Producing sci-fi "clicks", "chirps" and "hi-tech" notification sounds: what VST synth should i look for?

[Parduz]

As title says, i'd like to produce a lot of "coherent" very short sound effect (with "coherent" meaning that 5 or 6 will be similar in "tone" and so useful to be grouped for one meaning).

While i'm able to design pads, leads and other sounds for my music, i'm a bit lost in thinking how to obtain this kind of effects. There's any VST (hopefully free) that could make the process easier?

[Peraqsha]

I think you should share a few examples of what you’re looking.

[GaryG]

You mean sounds like the staple scifi stuff, communicators 'ringing', commands being entered etc etc....

I think any versatile synth with some decent, varied oscillator types could do this, obviously keep the envelopes short and use lots of modulation to make the sound interesting.

Surge springs to mind (free!), waveshaping, FM, trad subtractive methods etc. More than capable of making futuristic sounds. Or Vital (free!), ditto really. Or DS Thorn, nice cutting modern sound, the free versions with Computer Music or Beat mag would do.

Maybe Cherry Audios 2600, the ARP 2600 was used to make R2D2 talk after all.

[k2006]

Bfxr
https://www.bfxr.net/
Labchirp
http://labbed.net/software/labchirp/

[whyterabbyt]

Not strictly speaking a VST (comes as a set of standalone, Max4Live and Reaktor versions) but pretty much for this purpose:

https://www.soundmorph.com/product/5/galactic-assistant

[Peraqsha]

If you head over to Plugin Boutique you can get both FractureXT and Convex on sale now for $5 each. You could run any sample or synth sound into these and then sample the output and then slice the parts that you like.

You could easily get decent results if you used Dexed or Vital as the sound sources. Nothing quick and easy though I'm afraid.

[Shabdahbriah]

Not strictly speaking a VST (comes as a set of standalone, Max4Live and Reaktor versions) but pretty much for this purpose:

https://www.soundmorph.com/product/5/galactic-assistant

+1

[Peraqsha]

Not strictly speaking a VST (comes as a set of standalone, Max4Live and Reaktor versions) but pretty much for this purpose:

https://www.soundmorph.com/product/5/galactic-assistant

$39.99 USD or $50.00 for that seems fair, looks pretty easy to use too

[JerGoertz]

Pretty much anything modular.

[Russell Grand]

Bfxr
https://www.bfxr.net/
Labchirp
http://labbed.net/software/labchirp/

The OP is looking for VSTs.

[Effectsworks]

Anything really tbh (Oscillators pitched high with modulation).

But imo, FM synths tend to be very good at that sort of thing.

[k2006]

The OP is looking for VSTs.

let the OP decide.

[arkmabat]

I'm going to suggest a piezo microphone and a slinky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpbbUgaLQoY

Even apart from that, anything made of metal can make really interesting sounds, even just wiggling a long handsaw or long strip of metal hit just right. R2D2's chirps are just an oscillator pitching up and down very quickly with feeling.

[thermal]

Not strictly speaking a VST (comes as a set of standalone, Max4Live and Reaktor versions) but pretty much for this purpose:

https://www.soundmorph.com/product/5/galactic-assistant

$39.99 USD or $50.00 for that seems fair, looks pretty easy to use too

If it’s like the standalone version it’s very limited I’m afraid. You can probably coax more out of it by assigning modulators to the params though.

[whyterabbyt]

If it’s like the standalone version

Like I said, you get all three versions.