best electro soft synth ?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
ScholarlyGent
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Post by ScholarlyGent » Fri Jul 06, 2007 5:19 pm

Brainstormer wrote:
ScholarlyGent wrote:
Brainstormer wrote: you couldn't write a whole tune with ANY of the listed synths, but any of them could be applied within a piece of music of any style.

dodgyedgy, telling people here to use their brains and learn how to make their own sounds will just give them reason to diss any tunes you may have written years ago as you will see 2 pages back :roll:
You are truly delusional... and I am crying for you.
You are a very strange being indeed! If not just a mere whipper-snapper who knows nothing better than to diss people's music from several eras ago.
By the way... "brainstormer"... if you want to check out what real electro sounds like check out my link.

sweetjesus
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Post by sweetjesus » Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:09 pm

Brainstormer wrote: you couldn't write a whole tune with ANY of the listed synths
i would have said you were wrong say a year ago.

since then ive produced an EP and some other releases using just one softsynth + live..

seriously a synth is all about the programmer and your musical idea.

Brainstormer
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Post by Brainstormer » Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:28 pm

sweetjesus wrote:
Brainstormer wrote: you couldn't write a whole tune with ANY of the listed synths
i would have said you were wrong say a year ago.

since then ive produced an EP and some other releases using just one softsynth + live..

seriously a synth is all about the programmer and your musical idea.
Technically possible, but not the synths listed. Have you ever tried to synthesize drums on a DX7?

I think the closest would be a Nord G2 Modular, where it has a drum synth module, and capable of a very broad range of sounds. Therefore I would personally say the G2 is possibly one of the best synths for electro.
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Poster
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Post by Poster » Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:21 pm

Brainstormer wrote:
sweetjesus wrote:
Brainstormer wrote: you couldn't write a whole tune with ANY of the listed synths
i would have said you were wrong say a year ago.

since then ive produced an EP and some other releases using just one softsynth + live..

seriously a synth is all about the programmer and your musical idea.
Technically possible, but not the synths listed. Have you ever tried to synthesize drums on a DX7?

I think the closest would be a Nord G2 Modular, where it has a drum synth module, and capable of a very broad range of sounds. Therefore I would personally say the G2 is possibly one of the best synths for electro.
or a G1 ofcourse :wink:

Brainstormer
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Post by Brainstormer » Fri Jul 06, 2007 11:54 pm

ScholarlyGent wrote:
Brainstormer wrote:
ScholarlyGent wrote: You are truly delusional... and I am crying for you.
You are a very strange being indeed! If not just a mere whipper-snapper who knows nothing better than to diss people's music from several eras ago.
By the way... "brainstormer"... if you want to check out what real electro sounds like check out my link.
I did, and I'm glad you like some of my work: http://www.myspace.com/lektroid

Thanks for the kind comment. :)
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Bassic Dave
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Post by Bassic Dave » Sat Jul 07, 2007 2:31 am

I tend to agree with the posters here that say it all depends on the programmer. I have a few vst synths- abysnth, korg legacy, minimonsta, and operatror, massive, sampler (can behave much like a synth). Just in the last 2 weeks ive decided to use just 1, and ive decided on operator and some sampler becuase it sounds great and the integration with live cant be beat. It really has all you need, you can do virtual analog mode, and it has lots of saw and square waves for all you electro sounds. Just give me 2 operators on rack, one sine or square wave with lpf, on with a couple of saws with hpf, a saturator and compressor and BAM!!! Electro bass heaven. Same goes for leads and pads. I think its liberating to step away from presets and learn the design of your synth so you can get past structures and express the sounds in your mind. If you hear something in your head and you know your synth, you can create anything with anything IMHO.

D.
"Without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave." - G.I. Gurdjieff

www.myspace.com/8118beats

whiterabbit
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Post by whiterabbit » Sat Jul 07, 2007 4:09 am

ScholarlyGent wrote: By the way... "brainstormer"... if you want to check out what real electro sounds like check out my link.
Oh, I didn't realize "real electro" was a the 2-dimensional genre of music built from uninspired loops with little variation that go no where...
Last edited by whiterabbit on Sat Jul 07, 2007 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

whiterabbit
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Post by whiterabbit » Sat Jul 07, 2007 4:21 am

whiterabbit wrote:
ScholarlyGent wrote: By the way... "brainstormer"... if you want to check out what real electro sounds like check out my link.
Oh, I didn't realize "real electro" was a the 2-dimensional genre of music built from uninspired loops with little variation that go no where...

OK, that was mean. sorry, but you weren't very polite to brainstormer.

anyway, I listened to your tracks but they start to feel a little tired after the loops has repeated measure after measure after measure after measure....

think about what makes one a good lover: tease your listener. give them a little and leave them wanting more. just a thought. I too often hear an interesting moment in a song that gets repeated to death (as a "hook") until the novelty wears thin. Cevin Key, on the other hand, often peppers his tracks with little fleeting diamonds that I just cherish. If you just repeated them, then you divorce them from the context that build up to them.

ok, gonna run to drum class!


Oh, this this is a synth thread right? I've talked about liking Rapture a lot, unfortunately this video doesn't go in to much detail regarding all the awesome sound design features, but it's a nice showcase nonetheless:

Rapture 1.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6_PbH_63z4

ScholarlyGent
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Post by ScholarlyGent » Sat Jul 07, 2007 2:21 pm

Brainstormer wrote:
ScholarlyGent wrote:
Brainstormer wrote: You are a very strange being indeed! If not just a mere whipper-snapper who knows nothing better than to diss people's music from several eras ago.
By the way... "brainstormer"... if you want to check out what real electro sounds like check out my link.
I did, and I'm glad you like some of my work: http://www.myspace.com/lektroid

Thanks for the kind comment. :)
Haha! Yeah I pretty much figured that was you since i got a random friend request after I told you to check out the page.
Last edited by ScholarlyGent on Sat Jul 07, 2007 3:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ScholarlyGent
Posts: 299
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Location: Detroit

Post by ScholarlyGent » Sat Jul 07, 2007 2:32 pm

whiterabbit wrote:
whiterabbit wrote:
ScholarlyGent wrote: By the way... "brainstormer"... if you want to check out what real electro sounds like check out my link.
Oh, I didn't realize "real electro" was a the 2-dimensional genre of music built from uninspired loops with little variation that go no where...

OK, that was mean. sorry, but you weren't very polite to brainstormer.

anyway, I listened to your tracks but they start to feel a little tired after the loops has repeated measure after measure after measure after measure....

think about what makes one a good lover: tease your listener. give them a little and leave them wanting more. just a thought. I too often hear an interesting moment in a song that gets repeated to death (as a "hook") until the novelty wears thin. Cevin Key, on the other hand, often peppers his tracks with little fleeting diamonds that I just cherish. If you just repeated them, then you divorce them from the context that build up to them.

ok, gonna run to drum class!


Oh, this this is a synth thread right? I've talked about liking Rapture a lot, unfortunately this video doesn't go in to much detail regarding all the awesome sound design features, but it's a nice showcase nonetheless:

Rapture 1.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6_PbH_63z4
I hear you completely and no offense taken. I think you would like or at least have a lot less to criticize in most of my other stuff which is far more instrumental, live kit, guitars, vocals and so forth. I put this recent page up just to put things out there I havn't done yet so its good to hear feedback.

To be honest the electro stuff that is up there is intended to be very minimal. Right now I like to make music that is more like a painting simply setting a mood or an ambiance. Its very minimal, changes are subtle, repetitive for sure, but that is really where I am going with that stuff. I can fully understand why some might find it lack luster and in need of spice but it is what it is on purpose and I'm very happy with it.

Thanks for the feedback and friend me so I can send you some different stuff.

Oscar F
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Post by Oscar F » Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:32 am

With all due respect to all who've posted thus far I find the notion of the best synth for X or Y genre to be a little silly.
From a programmers perspective any synth the user has a good knowledge would do the trick and then some and whilst there are great suggestions here many of them can be used for a definitive number of styles or sub genre's in the right hands.

Anything from the following would more than suffice

Reaktor
Reason
Live with Impulse, Simpler & Operator
Dave Smith Evolver
Nord MicroModular / G1 / G2
Casio CZ101/1000/5000
Casio FZ-1
TR -606/727/808/909
TB-303 or a myriad of clones
Any Number of Roland Classics Synth Wise
Pro One
SixTrak
Emax SE
Emulator II or III or E6400 etc etc...
Mac SE with Turbo synth and above mentioned samplers
Kontact
Fruity Loops
Rhino
Rapture
Dimension Pro
Recycle
Sytrus
Fruity Loops
Orion Platinum
Logic Pro
Machine Drum
MonoMachine
SidStation
SY77
Wavestation and SR models
Emu UltraProteus & Morpheus
Sylenth
Massive
VectorSector

and so on and so forth.

It all becomes pretty ubiquitous after a while and a moot point.
If the musical and programming chops aren't there synth x or w or workstation y with daw z and interface a with hard drive t etc aren't going to amount to anything of any substance however you cut it.
Somewhere between a rock and a hard place is actually nowhere.

Brainstormer
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Post by Brainstormer » Sun Jul 08, 2007 2:45 pm

Oscar F wrote:With all due respect to all who've posted thus far I find the notion of the best synth for X or Y genre to be a little silly.
From a programmers perspective any synth the user has a good knowledge would do the trick and then some and whilst there are great suggestions here many of them can be used for a definitive number of styles or sub genre's in the right hands.
Exactly the point I was making a few pages back, which prompted a number of members to kick off at me, diss tunes I'd made eras ago etc... I hope your response doesn't provoke the same level of vitriolic attacks.
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