What synth should I buy?

[HostileEx]

I'm looking to buy a nice synth to accompany my metal compositions. Not so much for the leads, but for the background effects. Kinda like this band uses in this song. Not a fan of the band though.

 

[HostileEx]

Virtual synths are welcome too. Love to look at multiple different options.

 

[LeSedna]

I'll talk about those I know well :

I'm actually currently investing in synths for my own project and also because I'm getting interested in electro music... I even spent the day learning one of them! So here is a list of no-brainers :
- spectrasonics Omnisphere (ambient, pads, but it also has a lot of good analog sounds and FX). If there is only one synth to buy, it is this one, trust me ! You can do pretty much all kind of sounds, and the after sale is pretty good. There is even an iPad app to control its new X-Y interface on the touchscreen wireless, for free (if you're a legit user of course)
- native instruments Massive and FM8 for more conventional but very powerful possibilities, really really powerful synths, no-brainers as well !
- native instruments Absynth is more leaned towards organic/ambiant/dark sounds so it's not a must-have and more like another tool in your studio, but I fell in love with some of its sounds, it has a very specific sound signature. If your music has a big place for intimate sounds, you might get interested in it as well.
- Sylenth1 is one of the most impressive ones I tried because it has a very analogue-ish feel. I discovered it only recently, I'm -this- close to buy it cause it's lead sounds make my ears orgasm!
- Arturias minimoog ; I don't have this one because it's pricey just for one emulation and I'm sticking to the moog sounds from omnisphere until I can get it, but it sounds very very good, one of the best moog emulations out there so you're pretty much done with this one for moog type of sounds. Native instrument has a line of analogue emulations too iirc but I don't know them personnally.
- Camel Audio Alchemy : I don't own this one, but I'm very interested in it. It has a proprietary morphing engine, so whenever you think you open a preset, in reality if you use the XY pads you have an infinity of them. You can buy sound banks of presets on the website for more specific types of sounds as well.

There are a few other very decent options in the 100-200€ rane as well out there. In the PC world you have many freebies as well, I remember Synth1 and SUPERWAVE8 for example. They are not all-in-one solutions, you won't have more than a handful of presets on them, but they sound very good for cheap solutions. They are enough for basic synths or pads to go with your demos.

Good link as well : http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/the-20-best-vst-plug-in-synths-in-the-world-today-262145

 

[Josh Burgess]

Copy and pasted from a post I made in an an old thread where somebody asked the same question:

"My favorites are:

-Native Instruments Absynth (great for ambient, atmospheric stuff)

-Native Instruments Massive (really verstile and awesome for all sorts of bass)

-Lennar Digital Sylenth1 (extremely Virus-like, really good for hard, aggressive trance stuff. the synth cuts through really well without much EQing)

-Camel Audio Alchemy (really impressive synth, tons of awesome soundbanks out there for it... can do both absynth and massive type sounds)

If you aren't great at creating synth sounds from scratch (I'm not), check out the pro soundbanks that are available for Absynth, Massive, and Alchemy at http://www.camelaudio.com/Sound-Sample-Libraries.php A lot of those soundbanks are REALLY good and blow away the stock presets... plus, there's tons of them. So, you probably will never get caught using a particular preset in a production (not that that's a big deal or anything)..."

 

[LeSedna]

+1 for the Alchemy sounds. If you are not a tweaker, you can download the free Alchemy player, and load any of those 49€ banks. I haven't bought any of them cause I like to tweak a little the sounds, it's usually just a matter of spending an hour or two getting into it. For example their soundbank "Himalaya" is interesting, I love analog sounding sounds and these ones are worth way much more than 49€ !

 

[HostileEx]

Wow. Great feedback. This site always answers my questions, then adds in even more detail to fine tune my understanding. Thanks for all the suggestions and tips!

 

[Jaymz]

Goliath

 

[Folkrav]

I'd tell you to stick with VSTi's for this kind of music, you won't gain anything substantial enough to justify buying hardware for your needs. Omnisphere is a no-brainer, Absynth is not half-bad neither. I always keep my copy of the free EWQL Symphonic Orchestra (Play Edition) they released a couple of years ago, always good, almost no tweaking needed when it comes to simple strings pads actually.

 

[vaiman]

Also, don't forget any synths that may be available within your DAW (depending on what you use).
I've been using ES2 and EXS24 within Logic lots recently, and to be fair they hold their own against most of the synths I have bought.

 

[Jind]

My go to synths are Alchemy, Rapture, Z3TA+ (I really should have upgraded to Z3TA+ 2 when Cakewalk had a sale earlier this month, but did not) and AAS Ultra Analogue - these are my go to syths for creative synthesis. For sample type soft synths/instrumentation I use Kontakt 4, Dimension, and Sampletank 2XL (with a bunch of add-on packs). I also have Garritan GPO4 and IKMultimedia Miroslav Philharmonik for additional orchestral stuff. I have others, most acquired over the years in various group buys. All the Cakewalk ones have either come with my Sonar purchases or as discounted extras. Sort of like Drum Libraries - I like variety.

 

[JonWormwood]

Alchemy is the shit

 

[sinewavealex]

My vote goes to Omnisphere, and Z3ta+. Missed the sale as well, :\

Saving up for Alchemy and Absynth

SUPERWAVE8 is an awesome free synth btw.

 

[theoden236]

I started out with Arturia's Analog Factory. Software synth with lots and lots of synth presets, and it has a universal MIDI controller so you can use it with any other program without having to get another controller. But then after that, I decided to change my approach to synth recording and got a Korg Microkorg XL, a hardware synth. Powerful unit in a small package, plus it's got a vocoder, which is fun as fuckin' hell. And i think that too can be used as a MIDI controller for other software programs, but i'm not 100% sure on that.

EDIT: just remembered that Arturia's also coming out with it's own analog synth called the Minibrute, which sounds freakin' massive. might get that when it's out.

 

[Jind]

My go to synths are Alchemy, Rapture, Z3TA+ (I really should have upgraded to Z3TA+ 2 when Cakewalk had a sale earlier this month, but did not)

Finally bought Z3TA+ 2 yesterday, the last day of their 30% off deal, and all I can say is I should have bought it when it was first offered - it's a great continuation of an already great synth line. The new Adaptive Pitch Bend is awesome. Instead of going up in whole step increments and potentially causing out of key notes you can tell it the key and mode to stay in so pitch bends are always in tune, you can even set it to auto and it will guess (quite accurately too) what key and mode you are using and adapt to it based on the performance.