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

[ghettosynth]

Have all the synths been named yet?

Nah, only 30 pages

Since no one has ever asked this question before i'll cheat and say Reaktor.
As much as like the variety of having 30 or so i could get by easily with any of my top ten fav virtual synths and probably with quite a few that i don't have especially the big "workstation" type synths like Dune, Falcon, etc.

I could enjoy creating music with only Reaktor or Max, no other software needed. But I don't need to and I can't see any reason for only needing to use one synth or even answering the question. I'm just here to throw popcorn.

[PatchAdamz]

These days, Diva, next month who knows......

[tapper mike]

Just to say it again, I would choose Falcon. IMO unless you're using Live, ReNoise or Bitwig a your DAW, having a solid sampler with synth capabilities is going to give you a lot more possibilities than a really great subtractive synth etc. Despite the great songs people come up with in the One synth challenge, sonically its not going to compare to Falcon or Kontakt with a few libraries and your own samples etc.

I've been thinking along similar lines but Kontakt feels a bit like cheating, in that's it's more of an environment than an instrument in itself. OTOH, a good ROMpler like Triton or Triton Extreme doesn't feel like cheating at all, so that's probably where I'd end up if I needed a good all-rounder. But I don't feel like I would need a good all-rounder, I feel like I'd rather just have a competent V/A. Something like Vacuum Pro would be enough to keep me going for years.

I've just started learning how to compose film scores. Which totally feels like cheating


Because I just want to play the music physically on my linnstrument rather than score using mouse and grid.
All that being said I finally bought Triton/Triton Extreme VST. Love it to tears.

[BONES]

I'm a bit the opposite in that, whilst I do enjoy playing instruments with my Roli stuff and my Erae Touch, I prefer the mouse and keyboard when I'm working. Even if I come up with an idea while I am playing, which is where most of my ideas come from, I'll still put it into the Piano Roll with the mouse most of the time. It's a separation of work and play for me, I suppose.

BTW, that's a good, succinct video that's quite close to the way I build up a song from an idea, although I don't have the words to explain it like this guy does. I just do what feels right. His is a nice formula, though, that could be repeated ad infinitum without sounding like you're repeating yourself at all.

[twal]

you mad? you can take the synths but my fx stay all of them!!!

I must be completely bonkers because I'd manage just fine without VST effects. Honestly, the only VST effects I have that I'd really have trouble without are mastering things - Puncher on my drums and FireCobra and STA Enhancer on my master. Everything else can be handled by on-board effects or the stuff that comes built into Studio One, even for my vox.

I use Just a few synths and lots of effects.

I use f**k-all effects these days, not even EQ. If I can't get it right in the instrument, then I'll find another instrument that can get it right. It's done wonders for the quality of my mixes. Everything is so much punchier, with a clarity I could never get before.

I’m always assessing new products, but it’s not really to add to my collection—it’s more to replace good plugins with better plugins.

Here I am definitely the same. I am always looking for something that will do a better job than the stuff I'm using now. That means that over the years a lot of things have fallen by the wayside - Massive, Pigments, Hive, HY-Poly and even DUNE. Lately I've been thinking that I should revisit DUNE. The addition of good preset management has gone a long way towards making it a lot more usable but I never think to give it a go.

Dune is a pleasure to come back to, I just came back to it after about 4 months, put something random into the Genetics, and out came one of the best sounding pads I've ever heard.

[billinder33]

This thread was a really interesting thought experiment regarding samples vs. synthesis. I actually read most of the 31 pages aside from skipping most of the pedantic bickering. IMO there are 3 essential questions that would guide responses in this thread, and here's where I landed on them:

• Is sampling synthesis? - Yes. I actually feel this should be fairly uncontroversial.

• Is a sampler a synthesizer? - Yes and no. Yes in the 'technical sense' as guided the question above. No in the sense of how we have commonly deployed the English language regarding today's instruments. However, a sampler can be a perfectly fine substitute for a synth. As can DAWs like Ableton and Bitwig. But if someone asked for a synth recommendation, you wouldn't typically bring up Ableton as a top choice because its primary function is a DAW. In the same vein, you also likely wouldn't bring up Kontakt as a top choice either. You would only bring those up if the person asking the question was missing DAW or sampling capabilities.
  
  Similar analogy the difference between an RV and a house. An RV has most of the key characteristics of a house - you can live in it, has a shower, kitchen, living area, etc. - but it's not a house. However it is a perfectly fine substitute for a house.

• Finally, If someone asks if you could only have one synth, should Kontakt be an acceptable answer? - Yes. Kontakt is a perfectly fine answer because it can easily substitute for a synth, as can Bitwig (which was mentioned a few times and didn't cause a stir). If someone answers with Kontakt, they are making a lifestyle statement, same as if you ask someone about their dream house and they bring up some high-end tricked-out RV, or a high-rise condo, or a yacht. And those are perfectly fine answers to give because functionally they can be reasonable substitutes for houses.
  
  However, I did not pick Kontakt because it's not clear in the question that if I chose something like PhasePlant, that I couldn't also have Kontact as well since it's regarded primarily as a sampler. But I assumed I could, same not choosing Bitwig because I also assumed I could have a DAW. If it was explicit that picking PhasePlant would exclude having an instrument that's primarily regarded as a sampler, then my answer would have been different, and I would actually lean toward something like Kontakt/Falcon, etc. because I would need want those capabilities as well.

And on that final point, if the question was "if you could only have one VSTi?", IMO something like Kontakt or Falcon would actually make a lot more sense than PhasePlant, Dune, etc. But that wasn't the question here.

Regardless of where anyone landed and all the mundane bickering aside, I thought this turned out to be a fun and thought-provoking question.

[gauderbock]

For noodling around and having fun: Diva

For getting stuff done: Zebra

[Daru925]

ATM massive x

[Jac459]

If I could have only one synth, after a few days and mourning, I would probably kick myself in the ass and move myself to learn and use the grid in bitwig.

And then I would recreate my 174 missing synths...

[Bla28]

Spire.

[twal]

Spire has been my favorite overall sounding synth, if a 2 ever came out with sampling and whatever else it would be hard to say no as desert island. It's great in it's own way. Other synths sound excellent too in their own way. But, I would go with Dune 3 or probably Avenger it can just do everything.

[pdxindy]

Bazille

[glokraw]

When Synthmaster 3 arrives, with 16 layers, product-line preset compatibility,
gui-sizing, and skins, in a normal world, it would likely become #1.
But regular standard normalcy left Berlin a long time ago
Gonna be a serious bytefyte

[revvy]

Nexus plus my current set of XPs.

[thecontrolcentre]

Teisco 60F Synthesizer