Trying to choose: Ana2, Serum, Pigments2... Help! :D

[Tannaliini]

I have tried demos of Avenger, Viper, Sylenth1, Hive2, PhasePlant, Synthmaster One, Union, Gladiator, Icarus, Rapid, Dune3... And ended up liking the most Serum & Ana2 & Pigments2.

What I specially like:
1. Serum: Very visual interface = easy to use (even I could get some decent sounds out from the empty preset).

2. Ana2: Pretty easy to use, nice sounds (was missing the Serum’s visual aspect here, but still liking Ana’s workflow)

3. Pigments2: Mix of Serum & Ana. Somehow I like it a lot, but still prefer Ana & Serum maybe more...

Did I miss some great synth you think I should try the demo? (I tried to get MassiveX demo to work couple of times, but for some reason couldn’t get it work so maybe won’t be trying it anymore).

And I am focusing on EDM music. Not so much of “real” sounding instruments, more into this electronic sounds. Bass, leads, plucks (and some pads & risers etc).

[dionenoid]

Just get Serum. If EDM is your thing then Serum is the obvious choice. The only thing i don't see in your list is Spire, which would be a good choice too.

[chk071]

+ for Serum. Sounds delicious, and is easy to use.

As dionenoid mentioned, give Spire a shot too. If you want "that" EDM sound right out of the box, Spire is a magic weapon. It has a few shortcomings, but, the sound is great.

[starflakeprj]

Its a pretty good collection. I have them all, don't use them all as much though.

I know you are distant to Avenger now, at least from what I could read in another thread But from the ones you are mentioning above, Serum and Pigments 2 are great choices, but instead of ANA2, I would, myself, go for Icarus 2 or Rapid.

[chk071]

Did I miss some great synth you think I should try the demo? (I tried to get MassiveX demo to work couple of times, but for some reason couldn’t get it work so maybe won’t be trying it anymore).

Could be due to your graphics chip. I read that there are issues with certain onboard Intel graphics.

It's a awesome synth though. My favorite at the moment.

[recursive one]

Serum + maybe give Spire a try, it will complement Serum well.

Massive X needs an Avx compatible processor, maybe that's the issue? But it sounds very very good
and is quite powerful, though you probably would miss that visual feedback Serum has.

[chk071]

True, AVX is another possibility why it might not run.

[focusrite]

smd.png

[Tannaliini]

Did I miss some great synth you think I should try the demo? (I tried to get MassiveX demo to work couple of times, but for some reason couldn’t get it work so maybe won’t be trying it anymore).

Could be due to your graphics chip. I read that there are issues with certain onboard Intel graphics.

It's a awesome synth though. My favorite at the moment.

Now that you mentioned, I remember reading something about that too... So maybe that's the reason

@starflakeprj Yeah, I've tried Avenger's demo, I did like it in away, but then again it wasn't "supreme" - and then I saw all the problems people were having with it so it didn't feel fort the effort to learn it more.

@dionenoid @chk071 Ah Spire, I forgot that totally! I did try it also actually It was nice, but some how I didn't even remember it anymore So maybe it just didn't work for me quite well.

[zvenx]

Serum + maybe give Spire a try, it will complement Serum well.

Massive X needs an Avx compatible processor, maybe that's the issue? But it sounds very very good
and is quite powerful, though you probably would miss that visual feedback Serum has.

More or less what he says.

You ruled out quite a few of my personal preferred options (Hive, Avenger, Dune 3, Icarus, and maybe Rapid). Nothing is wrong with that, taste is personal, means we have different sound aesthetic tastes.

From those remaining. I tried Ana2, recently, but didn't quite find the sound very appealing. I have pigments and love the gui and ease of use, but not quite into the sound.
I have Serum and and it does sound great (in an almost cold Digital way) and Spire really sounds good to me too..... But since we seem to have different tastes of what sounds good, who knows.
But can't hurt to try Spire as well.
rsp

[zerocrossing]

You can’t go wrong with Serum, though I have to say that I find its sample-to-wavetable process is more difficult to get results that I like than with something like Icarus. So, if you plan on doing a lot of that, maybe look at Icarus, though overall Icarus is a more simple instrument.

Another one to look at is Dune 3. I grew to really love Dune 2, but when they added the new filter models in v3, it really became something special. I like the workflow and I think they did a pretty good job with the interface.

The issue you’re having is this: There’s a sh!t-ton of great sounding plugins these days. You pretty much can’t go wrong with any of them, though they all do somethings better than others, each have different characters. For instance, you didn’t mention Hive. I don’t have it either, but I demoed it at one point and it also sounds amazing. How many synths can you have, though?

[Tannaliini]

You can’t go wrong with Serum, though I have to say that I find its sample-to-wavetable process is more difficult to get results that I like than with something like Icarus. So, if you plan on doing a lot of that, maybe look at Icarus, though overall Icarus is a more simple instrument.

Another one to look at is Dune 3. I grew to really love Dune 2, but when they added the new filter models in v3, it really became something special. I like the workflow and I think they did a pretty good job with the interface.

The issue you’re having is this: There’s a sh!t-ton of great sounding plugins these days. You pretty much can’t go wrong with any of them, though they all do somethings better than others, each have different characters. For instance, you didn’t mention Hive. I don’t have it either, but I demoed it at one point and it also sounds amazing. How many synths can you have, though?

I listed Hive2 though. For some reason I don't really find U-he GUI very tempting for me (Hive2 + Dune3 tested). They have good sounds, but I find I don't feel very comfortable using them.

@focusrite Yes, I think Serum's one strength is the "simplicity". But still it is very capable synth at the same time. Especially for someone like me who can't do sound design simplicity + visual things are helpful to get around.

[MuzikFreq]

Ana2
I have serum and Ana2
Serum is nice but in some ways very clunky and can be limiting.

Ana2 was more of a one stop for anything.
Has wave tables which you can also import from serum, has the basic analogue stuff from various different synths which can emulate the sounds of and has 3 oscillators over the 2 serum has.
Then if you want to dive into the rabbit hole there's the sample oscillators which you have another 3 of.

I honestly think ana2 is a bit underrated

Serum is great but I find I use it for a quick bass or a simple pluck though now I use spire for plucks

[mdstudio]

For simple sounds any one of them would work (your stock synth or a free synth like Tyrell or Surge may work as well)

Regarding the synths that you mentioned:

Serum has the best wavetable editor, fast workflow, and most tutorials and sample packs, if you care about that.
Pigments and Avenger have granular synthesis.
Avenger has nice waveshapers that you can apply to samples, not only oscillators, and multisamples of real instruments, but I think you said that you don't care about that.
Dune has really nice analog filters and just overall sounds amazing (many presets are trancy, but it can do everything else including cinematic very well too). Pretty low CPU as well. Dune also has a powerful wavetable editor.
Ana has three samplers I think. I don't have it so someone else can speak about its outstanding features.

[Kumi_27]

I have tried demos of Avenger, Viper, Sylenth1, Hive2, PhasePlant, Synthmaster One, Union, Gladiator, Icarus, Rapid, Dune3...

You missed the Vaporizer2