can one synth really do it all ?

[Michael L]

I could make a whole track with a rolled up newspaper and a stick

The Australian singer-songwriter Ted Egan AO (member of the Order of Australia) performs entire sets playing just an empty beer carton. He's quite good!
Ted & his Cartonstrument.jpg

Does he use 7 boxes for a supersaw sound?

The box generates only square waves.

[Tj Shredder]

I could make a whole track with a rolled up newspaper and a stick

The Australian singer-songwriter Ted Egan AO (member of the Order of Australia) performs entire sets playing just an empty beer carton. He's quite good!
Ted & his Cartonstrument.jpg

Does he use 7 boxes for a supersaw sound?

No, inside the box there is a saw, and he will saw the box in pieces at the end of the show. Thats super…

[digitalboytn]

Inside the box there is a saw, and he will saw the box in pieces at the end of the show. Thats super…

[foosnark]

With simple synths you're stuck with simple sounds or you'll need to use multiple instances to make more complex sounds. That's not a "trap" that's simply a fact.

Depends on how you define simple. If you're talking about a Casio VL-Tone, sure, you're going to get simple sounds. Unless of course, you add some FX. Some judicious distortion and a good delay and that dumb little calculator could melt faces.

Effects aside, it really doesn't take much complexity for a synth to produce complex sounds. Not with sync, FM, filter FM, AM/ring mod and so on.

[BONES]

Exactly! If a synth has osc cross-modulation, an envelope and an LFO then it can make really complex timbres without much effort at all. Invader 2 is a really good example - it is a relatively simple synth capable of an incredible range of timbres.

[dune_rave]

one synth is one synth. You think you can "mimic" the tiny details of some moog sounds with a virus? good luck! Or use your Yamaha dx7 like a korg M1? good luck!
A synth is not just some box connected in some way, its more than the sum of its parts. And there are many synths, that comes with super good, production ready sounds, while others without presets - so in some cases a synth also includes a huge part of sound design. and this sound design is for this synth only, you cant replicate it on other synths or not that way. so each synth is different, they are made to be different and this way they cant replace each other. For the musician, this means there's logical to collect some different synths.

[Greenstorm33]

The Moog Macromoog could do it all but it turned out to be too much power for us lesser beings and had to be sealed away, all but the faintest memories of it lost to time.

[yzcoruhT]

Sorry. Wrong topic.

[BONES]

You think you can "mimic" the tiny details of some moog sounds with a virus? good luck! Or use your Yamaha dx7 like a korg M1? good luck!

Why would I need to? Or even want to? It's the dumbest thing I've read this week. As in really, really dumb. Anyone can use a DX-7 like a Korg M1 because they both have 61 key keyboards, so you play them in exactly the same way. And I could make amazing sounds with a Virus no Moog could ever hope to match. OTOH, anything any Moog can do is a breeze for something like a Virus. It doesn't need to sound exactly the same, it just has to do as good a job.

this sound design is for this synth only, you cant replicate it on other synths or not that way.

Of course you can. I could play you 10 sounds, or 100 or 1,000, from a dozen different synths and you wouldn't have the first clue which was which, even if I told you which synths I'd used (but not on which piece). If you think you could, I'm happy to set it up so you can prove me wrong. To make it easy for you, you can even tell me which synths you own so I only use synths you are familiar with.

[darkinners]

Many synths sound different but to me, workflow is also very important. out of the soft synths I have Zebra 2 and Phase Plant are the most immersive powerful ones, they can basically make any sound that you can/couldn't think of.
But if what you want at the moment is just to program something simple like those 80s synth-wave sound with classic analog oscillator 1 or 2 mods, use stuff like Diva would be much easier and quicker to program and fine-tune.

Out of the ones I own, I personally find Vital and Hive 2 in the sweet spot, they are intuitive and quick to program yet still very powerful. those are my daily driver. Unless I want to experiment with something crazy and with a lot of control on the sound nausance I would hop to Zebra/Phaseplant.

[excuse me please]

Well, I just loaded up 12 synths each time in a project when I was looking for a synth. Then I took a lead pattern for all synths, a bass pattern, an arp and so on and started comparing presets.
The presets usually should give a good impression of the capabilities of a synth.

[Tj Shredder]

It's the dumbest thing I've read this week. As in really, really dumb.

It's the dumbest thing I've read this week. As in really, really dumb...