What's your favorite synth for sound design?

[Alexander_D]

Yeah, big fan of the u-he synths. Bazille is special, and Zebra2/ZebraHZ is always in my rotation; it's a synth that grows with you -- you get better at synths, you unlock another tier of appreciation for what it brings to the table. I also use Hive2 and Diva.

I have barely touched the original Massive, so for now I don't have much I can say about it (I got both Massive and Massive X just recently when I finally got Komplete). As for Massive X, I have invested time into it, and it really is a fantastic synth. Extreme diversity in the sounds you can get out of it, great sound quality. If you take your time to study it in depth, you'll be rewarded.

Great. Got the Diva as well! I was sold Repro and Bazille and maybe it was my mistake.. Maybe will back them on this forum...I also like U+?-HE synths a lot... but once again at this moment I got just Zebra and Diiva...

[KBSoundSmith]

Yeah, big fan of the u-he synths. Bazille is special, and Zebra2/ZebraHZ is always in my rotation; it's a synth that grows with you -- you get better at synths, you unlock another tier of appreciation for what it brings to the table. I also use Hive2 and Diva.

I have barely touched the original Massive, so for now I don't have much I can say about it (I got both Massive and Massive X just recently when I finally got Komplete). As for Massive X, I have invested time into it, and it really is a fantastic synth. Extreme diversity in the sounds you can get out of it, great sound quality. If you take your time to study it in depth, you'll be rewarded.

Great. Got the Diva as well! I was sold Repro and Bazille and maybe it was my mistake.. Maybe will back them on this forum...I also like U+?-HE synths a lot... but once again at this moment I got just Zebra and Diiva...

Nothing wrong with moving on from a synth if it isn't working for you. Bazille is great, but the workflow might not be for everyone. You can always download the demo and look up educational material on using that specific synth to see if it's for you. If not, no shame in that. Use what works best for you.

[WAVEFRONT_INSURGENCY]

Ableton sampler

[zerocrossing]

Phaseplant is very good, it can be as simple or as complicated as you want.

It was tough to lose Alchemy but Phase Plant is starting to fill that void.

That was going to be my suggestion as well. It does so much, but you just build what you need, and it's quick and easy to get good results.

[Alexander_D]

Ableton sampler

Yeah! It's a great tool. But I am in Cubase right now...

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Omnisphere's 60-or-so gigs of oscillators make a compelling argument:

[Alexander_D]

Omnisphere's 60-or-so gigs of oscillators make a compelling argument:

Yeah. Purchased it and it's really nice!

[trymhc]

I am still rather new to music, so I'm usually dealing with Serum or Massive. Though, I find massive much more difficult in the creative process of sound design. The GUI is not as easy to read for example, but that's why It probably offers just as much or even more potential than serum. I just need to start deep-diving a bit more. Gotta stop being afraid of experimenting.

[susquash]

I like U-he Hive for sounds mostly.
I have recently been doing a lot with the microkorg plugin.

[leodu]

phaseplant

[audiojunkie]

Yeah, big fan of the u-he synths. Bazille is special, and Zebra2/ZebraHZ is always in my rotation; it's a synth that grows with you -- you get better at synths, you unlock another tier of appreciation for what it brings to the table. I also use Hive2 and Diva.

I have barely touched the original Massive, so for now I don't have much I can say about it (I got both Massive and Massive X just recently when I finally got Komplete). As for Massive X, I have invested time into it, and it really is a fantastic synth. Extreme diversity in the sounds you can get out of it, great sound quality. If you take your time to study it in depth, you'll be rewarded.

Great. Got the Diva as well! I was sold Repro and Bazille and maybe it was my mistake.. Maybe will back them on this forum...I also like U+?-HE synths a lot... but once again at this moment I got just Zebra and Diiva...

Nothing wrong with moving on from a synth if it isn't working for you. Bazille is great, but the workflow might not be for everyone. You can always download the demo and look up educational material on using that specific synth to see if it's for you. If not, no shame in that. Use what works best for you.

My problem with Bazille, is I don’t understand how the oscillators work. I would love to find a tutorial that teaches how to use the oscillators, but I haven’t found one. I understand that it is some form of FM, but that’s about all I understand from it.

[audiojunkie]

I generally use a handful of easy synths with different synthesis types and layer them Repro or Diva, Hive, Dexed, Quanta 2, and a sampler usually gets me what I need.

[swilow11]

Yeah, big fan of the u-he synths. Bazille is special, and Zebra2/ZebraHZ is always in my rotation; it's a synth that grows with you -- you get better at synths, you unlock another tier of appreciation for what it brings to the table. I also use Hive2 and Diva.

I have barely touched the original Massive, so for now I don't have much I can say about it (I got both Massive and Massive X just recently when I finally got Komplete). As for Massive X, I have invested time into it, and it really is a fantastic synth. Extreme diversity in the sounds you can get out of it, great sound quality. If you take your time to study it in depth, you'll be rewarded.

Great. Got the Diva as well! I was sold Repro and Bazille and maybe it was my mistake.. Maybe will back them on this forum...I also like U+?-HE synths a lot... but once again at this moment I got just Zebra and Diiva...

Nothing wrong with moving on from a synth if it isn't working for you. Bazille is great, but the workflow might not be for everyone. You can always download the demo and look up educational material on using that specific synth to see if it's for you. If not, no shame in that. Use what works best for you.

My problem with Bazille, is I don’t understand how the oscillators work. I would love to find a tutorial that teaches how to use the oscillators, but I haven’t found one. I understand that it is some form of FM, but that’s about all I understand from it.

Bazille is a mighty beast and not exactly intuitive. Worth buying the Bazille cookbook soundset- comes with a few hundred presets, some very simple but illustrative of various deep concepts plus has a pdf describing the rationale behind the preset.

Afaik, Bazille is mainly FM and phase distortion based. And if you look at it as a modular with all modules exposed, it starts to come together. With that said, I don't love the sound. I prefer Ace, which is just way easier to grasp, and Hive2 but thats a totally different beast.

[swilow11]

For me, Falcon is probably rhe best for sheer sound design options. I don't tend to use it for leads but as a pad or generative machine, it's just fantastic. UX is hit and miss but if you have a sound in mind and can't make it with Falcon, the sound cannot be made. I'd love if it had cross modulation/audio rate stuff between oscillators but I've got plenty of synths that do that so...

[_flux_]

No one mentioned The Minifreak ?? It's not as complete as Phase Plant or Diva, but Oscillators are incredible, you can get really interesting waveforms. Mostly electronic-music oriented thought.