Serum vs Synthmaster One for a beginner sound design student

[digitalboytn]

SynthMaster 2 is a very underated synth and v2.99 really cleaned a few things up and brought a lot of improvements to the table..

It's powerful,easy to tweak and it sounds great...

It is one of the handful of synths I use all of the time and I find it extremely versatile and it sits well in the mix

Personally,I prefer it to Serum and many of the other offerings out there....

Ultimately though,it doesn't really matter what synth you have in your hands...

What matters most,is what you do with it

[zzz00m]

Synthmaster 2 is on sale at 70% off for 11 more days at Audio Plugin Deals. $29.90.

https://audioplugin.deals/synthmaster-2 ... 331-audio/

That's basically the same price that the full SM 2 Player version sells for.

[crickey13]

Synthmaster 2 is a great synth, but not something I'd recommend to somebody starting out. Personally, I might not find the GUI distracting, I think it's okay for the most part, but I've played around with a lot of synths before and I am well aware of the fact that a novice might come to a different conclusion altogether. Even Surge's GUI seems less complicated.

In this regard, Synthmaster One is better because of its rigidly subtractive workflow and simplified architecture, which encourages you to approach it as a sort of VA with some wavetably stuff thrown in. It's more visually orderly and less of a synthy labyrinth.

If we're talking about the best sound and the best workflow possible regardless of the price, then it's probably something like Hive 2.

[zzz00m]

$29 vs $189. Take your pick. Both can make music.

[EnGee]

Two points the OP might want to check.
1. What DAW you are using?
(Bitwig Studio and Live Suite have already wavetable synths)
2. Some 3rd party synths are NFR or has a high license transfer fee.

[zzz00m]

Spend $29 for SM 2.9, then crossgrade to SM One for $29. Win/win for $56 total!

[PieBerger]

Two points the OP might want to check.
1. What DAW you are using?
(Bitwig Studio and Live Suite have already wavetable synths)
2. Some 3rd party synths are NFR or has a high license transfer fee.

2. including Serum, which is NFR until Steve decides to allow transfers again, which may be never!

[EnGee]

Two points the OP might want to check.
1. What DAW you are using?
(Bitwig Studio and Live Suite have already wavetable synths)
2. Some 3rd party synths are NFR or has a high license transfer fee.

2. including Serum, which is NFR until Steve decides to allow transfers again, which may be never!

To be honest, I'm not against NFR products if it gets something like lifetime updates ...etc, but we should be sure that this is exactly what we want and going to use.

[chk071]

To be honest, I'm not against NFR products if it gets something like lifetime updates ...etc, but we should be sure that this is exactly what we want and going to use.

I totally agree. Got a NFR second hand Sylenth1 license as well, which I was aware I can't resell, and, I'm absolutely fine with it, because I knew what I pay for.

Well... it's a nice synth anyway, so, I never really regretted it.

[digitalboytn]

Synthmaster 2 is a great synth, but not something I'd recommend to somebody starting out. Personally, I might not find the GUI distracting...

The GUI is the weakest part of SynthMaster 2,but with v2.99,they really improved many elements of it...

Still not perfect,but quite manageable and with lots of visuable feedback to help out your ears

I prefer the Satya Dark GUI @ 140%....

You can easily approach SM2 as a 4 oscillator VA synth and you don't need to get too complicated for it to sound good,because the basic engine is great...

As you find your way around the synth,you can start exploring some of the other options and there are a ton of them available...

I find it a great "working man's" tool because I can tweak it easily and come up with an acceptable solution...

There's no need to bring a hundred spanners and thirty screwdrivers to a job,if one tool will do it all

One of the cool features of SynthMaster 2,is that you can save each element separately,so rebuilding another patch with the semi modular architecture is a piece of cake...

SynthMaster 2 is a great choice for anybody on any level who is interested in synthesis and wants a powerful and integrated instrument in their toolbox...

My main synths are DUNE 3,Thorn,Zebra 2 and SM2,but Vital is starting to pop it's head in for a bit of look now too

[chk071]

To each his own, but... every time I try Synthmaster, or use SM One, the sound is so utterly uninspiring to me. Like picking up a guitar which has been played for 10 years without changing the strings.

Sorry Bulent, no offense meant. Just my opinion. The synths are great bang for the buck, if you happen to like the sound.

[crickey13]

I do agree, man, I love Synthmaster 2. Nevertheless, I wouldn't recommend it for learning synthesis, it can be quite intimidating in its slightly convoluted layout. This is why Surge might not be the best choice either even though it's a fantastic synth too. Just like Synthmaster 2, it's a synth for more seasoned synthesists, people who know what they're doing. For learning synthesis, you need to use something readily obvious and self-explanatory so that you can cut to the chase and focus on making sounds as opposed to coping with the GUI. I'm really looking forward to SM3 and wavetable editor and granular stuff.

[digitalboytn]

Every time I try Synthmaster, or use SM One, the sound is so utterly uninspiring to me. Like picking up a guitar which has been played for 10 years without changing the strings.

James Jameson played some of the most inspired bass lines in history and he never changed his strings

Like you said....to each his own

[mdstudio]

Not sure if it was mentioned - according to this podcast, Serum 2.0 is in the works and will be a free update!

[zzz00m]

To each his own, but... every time I try Synthmaster, or use SM One, the sound is so utterly uninspiring to me. Like picking up a guitar which has been played for 10 years without changing the strings.

Sorry Bulent, no offense meant. Just my opinion. The synths are great bang for the buck, if you happen to like the sound.

With all due respect, I have to wonder what you listened to? Sound is not the weak point of SynthMaster by any means, at least in the latest 2.9 version. Given good oscillators and filters, the sound is all in the sound designers, or your hands. The tools are there to make great sounds.

And if you were not aware, the new zero delay feedback filters (ladder, diode, state variable, and bite) were added in more recent releases (back ported from SM One), but the original factory presets and expansions were not 'remastered' to use them. Using the new filters is mostly a DIY project at this point, except for a few more recent expansion banks that were created using them. For example Big Tone's Analog Basics & Basics 02 have the new filters, plus Tableworks 01 & 02 have the new filters, as well as the fully enabled wavetable oscillators in action. Very inspiring!

Take a listen to the factory presets in SM One and 2 by Kevin Schroeder, synthesizer sound design for Synapse Audio, u-he, Hans Zimmer, and more. Great examples.

Or listen to those by Big Tone. He has set all sorts of modulations in effect on many presets, with the mod and pitch wheel (acting like a 2nd mod wheel), as well as velocity and aftertouch.

There may be a few other ways these synths fall short, but IMHO it ain't in the sound department.