KVR Audio

musical android · Post by **musical android** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 3:34 pm

Have been thinking about this lately and it is hard to say what is preferable but say that you could only buy hardware for around 2000 euros/dollars but could only spend either 300 euros/dollars on effects and the rest on a synthesizer (with no effects) or the opposite. No computer but you would have the possibility to sequence and record on the island.

Personally think that I lean to a cheaper synthesizer and the rest for effects...
But am curious what people think and would love to hear the opinion of a someone working with electronic music professionally for a longer time...
It kind of got triggered by reading in the SOS synthesizer secrets regarding filters and the importance they have on sound and that it is the filter that give these iconic synthesizers the sound they are famous for.
That if you had a for example a Korg synth going into a Moog filter the characteristics would be that of a Moog and the opposite. Do not believe this to be entirely true but then again do not have a lot of experience with Hardware synthesizers or paid too much attention working with what I got.
In either case if this is true it would be worth to just get the filter in the end?

So what is your opinions?

bluedad · Post by **bluedad** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 3:37 pm

I remember in the 80's playing a DX7 in the store, and being amazed.
Bought one, got it home and was kind of disappointed that sound wasn't quite the same.
Amazing what a little reverb/chorus can do.
i vote for fx

cryophonik · Post by **cryophonik** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 3:45 pm

I stay away from desert islands. Problem solved.

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:26 pm

FX > synths. I've made tracks with just samples + FX, just sines + FX, just mda ePiano + FX.

Even with just a violin bridge pickup, a plastic bottle half full of water, one of those 80s radios that tuned in TV channel audio (and more interesting things in between), + an Alesis MicroVerb, and tape editing.

I have not yet made one without FX since the days when SoundFonts were high tech, and that's really not something I want to revisit.

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:27 pm

bluedad wrote:Bought one, got it home and was kind of disappointed that sound wasn't quite the same.
Amazing what a little reverb/chorus can do.

I did the same with an RX-17. It sounded so much cooler with the store's big amp and its built-in reverb than it did dry.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:30 pm

For me it is a simple choice: A bit of delay, reverb, phaser, and chorus will make even the crappiest synth sound decent.

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:41 pm

Recently I figured out that the synth doesn't matter, good use of FX can make any arbitrary sound or sample work great.

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:04 pm

Can I have a boat instead?

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 8:46 pm

Or a nice hotel?

el-bo (formerly ebow) · Mon Jun 22, 2015 8:50 pm

[raises] FX [/ hand]

Would you prefer a good synthesizer and hardly no effects or vice versa in a desert island scenario?