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Hi unicorns! I've been testing some VI synths - minimonsta, imposcar, Absynth (too complex and too expensive, though) etc. I need a VI synth with lots of creative control and great sound, but I can't make up my mind which one is best (or most cost effective). Since the advice is always so great here, I wanted to ask if anybody has recommendations. I want a synth that is "more" than bleep-bleep bloop-bloop and can take me in new creative directions - multiple LFO's, lots of waveforms and envelopes, etc. Thank you.

One word: REAKTOR!

Why have just one synth when you can have a zillion? Don't be intimidated by the building/programming part of it. You can just download Ensembles from the user library. Thousands of them.

Reaktor is the best thing since...er...something really awesome.

the ones you mentioned (miniMonsta and impOSCar) are good ones; if neither are what you seek, the question becomes, what specifically are you seeking beyond what they can do?

I own miniMonsta. Arturia's minimoog sounds better. Arturia has some great synth emulations - Moog, Jupiter, Arp, and Prophet; they truly have "that sound". If you're looking for that old fashioned kind of synth sound (and interface), Arturia demos would be my recommendation for a first stop on the synth shopping journey.

I do not like Absynth. It takes too much work to get to a good sound. People have done amazing work with Absynth, but I find it unwelcoming. Same same for Reaktor, another NI product with stunning capabilities and a learning curve that's longer than my patience.

My go-to synth is Fabfilter Twin. It is a whole different animal than a Moog emulation like miniMonsta, so I suggest demoing it to see if it's up your alley. I learned the entire product in around an hour, including every last button and knob. It came with 500 or so presets organized into "bass", "lead", "dance", etc., many of which sound really good, but it's so easy to tweak you'll be tweaking in minutes. It could use a third oscillator and some more options on the LFOs (such as a step modulator), both of which you'd get on some other synths. It has probably the best sounding multimode filters on any virtual synth, which can be set up in parallel or serially and have independent cutoffs, resonances, and filter panning, which is nice. Its modulation routing is wicked wild, and there are lots of modulators, from LFOs (3) and envelopes (3) to keyboard tracking, velocity, aftertouch, etc etc etc. You can assign anything to anything, like an envelope to an LFO to a filter cutoff, or aftertouch to an LFO to a second LFO to a third LFO to filter panning. You can pack in 24 different modulation routing assignments, leading to some very complex and wild and unpredictable sounds. Plus, it's one of the easiest to learn plugins out there. I was making music in minutes after installing it. It is really that easy. Definitely worth a demo, though if all you want is the best possible sound, I do think the Arturia miniMoog is the best sounding synth VI out there, but nowhere near as much fun.

I'm going to second both reaktor and fabfilter twin.
reaktor is nearly endless. for when you want to experiment, and for when you don't. I use it for beats and all kinds of stuff.
twin just sounds great to me. for when you just want a synth.

I was tempted by mx4 but I already have a ton of synths I'm not using.

there are a lot of little ones I use all the time though. if I want the sound of plasticz then I pull that up instead of trying to make it happen with something else.

bb

i tend to steer away from emulations of specific synthesizers, trying to focus on versatility and flexibility instead.
there is a 2 week unlimited demo of mx4 available...check it out. it's very VERY cool.
rob papen's blue (robpapen.com) is great, predator looks pretty cool, and albino3 (linplug.com) is also very good.
virsyn has their new poseidon which looks pretty interesting, too.

reaktor is great too, but i too lacked the ambition (and time) to really delve into it too much...reason is excellent also, and a lot of fun besides.
there are a zillion synths out there...lots of fun to be had!

larryf wrote: Same same for Reaktor, another NI product with stunning capabilities and a learning curve that's longer than my patience.

Well, the leaning curve for Reaktor is really only if you want to make/modify your own instruments. If you're just using things that are pre-built, it's not too different than any other handful of synths. (And as a matter of fact, I have one "go to" synth that comes in the Electronic instruments V2 pack: Photone. I don't even think of it as part of Reaktor.)

I guess it comes down to whether you'd rather have a couple of instruments you know inside out and backwards like we used to do in the last century with our hardware synths, (for me it was Wavestation, DX/TX and Rhodes Chroma,) or whether you'd like an infinite pallet that you might never have time to really beat the crap out of.

So okay, let's put Reaktor aside for the moment and just talk about single-synth VIs

It all depends on what sort of synthesis/sound you're looking for. You really have 4 categories: Additive, subtractive, FM, Sample-based. (And a few hybrids thereof.) So here's my list:

FM: NI FM8

Additive: Camel audio Chameleon5000

Subtractive: NI Massive

Sample/hybrid: Korg Wavestation (From the Korg Legacy Digital Edition.) Mostly because my Wavestation chops were something I was unwilling to abandon.

But really for all of the above: REAKTOR

Albino , Zebra , Dimension , Blue

PaganGods wrote:Hi unicorns! I've been testing some VI synths - minimonsta, imposcar, Absynth (too complex and too expensive, though) etc. I need a VI synth with lots of creative control and great sound, but I can't make up my mind which one is best (or most cost effective). Since the advice is always so great here, I wanted to ask if anybody has recommendations. I want a synth that is "more" than bleep-bleep bloop-bloop and can take me in new creative directions - multiple LFO's, lots of waveforms and envelopes, etc. Thank you.

PaganGods wrote:I want a synth that is "more" than bleep-bleep bloop-bloop and can take me in new creative directions - multiple LFO's, lots of waveforms and envelopes, etc. Thank you.

What kind of music do you do?

Do you want a VI that is similar say to a Korg Triton do all workstation?

Or do you want a VI that is a freaked out non-immitative synth?

What is your budget?

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I have had good results with Novation "V-Station".
It seems that it's mostly used by "electro" musicians.

Nearly "harsh sounding" electronic but that's what intrigates me when mixed with voices and acoustic instruments.
I use the included distorsion fx to increase that particuliar tone.

BTW very low budget indeed.

PaganGods wrote:I need a VI synth with lots of creative control and great sound, but I can't make up my mind which one is best (or most cost effective).

I want a synth that is "more" than bleep-bleep bloop-bloop and can take me in new creative directions - multiple LFO's, lots of waveforms and envelopes, etc. Thank you.

For Cost effective I HAVE to go for Propellerhead Reason. It might look a bit toyish but there a lot that can be done in it. The subtractor and the Malstrom should serve you well in a lot of situations. And it works great when used with DP.

I'm not saying it's the best but I haven't seen its limitations yet...

wheever wrote:

larryf wrote: Same same for Reaktor, another NI product with stunning capabilities and a learning curve that's longer than my patience.

Well, the leaning curve for Reaktor is really only if you want to make/modify your own instruments. If you're just using things that are pre-built, it's not too different than any other handful of synths...REAKTOR

I think we've been though this before, but reaktor is not necessarily complicated at all. you open one instrument (or effect) at a time. that can be a really simple unit or a really complicated one, whatever you want. there are dozens of really simple synths that you open and use just like any other v.i. nothing difficult.

the difference is that there are some really wilds ensembles you can open and you can edit them to suit your taste. I have hardly ever edited anything because there are so many ensembles you can download already that other people have made.

bb

I agree totally !!!!

bongo_x wrote:

wheever wrote:

larryf wrote: Same same for Reaktor, another NI product with stunning capabilities and a learning curve that's longer than my patience.

Well, the leaning curve for Reaktor is really only if you want to make/modify your own instruments. If you're just using things that are pre-built, it's not too different than any other handful of synths...REAKTOR

I think we've been though this before, but reaktor is not necessarily complicated at all. you open one instrument (or effect) at a time. that can be a really simple unit or a really complicated one, whatever you want. there are dozens of really simple synths that you open and use just like any other v.i. nothing difficult.

the difference is that there are some really wilds ensembles you can open and you can edit them to suit your taste. I have hardly ever edited anything because there are so many ensembles you can download already that other people have made.

bb

thanks, everyone! I just blew the entire day, trying out and reading about all these synths.

Native Instruments Massive is exactly what I've been looking for... off to look for deals!

Also liked Blue and Twin, a lot. Massive has the sound I want though.

PaganGods wrote:thanks, everyone! I just blew the entire day, trying out and reading about all these synths.

Native Instruments Massive is exactly what I've been looking for... off to look for deals!

Also liked Blue and Twin, a lot. Massive has the sound I want though.

Cool. Those are three of my favorites (with Massive taking the number one spot in the three). You'll love it. A lot of fun to play with.

Anything by Linplug...yummy