Time to buy a plug-in..

CyanRain

Okay, well I've been playing around with Ableton Live for about a year and a half now, relying fully on free samples and plug-ins to produce my music. I'm still on the beginner end of the scale, I suppose, but I'm improving my technique every day.

I'm looking into getting a high quality Soft Synth within the margin of about €75 to €200 at the most. I produce a bit of everything, dubstep one day and trance the next, so I'm looking for something versatile that's capable of producing basses, leads and pads.

NI Massive seems to be popular among a wide variety of producers, and Computer Music often have tutorials for it. It's half price for a few days now on the NI website, so I was thinking of going for that. However, I wanted some feedback from the community first.

I am a complete stranger to synthesis, but am very willing to sit down and learn. That being said, I would much rather a VST with a friendly GUI and a smooth learning curve.

What VSTi do you recommend I splash out on? Or should I get something completely different with my €200?

seannash

arturia minimoog or g forces minimonsta or oddity.

fcuk massive,never liked it:D

DamagedTrax

IMO "fxpansion dcam synth squad" is the best out there at the moment. plus its actually 4 synths in 1.

check it out

http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=62

DamagedTrax

seannash wrote: »

fcuk massive,never liked it:D

+1. its sterile sounding and way too over powering. any time ive used it or mixed for someone who has used it, it has taken way too much eq hacking to get it to sit in the mix.

seannash

Actually have heard that the fxpansion synths are meant to be great.

Alot of people also recommend Sylenth.Personally i think its not bad but its certainly not worthy of the praise it recieves.
But alot of people are very happy with it

CyanRain

Tossing up between Massive and Albino 3..the NI sale ends really soon so I'm going to have to make up my mind. I've heard very good reviews of Albino, should I go for it?

seannash

Please dont take this as me being harsh but we've kinda already told you to ignore Massive but your still considering it so asking us to make a decision based on one we didnt recommend and another that isnt fantastic is a bit redundant.

Id seriously go for an arturia synth(minimoog) or Gforces Minimonsta.

there far far better synths

your best bet is to try the demos and make a decision based on that

CyanRain

seannash wrote: »

Please dont take this as me being harsh but we've kinda already told you to ignore Massive but your still considering it so asking us to make a decision based on one we didnt recommend and another that isnt fantastic is a bit redundant.

Id seriously go for an arturia synth(minimoog) or Gforces Minimonsta.

there far far better synths

your best bet is to try the demos and make a decision based on that

Yeah, I did take your opinions into account as I was almost definitely getting Massive before I posted here. I'm trying to create a sort of average of opinions here; you might not like the synth here, but I am getting mixed reviews elsewhere.

Probably ruled out now though. Thanks a million, I'm going off on some demo-playing now.

seannash

CyanRain wrote: »

Yeah, I did take your opinions into account as I was almost definitely getting Massive before I posted here. I'm trying to create a sort of average of opinions here; you might not like the synth here, but I am getting mixed reviews elsewhere.

Probably ruled out now though. Thanks a million, I'm going off on some demo-playing now.

well heres how to sort out the people who know what there talking about and those who dont.

Look at the people who recommend it and go listen to there tracks.How good do they sound.If they sound pro you can probably take there opinion as valid.Now on the other hand if they make ****e music there opinion on what plugins sound good shouldnt be listened to.

Ill admit i fall into the **** tracks department but Damagedtrax works with sound everyday and has released a ton of great sounding tracks.I know id take an experienced sound engineers opinion over some other forum folks opinions.

If you are demoing dont buy into the effected presets.you have every effect that comes with synths in your daw so take them off and see which sounds the best to you once the effects are off.

Quiggers

I'd avoid buying packs of synths purely because you're looking to learn,
buying one and sticking with it will teach you alot more.

the waldorf Largo is a virtal version of the blofeld, which is my goto synth.
but do tryout the demo's, each to their own.

electrogrimey

Have a look at this poll I did of the top 20 most popular VSTs, might help a bit.

I think how easy to use and explanatory it is should be a factor in this, seeing as you're a beginner.

If a beginner wanted a hardware synth, I'd recommend them something like an SH-101, not an MS-20, because the 101 is really clear and shows you exactly what you're doing, so you can learn quickly. Don't get the best or most complicated to start off with, because you won't be able to get the best out of it yet.

oootini

http://madronalabs.com/aalto

this looks cool. mac only at the mo, win version coming December...

krd

I would say, save your money and buy a piece of hardware - like a Maschine.

There are so many great free plugins out there. I could be wrong - as I often am. But I don't think there's much you can get out of buying a synth plugin.

Or do like Sxxxy Sean Nash and get yourself a bass. He said something about the ladies liking the vibrations.

Buy yourself a cheap midi drum kit - or a Yamaha Groove box or a Kaoss pad. The stuff is more limited than a DAW but it's more tactile and it gets you away from looking at a DAW screen.

Or pay for lessons with someone like Jsuited - for the price of plugin he could probably up your game seriously. And he could show you how to get the sounds you want from what you have.

Anima

I would also recommend not buying a soft synth. Better off buying a midi controller or something.

Theres lots of good free stuff. For instance this guy creates virtual analog stuff which sounds great: http://antti.smartelectronix.com/.

The guy who makes the TAL stuff is also very good too.

In fact a lot of these synths use the very same or similar algorithms (they are public domain) which means they will sound the same anyway. I'd wager some of the commerical stuff is just fancy GUIs and the same maths behind it all.

CyanRain

Anima wrote: »

I would also recommend not buying a soft synth. Better off buying a midi controller or something.

Theres lots of good free stuff. For instance this guy creates virtual analog stuff which sounds great: http://antti.smartelectronix.com/.

The guy who makes the TAL stuff is also very good too.

In fact a lot of these synths use the very same or similar algorithms (they are public domain) which means they will sound the same anyway. I'd wager some of the commerical stuff is just fancy GUIs and the same maths behind it all.

krd wrote: »

I would say, save your money and buy a piece of hardware - like a Maschine.

There are so many great free plugins out there. I could be wrong - as I often am. But I don't think there's much you can get out of buying a synth plugin.

Or do like Sxxxy Sean Nash and get yourself a bass. He said something about the ladies liking the vibrations.

Buy yourself a cheap midi drum kit - or a Yamaha Groove box or a Kaoss pad. The stuff is more limited than a DAW but it's more tactile and it gets you away from looking at a DAW screen.

Or pay for lessons with someone like Jsuited - for the price of plugin he could probably up your game seriously. And he could show you how to get the sounds you want from what you have.

I was actually thinking of buying a "real" synth, but it's not very practical because I have very limited room. I currently have an M-Audio Keystation 49e and a regular Yamaha keyboard in my "music corner" of my bedroom, along with a Launchpad and my laptop. If I was getting a piece of hardware (which I would love to do, they just seem more fun than being hunched over a laptop all day) it would have be pretty small and easy to connect up to my DAW.

I downloaded a few soft synth demos (Arturia, Albino 3..) and to be honest, none of them see too much more advanced than TAL-NoiseMaker or that. Well, not €140 more advanced..

Thanks for all the help, but I still don't know if I'm anywhere closer to deciding on buying something yet. If anything, you've opened up my eyes to even more choices.

Just some points that may or may not narrow down the choices:

I can play a little (very little) bit of keyboard, and my music theory is fairly okay, so if a keyboard-style synth was thrown in front of me I wouldn't be completely lost. My laptop is also not solely a music laptop..games and Facebook can commonly be found being utilised on screen, and Ableton as it is now is using up a lot of CPU, so I don't want anything too CPU-heavy.

hubiedubie

I've found all of these excellent:

- FXpansion Synth Squad
- Spectrasonics Omnisphere (pricy but I use it on everything).
- Uhe ACE
- Waldorf Largo

These are a considerable step up in terms of sound / functionality to Predator and Albino. Albino is lovely for pads though.

red dave

hubiedubie wrote: »

I've found all of these excellent:

- FXpansion Synth Squad
- Spectrasonics Omnisphere (pricy but I use it on everything).
- Uhe ACE
- Waldorf Largo

These are a considerable step up in terms of sound / functionality to Predator and Albino. Albino is lovely for pads though.

Dido for Omnisphere

I must check out the FXpansion as I've heard a bit about it

hubiedubie

I've also been reading great things about Xils PolyKB.

SinewaveSurfer

DamagedTrax wrote: »

...way too over powering...

it's called MASSIVE for a reason


if the OP hasn't spent his 200 yoyos yet, I'd suggest he keep saving his sheckles until he's got the bobs for Komplete. Best bang-for-buck bundle out there by a country mile. It's no exaggeration to say it would keep you going for years, decades even, before running in to the same sounds twice. Even the preset junkies have oodles of variety.


other than that, U-he Zebra sounds lovely, is very flexible, reasonable on the cpu and has a generous demo.
or maybe go for an irish developed synth, FAW Circle which can be had at a reduced rate here: http://www.bestservice.de/found.asp/circle/circle/en
and has the best GUI of any virtual synth ever. no contest.

you can load your own waveforms into it too