Synth overload?

[Daru925]

Oops posted in wrong topic :p
Memory overload i guess

[Jafo]

Reaktor is the best (and worst!) of both worlds. Some assembly required.

[Jac459]

My personal choice is to buy a lot of synths and then feel bad because Bitwig Polygrid could do the same.

Then I buy a lots of effects.... and feel bad because bitwig stock effects could do the same ...

[vurt]

turn it down a bit.

[audiojunkie]

As everyone here has alluded to, opinions span the gamut. Here's some perspective from an old timer. Ask yourself--do you want to use patches others have created, or do you want to create the patches yourself? Somewhere on this forum--maybe 10-15 years ago, you can find posts from me showing my collections of free synths that have great patches. I always wanted to learn synthesis, but I was always too busy to do it. Patches were king for me, and I had pages and pages and pages of synths--most of them 32bit and no longer of use to me. What I found, is that I would spend my whole time noodling around on various patches trying to be inspired. I would spend my entire time playing patches and end up with nothing to show for it. As I aged, responsibilities grew, and time grew less. I didn't want to spend hours reinstalling everything if I needed to reinstall. I didn't want to spend hours searching for patches. I wanted to have a sound in my mind and be able to immediately synthesize that sound is as quick a way as possible. I no longer wanted to mess around trying to find great free synths. I wanted to find the synths that worked the best for me and were the easiest for me to learn and use, while remaining the highest of quality. I have narrowed what tools I use down to a handful of essentials. I still look for better tools, but not to add to my "tool collection" but to replace something that the new tool could do better. I find that a handful of tools that are excellent and that I know very well is so much better than hundreds of plugins and thousands of patches. If I ever need to reinstall, I don't have to waste time reinstalling hundreds of plugins. I don't spend my time playing around with patches, I get straight to doing what I want to do.

So, like I said, opinions run the gamut, but sometimes it is important to understand the "Why" behind the opinions, to be able to make informed decisions. I have done both (collecting synths/patches, vs collecting a few) in my life, but I find collecting plugins to be counterproductive. Others may find it to be the opposite for them.

Another thing that I do, is try not to add a synth to my collection that doesn't add a unique special something to my sonic palette. Great sounding instruments, each with a unique sonic character, means so much more to me than dozens of "same-y" sounding instruments. The analog vs digital wars are over. There are benefits to having analog sounding synths and digital sounding synths. There are benefits of having synths that use various forms of synthesis.

Have a modest toolbox of varied tools that you know well and love, rather than a warehouse of tools that you don't know well and you have to spend lots of extra time searching for what it is that you need.

This is my $0.02. Opinions WILL vary.

[zerocrossing]

…try not to add a synth to my collection that doesn't add a unique special something to my sonic palette.

Me too, though my problem is that people keep coming out with unique and special instruments.

[audiojunkie]

…try not to add a synth to my collection that doesn't add a unique special something to my sonic palette.

Me too, though my problem is that people keep coming out with unique and special instruments.

That can indeed be a problem!

[liquidsound]

My personal choice is to buy a lot of synths and then feel bad because Bitwig Polygrid could do the same.

Then I buy a lots of effects.... and feel bad because bitwig stock effects could do the same ...

The most important thing I’ve learned is not to get brainwashed by a DAW…

[rj0]

Hi everyone,

Is it generally advised to work with 1 or few synth instruments or is the general sentiment to have as many synths as possible to be able to produce the broadest amount of sounds etc?

Curious on others' experience!

A bit of a combo answer:

If you are just learning synthesis, stick to just a couple until you learn them really well. Spread yourself too thin, and you'll not master any tools.

After that, it really depends on your own goals. My sense is that sound designers might want a wider variety of tools, but probably take the time to master one at a time. A musician might want to limit themselves to tools that work well in their music genre, with more focus on presets.

My two pence.

[thecontrolcentre]

Get something cheap (or free) to start with and see how you get on. Having too many options can lead to "learning paralysis". Take your time.

[dune_rave]

there should be a limit.
I have a small list with some developers, i buy mainly their plugins.i don't buy from others.

[Loophole01]

Great advice everyone! Thank you so much!

[DrGonzo]

Is it generally advised to work with 1 or few synth instruments or is the general sentiment to have as many synths as possible to be able to produce the broadest amount of sounds etc?

Get all the synths that inspire you and of those, pick out one synth that you learn inside out and can make sounds with in your sleep.

[BONES]

Is it generally advised to work with 1 or few synth instruments or is the general sentiment to have as many synths as possible to be able to produce the broadest amount of sounds etc?

To answer this question specifically, don't make the mistake of thinking that you can't make all the sounds you need from just one synth. If that's what you want to do, you can do it easily enough and you don't need to spend a fortune on some ubersynth to do it, either. Vital, for example, is free and will cover a lot of ground.

If you're just starting out, I'd recommend a stepping-stone approach, Start with something simple that can teach you the basics quite well. I think Full Bucket Music's MonoFury is a good starting point. It's free, it has enough features for you to be able to learn a fair few things about synths and it has a PDF manual to help you learn.

Once you've come to grips with MonoFury, you could progress to something more complex, like Vital or maybe Surge XT (which I have not used myself). They are free but if you wanted to spend some money, there are a lot of very tempting things. If you want a good all-rounder for a decent price, Adam Szabo's Viper might be a good value option for you. Or wait until something like Spire or ANA-2 is on sale and get it cheap.

[thecontrolcentre]

BASIC by Audio Damage was designed to be an easy-to-learn synth ...
it's free along with AD's other excellent legacy plugins.
https://www.audiodamage.com/pages/free-and-legacy

I happily paid for most of these (back in the day). They're some of my favourite creative effects.