KVR Audio

Moarphine · Post by **Moarphine** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:43 am

Hey guys,

I've really enjoyed my time with Image-Line's soft synth 'Poizone'. I've found its simplicity and sound inspirational, so much I've made 500 presets for it! However, I have outgrown this software as a means to improve my sound design.

I purchased Sytrus and have been playing with FM synthesis but even with tutorials I'm finding it bloody difficult to go from concept to result like subtractive synths. It also sounds metallic, nice for bases but I like my pads warm.

I'd appreciate if you could point me in the right direction and maybe forward whats inspiring you right now?

The criteria would be.
-Intuitive and simple interface.
-Has modulation options for me to learn with.
-I'm trying work my way up to Zebra2, as the Hans Zimmer video blew my mind, so something intermediate would be good.

Appreciate your suggestions!

synzh · Post by **synzh** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:06 am

could go to a specialty synth, say a waveshaping/additive one like Spectral, or maybe Spire for a subtractive with extras

ariston · Post by **ariston** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:42 am

My suggestion: go with Zebra right away. One of the nice things about it is that it's as complex or simple as YOU want it to be. Since you're the one who's dragging the modules into the matrix, you can keep it as simple as only having an osc module. Then work your way up from there. And once you feel more comfortable with it, you can really branch out; there's so much to discover, it'll keep you busy for years to come.

A good way to approach it (if you still feel daunted) would be to try out the freebie Zebralette. Also check out and study Howard Scarr's presets; he takes a very economical approach, and is great at squeezing amazing sounds out of very simple setups.

Lejurai · Post by **Lejurai** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:51 am

+1 for zebra. Though I'm quite sure you can entertain yourself with sytrus for a loooong time. Have you checked the youtube videos from seamless? He has a series "how to bass" and he uses sytrus quite a lot (along with harmor).

Lejurai · Post by **Lejurai** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:53 am

Though even more I recommend to get a hardware synth. Bass station 2 (analog) is quite cheap and will keep you busy. Or waldorf blofeld (VA).

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:16 am

I would (strongly) recommend Dune2. It has huge possibilities for sound design and very clear interface. Not to mention that it sounds very good.

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:34 am

I'd suggest Xils-Lab Oxium : Lots of flexible modulations, pristine analog sound, and lots of never seen modulations as well, but still very easy to edit, and intuitive to use.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:41 am

The next step is Boizone Killa - slayer of pop music

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:45 am

I'd say you should check out u-he Hive!

Similarly simple, but expanded in functionality over Poizone (and sound, as well).

That said, if you were fascinated by Zebra 2 from HZ's vid, perhaps you should just get that! It's a brimming synth, tons of possibilities, yet if you take it one step at a time, it's not that hard to dive into it. I do recommend to use a better skin with it (like Zebra Redux), though.

Lejurai · Post by **Lejurai** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 1:03 pm

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/12- ... ths-615790

Have you tried any of these? Because you really don't have to use any money to get a new toy. Synth1 or tyrell or TAL noizemaker are easily the same quality as commercial synths (synth1 is quite ugly though).

Lejurai · Post by **Lejurai** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 1:05 pm

T-force alpha plus is really awesome synth if being synthedit isn't a problem.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 1:50 pm

Moarphine wrote:The criteria would be.
-Intuitive and simple interface.
-Has modulation options for me to learn with.

MUX meet your criteria, simple enough to use straight out of the box with many setups/patches provided, but with enough power and options under the hood to please the tweakers too.

And it is reasonably priced, costs just €59: http://www.mutools.com/mux-product.html

Moarphine · Post by **Moarphine** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:07 pm

Thanks for all the responses guys

. I researched everyone of them and youtube'd demos / soundsets / tutorials for them. I love that, most of those 'EDM' soundset packs I've already made on Poizone, its a shame the synth is so limited, its really showing its age, in both good and bad ways.

Analogue
I'm sticking to soft synths as analogue is quite expensive, might need repairing, and my keyboard skills are pretty non-existent (you record the sound as a wav not in piano roll right?)

Mu tools
Poizone has a pulse wave and a saw wave, this just has too much going on for me.

Spectral
I would of brought albino or Z3ta 1.3, as Hold Your Colour is my favourite album and both were heavily used. But after taking it off the market, Linplug and Rob Papen will not get my business. Arbitrary irrational buying rules; the hope is I don't turn into one of those guys with a million toys and no appreciation.

Dune2 / Spire / Hive
These all seem to be very similar. Dune2's gui is gorgeous, but, I really appreciate Hive's layout, it reminds me of Poizone. 2 osc right in front of you

Oxium
The Xils lab products look awesome, and Oxium sounds splendid. But I don't want to deal with the headache of a dongle.

Boizone Killa
I hear it's reece bases are endorsed by the chaos gods!

Synth1 /T-force alpha
Yes! I've been playing with Synth1 quite a bit and enjoying it. Will download T-force, sounds great!

Zebra2
I really want to take the leap, and I do appreciate that it's as simple / hard as you make it but I also recognise I'm learning, and will probably boot it up and spend hours doing random things with no direction, hence I want to get sound design down on a subtractive synth with strong modulation options so when the day comes I will know how to make x sound, and then exploit the synths power to make that x into a capital X! If that makes sense.

I'm going with Hive!

Again, thanks for all your suggestions

Lejurai · Post by **Lejurai** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:09 pm

Moarphine wrote:Analogue
I'm sticking to soft synths as analogue is quite expensive, might need repairing, and my keyboard skills are pretty non-existent (you record the sound as a wav not in piano roll right?)

BS2 or Blofeld are both around 400e You can stick them to your computer via USB but you need to record the sound (you can use them with pianoroll, just like vsts). Plus IF the the "dev" shuts down the business, you still have that fine piece of gear that never goes old instead of useless piece of code that won't propably work after 10 years unless you have some legacy pc hidden in your basement

Moarphine wrote:Oxium
The Xils lab products look awesome, and Oxium sounds splendid. But I don't want to deal with the headache of a dongle.

Oxium is serial protected. I sold mine.. I really liked/loved it but found that it's quite difficult synth to make sound good. Though when you succeed, it's rewarding and sounds awesome.

Moarphine wrote:I'm going with Hive!

Great decision

I didn't recommend that to you though since it's really simple synth and I thought that it wouldn't give you much more than what you already have with poizone.

fluffy_little_something · Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:29 pm

Same with me, I just don't have any feeling for something like Sytrus, it is the opposite of intuitive.
I always liked Poizone, the interface feels like hardware. But its sound is quite noisy. 500 patches for that synth is quite an achievement, are there even that many control setting combinations?

Does IL have any modern subractive synth in their lineup?

(I am selling Hive, just saying as you seem to like it...)

What is the next step after Poizone? / What's inspiring you right now?