Members MFenkner Posted December 23, 2006 Members Share Posted December 23, 2006 I've avoided soft synths and computer-based DAWs for years, but recently I got a MacBook Pro and have been fooling around with Logic Express and Reason 3.0. I'm interested in buying a Novation SL controller and some soft synths, and I'm looking for some recommendations on the best to start with. My current hardware synths are just an Oasys and Minimoog Voyager. Over the years, I've owned the major workstations from the big three, and I've owned many VA synths at one time or another. I guess what interests me most is a VA soft synth, but not a "one trick pony". Too bad Arturia no longer sells a package including all their soft synths because that would fit the bill. Does anyone have a recommendation on the best soft synths to start with? Arturia and Native Instruments both interest me, but I can't buy everything at once ;-) Thanks! Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pighood Posted December 23, 2006 Members Share Posted December 23, 2006 Reaktor, bitch-aah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dereksljuka Posted December 23, 2006 Members Share Posted December 23, 2006 Seconded! Reaktor isn't bad as a starter soft synth at all. It's not like it forces you to build your synthesizers from scratch. It's as flexible as you want it to be. In addition to Reaktor I also have the Arturia Minimoog-v and CS80-V. They both sound fantastic, particularly the CS-80. The only problem is the GUI on the CS-80 is a total pain in the ass to work with unless you have a controller with plenty of knobs and such to program it with. Otherwise, if youre running a display resolution higher than 800x600 it's not so fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kuniklo Posted December 23, 2006 Members Share Posted December 23, 2006 Without a better idea of your criteria this is a pretty tough one to answer since there are so many options now each with their own strengths and weaknesses. For a powerful, flexible do-it-all VA semi-modular, I'd consider Zebra 2 from http://u-he.com . For a simpler but great sounding traditional subtractive I'd check out FabFilter Twin from http://www.fabfilter.com . I'm not a fan of Arturia's or NI's instruments but a lot of people like them and they have downloadable demos so you can try them for yourself. You can also get quite a bit of mileage out of the instruments in Reason 3.0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kuniklo Posted December 23, 2006 Members Share Posted December 23, 2006 edit: accidental self quote. Need more coffee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members C#minor Posted December 24, 2006 Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 I have said it many times before and I'll say it again. You don't even have to buy anything as a starter. The free offerings in the VST synth world is just too many and with really unbelievable quality that rivals the commercial ones. Too many good ones to suggest, but for a good VA, I'd go for: (1) Arppe2600va, yep an ARP 2600 emulation which is rather good: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1657.html (2) MinimogueVA & Minimogue Luxus: A mini Moog emulation, Luxus offer more quality but it's more CPU demanding: http://www.home.no/gunnare/ (3) Triangle II from rgc-audio: Exceptional quality: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/203.html (4) Polyiblit: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/577.html Now the obvious ones that you should have already (5) Synth1: An emulation of the Nord Lead2, in principle at least, but very good if you like its sounds. The most powerful feature is that you can run like 6 instances of this VST without maxing your CPU. Endless possibilities. http://www.kvraudio.com/get/214.html (6) Crystal: Quite demanding on the CPU, but with amazing quality: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/219.html Have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pighood Posted December 24, 2006 Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 Wish they made that Memorymoog clone in AU format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members C#minor Posted December 24, 2006 Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 So you only have a Mac pighood? If you have an intel Mac, u could run Windows too, that's of course unless you hate it too much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pighood Posted December 24, 2006 Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 Bought my G5 before Intels were am being released. Not upgrading for at least 2 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members submodern Posted December 24, 2006 Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 I would recommend the GForce Retro Pack, BUT it has not yet been released for Universal Binary so it's not yet usable for you.... really wish they would hurry up. http://www.novamusik.com/search.aspx?type=Model&keyword=2188 Possibly the Korg Legacy pack would be good, they just released UBs and the MS20 and PolySix are both great VAs... the digital pack is also good. I like NI's new softsynth Massive, and it offers more tricks then your run of the mill VA, but it's a bit overpriced in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members C#minor Posted December 24, 2006 Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 I totally agree about Massive being over priced, but even more so, I didn't really like its sound. Not my cup of tea. The VA that I'd like to own one day is the Minimonsta, I also liked Zeta+ quite a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dereksljuka Posted December 24, 2006 Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 Doesn't massive come with Reaktor? I have something called Massive in there. I thought it was some kind of drum machine / sequencer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pighood Posted December 24, 2006 Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 Massive is the name of BOTH a drum machine ensemble for Reaktor and a stand-alone wavetable synth. They're not related otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MFenkner Posted December 24, 2006 Author Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 Thanks for the mention of free plugins; I might try them out in Boot Camp, but in the long run I'll probably stick with OSX software. For the Korg Legacy Collection, I have it covered with my Oasys (except for the Digital Edition). Also, my MMV cover the MiniMoog emulation, though the added polyphony is a nice bonus is the emulators. I think the CS-80 and a Prophet 5 emulation would be nice. Reaktor looks cool, but it almost seems to offer too much. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Meatball Fulton Posted December 24, 2006 Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 Your Mac Book came with a bunch of free soft synths inside GarageBand. I'd start with those!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members idiotboy Posted December 24, 2006 Members Share Posted December 24, 2006 Mark your post raises a lot of questions for me, so, if you don't mind: 1. If you've got an Oasys and an Voyager, why would you want or need soft-synths? Are you just curious, or is there a specific need? 2. Are you gigging, or trying to create some specific musical genre with the soft-synths? 3. What's your budget? 4. Are you interested mainly in the performance or programming aspect of soft-synths? Some great suggestions already made, ReaKtor, CS-80V, Korg Legacy, Crystal. To add to them, AAS Tassman is very cool, TimeWARP sounds great, ImpOSCar I like. If you tell us more we can probably get you closer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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