Ableton Forum

All,

Up until now I have been using a Triton Extreme plus various old analogs to record with in Ableton. I am wondering if anyone can recommend a soft synth that is like the Triton in that it has a lot of usable keys, bass, pads, strings, organs and other essential rock sounds on it. I like the Ableton instruments, but to me they are not up to par with the Triton, plus the small number of presets for the various instruments does not allow me to really understand what they are fully capable of.

I did a search on the forums for a question like this, but didn't really find any posts dealing specifically with "rock" type sounds.

I saw Sonic Synth 2, which seems like it might be an option, but wanted to hear about other things you are using, in addition to anyone's experiences with Sonic Synth.

Thanks,

K.

A good all around synths that really excels at keys, organs and strings is Zebra2.

Somebody recently posted a free soundbank at the U-he forum called Zebra Food. Honestly the trumpets in that sound about as good as my Synful Orchestra!

And then on the other hand, many people like it for VA and trancey type stuff too. It's a very diverse synth.

http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-31060.html

That is the zebra food soundbank.

For me, there is only one word:

Operator


I just love it! All presets thrown out the door, one waveform and you build the instrument from there.

frahnque wrote:For me, there is only one word:

Operator


I just love it! All presets thrown out the door, one waveform and you build the instrument from there.

Right...

for me it's Tassman from AAS.

also still loving my XP-30, but that is a roland hardware piece for
'standard sounds'

Zebra is best if you want a lot of flexibility and a big userbase for presets

Sylenth would be a good choice if you plan on making your own "bread n butter" synth sounds and want something simple to use with good sound quality.

Geezus wrote:Zebra is best if you want a lot of flexibility and a big userbase for presets

Sylenth would be a good choice if you plan on making your own "bread n butter" synth sounds and want something simple to use with good sound quality.

It seems by "bread 'n butter" he means more keys, organs, strings in this case, as he said.

Although I would use Sylenth1 over Zebra for straight VA, Zebra kills it for those other types of sounds.

I'm wondering what the new "world class library" in Live 8 is like. Maybe they've added loads of new patches and now cover all the bases, along with an improvement in quality?

Looks like it might be for Live 8 Suite only, which suggests there is new content for all of the instruments as well.

glitchrock-buddha wrote:

Geezus wrote:Zebra is best if you want a lot of flexibility and a big userbase for presets

Sylenth would be a good choice if you plan on making your own "bread n butter" synth sounds and want something simple to use with good sound quality.

It seems by "bread 'n butter" he means more keys, organs, strings in this case, as he said.

Although I would use Sylenth1 over Zebra for straight VA, Zebra kills it for those other types of sounds.

probably should read the whole post before I type eh? I saw bread n butter and I automatically though "basic VA" but if he's going for the other stuff I'd agree with zebra

"Bread and butter" rock sounds, to me, means things like keys/organs, basses, strings... and I think Triton's are sample based sounds arent they?

So, for a 'workstation' type replacement in software I think you are looking at a ROMpler, or maybe a sampler with a decent library of sounds. Off the top of my head, as a starting point, I'd suggest looking at:

IK Multimedia Sampletank
NI Kontakt
East West Colossus

based on the "rock" sound you're looking for, I'd say a software sampler like kontakt is your best bet.

synths like sylenth and operator aren't going to help you. based on your post, it seems to me like you need a library of sample-based material, so i'd go the sampler route over the soft-synth route. there aren't many "workstation" softsynths out there -- only the korg legacy collection comes to mind, with the M1, but if you're used to a triton, that's probably not what you want .

but if korg would just make a soft tirton extreme, i'd be a happy boy indeed...

jonny72 wrote:I'm wondering what the new "world class library" in Live 8 is like. Maybe they've added loads of new patches and now cover all the bases, along with an improvement in quality?

Looks like it might be for Live 8 Suite only, which suggests there is new content for all of the instruments as well.

Yeah very much looking forward to it, and also to new effect racks.

Kilroy wrote:I am wondering if anyone can recommend a soft synth that is like the Triton in that it has a lot of usable keys, bass, pads, strings, organs and other essential rock sounds on it.

Maybe give the free ProteusVX plus free Proteus Sound Library a change. A lot of organs, piano's, basses, pads, strings etc. It has a different sound as the Triton. I think 'less sheen' and 'more organic.'

http://www.emu.com/

Yeh wrote:

Kilroy wrote:I am wondering if anyone can recommend a soft synth that is like the Triton in that it has a lot of usable keys, bass, pads, strings, organs and other essential rock sounds on it.

Maybe give the free ProteusVX plus free Proteus Sound Library a change. A lot of organs, piano's, basses, pads, strings etc. It has a different sound as the Triton. I think 'less sheen' and 'more organic.'

http://www.emu.com/

Might be worth having a look at the Cakewalk Proteus Pack, gives you 6 Proteus synths which should more than cover all the bases - there's about 4,000 patches in total.

Not sure how they rate today, but back in the day when the Proteus hard synths were released they were very highly regarded and a standard piece of studio kit.

Digital Design Factory do some other versions of the Proteus synths as well.