Limitations = creativity / desert island synth

I listen to some of my early work, and although I had much less of a clue about what I was doing than I have now, I think I was more creative in some ways, due to the lack of equipment. When I had 5 vsts, I thought more about how to get around limitations............how to make the little I had then sound like it was "more". Now that I have a million and 5 vsts, I sometimes briefly suffer from "option paralysis" because i'm literally spoilt for choice.

This got me thinking if I was forced to choose what to keep and what to put in a safe for a year, what would I keep ?

So i'll open it up and ask you guys.

If you were told that for some arbitrary reason, all your vsts were being confiscated, and you could keep only 1...........( and had to make every sound on it, including drums )........which synth would you choose to keep as your desert-island synth ?

Romplers and anything which plays entire drum loops excluded, as they mostly encourage laziness and diminish the something-from-nothing approach of this.

Ok, shoot !!!

I'm ignoring the VST part because I tend to use them for mock ups when I'm outta inputs and for thigns that are a headache on hardware due to challenged UIs (ahem, d50, wavestation, ANYTHING YAMAHA!)... without the limitation tag i would say Novation summit as it does a bit of everything pretty darned well with a great keybed and nearly knob per functon control with the visual slider method for envelopes which is always nice (thanks ARP).... and for the record I did an entire novation Peak demo song using no other gear for my equipboard review which novation also used in some advertising. Drums and all.

But in the limits game? ARP Odyssey of course. Or Solus, either way, slightly different ring mod options.... it is the most satisfying little synth out there to me. I can't think of a mono analog sound I can't make with it. And it intuitive. Once you know it you work FAST.

EDIT: also in favor of the Odyssey and its relatives on a desert island, its small and easy to carry while fleeing war painted half naked little boys chasing you down while shouting "Kill the PIG!!!"

If I have to use this one VST to make drum sounds too, and it can't be a rompler or sampler... I'd go FM8.

1. The best subtractive-synthesis VST drums I've heard are the TR-clone modules that ship with Maschine... and Maschine is disqualified... so no VA drums for me.

2. I can download 37 years of DX/TX patches to keep the inspiration going

3. I'd finally get really good at Yamaha FM programming

4. I would be forced to make stuff that doesn't sound like anyone else

My Teenage Engineering OP-1 takes me back to my RAF days way back in the 90's when I first started having to use spreadsheets at work. Back in my barrack room I had 'acquired' a suite of office software for my Atari ST in order to teach myself the ropes but it was wearisome trying to get my head around databasing and lookup tables when my time could be so much better spent playing F16 flight simulator, Battlechess or Marble Madness but I digress.

Where I got my best 'work' done was kicked back on my bed, watching Alternative Nation on MTV Europe and with a little Psion Series 3a propped against my knee. Another 'overpriced cult classic' this wondrous little pocket computer had it's own rudimentary word processor, spreadsheet and database. The software built into the Series 3 offered just enough functionality to do what needed to be done. Its 'limited' features taught me to focus on mastering the fundamentals without being drawn into all the distracting whistles and bells, option overload and decision fatigue that came with the fully fledged Microsoft Office suite back at work. It was a testament to the capability of that pioneering little device that I found myself more productive in my spare time, drafting documents, databases and spreadsheets on the Psion than I ever was on the 'proper computers' at work. It just offered a different, clearer headspace altogether.

So what has this got to do with synths? ...well nothing, almost. It's just that the uncluttered experience of working with such a minimalist device as the Psion convinced me that the OP-1 would be the perfect choice sole synthesizer for my situation. It does pretty much everything I can imagine I'd need on a desert island, or a boat, hammock, tent, or picnic jam and It doesn't intrude with excessive options or interrupt creative flow. It gives me an integrated synthesiser, sequencer, drum machine and recording experience without getting over complicated.

Also, I am so fed up managing my cable collection already.

@carbinax... so which VST would you keep?

Honestly, since VSTs need a host/sequencer, and most DAWs include more than enough to make anything you want right out of the box, maybe the question is which DAW would you want to be stuck with if you could only use the internal/packaged sounds?

@carbinax... so which VST would you keep?

Honestly, since VSTs need a host/sequencer, and most DAWs include more than enough to make anything you want right out of the box, maybe the question is which DAW would you want to be stuck with if you could only use the internal/packaged sounds?

that's a good question...