absynth or serum for ambient/movement?

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i am looking for a VST to make ambient soundscapes with lots of little subtle movement... stuff that will stay interesting over a sustained period of time.

i have narrowed it down to these two.

i like the marco knobs in serum, they seem good for bringing in little details....does absynth have similar?

my keyboard has an all in one pitch/modulate stick... which isn't ideal. i have push 2 as well.

on paper absynth seems more suited maybe but it is old and serum has lots of great ambient patches for sale.

what synth is better for my needs?

how would you describe the sound of each synth?

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Absynth gives you a lot of envelopes to play with. A lot: you can just keep adding them. Plus controller mappings. If you need movement over a long period of time, it's a very good choice.

Absynth is a lot more flexible than a lot of people give it credit for. I don't do ambient but it seems tailor-made for the job. I'm kinda surprised that there are a lot of ambient patches for Serum. Omnisphere maybe but Serum doesn't seem like the kind of synth that would attract that sort of sound design.
Last edited by Gamma-UT on Tue Dec 18, 2018 5:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Absynth doesn't have to prove itself anymore after all those years. It's a true ambient maker, no doubt.

It also has granular processing which suits very well ambient and soundscape stuff, especially with your own samples. The downside I’d say is that it’s pretty much abandoned now and it haven’t been updated (feature wise I mean) since a very long time. I don’t see a bright future for it while Serum is very alive and supported.

I don't think Serum is geared for ambient as well as Absynth is. Absynth has pretty much been built for that actually. And since Gamma-UT mentioned it, I think a better contender to consider against Absynth would be Omnisphere, not Serum.

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Absolutely not Serum for ambient work. It's the only wavetable synth I know of that doesn't have wavetable interpolation at the oscillator level. It 'hard cuts' across its 256 wavetable frames - i.e. it's impossible to land 'between' two frames and get a mix of both. I think this 'noisy' wavetable modulation may well be a big part of why it's so beloved for the more aggressive sounds found in EDMish genres, but slow your wavetable modulations down into ambient territory and it just sounds 'steppy' instead. It's a fantastic synth which I own and use regularly, it's genuinely an all-time favourite, but it would be my last choice for the more 'ambient journey' end of wavetable synthesis.
Last edited by cron on Tue Dec 18, 2018 4:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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i know you are asking about those 2, and of those 2 for ambient....id have to go with absynth.

with that said however...what you really should be looking at (if you dont already have it) is reaktor. it is hands down the best for what youre looking to do. now...it may not be quite as "easy" to use, but youll get far more out of it for your purposes. there are hundreds of free ensembles in the user library...there are scores of those dedicated to evolving soundscapes and ambient textures, plus there are 3rd party free and commercial ensembles like grain cube and dron-e.

reaktor simply can not be beat for doing exactly what youre trying to do.
Last edited by chaosWyrM on Tue Dec 18, 2018 5:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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As to Absynth envelopes, you can determine a very high number of breakpoints, so you may create quite a lot of movement and variance over a long period of time. And you may control many parameters in the modules by envelopes, which have multiple modes. Also note the effects page with some quite unique effects, and the parameters here may be control-influenced.

Then the LFO section is pretty extensive design.

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Maybe after Massive X we will see Absynth X...

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Absynth has also Mutation for random and fast interesting results.

+1 for Reaktor as well. The details and clarity of the sounds are higher than Absynth. Also, there are interesting ensembles that work with the free Reaktor player such as Razor, Prism, Kontour and Skanner XT. Everyone of the four is different.

Razor has incredible effects that built into the synth itself. Crazy and very difficult to produce sounds in other synths.

Prism can make smoothest sounds I have ever heard. It also shines with plucks and mallets.
Kountor has those 4 macros that can do a lot of modulations to a very powerful FM engine. And lastly Skanner XT especially if you have the full version of Reaktor as you can import your own samples into it.

I also use Wavestation and FM8 still for impressive evolving pads in the background.

I also find the automations of different parameters of the synth inside the DAW is the best technique for ambient tracks. A mouse is more than enough for this, no need for many knobs ;)

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Real cooooool ambient movement ?
Go and get HGFs STS 24 and valhalla shimmer and a bridge to use it in your host.
Thats the best you can do to have ambient movement.

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chaosWyrM wrote: Tue Dec 18, 2018 4:11 pm i know you are asking about those 2, and of those 2 for ambient....id have to go with absynth.
with that said however...what you really should be looking at (if you dont already have it) is reaktor.
+1
I think it'd be odd to buy into a dead synth like Absynth when Reaktor has vastly more to offer

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Actually, I don't know why I need any other synth or effect besides Reaktor, if I need to get my hands dirty little bit! Everything seems there!

This is a very simple example of how easy to get creative with Reaktor (with the old Reaktor 5, not even touched version 6 with its powerful blocks!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xINRksSacUE

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pdxindy wrote: Tue Dec 18, 2018 7:03 pm Maybe after Massive X we will see Absynth X...
Oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please

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Absynth is dead
let's bury it.
I did.
Will not chase an abandoned software even great software like Absynth !

Though gotta say Brian Clevinger said that it is still in development
but it is no longer his product. NI goes for mass appeal and where the
money is. Can't blame them!

Not a fan of Serum and Absynth is dead so try Reaktor or search
for instrument plugins here at KVR that are great for ambient.
There are many.
Last edited by Kalamata Kid on Wed Dec 19, 2018 3:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

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rubez wrote: Tue Dec 18, 2018 2:29 pm
i like the marco knobs in serum, they seem good for bringing in little details....does absynth have similar?
Yes, in fact Absynth has more, it has a whole Perform page with up to 16 potential macro controllers that can also be doubled up as XY pads.

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If you're thinking about paying full price for either, maybe see if you can stretch the cash to get komplete, standard version but not the elements one, even if you pick it up secondhand. Absynth is great for evolving soundscapes and comes with a separate fx version that is great for ambient stuff too, I use the fx more than the synth.

Serum is also good for evolving sounds with all the modulation options, but would be more of a sprinter if absynth was a long distance runner, has a sharper sound to it, also has a separate fx version with a really tasty dimension fx, good for subtle touches, so long as you don't mind sacrificing a little mono compatibility.

I use kontakt the most for ambient stuff, load of excellent libraries for ambient, then probably reaktor which also has loads of excellent synths and free fx, I'm using fx chains more to shape sounds than the synth itself.

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