If I have around £400 to spend on VST's/Plugins....

[Papalazarou]

Thanks for all the replies guys, I will definitely try out Syntorial, that sound good for a noob like me to tie down what I want from a synth.

Also, Komplete 10 is a good shout, I didn't think about picking up an old copy of massive or something and then crossgrading from that, that probably will be cheaper.

Does anyone have any idea when Komplete 11 will be out? Is it likely to be next year?

[musikmachine]

There's this from Warp Acdemy, was 75% during BF but still 50% off: https://www.warpacademy.com/shop/course ... synthesis/

It covers the fundamentals pretty well, sounds are quite specific though; electro/breaks and bass music orientated but the principles apply to anything, you can always tweak the sounds to taste but they do err on the aggressive side.

I might have an old komplete elements license i could transfer if you needed it, i'd have to check but yeah start with synthesis first, Komplete gives a wealth of options and could be overwhelming although you could just install Massive initially and learn on a synth like that.

[JonSolo]

Musicians Friend has Komplete Elements for $20 right now, AND it comes with a $25 voucher from NI. That would dip you into a few good sounds and guarantee your money back if expanded to Komplete. Kontakt and Reaktor are fantastic. Even if you cannot afford high end libraries, there are many free and low cost Kontakt libraries that are awesome. And Reaktor's online library makes it worth every penny.

Some of my goto synths (out of my 400+ paid plugins, eish) are Spire, Zebra 2, Synthmaster, and Omnisphere 2. Serum is great and is clearly a programmer's dream, but not my fav synth. I use it for more biting sounds.

And very underrated is a little beast called SunRizer by Beepstreet.

[Mister Natural]

so many options before you Papa

Z3ta2+ mentioned above is crazy good for an all-around synth - $99
the best drum synth out there(IMHO) still is uTonic - $99 - the most fun you can have with your pants on !

you'll want a couple of bad-ass efx if you don't have Suite :
reverb - your choice from Valhalla - plate or vintage verb are $50 each
sequenced multi efx - I'm addicted to Tantra from Schyes - it's $69 but worth every penny for the delay alone. Add sequenced trem, sexy filter, glitch - and you'll never see the light of day outside of your studio for months

peace

[joefrost01]

If I was only buying one synth plugin at that price then it would definitely be Omnisphere II but, even though I use it for almost everything, if you're looking for a really good all round solution that would keep you going for years then I have to agree with the others that suggested NI Komplete 10. Pick it up in the inevitable sale around this time of year and you have amazing value for money.

If you do go for Komplete then one tip is to not assume that Guitar Rig is only for guitars, it has all of the Traktor's 12 effects included and some really cool modulation devices that use much less CPU than the Ableton Suite Max ones. It also has one of the best bitcrushers available....

[Shift Gorden]

Thanks for all the replies guys, I will definitely try out Syntorial, that sound good for a noob like me to tie down what I want from a synth.

Also, Komplete 10 is a good shout, I didn't think about picking up an old copy of massive or something and then crossgrading from that, that probably will be cheaper.

Does anyone have any idea when Komplete 11 will be out? Is it likely to be next year?

Not sure, mate. I think V10 came out in Jan/Feb of this year...but they just released a new version of Reaktor - sounds like they're in-between versions right now.

[Tagor]

i know its more but considerable: http://www.da-x.de/de/spectrasonics-com ... b-ssd.html
even if you can have for cheap ableton-live ready playable tracks like this
https://soundcloud.com/chilltribe/space ... ern#t=0:00
(only uses some eq8 - all other effects and settings or done in the spectrasonics vsti`s which really fit good together
because they use the same FX - so if you have a delay on a synth its very easy to have the exact same settings @ the persussion also speaking for stereo-width ect..)

maybe you can get an alike workflow if you stick mainly with rob papen synths

to get along with all you will need time to learn arrange the moduls you buy single one by one

so it can happen that ezdrummer for example will sound strange in combination with sylent or something.
the kind of compression and amplyfing the sound coming out must be "bended" to fit together, and there are
a lot of tool in Live you can do this - which easly end up in very long effectchains.

think twice

[mholloway]

Komplete!

There is no other product on the market that gives you the quanity and quality of content for the money than Komplete.

Omnisphere 2 is great, too, though.

-M

[sana48]

Sounds cliche but Omnisphere is an amazing vst. I looked at exhale briefly then realized that Omnisphere can do all of what exhale can do times 1000. The vocal samples alone in Omnisphere has Exhale beat by a ton..

Omnisphere for the win.

[login]

I wouldnt get omnisphere, I would prefer Falcon. but neither are friendly synths for a beginner, something simpler with a good layout would be more Important for learning: FAW circle and Fabfilter twin2. Would be the ones I would pick for teaching.

But with syntorial in the market it really is a waste of time to skip it, it will save you years of trial and error and reading (I don't have anything against reading but I found synthesis book lacking compared to an interactive tutorial).

Maybe even spending those 400 on a hardware synth, that can also be used as a surface control for software synths, System1m by Roland or the Novation Bass station 2 by Novation would be great first synth.

[mholloway]

I wouldnt get omnisphere, I would prefer Falcon. but neither are friendly synths for a beginner, something simpler with a good layout would be more Important for learning: FAW circle and Fabfilter twin2. Would be the ones I would pick for teaching.

Omnisphere is perfect for a beginner. All the synthesis functions are about as straight-forward, old-school by design, and well organized as things can get in the software instrument universe. So yeah, totally disagree with your advice there, fwiw to the OP. Especially since the two synths you recommend are old, haven't been meaningfully updated in ages, and imho have been surpassed greatly by newer products.



-M

[sana48]

I looked over the new Falcon plugin a while ago and I would honestly go crazy if I had to stare at Falcon as much as I do Omnisphere and my other VSt's lol, this is me being completely shallow but looking at Falcon made me feel like I was back in Chemistry class...

Its a horrible way to judge a plugin I admit, but damn it looks convoluted and way over-engineered..

Ill also admit that I havent even touched Komplete 10 since I bought it lol..

I just cant escape Diva and Omnisphere..

[XSIMan]

Soundtoys 5
u-he DIVA

[jlgrimes]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yes Ableton Live Suite 9.5 is my host. I am not sure what sort of music I am looking to make as I am pretty new to dance music. I am coming from a rock/folk background, but I have always loved electronica. Kind of chilled breakbeats. So I am open to ideas really. I would also love to have some soundscapes to work alongside my singer/songwriter guitar thing, as kind of background and complimentary sounds, as well as more complete electronic tunes. But I would say generally looking to produce chilled out breakbeats mainly. A little vague I know....

I did just look through Music Radar's best 50 VST's synths and their number 1 is a synth called Xfer Records Serum. It seems to take the best from Massive and a few other synths and looks really interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYhnSuuVqBE

Serum is nice. Great sound/GUi, somewhat heavy CPU use, but nice synth sounds and seems to have alot of free wavetables you can download.

It depends more on what you want (Synths, Sample libraries, both, bread and butter sounds, experimental stuff, pre-polished sounds, dry sounds, something very deep/programmable, something easy to use/learn). Any type of synthesis styles you are interested in (Analog, Modular, FM, Wavetable, Hybrid, Sample Manipulation)? Or maybe synthesis isn't that important and you just want to browse presets (in that case you might like Samplers/Sample libraries/Romplers) better?

[sana48]

Lmao

The OP is prolly more confused than ever.

Dude...just buy all the vengeance sample packs you can afford...




That's a joke.