If you could have only one synth, what would you choose?

[zerocrossing]

Pigments is definitely a good candidate for a "deserted island" synth. Very capable, easy to use, and sounds good. Better take a good PC with you though when your plane crashes.

How you gonna power it in the island? You better get some solar panels and batteries

No one said anything about crash landing on a deserted island!

Let's just pretend the deserted island has an always reliable energy source.

What if they just crashed in New Jersey?

[Borbolactic]

Virsyn's Cube 3 Or Surge XT

Since someone put Zebra 3, I'll put Virsyn's Cube 3 if it can maybe get more partials, better resynthesis, etc., and/or a better morph (assuming its morph needs work), or Surge XT, not just because it's powerful but also because it's FLOSS.

...Or maybe one of those 'academic-looking' stuff like Pure Data (or Purr Data?), Max/MSP or whatever else.

[kyodeejay]

If Thorn would have a friendly copy protection, I would pick it. Else if Spire had vst3, I'd take it. Else Warlock. I love the sound it does and its friendly interface

[Borbolactic]

If Thorn would have a friendly copy protection, I would pick it. Else if Spire had vst3, I'd take it. Else Warlock. I love the sound it does and its friendly interface

I seem to recall DataBroth channel on You Tube who does synth 'reviews' in a live sound-design sort of way saying something about Thorn not having many or enough partials or something like that. Is this true? I was tempted to contact Dmitry Sches about it.

[_leras]

Dune does analog really well with a broad range of filters...I think Dune is on the vast majority of my tracks...that is why it is my choice.

Here is a demo of some of the ARP patches I did:

And a demo song:

That sounds fairly digital to me, not very analog.

I think this is why Bones said he might take it as a might take it as an only synth - it's a solid all rounder with a wide range, but wouldn't take it at all if he could have 5 or 10, as it lack character that others have even though they have smaller ranges. I'd have to agree.

[tony10000]

Dune does analog really well with a broad range of filters...I think Dune is on the vast majority of my tracks...that is why it is my choice.

Here is a demo of some of the ARP patches I did:

And a demo song:

That sounds fairly digital to me, not very analog.

I think this is why Bones said he might take it as a might take it as an only synth - it's a solid all rounder with a wide range, but wouldn't take it at all if he could have 5 or 10, as it lack character that others have even though they have smaller ranges. I'd have to agree.

The VA performance of Dune 3 is excellent. It has a wide selection of zero-delay filter models with plenty of analog character. Check out the manual:

https://www.synapse-audio.com/DUNE-35-Manual.pdf

Also, here are some bass patches including analog:



I would also suggest that you demo it for yourself.

[nusound mind]

A good sampler, to get a good array and range of sounds. One synth only idk if I could swing that w/out it starting to sound samey if it's only the one sound source. Omnisphere can play samples i think so that or Serato Sample or something.

[tony10000]

A good sampler, to get a good array and range of sounds. One synth only idk if I could swing that w/out it starting to sound samey if it's only the one sound source. Omnisphere can play samples i think so that or Serato Sample or something.

Samplers generally have a pretty limited range of expression unless they are super large and that requires a lot of disk space. Not nearly as malleable as synths. I could see using a ROMpler like Nexus that does have some synth attributes.

[jethrobull]

Deepmind 6

[imrae]

If I only get one synth plugin then it's going to be running a lot of instances simultaneously.

That's a problem for Pigments and points me strongly towards Zebra 2.

Am I still allowed my hardware? Because Kontakt + eurorack should be quite a workable system for most things.

[kv331]

Synthmaster 2

Thanks but I'd say SynthMaster 3 The development has finally started this summer (at last), and I still have a long way to go (6-9 months for a beta), but I hope it'll be worth the effort.

[atya]

Bitwig

(In case of a single plugin I'd take VPS Avenger, even though I've using the built in Bitwig stuff way more often than any of my ... other synths for more than two years now.)

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

Today......I would say Spire. Not because it can do everything but because It sounds the best for things I use synths for.

[kyodeejay]

I seem to recall DataBroth channel on You Tube who does synth 'reviews' in a live sound-design sort of way saying something about Thorn not having many or enough partials or something like that. Is this true? I was tempted to contact Dmitry Sches about it.

I'm not sure, but I like how it sounds and how it fits on my mixes. btw, I'm using ThornCM, I only miss the support that would have the full version.

[FAS122]

Spire. Has most of the features I'd realistically need, and it just sounds so good.