What synth do you actually USE the most in your own music????

[PsychicVST]

I have so many great synths and I shuffle through them all quite a bit but the synth I’ve been drawn to most in recent months has been Dune3. I just love it’s sound and it’s great to program.

[BONES]

I installed Union yesterday despite having owned a license for quite a while, it sounds good even if it is heavy on CPU but in FL Studio the GUI has a huge black box extending out from one corner, In Reaper it's fine. I hope some kind of fix is on the way but it will probably be a while.

I think you can be pretty sure that Union will never be updated again. Soundspot are not known for updating anything.

[jjpscott01]

The original Dune was on everything I did for almost 4 years. Dune 3 is now replacing it. Alchemy 2.4(when it was Camel Audio) is my all time favorite synth and I love Synapse Audio Antidote for Reason.

[mholloway]

For me it's definitely Serum since it's so versatile. If I didn't already have a Serum license I would've gone with Vital as it's on-par for me but since I'm already used to Serum anyway that's what I use most.

I've noticed that using a lot of instances of the same synth can have a negative impact on my mixes though. Because I have a specific workflow for each synth and they have default settings that I may not change and unique algorithms for their FX etc. Lets say I add 5 instances of Nexus, they all have that same reverb sound and instead of making it coherent it actually just builds up and makes the track muddy. Same if you use that same multiband compression in all of your Serum patches or the same Distortion types, especially if you use pre/post mode and keep the default settings because they will all get a resonant peak at the same cutoff value etc. If I use multiple synths they all have their own character that fills up the mix if that makes sense.

Or maybe I'm wrong and it's all just in my head! I'm curious to know if other people experience this too.

Reverb is a linear process, so when summing multiple instances of the same reverb across multiple tracks, there's no such thing as 'build up' of the reverb as you've described. So that part is indeed in your head. It may just be that using stock reverbs in your synths and not taking the time to properly mix with reverb is what results in a 'muddy' sound. But that's just lack of proper mixing, not 'build up of the same reverb' which just..isn't a thing.

[Weasel-Boy]

I installed Union yesterday despite having owned a license for quite a while, it sounds good even if it is heavy on CPU but in FL Studio the GUI has a huge black box extending out from one corner, In Reaper it's fine. I hope some kind of fix is on the way but it will probably be a while.

I think you can be pretty sure that Union will never be updated again. Soundspot are not known for updating anything.

From the looks of their website, this may be true, as they are practically giving every one of their titles away. Union, for instance, is being sold for £3.95. Looks like a “so long and thanks for all the fish” fire sale to me.

[BONES]

It's how they've always done business, I'm afraid. At first it looked like it might be different with Union - we got one update with a few requested new features - but that was it. Nothing for years. It's a shame because it has such a big sound and there is nothing else quite like it.

[panspOrmia]

Synplant (Sonic Charge)

[T-MO_Music]

For me it's definitely Serum since it's so versatile. If I didn't already have a Serum license I would've gone with Vital as it's on-par for me but since I'm already used to Serum anyway that's what I use most.

I've noticed that using a lot of instances of the same synth can have a negative impact on my mixes though. Because I have a specific workflow for each synth and they have default settings that I may not change and unique algorithms for their FX etc. Lets say I add 5 instances of Nexus, they all have that same reverb sound and instead of making it coherent it actually just builds up and makes the track muddy. Same if you use that same multiband compression in all of your Serum patches or the same Distortion types, especially if you use pre/post mode and keep the default settings because they will all get a resonant peak at the same cutoff value etc. If I use multiple synths they all have their own character that fills up the mix if that makes sense.

Or maybe I'm wrong and it's all just in my head! I'm curious to know if other people experience this too.

Reverb is a linear process, so when summing multiple instances of the same reverb across multiple tracks, there's no such thing as 'build up' of the reverb as you've described. So that part is indeed in your head. It may just be that using stock reverbs in your synths and not taking the time to properly mix with reverb is what results in a 'muddy' sound. But that's just lack of proper mixing, not 'build up of the same reverb' which just..isn't a thing.

I get what you mean. I was also partly reffering to the default settings synths have. For example if you use Serum's built-in reverb it has a default value for lowpass/highpass. If you set the reverb to 100% wet and add an freq analyzer or spectral EQ after that you will see that there is a slight boost around the cutoff frequencies. Almost as if there is some resonance set for the cutoff. You can see this best if you use some noise as the input sound. I guess my thought was that that's what's building up. But it's not just the reverb, it's just that certain synths have certain sounds to them. And usually you can emulate Synth A's sound in Synth B if you really wanted to but Synth A invites you more to make that type of sound. Serum for example is (to me atleast) inviting you to make more digital sounds, you could emulate analog sounds if you wanted to but personally I'd pick a different synth for that. But often times you can tell a sound is made in Serum simply because you hear that OTT-like multiband compression, which compresses the lows/highs more than the mids. And if you use that a lot your track it can affect the mix.

You can change those default settings but I find it easier to just use a variety of synths in my tracks. I just find that you can often tell when someone used the same synth for all their sounds somehow.

[lotus2035]

I installed Union yesterday despite having owned a license for quite a while, it sounds good even if it is heavy on CPU but in FL Studio the GUI has a huge black box extending out from one corner, In Reaper it's fine. I hope some kind of fix is on the way but it will probably be a while.

I think you can be pretty sure that Union will never be updated again. Soundspot are not known for updating anything.

Thanks, I'll probably just uninstall it.

[BONES]

Why? It sound f**king amazing! I don't have any other synth capable of doing what Union does. It's an absolute monster. If I were you, I'd ditch FL, not Union.

[EnGee]

BONES will never change!

[Dencheg]

Now our Neil must decide
Who will be the girl Neil casts aside
Will Union be the one who he loves truly
Or will it be the one who we'll call.. FLulie?…

[3lu5iv3]

Vital and Serum. planning to use Phase Plant a bit more these days.

[glasspipe]

Been ITB lately so, TAL u no, synthmaster 1&2, vital, miniverse, ops7 and synths in fl studio.
For hardware: ms20 mini, minilogue, an1x, bs2.

[machinesworking]

It's how they've always done business, I'm afraid. At first it looked like it might be different with Union - we got one update with a few requested new features - but that was it. Nothing for years. It's a shame because it has such a big sound and there is nothing else quite like it.

Doesn't hurt to email them, asked about updates, being on an M1 Air here, it's a legit question. If they tune it up for the Air they really won't have much reason not to fix other issues like the FL one.

At the equivalent of $5 though, if it works for a couple months it's worth it. They may have lost their chief programmer for it, that's a likely reason to never update and drop the price to 1/32nd of it's original cost.