Synth discussion thread

Same as the giant thread, but not based on experiences, though it can be. Anything can be hon here about anything synthy; questions, discussions, etc.

what's with everybody lovin' on NI's Massive? I tried it. Its a great Wavetable synth with way more capabilities than any hardware with similar architecture, but there's not a lot that it does that Image Line's Harmor doesn't do, plus there are a load of other similar VTis that keep up with it. Is it the sound quality? It did feel like I could make deeper modern basses than similar plugins, but once in the mix that low end fidelity left me a little flat. I wound up heavily tweaking the bottom with EQ, multiband compression, etc to make space for my kick to punch in ways that tamer wavetables don't require. I would call the 'sound quality' more of a hyped low end, like a microphone with a lot of proximity effect through a transformer balanced mic pre with a ton of bass coloration. I know I am pretty much alone on this one, so straighten me out. I just couldn't shell out for this synth, and I like NI stuff. Love Absynth, well worth the price of admission!

I played this roland modularish poly, where you attach a module that's a full synth (LFO, VCO, etc) to a special keyboard thing, and each "module" emulates a certain Roland synth. The one I played was supposedly an emulation of a Juno 106. For the price it was awesome, but the built in speaker was really quiet. If you were to buy one you'd need some decent speakers as well.

I tried out one of the Moog bass synths in a music store (was either the Sub Phatty or the Minituar, maybe a different one? not sure which) and it was awesome! Loved the filters and everything. Tried out a Voyager as well (they're actually on their last run, it's going to be a hot collector's item one day) and the reese basses you can make with them... Wow.

But everyone knows about the Moogs. I've been thinking about Sytrus (IL) which I use extensively. The amount you can do with that thing is amazing. But for some reason I feel that even though there's a nice amount if control on a lot of things, it's not really accessible in terms of just playing with knobs or stuff like other synths (note; I'm talking in terms of subtractive synthesis kind of sound, for FM it's awesome). I've tried Harmor (which I'm planning on buying really soon), and just by playing around with some features I made a sound that I never would have using Sytrus. I know that Harmor is additive (and Sytrus can also be), but I mean the style of sounds. This is probably a personal workflow kind of thing but I think that Sytrus is less ''instant'' for certain sounds, but if you know what you want to do you can go real deep. It doesn't help that Harmor has some awesome effects, and that the filters on Sytrus are just terrible (in my opinion). I think most of the filters in FL aren't that great. They don't have that ''warm'' sound, and feel very utilitarian. For some reason Harmor's filters (at least some of them) sound much better.

Then I have Synthmaster, which I've used for a while but I'm only starting to see that it can be pretty great. I still can't get a decent sounding unison out of it though. What I use now for nice supersaws is a Patcher preset I made modeled after the big saws in FL 12's New Stuff. If anyone wants the patch then just ask and I'll drop a Dropbox link.

apples and oranges comparison.... sytrus is more tweakable in a live performance context (if you assign some virtual knobs and sliders to a midi controller) than my DX7, but still there is stuff with all the complex envelopes and such that, like a DX7, are too digital for real time control.... there are parameters in sytrus that wouldn't even make sense in real time... if sytrus isn't instant enough for a sound that can be handled by a subtractive or additive synth? switch synths maybe? common sense here.... no need to slowly pound screws in with a hammer if you have a screwdriver. Sure, the hammer will get the screws in the wall eventually, but why not just use a tool that's purpose built to put the screws in? it'll go faster and come out cleaner

How would you people rate a EHX microsynth for moog emulation. I know it does a mean moog bass, and some awesome percussive stuff, but for different things like, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7LPVsdmysQ.

Can it do Roland?

Yeah, absolutely. The only reason I use Sytrus for simple stuff is that don't have any good subtractive synths. Except Synthmaster, but that sometimes gets buggy, and I'm not so into that mod matrix; you have to actually connect an envelope to the filter cutoff in the matrix instead of having one already assigned. Not the biggest deal in the world, but it stifles creativity. I mentioned that I really want to get Harmor, and I'm also thinking about Serum (I'm waiting to be eligible for an educational discount), so I should be set soon.

Any thoughts on the filters in Sytrus? Fruity Love Filter? How about Harmor and Serum?

I don't know anything about the EHX Microsynth. I don't pretend to have any knowledge of hardware synths at all. That's a really cool video though.

I enjoy the LFO madness of fruity love filter, especially if I am recording guitars direct... honestly I have use the crap out of fruity free filter since always because its handy with low CPU usage, the sytrus filters are those, some of the filters in the sampler, just the usual image lie shit.... nothing special, but handy

do you want a list of awesome, FL friendly freeware subtractives? just go on my equipboard and read reviews. I have GOBS of virtual synths, but I only post the stuff I use regularly because tis efficient, good sounding, etc