KVR Audio

Scotty · Post by **Scotty** » Fri Jan 01, 2016 11:43 pm

Software Synths that sound alive to me are:

Monark by Native Instruments
Vox by Arturia (you have to hear the efx type sounds)
SEM by Arturia
MATRIX by Arturia
Lounge Lizard by AAS
Retrologue by Steinberg

gaf_thit · Post by **gaf_thit** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 12:53 am

Got to mention Psychic Modulation's Phonec here. Very characterful and inspiring imo.
http://www.psychicmodulation.com/phonec.html

64-bit version in development.
One synth that has inspired me often, is Reaktor Prism. Something about it that makes me feel like playing an instrument, instead of processed code. Just a feeling, you know

Want to try Diva too.

Edit: Just remember that I wanted to mention kx77free here too:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... &p=6342094
Amazing work to say the least.

musikmachine · Post by **musikmachine** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 1:35 am

Without a point of reference it's hard to know exactly what the OP means but the since from about 2:40 here is what i'd call 'alive'. I know it's using white noise and modulation with fx but the overall timbre is organic and alive to my ears. It's the same with basses used in a lot these types tracks, the synths have to carry the tracks as they are giving it the emotional depth.

Oh, and don't forget the fish option!

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 2:12 am

NI Kontour can give you some real action, movement. Even a bit of chaos, once I hadn't checked the render before sharing and the result was not what I had heard in playback, it was bizarre. Enough moving parts and a soft synth can be like a modular, where you unplug it, next time you fire it up that effect is history. And it took so long to bake it, and I'll never have that recipe again...

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 2:17 am

Reaktor Spark is made for the kind of dynamic action of real instruments, say wind and brass; such as the blast of an attack, and 'spit', via its feedback paradigm.

Ed A. · Post by **Ed A.** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 2:31 am

Madronalabs Aalto, AAS Chromaphone, Logic Sculpture

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 3:14 am

musikmachine wrote:Oh, and don't forget the fish option!

That's cheating. Fish are alive. The ones that aren't dead, anyway.

Mutant · Post by **Mutant** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 3:46 am

There are few sound design techniques i use to make soft synths sound closer to the old hardware.
1. A tiny amount of very slow random LFO on main pitch (every voice has its own independent random LFO) - this simulates the analog drift.
2. Good old equalization - real hardware is both low and high passed independently of its filters, coincidentally the frequency range is closer to the frequency range of human hearing and because of this, the sound is perceived as more powerful (no, i will not use the 3 letter F word here).
3. Noise at about -60 dB for very old synth sounds and -80 dB for modern analog synth sounds.
4. Tube/Tape saturation.

Also instead of boosting low frequencies with EQ, i like setting key tracked negative volume response to make low notes naturally louder.

If your synth can do all the above, it will sound like analog hardware and no one will be able to tell the difference.

electro · Post by **electro** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 5:11 am

Mutant wrote:There are few sound design techniques i use to make soft synths sound closer to the old hardware..

You could also just add a Nebula line amp program after your softsynth. Try VSF from AlexB

MogwaiBoy · Post by **MogwaiBoy** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 12:02 pm

The default patch in Phonec

fluffy_little_something · Sat Jan 02, 2016 4:56 pm

Mutant wrote:Also instead of boosting low frequencies with EQ, i like setting key tracked negative volume response to make low notes naturally louder.

I do that with all pads and similar sounds as usually I only play one bass note at a time, while 2 to 4 notes higher up on the keyboard. When every note is equally loud, the bass is simply too weak.

Generally speaking, my impression is that older hardware synths sounded less bright. And I have noticed that some soft synths also don't go beyond 16 kHz or so, maybe to reflect that because technically it should not be any problem to go all the way to 20 kHz or higher.

Scotty · Post by **Scotty** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 5:45 pm

I agree the older synths seem to have a darker tone to them but I suspect that has something to do with aging electronics as much as deliberate design.

Mutant · Post by **Mutant** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:32 pm

Scotty wrote:I agree the older synths seem to have a darker tone to them but I suspect that has something to do with aging electronics as much as deliberate design.

Maybe you are right when it comes to really old synths, but from my research on more modern analogs, it appears that there are some ways their designers use to limit higher frequencies too (not only narrower range of the filter frequency knob).
For example look at this page and download the set of Moog Sub37 waves:
http://dsiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=6118
Just for fun, few months ago i decided to match the saw with a freeware VSTi synth Xhip:
https://app.box.com/s/xyf8t0lhlukaais4pmsz9bgfg4b8ng5r
First half is Xhip, second half is Sub37, had to set 24dB filter on Xhip to 8.14Khz to match the frequency spectrum curve.

BDeep · Post by **BDeep** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 10:19 pm

Scotty wrote:I agree the older synths seem to have a darker tone to them but I suspect that has something to do with aging electronics as much as deliberate design.

A comment way too sensible to be allowed on this forum.

musikmachine · Post by **musikmachine** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 10:26 pm

Meffy wrote:
musikmachine wrote:Oh, and don't forget the fish option!
That's cheating. Fish are alive. The ones that aren't dead, anyway.

The are anyway until they are served with chips on a plate. There's a metaphor in there somewhere.

Soft synths that really sound 'alive'