Synth recommendation for a newbie

[BBFG#]

I wish I still had my Teisco (Sears?) and my Ovation Preacher (considered one of their cheapest models). Both were solid guitars I didn't appreciate enough until they were stolen.
I also had a no-name beginner electric guitar we sold at our music store for lead in sales. Not the best, but played okay and it was the one that taught me the ideas of "Frankensteining".
Which I believe every electric guitarist should know. It was also stolen. But it did help me learn to not get so caught up in the name and look for what's really important.

[Igro]

I don't like Serum, but it would be a good learning synth.

[tigralaegis]

I started with sylenth1 and massive. Serum’s visual feedback helped me learn a lot and would be my first choice to recommend to a beginner.

[JO512]

Actually Ana2 is developed by Sonic Academy, and is from some time on the synth of SAAP.

My mistake! When I Googled it, it came up on the Slate site, so I figured it was theirs.

I use Reaper, and will search about other plugins of chord memory, it is nice to know about it, I didn't know something like that exists.

Reaper is great! It's what I use. For chord memory, I use Scaler. But there are some free ones:

http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?id=1642

https://www.codefn42.com/chordz/

I also liked the Pigments interface, but the sound seems pretty electronic music oriented, if I'm not wrong.

All synths are electronic music oriented! Pigments is no more electronic than any other. If you explore many synths, you'll come to see that with the vast majority of them, the basics are the same. They have oscillators, filters, envelopes, modulators, and maybe things like sequencers and arpeggiators, as well as effects. That's basically it! You can make a huge variety of sounds with these basic elements, ranging from hardstyle techno to synthwave to the sort of synthesizer stuff you might hear in an old Rush song. The kind of sound you get depends largely on how you shape the sound using the controls available.

You want a synth that has good basic oscillators with polyphony. Two oscillators minimum. Three is great, even if the third is a "sub". Be sure that a simple sine is an option, as some don't have this. You can low-pass filter other wave shapes to get an approximate sine, however. Wavetables make more shapes possible, though you can do a great deal with the basic classic shapes. And you should focus on the classic shapes as you learn at this stage. Sine, square, saw, and triangle are your ABCs. Ideally, you'll have a "sync" option with your oscillators.

You need a noise generator, hopefully with a variety of noise "colors", like white and pink.

You want a variety of filter shapes, the bare minimum being a couple of low-pass resonant filters with different steepness (maybe 12dB and 24dB), a high-pass, and a band pass. Other shapes are bonus. Ideally, you'll have filters capable of self-oscillation (Serum's won't self-oscillate), as there is a lot of basic synthesis where you use the filter as an oscillator. You can even synthesize such things as a kick drum with only an ADSR envelope and a self-oscillating filter. If the filter has overdrive of some kind, or feedback, that's a bonus. Your filter cutoff should have key-tracking as an option.

You want some good basic envelope generators, two at least, so you can control amplitude with one and things like the filter cutoff with the other.

You want several LFOs, or the ability to use your third oscillator as an LFO.

You want the ability to use your modulators (LFOs, envelopes, etc.) to modulate your filter and oscillator parameters. You should be able to adjust how much modulation is applied to each parameter and you should be able to apply it both positively and negatively.

You want things like pitch bend, glide/portamento, mono vs poly, and legato.

It is important to be able to use aftertouch, mod wheel, and velocity to alter various parameters.

Some macro knobs are nice.

Some effects built into the synth are nice but not essential. I mostly apply effects after the instrument plugin anyway.

What am I missing? Probably something important!


I am about to give ANA 2 a try. I'll let you know what I think.

[peakles]

Reaper is great! It's what I use. For chord memory, I use Scaler. But there are some free ones:

http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?id=1642

https://www.codefn42.com/chordz/

Hey!! Thank you so much one more time!! Yeah, I also love Reaper =) and I'll definitelly check the chord memory plugins you recommended. Thanks!

All synths are electronic music oriented! Pigments is no more electronic than any other.

hahahaha yeah, nice to hear that. I think I got this impression by of the presets I heard, but it is good to know that there is not such a thing as I was imagining

I'll definitelly stay with the list of features of the synths, specially to learn how to deal with all of these stuff. Thanks again.

I am about to give ANA 2 a try. I'll let you know what I think.

Great! I'm looking forward to hear from you. I'll keep searching and with an open mind anyway. =) Thanks again! All the best!!

[JO512]

Great! I'm looking forward to hear from you.

My first impression of ANA 2 is that it's decent. I found it a bit hard to use at first, but soon began to understand its interface. It has most of the basic features you might want. One that seems to be missing though, which many synths are missing, but which is very useful for certain sounds, is the ability to do audio-rate frequency modulation of an oscillator or filter cutoff with noise as the modulation source, either through a noise sample or a noise generator. And you can't seem to do audio-rate amplitude modulation of an oscillator using another oscillator either. Both of these are possible in Serum.

It doesn't visualize things like envelope behavior with the regular envelopes, which would be nice for someone new.

The filters seem okay. No self-oscillation though. The drive feature on the filters is a nice addition.

I like the "G-ENV" envelope. I like that you can change the size of the grid and snap to it. It is easy to set it up to shift oscillator pitch and snap to semitones for controlled bends and whatnot.

The interface looks sleek, but aside from "G-ENV", it doesn't offer much in terms of visualization. And some things are not as intuitive as I'd like. It would be nice if modulation ranges were visible on or near the knobs. It isn't obvious at a glance that your parameters are being modulated. You have to either right-click a knob to check or open the mod-matrix.

Not bad. It wouldn't be my first choice.

[EnGee]

Well, I started learning all the subtractive things with synth1 back in 2005, but I had a good background way before. Anyway, if I could restart again, I would choose either u-he Hive or Synthmaster One because they are both are easy to use with a great workflow and one page philosophy. They are also can accompany you for all your journey in synthesis.

Actually, I just bought Synthmaster One for $39! I don't know why I didn't have it! It has easy protection (serial number) and a friendly developer as well. Watch this video and see if you like it

[peakles]

Great! I'm looking forward to hear from you.

My first impression of ANA 2 is that it's decent. I found it a bit hard to use at first, but soon began to understand its interface. It has most of the basic features you might want. One that seems to be missing though, which many synths are missing, but which is very useful for certain sounds, is the ability to do audio-rate frequency modulation of an oscillator or filter cutoff with noise as the modulation source, either through a noise sample or a noise generator. And you can't seem to do audio-rate amplitude modulation of an oscillator using another oscillator either. Both of these are possible in Serum.

It doesn't visualize things like envelope behavior with the regular envelopes, which would be nice for someone new.

The filters seem okay. No self-oscillation though. The drive feature on the filters is a nice addition.

I like the "G-ENV" envelope. I like that you can change the size of the grid and snap to it. It is easy to set it up to shift oscillator pitch and snap to semitones for controlled bends and whatnot.

The interface looks sleek, but aside from "G-ENV", it doesn't offer much in terms of visualization. And some things are not as intuitive as I'd like. It would be nice if modulation ranges were visible on or near the knobs. It isn't obvious at a glance that your parameters are being modulated. You have to either right-click a knob to check or open the mod-matrix.

Not bad. It wouldn't be my first choice.

Great! Thank you very much one more time. I really appreciate that! It was nice to hear your first thoughts about it. I'll keep navigating through the suggestions. =)) Stay safe!

[peakles]

Well, I started learning all the subtractive things with synth1 back in 2005, but I had a good background way before. Anyway, if I could restart again, I would choose either u-he Hive or Synthmaster One because they are both are easy to use with a great workflow and one page philosophy. They are also can accompany you for all your journey in synthesis.

Actually, I just bought Synthmaster One for $39! I don't know why I didn't have it! It has easy protection (serial number) and a friendly developer as well. Watch this video and see if you like it

Hey thank you very much! I've just watched the video and it does seems pretty cool. =)) Might be really a good option. Thank you again. =)

[JO512]

Peakles, if you want to get a wavetable synth, don't rule out Pigments just yet. If I could have just one synth, it would be in the running for sure. It has all the basics plus a variety nice filters (the Matrix filters even self-oscillate) plus some great visualizations to help you understand what's happening, plus lots of modulation possibilities. And on top of it all, it has a really great granular sample player. It has a decent effects rack too. And lots of presets. And Arturia allows you to sell your license with no penalty if I am not mistaken. So you can buy it at a discount from someone else and sell it later if you want. And it is on sale right now too. And you can use it for free until July with their current coronavirus shutdown thing. So you could just use it for a while before even committing to it.

You can do some really cool textural and atmospheric stuff with granular that might be well-suited to the sort of work you do.

I don't currently have Pigments. I have tons of synths, including Falcon which also does granular, and I am still tempted to buy Pigments.

[EnGee]

Soundwise I would take Massive X over Pigments if sound quality what is it after. Although not an NI fan anymore, but Massive X is the best sounding wavetable synth for me. Dune 3 comes second (I have them both).

I had Pigments and sold it (no regrets at all). I still don't get it about sound quality! I didn't like it at all. Very thin. I take Synthmaster One over it any day.

Anyway, taking in consideration, ease of use, sound, features and price (currently discounted). Synthmaster One is an ideal first synth. While I believe Reaktor 6 gives you the best value for money and the most advanced everything!

There are still many other great synths from many developers. The best traditional way to know is to demo as many as possible and then buy the one that really stuck in your mind. Because after all, nothing more pleasant than learning something you really like. Reading the manual from cover to cover and watching tutorials then experimenting with the synth is the best way to learn it

[dlt123]

Peakles, if you want to get a wavetable synth, don't rule out Pigments just yet. If I could have just one synth, it would be in the running for sure. It has all the basics plus a variety nice filters (the Matrix filters even self-oscillate) plus some great visualizations to help you understand what's happening, plus lots of modulation possibilities. And on top of it all, it has a really great granular sample player. It has a decent effects rack too. And lots of presets. And Arturia allows you to sell your license with no penalty if I am not mistaken. So you can buy it at a discount from someone else and sell it later if you want. And it is on sale right now too. And you can use it for free until July with their current coronavirus shutdown thing. So you could just use it for a while before even committing to it.

You can do some really cool textural and atmospheric stuff with granular that might be well-suited to the sort of work you do.

I don't currently have Pigments. I have tons of synths, including Falcon which also does granular, and I am still tempted to buy Pigments.

I have Pigment and love it... and Click Here -- it is on sale now for $99 till May 7th. Get it, you won't be sorry.

Also just bought UVI Falcon. It's got a steep learning curve, but the sounds you get out of Falcon are simply amazing, precise, and so deep. It has that "That's the way it's supposed to sound" sound to it... If that makes any sense?

[Kinh]

Keepin' it real here. They're all the same. Pweeple are suggestin' the synth that 'they' like. Any one iz as good as da next if ya startin' out

[revvy]

Somebody mentioned 'good dev' and I think this is useful to bear in mind.

For me, if a dev is neutral/friendly/invisible that's potentially fine. But if the dev or the dev's 'influencers'/hangers-on come across negatively to me I won't buy a product.

[revvy]

nm