*Urgent Plea For Help* - What Are The Top Synths Today?

[El°HYM]

You could also just check the Ratings on Plugin Boutique, the overall amount of ratings so to say.

[wagtunes]

You know a few people have mentioned Current. I never even heard of it. Is it new?

[Super Piano Hater 64]

You know a few people have mentioned Current. I never even heard of it. Is it new?

It's been around for a couple years now (ie. since before Serum 2).

The initial launch caused an uproar because it was only available as part of a subscription, but Minimal quickly introduced a perpetual license option after that. I think the original announcement thread was deleted, though.

[swilow11]

You know a few people have mentioned Current. I never even heard of it. Is it new?

Newish. Maybe 2-3 years or so? It's a nice synth, wavetable, granular, sample engines, excellent fx. I owned it for a while and ultimately sold it because it has huge overlap with most other well known synths like Pigments, Serum, etc.

[twal]

Pigments and Serum are too cpu intensive for my setup. Current is super lightweight in comparison and probably the moat intuitive synth I've ever used- especially at its level of complexity. Many good things about it but it's heavily aimed at producers with performance in mind. I'm skeptical about it given its history with the sub only fiasco, and young team, but if it persists (Mimimal Audio has great pre-Current products which are embedded in the synth itself) I think it has a sophisticated future. If not, by the time I have an updated setup I'll pivot to Pigments (and cont. to use Dune for less sample and minus granular work)...

[wagtunes]

Pigments and Serum are too cpu intensive for my setup. Current is super lightweight in comparison and probably the moat intuitive synth I've ever used- especially at its level of complexity. Many good things about it but it's heavily aimed at producers with performance in mind. I'm skeptical about it given its history with the sub only fiasco, and young team, but if it persists (Mimimal Audio has great pre-Current products which are embedded in the synth itself) I think it has a sophisticated future. If not, by the time I have an updated setup I'll pivot to Pigments (and cont. to use Dune for less sample and minus granular work)...

So which of these do you suggest I do, if any? Or all?

[BBFG#]

So which of these do you suggest I do, if any? Or all?

Not to be Captain Obvious here, but do the ones you click with.

[wagtunes]

So which of these do you suggest I do, if any? Or all?

Not to be Captain Obvious here, but do the ones you click with.

Well, for that matter, I can program any synth. The basic architectures are the same. What subtle differences there are, they're easy to learn. My purpose for doing this is to find out which are most popular. So what clicks with me will be what has the potential to make me the most money. It may sound mercenary but right now, given my current situation, I don't have much choice.

Besides, I love programming synths anyway, regardless of what synth it is. Even the Minimoog still gives me a thrill.

[BBFG#]

Sure. Program one, program all.
But it's the personal connection to an instrument that makes the programs excel. Otherwise, it's just another hack to the same old thing.

[twal]

Pigments and Serum are too cpu intensive for my setup. Current is super lightweight in comparison and probably the moat intuitive synth I've ever used- especially at its level of complexity. Many good things about it but it's heavily aimed at producers with performance in mind. I'm skeptical about it given its history with the sub only fiasco, and young team, but if it persists (Mimimal Audio has great pre-Current products which are embedded in the synth itself) I think it has a sophisticated future. If not, by the time I have an updated setup I'll pivot to Pigments (and cont. to use Dune for less sample and minus granular work)...

So which of these do you suggest I do, if any? Or all?

I think all. Serum and Pigments are the most used preset packs- Analog Lab lately (consists of all Arturia emus and Pigments) is getting a ton of usage by modern musicians.

Current I think will enter the realm of Serum and Pigments because its extremely modern in intention, design, and features. I scoured the net and found very few packs. That may be a good thing for sound designers who want to be the first ones in the door so to speak.

I think the best thing to do is to try to cover both the generally popular synths and the popular ones on Kvr? That way you get volume from both audiences.
A lot of the recommendations here may bring in quicker money as they fulfill this community's desires (Voltage Modular you said received the most buyers? Probably because of the audience you're bringing in from Kvr or is it random traffic? Outside of that I've never seen Voltage Modular mentioned by any modern producers). Longer term the "big dogs" will probably be more lucrative.

Big Dogs- Analog Lab (Pigments), Serum 2, Omnisphere, Vital, Phaseplant, Kontakt, then U-He synths to a lesser degree (Diva, Hive 2, Zebra).

Zenology maybe? I know it's popular right now but not sure how preset packs work with it. Electra was very popular, so was Nexus. Not sure how they are at this very moment.

[wagtunes]

Sure. Program one, program all.
But it's the personal connection to an instrument that makes the programs excel. Otherwise, it's just another hack to the same old thing.

I have a personal connection to every synth I own, which is why there are some synths I don't own because I don't resonate with them at all. Like Sylenth1. To this day I have yet to buy it and I never will. The synth leaves me stone cold.

Before I buy a synth, I listen to the demos. If the demos make me go wow, I buy the synth because I know what that synth is capable of and I know, given I've been programming synths for 50 years, that I can do a good job.

Hope this clears things up.

[BBFG#]

But which ones are the ones that give you the most joy?
If you say all of them, then it's none of them.

BTW, Take it as JMO since I've never bought any of your sets. I have checked them out before and I have no doubt that others have. There's just nothing for my tastes.
Wishing you the best in your recovery and for your sales.

[wagtunes]

But which ones are the ones that give you the most joy?
If you say all of them, then it's none of them.

BTW, Take it as JMO since I've never bought any of your sets. I have checked them out before and I have no doubt that others have. There's just nothing for my tastes.
Wishing you the best in your recovery and for your sales.

Well, you asked a question so I'm going to answer it.

Are you a parent? Do you have any children? Do you have more than one child? If so, which one do you love the most? Don't you love all your children the same?

You know nothing about me. I won't bore you with my whole musical history because you probably wouldn't care anyway. But the Reader's Digest version is this. Since hearing a synth for the first time back in 1969 and getting my first synth in 1977, I have been fascinated with them ever since. It got to a point where my life revolved around synths and programming them. And back in the day, that meant using patch sheets because the early synths had no storage, But it didn't matter. I loved what I was doing. I'd sit and just play with turning the knobs and moving the sliders to get as many sounds as I could.

That joy, even with something as primitive as a Moog Sonic 6, has not worn off. My only regret is there aren't enough hours in the day to play with all my synths. So this year I made a pledge to program and use as many of them as possible for every song I do. One of my latest songs "Carrington Chronicles" had 39 tracks. Not including piano, drums and orchestral libraries, here is the list of synths I used on that track.

Korg Multipoly
Omnisphere
Sytrus
Blue 3
Microwave 1
Rayblaster
Repro 1
Spirit
Wavegenerator
Wavemapper 2
Transistow (a synth I was able to get because I made a library for it. The synth is not for sale)
Quadra
Absynth 6

That's 13 synths. Doesn't even scratch the surface of the number of synths I own. I enjoyed using each of them equally the same for this track.

You can listen to it here if you like.

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... chronicles

I think it's sad that you feel someone can only love a few synths. Obviously, you don't get the joy out of them that I do. At least not in a general sense. You have your favorites. For me, they are all my favorites.

You can believe that or not. I really don't care. But please don't pretend to think you know what makes me tick. You don't. I am not like anybody you have ever met.

Now this doesn't mean that I find all synths equally easy to program. I don't. But the ones that I find more difficult, they make me want to program them that much more. I take it as a challenge. When I made my Falcon library, I was damn proud of it because that is not an easy synth to get the most out of. Doesn't mean I love it more than a Minimoog. Just that I welcomed the challenge. As a result, it turned out to be my 2nd best selling synth, just behind Softube Modular. Now, talk about a synth that's not easy to program.

The downside of loving synths so much is I have spent a small fortune on them since 2014 when I bought my first vst. When you have hundreds of them, not to mention FX, trust me, it adds up. But I'm not sorry. You can't take the money with you. Sure, my recent accident has put a damper on things. Fortunately, I already have enough synths to make libraries for the rest of my life. I have 84 of them so far.

That you have no use for any of them is fine. They're not for everybody. I don't cater to the EDM crowd. But I have many customers who have purchased most of my libraries. That's good enough for me.

I doubt anything I've said is going to change your mind about anything. You're still going to believe I don't love any of my synths. That's fine. All that matters is that I know the truth.

Everything else is irrelevant.

[BBFG#]

I see I've touched a nerve I didn't intend to. And I would never equate instruments with people. So no need to go further into whatever justified reasoning you seem to be expressing.

Again, I wish you well in your recovery.

[wagtunes]

I see I've touched a nerve I didn't intend to. And I would never equate instruments with people. So no need to go further into whatever justified reasoning you seem to be expressing.

Again, I wish you well in your recovery.

No nerve touched. I'm not upset in the least. I was just explaining how I felt about synths and why.

Look, if you put a gun to my head and said I had to pick my top 5 synths or you'd shoot, none of my top 5 would be among the top 5 listed here. So then what? I don't program any synths because the most popular aren't in my top 5? I don't have that luxury with the medical bills piling up. So I have no choice but to pick something that will give me the best chance of making a few bucks.

It isn't ideal but it is what it is.