Semi-Beginner $100 Synth?

[zenophilix]

Hey all. I'm new.

I've been working on getting into electronic music production, mainly interested in genres such as EDM, Dubstep, HipHop/BoomBap, Tribal/Electro Fusion type music(Think Beats Antique), and I've been having trouble with some of the free VSTs out there. There are a few gems out there, but ultimately none of them have been able to live up to some of the sounds I hear from well-known paid synths like Serum or Massive.

So, I decided to look into some of the cheaper paid synths, hoping I can find a better sound. I've allocated about $100 to spend, but I can't go much higher. I'm 16 years old, and due to various complications to do with family/location, I'm unable to get a job yet. I enjoy producing music, so I feel that I could possibly earn a bit of money from it.

I heard good things about KVR, so I figured this might be a good place to look for answers. I'm also not limiting myself to only softsynths, if there is an inexpensive physical synth, or any other piece of software/equipment that could be useful, or even a really good free VST, then I'm open to that aswell. Thanks in advance.


Edit: The following is what I've demoed over the last couple months:
Lennard Sylenth1
u-he Hive
u-he Zebra 2
Reveal Sound Spire
Synapse Dune II
Cakewalk Z3TA+ II
Rob Papen Predator
BeepStreets Sunrizer
NI Razor
NI Monark
MuLabs MUX
AIR Hybrid 3

[Zexila]

Which DAW do you use?

[zenophilix]

Which DAW do you use?

Oops, sorry.

I use Studio One Artist, came free with my AudioBox USB.(The standard AudioBox, not the 22VSL)
I also use Live 7.0.18, which technically belongs to my father but he lets me use one of the licenses on my computer, but Studio One fits my workflow better overall. The Artist version of S1 doesn't allow me to use my own VSTs, but that's why I still switch between DAWs. I can't really justify spending $80 to unlock VST capability in S1 when I can easily bounce my synths between DAWs.

Appreciate the quick reply, by the way.

[Michael L]

You 'll get lotsa suggestions, so mine is to listen to tracks produced in the kvr One Synth Challenge which often uses free or inexpensive synths, and find one you like, and/or join a OSC.

[zenophilix]

You 'll get lotsa suggestions, so mine is to listen to tracks produced in the kvr One Synth Challenge which often uses free or inexpensive synths, and find one you like, and/or join a OSC.

Thanks! I'll take a look at that today

[george]

Check ours. Having a nice sale right now too

http://www.discodsp.com/

[Zexila]

Gotcha

Well, guess you checked out Synth1 with huge amount of presets already?

If you aren't into own sound design that much, you will have harder time for sure getting most of the sounds anyway, but there's plenty of tutorials on You Tube and 3rd party offerings, so picking some popular synth could be winning ticket.

There's second hand Market Place here, shop there for sure, think you can get Massive for the buck

viewforum.php?f=43

Second hand Sylenth1 or Hive could do it too, be sure to check demos out.

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/sylent ... nardigital
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/hive-by-u-he

Also, on other hand, there's MuX, on long run if you are interested in sound design, this could be just it or even better, there's MuLab DAW which have MuX integrated as core of it, so you can even kill two flies if you like the DAW for the price, be sure to check that out.

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/mux-mo ... by-mutools
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/mulab-by-mutools

You 'll get lotsa suggestions, so mine is to listen to tracks produced in the kvr One Synth Challenge which often uses free or inexpensive synths, and find one you like, and/or join a OSC.

Agree

[e@rs]

Can't think of a better EDM synth for a beginner than Rob Papen Predator-PL. Available only at Sweetwater for just $59. It's a rompler version of the mighty Predator with 4400 presets and a few controls to tweak.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PredatorPL

Review:

[rod_zero]

You can get massive second hand here in the market place, 99 would be a fair price for it because that is what NI sells it for at black friday.

Right now there is also some sales at NI site of other synths, among them there is Largo by Waldorf, it is an excelent synth you should check it out.

[zenophilix]

Check ours. Having a nice sale right now too
~snip~

Gotcha, looks like a good selection. Downloading the Phantom demo at the moment, I won't be able to test out much else right now(My connection is garbage). Sadly, I doubt I'll be able to make the sale, due to my PayPal Student Account not cooperating.

Gotcha

Well, guess you checked out Synth1 with huge amount of presets already?

If you aren't into own sound design that much, you will have harder time for sure getting most of the sounds anyway, but there's plenty of tutorials on You Tube and 3rd party offerings, so picking some popular synth could be winning ticket.

There's second hand Market Place here, shop there for sure, think you can get Massive for the buck

~snip~

Second hand Sylenth1 or Hive could do it too, be sure to check demos out.

~snip~

Also, on other hand, there's MuX, on long run if you are interested in sound design, this could be just it or even better, there's MuLab DAW which have MuX integrated as core of it, so you can even kill two flies if you like the DAW for the price, be sure to check that out.

~snip~

You 'll get lotsa suggestions, so mine is to listen to tracks produced in the kvr One Synth Challenge which often uses free or inexpensive synths, and find one you like, and/or join a OSC.

Agree

Yes, I have definitely checked out Synth1. From what I've messed around with/done with presets, it seems to be highly capable for a free synth, but I highly doubt I could ever get the hang of it without some serious dedication.

As far as sound design goes, yes, I like to make most of my own sounds, either from scratch or starting with a preset. I rarely use a preset as-is, unless the sound completely blows me away. I prefer to add my own spin on it and make it more unique. And yes, picking a popular synth is another important thing for me; it's quite fascinating imho to watch various YouTube tutorials on how to create various sounds for the synths I previously mentioned(Even if I don't own the synth in question), and it astounds me just how many different presets/tutorials are out there for mainstream synths of this nature.

As for the marketplace, it was one of my first finds in terms of a place to get synths on the cheap. Will definitely be checking it out, as I've heard very good things about it.

So far, both Sylenth1 and Hive seem to fit the bill as to what I'm looking for. I appreciate the large amount of presets in Sylenth, as a lot of the sound design I do involves starting with a preset and tweaking until I end up with an entirely different sound. I'm very intrigued by Hive's addition of a few drumloops-though, I'm unsure if this is something that is common.

MUX also seems to be a capable synth, but for me it falls a bit short to Hive/Sylenth. The VST+DAW bundle is tempting, but I'm already quite content with Ableton/S1, and using new DAWs is often a very jarring experience unless it fits my workflow extremely well, as S1 did. Overall, I think I'd pick Sylenth, as the presets are plentiful and I was able to make some amazing, professional sounds in just a few minutes of messing around.


Edit:

You can get massive second hand here in the market place, 99 would be a fair price for it because that is what NI sells it for at black friday.

Right now there is also some sales at NI site of other synths, among them there is Largo by Waldorf, it is an excelent synth you should check it out.

Nice. Are used VSTs a safe bet? I haven't seen anything to make me think otherwise, but I'd like to know if there are any inherent risks with used VSTs that I may not be thinking of.

And in terms of the NI sales, I also recieved an e-mail on those. Definitely will check some out, even if I can't make the sale in time.

Can't think of a better EDM synth for a beginner than Rob Papen Predator-PL. Available only at Sweetwater for just $59. It's a rompler version of the mighty Predator with 4400 presets and a few controls to tweak.

~snip~

From what I've read so far, Predator sounds like a phenomenal synth, and a steal at that price. Sweetwater for life. Downloading the demo currently.

Thanks a ton for the help so far, everyone, I really appreciate it.

[Zexila]

Yeah, you can't go wrong with Sylenth1, even more if you are really into tweaking it and can get what you want fast, that's all that matters really, specs. on paper means nothing, if you can't get what you want/need out of it or process is pain.

Gonna just throw Spire in the bunch, another popular and fun synth, good amount of quality popular 3rd party banks too, be sure to give that one a go if you didn't by now, I don't know how I forgot about it in first place.

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/spire-by-reveal-sound

[zenophilix]

Yeah, you can't go wrong with Sylenth1, even more if you are really into tweaking it and can get what you want fast, that's all that matters really, specs. on paper means nothing, if you can't get what you want/need out of it or process is pain.

Gonna just throw Spire in the bunch, another popular and fun synth, good amount of quality popular 3rd party banks too, be sure to give that one a go if you didn't by now, I don't know how I forgot about it in first place.

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/spire-by-reveal-sound

Yeah, tweaking is half the fun for me. Glad to see that the importance of a well-designed interface to me isn't lost on here. Checking out Spire, looks like a great list of features. And a dark theme! I love dark themes.

[chk071]

Spire will be well suited to the music you aim for (and is for me one of the best sounding soft synths out there). You might wanna wait until it's on sale though, because it's more than $100 without a discount.

[Zexila]

Yeah, tweaking is half the fun for me.

Same here.

Checking out Spire, looks like a great list of features. And a dark theme! I love dark themes.

Awesome.

There's "Sounds" section on their main site, their soundbanks store, check some of them for sure.

http://www.reveal-sound.com/store/presets

As suggested, sniff for sale or second hand if you went for it.

[zenophilix]

Absolutely loving Spire. I don't know if I'm completely dyslexic today, but I can't seem to find the arp settings. I'm sure there were some arp presets somewhere in there.

Anyway, between Sylenth and Spire, not totally sure which I'd pick. Sylenth seems to have a higher array of sounds it can produce over Spire(That, or I haven't messed around enough with Spire.), while Spire has a friendlier/cleaner interface(And of course, that dark theme )
A lot of my unsure-ness comes down to three questions:

1) Between the two synths, which is more popular/has more presets available? As I said before, a lot of my sounds start with presets.

2) Is there a way to change the look/feel of Sylenth? I'm all for the vintage look, but it would be nice to have a cleaner interface available.
Edit:Whoops, just found out that there is an array of Sylenth skins available. Whoops.

3) Most importantly, which is the more capable synth? Whatever I purchase, I plan to be using for a while, and would like it to be the more versatile of the bunch.