Serum & what else?

[drdriller]

how can you draw the distortion serum? you mean like waveshaping curves right?

choose distortion shape X-shaper for unipolar distortion, or X-Shaper Async for bipolar distortion.

then you can edit two shape, Edit A = shape start (drive button on left) and Edit B = shape end (drive button on the right)

the simple way is to let Edit A unchanged, and draw your distortion shape on edit B, then set drive button to taste.

[Tendou]

oh thats cool, now I learned smth new today

[BONES]

Sylenth, Rapid, Dune 3, Spire (especially for big leads, great!)

Those are all just more of the same that he's already getting from Serum. They are all pretty much interchangeable. Surely you guys have a bit more imagination that this?

I think you need to try something that's completely different. You've got a big mega-synth type thingie so try something simple. A different approach might be just what you need to get different sounds. I'd recommend Obsession but it doesn't have a patch browser. Korg's ARP Odyssey might float your boat so try that out. Even Korg's MonoPoly or PolySix VSTi might do the trick for you. bx_oberhausen might also work, so give that a go.

[liquidsound]

Imposcar2, a real beauty

[clipnotic]

Sylenth, Rapid, Dune 3, Spire (especially for big leads, great!)

Those are all just more of the same that he's already getting from Serum. They are all pretty much interchangeable. Surely you guys have a bit more imagination that this?

Nonsense, every synth has its own strenghts, character sound, different filters, envelope reactions, fx sound and quality and so on. I use all that VST synths and Serum since release almost daily! Perhaps you should work more intensive with your VSTs instead of posting such crap? That's the same blabla like from some hardware wannabes, if they still telling, that most VSTs are sounding almost the same.

[SoundHunterrr]

how can you draw the distortion serum? you mean like waveshaping curves right?

choose distortion shape X-shaper for unipolar distortion, or X-Shaper Async for bipolar distortion.

then you can edit two shape, Edit A = shape start (drive button on left) and Edit B = shape end (drive button on the right)

the simple way is to let Edit A unchanged, and draw your distortion shape on edit B, then set to drive button to test.

Interesting! Good tip!

[parawave]

Sylenth, Rapid, Dune 3, Spire (especially for big leads, great!)

Those are all just more of the same that he's already getting from Serum. They are all pretty much interchangeable. Surely you guys have a bit more imagination that this?

Sylenth, Rapid, Dune 3, Spire. One of these is not like the others.
Guess which one supports multi samples and Granular Synthesis

[HTT]

Sylenth, Rapid, Dune 3, Spire (especially for big leads, great!)

Those are all just more of the same that he's already getting from Serum. They are all pretty much interchangeable. Surely you guys have a bit more imagination that this?

Nonsense, every synth has its own strenghts, character sound, different filters, envelope reactions, fx sound and quality and so on. I use all that VST synths and Serum since release almost daily! Perhaps you should work more intensive with your VSTs instead of posting such crap? That's the same blabla like from some hardware wannabes, if they still telling, that most VSTs are sounding almost the same.

Both sides of this argument have points, and for this instance, I agree slightly more with Bones here. I think Bones was trying to say the four VSTs mentioned were all, at their core, wavetable synths. Why not expand horizons and go another direction?

True, Rapid has granular (and is wonderful with CPU resources). That does separate it out from the other three wavetable synths listed. There is still notable sonic overlap between the four. I also agree that all synths have their unique flavor, as you argue. That said, Serum does sound much different than Rapid when A/B-ing in attentive isolation. (I own Serum and Rapid. I tried Sylenth, Spire and Dune 3 demos but did not purchase them). But in a song mix, those differences are less noticeable. The average music listener/consumer would probably not be able to discern nor care about these differences. Give them a couple drinks and they surely cannot discern nor care about the differences...

I have said this in another thread that I usually use a cadre of Diva, Repro, recently OBsession, and Serum for pop/dance numbers. I add in Zebra HZ as needed. I find they cover wavetable and varying tastes in VA very well.

[Ah_Dziz]

I'd recommend zebra for sure and then I'd recommend Aalto for a nice warm smooth synth. Serum and Zebra do smooth, lively, and warm quite well too, but Aalto does smooth leads and plucks with no muss and no fuss. Past those I would look for a second hand Pigments license to cover granular sample manipulation and such. I use all these for all types of edm, and even though any one of them could handle all your sounds, that's a pretty nice selection that covers everything from simple subtractive to glitchy digital and anything in between.

If money is a major factor, I would go through the usual suspects of free stuff before you buy another "high end" synth. You'd be amazed how much milage you can get out of freebies that have been out for ages.

[dakkra]

Sylenth, Rapid, Dune 3, Spire. One of these is not like the others.
Guess which one supports multi samples and Granular Synthesis

If you want to play the features card, then MSoundFactory, MUX Modular, and Falcon would all put this to shame.

Sometimes it's all about workflow, accessibility, and community support. Features aren't everything.

[BONES]

Nonsense, every synth has its own strenghts, character sound, different filters, envelope reactions, fx sound and quality and so on.

Sure and 99% of the time those things make no appreciable difference to the patch.

I use all that VST synths and Serum since release almost daily! Perhaps you should work more intensive with your VSTs instead of posting such crap?

You use VSTi's "almost" daily? I use them 5-6 hours every day, more on weekends, and I've been doing it for more than 20 years now. Most VSTi are largely interchangeable. Some make it easier to do this or that but I could play you 30 songs I've worked on in the last six months and you wouldn't be able to tell me which synth I used for even one part. That's the nature of synths.

Sylenth, Rapid, Dune 3, Spire. One of these is not like the others.
Guess which one supports multi samples and Granular Synthesis

So what? That just means there is only a 90% overlap instead of 100%. If you've got Serum, you'd buy a specialist granular synth, not something that is 90% the same as what you already have. That's why I didn't recommend Pigments, which I'd take over Rapid every day of the week.

[mdstudio]

do you tweak drive and fat settings on serum filters to suit your taste ?

I'm curious - what is FAT normally used for? I usually increase DRIVE and decrease LEVEL (which you get when you click on the word MIX) to compensate gain, but FAT just seems to just increase the gain, without adding any harmonics, so I don't use that one.

[drdriller]

do you tweak drive and fat settings on serum filters to suit your taste ?

I'm curious - what is FAT normally used for? I usually increase DRIVE and decrease LEVEL (which you get when you click on the word MIX) to compensate gain, but FAT just seems to just increase the gain, without adding any harmonics, so I don't use that one.

it change the Q of the resonnance, and so the character of the filter. (Q is the coefficient, kind of slope)

[SoundHunterrr]

Sylenth, Rapid, Dune 3, Spire. One of these is not like the others.
Guess which one supports multi samples and Granular Synthesis

If you want to play the features card, then MSoundFactory, MUX Modular, and Falcon would all put this to shame.

Sometimes it's all about workflow, accessibility, and community support. Features aren't everything.

So true I agree!! You can get good sound with all synths mentioned here, but what is good for your work process? What feel good for you to use? Think this is maybe most important!

[Biome_Digital]

V collection is a good one to complement wavetable synths