What synths are in equal or better footing than VPS Avenger?

[layzer]

nm

[layzer]

Most synths are just too gritty and harsh for Hip-Hop. I believe that ANA 2, Dune 3, and perhaps Diva/Zebra (they are too damn good) are the easiest to make these types of beats.

I thought Hip Hop was meant to be gritty and harsh. Early hip hop was made on 12 bit samplers with gritty filters that aliased.
Maybe you meant to say 'most synths are too hifi for hip-hop'?

sound design makes any synth gritty or warm... eq, distortion, reverb etc...
you dont need, diva, serum omnibloat or whatever over hyped synth.

[Teksonik]

you dont need.....whatever over hyped synth.

You mean like a Korg T2EX or Akai AX80 or Yamaha SY77 or Ensoniq VFX or on and on ?

[twal]

Most synths are just too gritty and harsh for Hip-Hop. I believe that ANA 2, Dune 3, and perhaps Diva/Zebra (they are too damn good) are the easiest to make these types of beats.

I thought Hip Hop was meant to be gritty and harsh. Early hip hop was made on 12 bit samplers with gritty filters that aliased.

Maybe you meant to say 'most synths are too hifi for hip-hop'?

I guess by harsh I meant overpowering in a mix, rather than subtle where something gritty can be not so in your face.

[BONES]

I assume your replacment choice must also do drums?

Why would you assume that? I went back and re-read the initial post but see nothing that even hints at that requirement.

I've been testing a lot synths demos recently but I really don't know anything about sound design but I plan to learn with the synths I'm going to buy. I like the sounds of some like Dune 3, Sylenth1 that I plan to buy, but I also want something with many many capabilities and I don't know how to recognize one because I'm a noob.

If you're a noob, you shouldn't be starting out with a synth like Avenger. It is something you need to work your way up to. My recommendation is that you start with a few simpler synths that will help you get your head around the basics and then work your way up to Avenger, using DUNE as an intermediate synth that you can start out with simply, using just the front panel controls, then go deeper as your confidence builds.

The other thing is that you don't need to spend a lot of money to get a great sounding synth. To get you started, I would recommend Full Bucket's Mono/Fury, which is a reimagining of Korg's brilliant Mono/Poly in a very easy to use package. It sounds really, really good and covers all the basics of subtractive synthesis. It doesn't come with a million presets so it will force you to learn how to make your own. Best of all, it's free so you have nothing to lose by giving it a go.

A step up from there might be Pigments, which gives you a really good visual overview of all your modulation so you can learn how it affects the sound. It also has different sound engines, so it will introduce you to wavetable synthesis and sample/granular synthesis. It also has built-in effects so you can start to learn how to use those to create the sound you are after.

After that I'd start to look at DUNE, where you can dabble in FM synthesis. Once you are comfortable with all the features of DUNE, Avenger will probably be a lot less daunting. That said, my preference is for simpler, more specialised tools rather than jacks of all trades. I look at it like the difference between a shifting spanner and a set of ring/open-ender spanners - they both get the job done but having the right size spanner requires a lot less fiddling around that trying to make the shifter fit.

Of the synths in your list, Phase Plant is the only one I've thought was worth spending my own money on and it might also be a good choice because you can start simple and build complexity as you learn the ropes. But if I was just recommending synths that I like to use because they get me the results I want with a minimum of fuss, I'd be suggesting Thorn and ArcSyn for the proper synth stuff, with Pigments to do the more esoteric, out-there kinds of things. With those three synths and some drums, I reckon I could do anything I might want to do.

[VitaminD]

I agree with BONES on if you're a beginner don't look at huge complicated synths like Avenger.

You're better off learning song progression, some basic chords and theory, and the fundamentals of your particular audio host / DAW.

Unless your goal isn't creating music but simply sound design. If that's the case then go get Synth1 or similar. It's a free older synth with a basic 2 OSC, 1 filter, and 2 env (1 on amp, 1 on filter) design. Or any basic, dual osc VA synth and learn the in's and out's of it. Take a preset you like and deconstruct it. The simpler synth design will make it easy to understand how the envelope works on the oscillator signal and how the filter works on it too. basic concept of LFOs and modulation. You don't need to learn to fly in a 747, instead take a Cessna.

That said if your goal is eventually music, don't knock presets entirely. You could spend your whole life creating sounds just to be unique and miss the uniqueness and creativity in your song structure. Meaning you could spend a whole lot of time trying to make new patches that could be spent writing actual songs.

[acYm]

mono/fury? that's it, bones is deaf, that plugin is horrible, I like some FBA plugins but that one's a fail, I think just about every other free synth should be recommended before this.

[BONES]

It doesn't sound much like Korg's Mono/Poly VSTi, which I assume is an accurate emulation, but it definitely sounds good.

[Biome_Digital]

voted, it's an interesting poll. Lot's of Falcon users then??

[DJJD2021]

Hey guys, new to the KVR audio forum, thought I'd rekindle this thread as with so much competetion regarding synths these days I wanted to give my own 2 cents having owned a good few mentioned in the poll as well as an extra.

Their all good and have their own advantages in all honesty however for me I go with :

VPS Avenger - my go to synth, can do everything and anything and even though the extra time to get it up and running can be a tad frustrating once it's going it is an absolute joy to use! ( I also have nexus 3 which in addition to Lethal are very useful romplers and make up around 50 percent of my workflow ).

Ana 2 Ultra - With the new sounds this thing really is underrated! I must admit the regular version was fine but it was definitely missing something, the 2 ultra pack certainly makes up for this though!

Parawave Rapid - I feel like this has evolved quite a fair bit since first coming out and this is definitely my 2nd go to synth, very good sound quality and I feel it compliments avenger very well.

Atm, or for the near future, I cant see myself using anything outside of these synths as they give me everything I need to produce ( I make more psy style big room and hard dance combined with breaks ).

On an added note I didnt like equator 2, serum, spire nor diva very much, I'm sure others really enjoy these synths but didnt click with me at all unfortunately, dune 3 is also good but after trying it in the studio I didn't enjoy it as much as avenger. But, I wouldnt diss any of these synths, different strokes for different folks, their all pretty phenomenal in their own way!

[MuzikFreq]

Start with Vital. It's free and extremely deep but also kinda easy.
Other than that maybe SynthmasterOne, Surge, Sylenth1
Hell, depending on the daw you use, just learn the built in synths.

Also don't forget, Reason can be super simple to super deep and complex depending what you want out of it. Has a 30day free trial as well with reason+

[twal]

Zebra 2 and Spire easily have the most "character" to me, whatever that means. Of course
any of the big synths that have sample capability is going to sound great and robust. Diversion is pretty
mind blowing as well.

[twal]

Reaktor gives you more possibilities than anything else and the sound quality is (IMO) superior to anything I’ve ever tried. When I was demoing synths Dune 3 and ANA 2 stood above the rest in terms of sound quality. Avenger was nice too and it’s a more complete package but the synth part is not as nice as the other two. I bought Dune in the end... until I tried Reaktor. Now I’m selling Dune.

PS: CPU use is bananas but freeze and bounce are your friends .

ANA 2 is one of the best deals for synth software. It comes with the sampler as well, which of course adds more flexibility.

My main thing with ANA 2, is that it is just so plain easy to incorporate into beats. It's nice and subtle with lesser harsh sounds than say Spire, or even Synthmaster which is not too harsh. You can tweak these to make beats but it is much harder to put into beats. Bells are too harsh in Spire imo, and Synthmaster has too much going on in it's sound to layer. Keep in mind that I make Trap/Hip-Hop beats and am a minority here. But still good to know. Most synths are just too gritty and harsh for Hip-Hop. I believe that ANA 2, Dune 3, and perhaps Diva/Zebra (they are too damn good) are the easiest to make these types of beats.

I've spent too much money buying synths that are just too gritty or have presets that are accommodating to more popular genres like Trance, EDM etc. Sound designers don't primarily focus on Trap/Hip-Hop so unless you are a sound designer you get stuck with these anchors unless you can sell the lease.

Another thing to mention though is that Tone2 Rayblaster, Nemesis, etc. are great sounding that if used gently, can make for good beats.

EDIT: Also want to add that this information might not mean much to the OP but as a reference for those who are wondering. I also DO use Spire and Synthmaster but they are harder to mix in with beats. I love Spire actually, it's sound and interface. I also like Diversion as well, but never have used it. Oddity, and Strobe 2 collect virtual dust even though are nice sounding just not enough sounds/genre for me.

I thanks every comment. Every comment helps me to make better decisions. Thanks.

I no longer feel this way, as I am better at mixing now. But, I haven't checked if I like Strobe 2 presets for this music nor Oddity but I imagine I would not like them overall and/or have enough presets that could fit genres mentioned here. Just want to update this

[Kaboom75]

Would of chosen not in any order
Zebra
Omnisphere 2
Dune

[DJErmac]

I've spent quite a long time making a collection of sampled basses to save time for the future, tweaked to the max using a chain of effects (multiband compressors, multiband transients, spectral things...). So far Avenger is still unmatched to me.
Everything else falls far behind. This can be transients that can't compare, or body that's not there, but even the synths that I thought would rock (Spire, Knifonium, Dune3...) disappointed me when passed through my chain. Only Thorn sounded really as solid.
I've not tried Rapid for basses yet, but Rapid is a serious contender for Avenger still.