We now finally have at least one thing clear regarding Synth1...

[.jon]

Well, this certainly settles the case.

For reasons I have not exactly studied at all, Synth1 was incredibly easy and fast to program my own patches that ended up sounding like the vision I had before opening the synth. I haven't quite found that same sense of control and immediacy in other synths.

[whassup]

Just for the fun of it I changed the GUI color of it yesterday.
Looks new and shiny now!

[starflakeprj]

Just for the fun of it I changed the GUI color of it yesterday.
Looks new and shiny now!

Impossible, it still looks like shit
One of the reasons I don't use it.

[whassup]

Just for the fun of it I changed the GUI color of it yesterday.
Looks new and shiny now!

Impossible, it still looks like shit
One of the reasons I don't use it.

Yeah, I hear ya.
It defo is not a beauty but at least functional.
Good that I changed my text as I originally almost wrote that it now looks like a ... because of the new color but...

[starflakeprj]

Just for the fun of it I changed the GUI color of it yesterday.
Looks new and shiny now!

Impossible, it still looks like shit
One of the reasons I don't use it.

Yeah, I hear ya.
It defo is not a beauty but at least functional.
Good that I changed my text as I originally almost wrote that it now looks like a ... because of the new color but...

Definitely functional. Haven't used it since I was on a Windows machine last time, which is 3+ years ago, but I remember it being a very accessible synth. The second reason I haven't used it for a long time is that I have too many paid options anyway, so I'll rather use them. I think the only free synths I'm currently using are Surge XT and Odin 2. I don't count Vital or VCV Rack as free since I have paid for them.

[jamcat]

Why would he? Why would anyone want it? It's a relic, doesn't come close to stuff available now

Says the man who still uses Orion.

Says the man who still writes in English.

jatlh DIvI' Hol ghItlhtaHbogh loD'e

[martinjuenke]

Why would he? Why would anyone want it? It's a relic, doesn't come close to stuff available now

Says the man who still uses Orion.

Says the man who still writes in English.

jatlh DIvI' Hol ghItlhtaHbogh loD'e

Covfefe!

[whassup]

alsomeenautoübasetzahweesditnich

[BONES]

Prove it!

Here you go, Mr Grumpy-Bugger -

Screenshot 2026-05-02 090225.png

[Seafire Mk2]

[havran]

Prove it!

Here you go, Mr Grumpy-Bugger -


Screenshot 2026-05-02 090225.png

How can you stand it? It's so glaring and hideous. Any way to tone that down?

Also, thank you for being kind or at least neutral toward me despite some of my recent posts directed your way.

[BONES]

I didn't even notice anything you said and I don't take anything written here personally anyway.

I like saturated colours, pastels are for babies' rooms. Every instrument type has a hue - drums and percussion are varying shades of pink/crimson, anything sample-based is a shade of green, except guitars which are shades of red, and vocals are shades of poo-brown. I try to match synth colours to their interface if I can, which is why bx_oberhausen is cream and Synth1 is grey in this project. Hive is yellow (honey), Odyssey is orange (because that's my favourite ARP look), while Spire and Thorn are shades in between those. Synapse synths are usually mid-blues, JP6K is a blue that matches it's GUI, GR8 is an apricot sorta orange, Korg's are darker blues, Union is really dark teal, TRK-01 is day-glo green, Olga is brown, ANA2 is white (not sure why I chose that for it) and Hexaract is black (to match my soul).

I always put my tracks in order, too - drums/percussion at the top, then samples, followed by basslines, then arps/sequences, followed by pads, then leads (or whatever I play on stage), then vocals at the bottom. (I don't play anything on that song live, it's usually the last song in the set.)

[havran]

I didn't even notice anything you said and I don't take anything written here personally anyway.

I like saturated colours, pastels are for babies' rooms. Every instrument type has a hue - drums and percussion are varying shades of pink/crimson, anything sample-based is a shade of green, except guitars which are shades of red, and vocals are shades of poo-brown. I try to match synth colours to their interface if I can, which is why bx_oberhausen is cream and Synth1 is grey in this project. Hive is yellow (honey), Odyssey is orange (because that's my favourite ARP look), while Spire and Thorn are shades in between those. Synapse synths are usually mid-blues, JP6K is a blue that matches it's GUI, GR8 is an apricot sorta orange, Korg's are darker blues, Union is really dark teal, TRK-01 is day-glo green, Olga is brown, ANA2 is white (not sure why I chose that for it) and Hexaract is black (to match my soul).

I always put my tracks in order, too - drums/percussion at the top, then samples, followed by basslines, then arps/sequences, followed by pads, then leads (or whatever I play on stage), then vocals at the bottom. (I don't play anything on that song live, it's usually the last song in the set.)

Wow! Thank you for explaining your colour and track-arrangement scheme -- makes sense.

On my side, I'd prefer less saturated colors -- but that's just me.

[yzcoruhT]

First of all, I want to apologize if this message sounds rude. Synth1 was a great plugin, and it helped me create my first custom presets and sounds when I was just starting out in music. It’s great that you wanted to request the code to perform an update or upgrade, but now comes the part where I have to apologize, because I’m simply an amateur music producer and not a VST plugin developer:

What was the actual motivation for diving into modifying the code for Synth1, when it’s fair to say that SurgeXT far surpasses this VST instrument in terms of capabilities? And a second question: if the goal is an easy-to-use synth that will have similar success to Synth1, why not “strip down” SurgeXT and create a Synth1 clone that has similar parameters and a fast workflow compared to the complex monster that is SurgeXT?

Thanks for reading.

y-

[Korg Supporter]

First of all, I want to apologize if this message sounds rude. Synth1 was a great plugin, and it helped me create my first custom presets and sounds when I was just starting out in music. It’s great that you wanted to request the code to perform an update or upgrade, but now comes the part where I have to apologize, because I’m simply an amateur music producer and not a VST plugin developer:

What was the actual motivation for diving into modifying the code for Synth1, when it’s fair to say that SurgeXT far surpasses this VST instrument in terms of capabilities? And a second question: if the goal is an easy-to-use synth that will have similar success to Synth1, why not “strip down” SurgeXT and create a Synth1 clone that has similar parameters and a fast workflow compared to the complex monster that is SurgeXT?

Thanks for reading.

y-

The simple answer is, not all synths sound equal. If the code is not up-to-date, it could be buggy on modern operating systems. And the Surge Sound Team has a fork of OB-Xd. If you want a modern Synth1, the closest thing that is free is Charlatan 3.