Help me choose a synth

[Tricky-Loops]

I've narrowed it down to Spire and Hive.

That's not how it works. You will get recommendations for at least 20 different synths and have to narrow down it again and again!

[layzer]

Rule of thumb also: If it's cheap, it's not very popular, if it's expensive it is popular, for a reason. Might not apply all the time, but generally it does in my experience.

what a bunch of crap.
anything you can do with your so called "expensive" synths... i can do better with freeware synths and free effects. yeah, the reason it's popular is because everyone thinks new is better. the new synths only sound better because the effects used in them are better. hell, synth1 even sounds like a $200 VSTI pumped through TAL ChorusLX

[chk071]

Keep trolling.

[nickamandote]

Rule of thumb also: If it's cheap, it's not very popular, if it's expensive it is popular, for a reason. Might not apply all the time, but generally it does in my experience.

what a bunch of crap.
anything you can do with your so called "expensive" synths... i can do better with freeware synths and free effects. yeah, the reason it's popular is because everyone thinks new is better. the new synths only sound better because the effects used in them are better. hell, synth1 even sounds like a $200 VSTI pumped through TAL ChorusLX

there's a piece of truth in what you're saying.

[fluffy_little_something]

Rule of thumb also: If it's cheap, it's not very popular, if it's expensive it is popular, for a reason. Might not apply all the time, but generally it does in my experience.

what a bunch of crap.
anything you can do with your so called "expensive" synths... i can do better with freeware synths and free effects. yeah, the reason it's popular is because everyone thinks new is better. the new synths only sound better because the effects used in them are better. hell, synth1 even sounds like a $200 VSTI pumped through TAL ChorusLX

Although some commercial stuff is not worth its price, I do not agree with your general statement. I used to use various free and cheap synths, but at the end of the day I decided to get one quality commercial synth because there was something wrong with everything I had before. Good-sounding freeware such as Charlatan was just too basic, Noizemaker had inferior sound, only 6 voices and used a lot of CPU for the sound offered. I could go on and on.

Similar thing with affordable synths, there was something wrong with each and every one of the synths I had.

I definitely hear a difference in the sound quality of Synth1 and Sylenth1. And it is not because of the effects, I hear a clear difference with all effects turned off. You make it sound like all those people who buy a quality synth are fools wasting their money based on imagination. That is not the case at all in my view
After all, I also hear differences between various synths of the same price range. So it is unrealistic to expect that there are none between expensive synths and freeware.

[chk071]

Rule of thumb also: If it's cheap, it's not very popular, if it's expensive it is popular, for a reason. Might not apply all the time, but generally it does in my experience.

what a bunch of crap.
anything you can do with your so called "expensive" synths... i can do better with freeware synths and free effects. yeah, the reason it's popular is because everyone thinks new is better. the new synths only sound better because the effects used in them are better. hell, synth1 even sounds like a $200 VSTI pumped through TAL ChorusLX

there's a piece of truth in what you're saying

No, it's nonsense. The sound engines of synths like Spire, Electra2, Diva, Monark and what not which came out 2010 or later are actually better than those of older synths. Which means they sound better out of the box, even dry. Development hasn't stood still. There is no need to burn all that CPU power if it was for nothing. But then, people are free to believe what they want to believe... If you still feel like Z3TA 1 or V-Station sound as good as the soft synths nowaday, hey, feel free to use it. But don't think all that extra CPU power is burned for fun.

[nickamandote]

^ ok i can agree on that. but let's not forget music is also about notes not only sound. i still prefer an 80s synth with cool melody instead a new one with crappy tune. sound quality is important but is it everything?

[fluffy_little_something]

When you mention TAL's free chorus, it only exists because of his commercial synth. The same goes for his new reverb, which is only there because of the commercial sampler.

[chk071]

^ ok i can agree on that. but let's not forget music is also about notes not only sound. i still prefer an 80s synth with cool melody instead a new one with crappy tune.

Yeah, no disagreement about that here. But combining a good tune with the possiblities we have nowadays, who could ask for better.

When you mention TAL's free chorus, it only exists because of his commercial synth. The same goes for his new reverb, which is only there because of the commercial sampler.

That's what i thought too. Actually it's an enhancement of the old TAL-Chorus, so actually it IS new technology.

[nickamandote]

^ ok i can agree on that. but let's not forget music is also about notes not only sound. i still prefer an 80s synth with cool melody instead a new one with crappy tune.

Yeah, no disagreement about that here. But combining a good tune with the possiblities we have nowadays, who could ask for better.

that's also true. but more rare these days usually the sound is better

[Slaapstadseun]

To answer some questions:

I do electronica and ambient music.

Serum sounds brittle and plastic to me.

Whoever mentioned that Synth1 is excellent, I agree: I use it in every project.

And I'm not trolling, I just wanted some opinions on what the best current all-round synth is. Sigh...

[chk071]

I don' think anyone meant that you were trolling. So what sounds are you aiming to do? Analog stuff, wavetable stuff, maybe samples or granular stuff?

[recursive one]

To answer some questions:

I do electronica and ambient music.

Serum sounds brittle and plastic to me.

Then try Dune 2

[garryknight]

I need an all-round synth that can do everything.

If, by 'everything', you mean in terms of types of synthesis, have you considered Dune 2? It does analog emulation, wavetable, and FM synthesis. So, not quite everything, since it doesn't do granular and more exotic types of synthesis. But it's a very capable synthesizer and with 3 oscillators with up to 32 voices, all multiplied by 8 instances in the one synth, it can give extremely good results.

I don't know Spire but I do know that Hive is extremely easy to program, easy to use, and takes up less CPU than many synths. It's so good that it became my go-to synth.

[kv331]

Rule of thumb also: If it's cheap, it's not very popular, if it's expensive it is popular, for a reason. Might not apply all the time, but generally it does in my experience.

Not always true Otherwise SynthMaster wouldn't have been voted amongst the top 3 synths by MusicRadar readers 3 years in a row!