why is there so many soft synths?

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Fri May 11, 2007 5:21 pm

if it sounds good to you, that's all that matters...my opinions are based on my tastes and shouldn't matter to you one bit...

perhaps it is the new-synth-smell and perhaps you grow to dislike it down the road...but that's entirely up to you.

aisling · Post by **aisling** » Fri May 11, 2007 7:27 pm

nebulae wrote:if it sounds good to you, that's all that matters...my opinions are based on my tastes and shouldn't matter to you one bit...

perhaps it is the new-synth-smell and perhaps you grow to dislike it down the road...but that's entirely up to you.

I'll get back after some production miles logged and see if I still feel the same way!

R.J.Dubya · Post by **R.J.Dubya** » Fri May 11, 2007 9:18 pm

JACKAL & HYDE wrote:
R.J.Dubya wrote:I've got Robbins' ARP 2600, Solus, Odyssey, and Axxe. They are great creations, but they all sound the same, and they still sound like reaktor, and like all the other reaktor VA synths.

I'm not knocking them, they're great designs and I could never make 'em, but they've got reaktor's sound engine and sound quality, and I personally dont' think they beat out that many other softsynths for sound. I love reaktor, and it was my first plug-in synth after reason 1.0, so it's the soft synth I've always judged others against. But the diversity in other recent soft synths is far greater than the sound of any reaktor synths, inlcuding these ARP ones. I'd say that carbon2, photone, and a few others are the best examples of what reaktor can do, but even those sound much more similar to each other than other third party synths.

I agree that its not always the ones you hear about that have the best sound, but I think a lot of it comes down to personal preference. I've always been into complex evolving type synths that can do airy, grainy, fm, and crazy modulations types, so I always thought that absynth, reaktor and fm7 were the best sounding synths. Recently I've been more into straight analog emulations since they've gotten better, and now I think that ABL pro, Phoscyon and Arturia synths (ARP 2600, Moogs) sound best, but that's just the sound I'm into currently. The perception of sound quality is just way too subjective to apply a work like 'best' to, but I still do it.

No offense, but trying to compare NI's "Carbon 2" to the genius of robbins ARP series is like comparing an 11 year old school girl on Violin to Vangelis.
Let me know when you trick an analog ARP owner with Carbon 2 via an arp sound. Maybe you guys who have his ens havent got past the prees.. 1 hour of proggin will tell you quickly that they sound nothing like usual Reaktor synths. Especially native ones..

I wouldn't try tricking an analog ARP owner with a carbon 2 sound, because it sounds nothing like it. But neither does Robbins' Reaktor ARP sound like true analog. It sounds like Reaktor. You ever tried Arturia's ARP 2600? You can tell that's not reaktor. I can't say I've ever played a real analog ARP 2600, but I know if I heard a Creamware ARP, Arturia's ARP and Robbins' ARP back to back in a blind test, I'd be able to pick out the Reaktor version.

R.J.Dubya · Post by **R.J.Dubya** » Fri May 11, 2007 9:23 pm

aisling wrote:it's amazing how "knowledgeable" most of you guys are on this subject. I really have used nothing else but virus powercore, reason and a jv1080 and a friends nord lead 2 (for a limited amount of time), so I have little familiarity with the soft synths on the market.

That said, since my knowledge is so limited, I was under the impression that Rob Papen's Albino was a decent synth, and could achieve much of the virus sounds.....I just bought it as well while I have not really gotten into meaty production yet with it, on first and second tinkering, it sounds pretty cool.....or is that just the illusion of a new toy.

Don't listen to anyone here too seriously. We're just saying our tastes really. Albino is a very decent synth. And has it's own sound quality that many other synths can't touch. But, like most synths, it has it's range and there are some types of sounds it won't do as well as some others, but that's normal. It's more on the 'pretty' side, less on the 'mean' side, which can either be perfect or wrong for you, depending on what sound you want to hear.

JACKAL & HYDE · Post by **JACKAL & HYDE** » Fri May 11, 2007 9:30 pm

R.J.Dubya wrote:
aisling wrote:it's amazing how "knowledgeable" most of you guys are on this subject. I really have used nothing else but virus powercore, reason and a jv1080 and a friends nord lead 2 (for a limited amount of time), so I have little familiarity with the soft synths on the market.

That said, since my knowledge is so limited, I was under the impression that Rob Papen's Albino was a decent synth, and could achieve much of the virus sounds.....I just bought it as well while I have not really gotten into meaty production yet with it, on first and second tinkering, it sounds pretty cool.....or is that just the illusion of a new toy.
Don't listen to anyone here too seriously. We're just saying our tastes really. .

Agreed +1

Its all individual taste.

aisling · Post by **aisling** » Fri May 11, 2007 9:32 pm

R.J.Dubya wrote:
aisling wrote:it's amazing how "knowledgeable" most of you guys are on this subject. I really have used nothing else but virus powercore, reason and a jv1080 and a friends nord lead 2 (for a limited amount of time), so I have little familiarity with the soft synths on the market.

That said, since my knowledge is so limited, I was under the impression that Rob Papen's Albino was a decent synth, and could achieve much of the virus sounds.....I just bought it as well while I have not really gotten into meaty production yet with it, on first and second tinkering, it sounds pretty cool.....or is that just the illusion of a new toy.
Don't listen to anyone here too seriously. We're just saying our tastes really. Albino is a very decent synth. And has it's own sound quality that many other synths can't touch. But, like most synths, it has it's range and there are some types of sounds it won't do as well as some others, but that's normal. It's more on the 'pretty' side, less on the 'mean' side, which can either be perfect or wrong for you, depending on what sound you want to hear.

thanks I was starting to feel the way I did when I realized the "mc505" of mine had shitty filters, but I never knew cuase I was a noob.......10 years ago!

bimbis · Post by **bimbis** » Sat May 12, 2007 8:08 am

JACKAL & HYDE,

please upload those arp ensenbles. I want to test them.

nathannn · Post by **nathannn** » Wed May 16, 2007 8:02 pm

so i found a new soft synth that i actually like
arturia Jupiter 8v
i don't know if its the actual sound of the synth or if it the gui but after using the demo i want it.
it makes my emu xboard feel like a synth

R.J.Dubya · Post by **R.J.Dubya** » Wed May 16, 2007 10:03 pm

nathannn wrote:so i found a new soft synth that i actually like
arturia Jupiter 8v
i don't know if its the actual sound of the synth or if it the gui but after using the demo i want it.
it makes my emu xboard feel like a synth

I just played around with that and it has some pretty cool new features. Arturia have been making some amazing analog emulations lately. This one has dongle protection though, which is an immediate no-thanks from me. Also it has pretty high cpu cost.

My favorite Arturia synth still has to be the ARP 2600V. I love that thing, and such low cpu too.