Softsynth itch. What to buy?

[EnGee]

From the synths the OP has, I has had big fun with Serum. Also Bazille is a great synth but it has a higher learning curve.

I think Reaktor would be a great fun especially with the great free and commercial ensembles available. I don't have the full version but I do have Razor and Molekular which can be the most what I want from Reaktor

I don't know if Tone2 deal is still available (2for1), but I jumped in and got Nemesis and RayBlaster. I love them. They are excellent synths and with a low cpu usage. They are so fun to program and to play with. For about one month and I'm still having a great fun and it is actually increasing with time!

Other big fun is Reason for me! Can't beat the great inspiration and the unlimited creativity. Also, there are many advanced users and watching their techniques really opens up so much creativity and fun even if they do some other genres that I don't prefer.

Lastly is the more capable you know and use your tools, the more fun you get. You might not need anything else, but we always want something else

edit: for the sleepy typos and grammar errors!

[zvenx]

Zebra 2's UI is easy to understand once you know what you're looking at. Basically it's oscillators on the left, filters and everything else on the right, and they only show up when they are active. ......
....................

Don't think the filters on the right part is correct.
rsp

[fmr]

Zebra 2's UI is easy to understand once you know what you're looking at. Basically it's oscillators on the left, filters and everything else on the right, and they only show up when they are active. ......
....................

Don't think the filters on the right part is correct.
rsp

I think the correct answer is audio production and transforming modules on the left and modulators (includes envelopes, MSEG, LFOs, etc.) on the right. Effects are on the bottom.

[zvenx]

Zebra 2's UI is easy to understand once you know what you're looking at. Basically it's oscillators on the left, filters and everything else on the right, and they only show up when they are active. ......
....................

Don't think the filters on the right part is correct.
rsp

I think the correct answer is audio production and transforming modules on the left and modulators (includes envelopes, MSEG, LFOs, etc.) on the right. Effects are on the bottom.

Yes thats how I see them too.
rsp

[carrieres]

Demo Dune2, very nice monster synth with analog and digital qualities

[yellowmix]

Try to play Zebra at 10 or 15 BPM - the oscillators fall apart, as they are nothing but a bunch of wave shapes cycled through in some way. "Real" oscillators don't fall apart at such BPMs and stay as thick and detailed as when played at 100 or 150 BPM.

Can you post an example? I just tried it at C -1 (~8 Hz) and it looks and sounds fine (to the extent it's audible).

[low_low]

Yes thats how I see them too.
rsp

Thank you for the correction.

[Saukar30]

How about Phonec?

[rlared]

Have you considered getting a hardware analog synth instead? I just got one and I feel so much more interested, engaged, and wanting to make music with it. There's something about just sitting with the instrument and tweaking knobs and listening to the results. I recommend getting something with little-to-no menu diving. It's more expensive than a soft synth though.

[greedy.mf]

Thank you all for the your response.

I didn't mentioned that I'm on a Mac, so no Viper and most of IL synths for me.

However Toxic Biohazard has AU versions and is cool. Easy UI, albeit too "Alien vs Predator" for my taste, good presets and is on sale. Will demo it extensively and probably buy. FM synthesis made easy I like it even better that FM8. Latter is probably more capable, but simplicity of dialling sounds is a win for me.

Biotek 2 looked good on paper but it crashed Ableton upon first try. I do not need that kind of behaviour especially for $199.

Aparillo looked good as well, and right from the start I could understand... nothing. Way too esoteric for me.

Aalto - I liked it, actually. Clean UI, interesting presets. I'll delve in CM version (monophonic) to see if there is a reason to upgrade.

After spending good half of last Sunday to demo some of that stuff I opened Serum and thought maybe I don't need anything at all. It's just that good.

Still some synths are on the list just to know that's out there.

[greedy.mf]

How about Phonec?

Phonec is cool, full of vibe and flavour. Of course it's not Swiss army knife, but still quite capable.

There is a full version with CM magazine #259. Maybe I'll buy it, it's titled "Synth Secrets", just what I need

[greedy.mf]

Have you considered getting a hardware analog synth instead? I just got one and I feel so much more interested, engaged, and wanting to make music with it. There's something about just sitting with the instrument and tweaking knobs and listening to the results. I recommend getting something with little-to-no menu diving. It's more expensive than a soft synth though.

That's is interesting.
What did you get?

I had this idea of hardware synth some time ago.
I demoed kARP, Minilogue and Minibrute 2.
All are good. But even most sophisticated oscillator of all three (MB2) is not very powerful. Yes, several waveform mixer and FM and metallizer are adding more variety. But it's too expensive to use it at raw oscillator sound source. Filter sounds awful to me. Only 1 ADSR, second is very modest AR(AD). I'm truly spoiled by software.

[anttimaatteri]

If you ask that simple, my suprise of the year Rob Papens Go2, if you want some real fun editing graphically and pretty solid to very good sound. and its very affordable.

[greedy.mf]

If you ask that simple, my suprise of the year Rob Papens Go2, if you want some real fun editing graphically and pretty solid to very good sound. and its very affordable.

I've demoed it.
Was very appealing at first, but I decided to pass.
One oscillator, although quite complex, isn't much.
One LFO IIRC.
Puny 8 slot matrix is divided in two pages of 4 rows. Why?
Many good ideas in it, just didn't dig the realisation.
Maybe it's for me to revisit.

[tibah]

1. Don't buy anything!
2. Buy Kontakt! You know you want to!
3. Buy Zebra and call it a day (and sell all the others!)
4. Get something specialized OR something with a very different twist on how to approach sound design - Iris, Harmor, Padshop, Biotek, Synplant, Factory
5. Don't listen to anybody on KVR