What synth do you actually USE the most in your own music????

[nachenko]

Of my very limited free collection I use U-he Tyrell N6 the most. Just got Komplete 12 though so that will change with all the new possibilities!

Wow, you just got a truckload of gear. Massive X, Monark, Form, Rounds, Kontour, Prism, FM8, Absynth... And Reaktor itself.

And that is only the synth part of the bundle.

Amazing and overwhelming at the same time, don't you think?

[BONES]

Oh, and it's not really a synth, but Output Arcade makes it onto just about everything I do.

Output Arcade is amazing. Really inspiring and a great track starter if you will. So innovative, as are all Output products.

That was true for us a while ago, although we mostly used it as a filler, but they have never added anything from the initial soundset that even remotely interests us. Once we exhausted those possibilities, which only took a few months, we pretty much stopped using it. Now that I have finished rebuilding our new album in Cubase, I have finally unsubscribed so we definitely won't be using it again.

Anyway, I know I posted in this thread when it was only a day or so old but it's not there now. Over the last 20 years, there is no doubt that Orion's Wasp has been our most used instrument by a long way. However, now that we have moved to Cubase, that has had to change. Interestingly, we haven't found any one synth to replace it, although DUNE (which was originally going to be a Wasp update) does a lot of things almost as well, albeit with a lot more effort. But we also use a bit of ArcSyn and Hive in its place, too.

Moving forward I think Thorn will probably become that go-to synth for us, although we work hard to try and fit Aparillo in wherever we can, just because it is so much fun to work with. DUNE turns up a lot on our songs, but only because my band-mate puts it in when he is writing. I love how it sounds but I don't like working with it at all, so I often replace it with something I prefer working with, like Thorn or Hive. That said, I think Pigments will probably replace Hive for me, being a lot easier to use. Since the update to v2.0, I have pretty much stopped using Hive. It's just too cluttered these days, where Pigments has just about the best thought-out GUI I have ever come across.

Other staples in our set-up are TRK-01 (mostly the Play version), Equator and Output's Substance (Kontakt instrument). Battery is our new drum machine of choice, replacing the ever-reliable DrumRack from Orion.

[JoeCat]

...Anyway, I know I posted in this thread when it was only a day or so old but it's not there now. Over the last 20 years, there is no doubt that Orion's Wasp has been our most used instrument by a long way. However, now that we have moved to Cubase, that has had to change. Interestingly, we haven't found any one synth to replace it, although DUNE (which was originally going to be a Wasp update) does a lot of things almost as well, albeit with a lot more effort. But we also use a bit of ArcSyn and Hive in its place, too....

ArcSyn - speaking of underrated synths.

[LoveEnigma18]

Oh, and it's not really a synth, but Output Arcade makes it onto just about everything I do.

Output Arcade is amazing. Really inspiring and a great track starter if you will. So innovative, as are all Output products.

That was true for us a while ago, although we mostly used it as a filler, but they have never added anything from the initial soundset that even remotely interests us. Once we exhausted those possibilities, which only took a few months, we pretty much stopped using it. Now that I have finished rebuilding our new album in Cubase, I have finally unsubscribed so we definitely won't be using it again.

Anyway, I know I posted in this thread when it was only a day or so old but it's not there now. Over the last 20 years, there is no doubt that Orion's Wasp has been our most used instrument by a long way. However, now that we have moved to Cubase, that has had to change. Interestingly, we haven't found any one synth to replace it, although DUNE (which was originally going to be a Wasp update) does a lot of things almost as well, albeit with a lot more effort. But we also use a bit of ArcSyn and Hive in its place, too.

Moving forward I think Thorn will probably become that go-to synth for us, although we work hard to try and fit Aparillo in wherever we can, just because it is so much fun to work with. DUNE turns up a lot on our songs, but only because my band-mate puts it in when he is writing. I love how it sounds but I don't like working with it at all, so I often replace it with something I prefer working with, like Thorn or Hive. That said, I think Pigments will probably replace Hive for me, being a lot easier to use. Since the update to v2.0, I have pretty much stopped using Hive. It's just too cluttered these days, where Pigments has just about the best thought-out GUI I have ever come across.

Other staples in our set-up are TRK-01 (mostly the Play version), Equator and Output's Substance (Kontakt instrument). Battery is our new drum machine of choice, replacing the ever-reliable DrumRack from Orion.

Thanks for the insights. Regarding Output Arcade, I am very new to it, so think can get some mileage out of it. But I do agree that it works great for more felt-than-heard, peek-a-boo stuff. I recently used it to start a couple of my tracks, which I will be working on this year. It is fun for now. Let's see how far I can go.

[Ploki]

I guess DrumSpillage and Hive2

[BONES]

ArcSyn - speaking of underrated synths.

Yeah, this post made me dig it out last night and have a bit of a play around. One of the first things I realised is that it is one of the only synths I use that doesn't have unison and I couldn't care less. I hadn't even noticed until last night. Normally that would be a deal breaker but ArcSyn does fine with just the SuperSaw oscillator. In fact, it sounds amazingly full with just one SuperSaw oscillator running with simpler osc types in Osc 2 & 3. And I really like some of the SyncOsc options that give you cross-modulation type sounds without any cross-modulation. It's very clever and it works a treat.

The hardest thing to get your head around is how much you can do with the 8 LFOs. Using one as an arpeggiator or step sequencer, for example, is something you have to nut out but once you get it, it's genius! I just wish the interface was a bit better organised. The Satyatunes GUI is very pretty but the layout is still all over the place.

[shonky]

One of the first things I realised is that it is one of the only synths I use that doesn't have unison and I couldn't care less. I hadn't even noticed until last night. Normally that would be a deal breaker but ArcSyn does fine with just the SuperSaw oscillator.

FYI, Version 3 (free update) now has unison.

[e-crooner]

Why would supersaw alone not sound full? It is half a dozen or more detuned waves, right? I.e. also a kind of unison.

[BONES]

Yeah, it does the same job for sure but in synths like DUNE you can layer them up even further with multiple layers for a completely out of control sound. ArcSyn doesn't need that kind of stacking, though, just one SuperSaw oscillator does well enough. With unison as well, ArcSyn will be as huge as anything else I can think of. As JoeCat said yesterday, it really is hugely underrated.

[eluherlu]

Strobe 2
Avenger
Syntronik Memory V

Oh how I really missed Massive for the workflow, anyone have spare Massive license that's not been used?
Or a great price?
My love-hate relationship synth

[e-crooner]

Yeah, it does the same job for sure but in synths like DUNE you can layer them up even further with multiple layers for a completely out of control sound. ArcSyn doesn't need that kind of stacking, though, just one SuperSaw oscillator does well enough. With unison as well, ArcSyn will be as huge as anything else I can think of. As JoeCat said yesterday, it really is hugely underrated.

Doesn't sound good to me, rather cold and harsh, frankly.

I remember trying the demo a long time ago, but it didn't come across as a bread-and-butter synth, which is what I am interested in. It seemed more of a special effects synth.

[BERFAB]

Falcon 2
Synthmaster
Morphine (IL)
Omnisphere
Halion (more for samples)

Each does something specific for me, but most of what I do uses at least 3 out of these 5.

[Karma_tba]

Synths....YAWN!! I don't hear anything that rocks my world. Traditional instruments do more for me musically. Synths=noise except when they emulate traditional instruments. Synthesis was more about making emulations of "real" instruments at the beginning . I have never found noise satisfying or interesting. I rather hear real music by real musicians.

[Ploki]

Synths....YAWN!! I don't hear anything that rocks my world. Traditional instruments do more for me musically. Synths=noise except when they emulate traditional instruments. Synthesis was more about making emulations of "real" instruments at the beginning . I have never found noise satisfying or interesting. I rather hear real music by real musicians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

[Karma_tba]

Synths....YAWN!! I don't hear anything that rocks my world. Traditional instruments do more for me musically. Synths=noise except when they emulate traditional instruments. Synthesis was more about making emulations of "real" instruments at the beginning . I have never found noise satisfying or interesting. I rather hear real music by real musicians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

Whatever