Which NI synth?

[Szuumm]

What rozling said ^

Although - Reaktor is also good because you can steal interesting bits of complicated ensembles & cobble them together pretty easily... so, for example, if someone has made a synth with a really nice sequencer, you can use it yourself without having to understand exactly what is going on under the hood.

[UKRuss]

You have to pay Nick a little sum for the vids but he gives out loads of info for your buck. Really opened my eyes to using found sounds and small sections of waveforms to create new sounds.

He posts here and posted recently about the vids, I haven't got his web addy here at work.

I just realised that I can get crazy new sounds withouth having to go through the learning curve of a new synth (time is really an issue for me).

So now i can open up, say, Automat. hit the randomiser, see what sounds it throws out, record it, stick it into Sampler and off i go. OK, some will say, you had to learn sampler and that takes as long as learning a new synth. true to a degree, but samplers modulation options and envelopes are really easy to get to grips with and its native so is stable and saves the ol' cpu

The opening swell in my track "The Alpine Hotel for Cats" was done just like that. OK, it's not a particularly innovative sound, but it's got loads of movement in it.

Check it out here:

http://www.myspace.com/nomsimusic

[heavensdaw]

I'm thinking, why NI?
Do you have credit voucher or something?

Just wondering..

Hd

[heavensdaw]

Btw.. Nice 'swell' Russ!

Hd

[rozling]

As the stripper said to the bishop...

Cheers for that - I look forward to checking out your MySpace when I finish surfing th-- I mean work.

[Rosko]

yeah sampling your own vsts is a good way to get different sounds but not really a replacemnt. Its not hard to learn a sythn esp if you know the ins & outs of what the sampler can do.

[Hidden Driveways]

What costs $162, sounds cooler, and doesn't have any of the mysterious "my NI crap stopped working!" issues?

[rozling]

yeah sampling your own vsts is a good way to get different sounds but not really a replacemnt. Its not hard to learn a sythn esp if you know the ins & outs of what the sampler can do.

I can see how it'd make sense in a workflow as a form of limitation: once you commit to Sampler/Kontakt etc, you can't go back and you're not distracted by shiny things (although you are distracted by sound design potential, but I think that's a good kind of distraction. I know these are kind of the same thing). I think I must try this.

[weeddigger]

Got a Mac?

Get Logic Express.

A shit of load of synths + effects.

[muthafunka]

+1 more for Reaktor. Literally 1000s of synths, fx, samplers, manglers and ace madness in general and you don't have to program a thing if you don't want to.
No brainer.

Although all that said, I am on a huge Sylenth trip right now!

[Nick the Zombie]

You have to pay Nick a little sum for the vids but he gives out loads of info for your buck. Really opened my eyes to using found sounds and small sections of waveforms to create new sounds.

He posts here and posted recently about the vids, I haven't got his web addy here at work.

I just realised that I can get crazy new sounds withouth having to go through the learning curve of a new synth (time is really an issue for me).

So now i can open up, say, Automat. hit the randomiser, see what sounds it throws out, record it, stick it into Sampler and off i go. OK, some will say, you had to learn sampler and that takes as long as learning a new synth. true to a degree, but samplers modulation options and envelopes are really easy to get to grips with and its native so is stable and saves the ol' cpu

The opening swell in my track "The Alpine Hotel for Cats" was done just like that. OK, it's not a particularly innovative sound, but it's got loads of movement in it.

Check it out here:

http://www.myspace.com/nomsimusic

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I have some free vids up on Youtube. When I'm not working on a new full series, I try to consistently add to the free vids. Here's a link:

http://www.youtube.com/oubliettezombie

The series that UKRuss is referring to can be purchased through the image link in my signature (sounddesigntutorials.com).

I don't really need to go into my love for Sampler in this thread because everyone on the forum has already heard me blather about it many times. I suspect that if I mention it ever again I'll be accused of being an evangelist

- Nick

[UKRuss]

Btw.. Nice 'swell' Russ!

Hd

Ta!

Thanks for clarifying the links above Nick, it really is good work and great info.

[guydean]

okay then if not reaktor, zebra or even NI then what?

[Nogi]

There are still copies of NI's Komplete Synths floating around for $199 on the shelves at some big chain retailers - that's full versions of Massive, FM8, Absynth and Pro-53.

[ewistrand]

Absynth sucks, its not a playable synth, its for making more soundesign for movies.

Ah... wrong. This for example is all Absynth; choirs, drums and all. And, while the soundtrack theme is what most people think of with Absynth, it's a very playable synth. I've used it on probably 95% of everything I've done in the last six years.

Reaktor- its strengths are obvious. Massive's a good choice if you like the idea of a modern PPG (I do), and FM8's still my favorite of the FM synths.

Another option would be the software version of Kore; you have the sounds using the internal engines and you can run your other plugins inside it. Kore's the first plugin I insert into anything, and the first thing I open when I do sound design.

Try all the demos and see what works for you.

Your NI forum moderator,
ew