning of the additional effect, simply the installation of the Melda Freeware Pack. It contains all the traditional effects, very simple to use, and each effect contains the graphical curve which allows to learn what makes the effect on the signal.

It's just need to choose only one synth among these above, at your feeling concerning its look, and here you go to learn the synthesis!

Why suggest synths having complex GUI and lots of features having no use and being disturbing just by their presence... when it is to learn? The guy who learns will have later all the time and ability to choose more complex synths.

And all that costs... not a cent!

[tommyzai]

I recently picked this up and will dive in. It's very inviting, not intimidating. Hopefully there is a beast hidden beneath the peaceful interface. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the "best learning synth." We will see!

[layzer]

in my opinion its better to learn synthesis on a more traditional GUI

Yes. And very simple. When one learns the principles of something, there must not be anything which could disturb the mind... and also in the experiments there must not be anything which could introduce a confusion. For example knobs which are of no use in the learning period.

There are many, many, many freewares which are very simple and excellent to learn the subtractive synthesis (which is always the first to learn, because 90% of the essential which will be yet available in the other synthesis... is learned in this one).

For the synthesis itself:

• 2 VCO having 3 or 4 of the classical waveforms (sorted by importance: saw, square, triangle, sine)
• 1 LFO
• 1 VCF LP/(optionally HP)
• 1 or 2 ADSR envelopes
• 1 VCA
• Optional: 1 noise source
• Optional: 1 PWM feature
• Optional: 1 RM feature

That's all. And all that being shown in the most traditional way because the purpose is to learn. And some features are here cited as optional because they can be learned after the principles, they don't take part to the main things to imperatively know as early as the beginning.

And for the learning of the main effects (these effects being embedded or added by another freeware, and anyway they will be learned AFTER the essential principles of the synthesis itself):

• A delay
• A reverb
• An EQ
• A chorus
• A phaser
• A flanger

Some freewares synth which are very simple but of high quality and therefore all match perfectly these criteria to learn the synthesis:

• Charlatan
• Logana
• MinimogueVA
• Phutura
• Square I
• TAL-BassLine (the free edition)
• TAL-Elek7ro
• TAL-U-No-62 (the free edition)
• Twin Bass

At the output of the synth I would put a very simple analyzer which shows the look of the signal along the experiments. Something in the kind of

• Signal Analyzer from RS-Met

And to learn the modulations by a matrix (a common variation on the presentation, the synthesis itself being exactly the same) here are other excellent very simple freeware subtractive synths presenting the modulations by a matrix, but I would recommend to progress with them AFTER having learned the principles with those above to not be disturbed):

• Free Alpha (for example)

And about the learning of the additional effect, simply the installation of the Melda Freeware Pack. It contains all the traditional effects, very simple to use, and each effect contains the graphical curve which allows to learn what makes the effect on the signal.

It's just need to choose only one synth among these above, at your feeling concerning its look, and here you go to learn the synthesis!

Why suggest synths having complex GUI and lots of features having no use and being disturbing just by their presence... when it is to learn? The guy who learns will have later all the time and ability to choose more complex synths.

And all that costs... not a cent!

+1 Charlatan
+1 Tal Elektro