i have 200 dollars. Should i buy an Abe inst or 3rd party?

glitchrock-buddha · Post by **glitchrock-buddha** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 2:59 pm

Actually sometimes you can find reaktor down around 200 bucks if someone is selling it used.

And I would have to say that that would be more worth it than the suite upgrade.

I just had to go off about reaktor somewhere today as I had a moment last night where I fell in love with it again. Over the past couple years, I've used it less and less as I've gained more other synths, since it used to be quite unstable and cpu heavy. Now the cpu is pretty comparable to most other synths and it's pretty stable. Although it can still crash live when changing ensembles or flipping presets.

But I was just playing with green matrix last night. A standard VA synth from the Reaktor 4 library and I was very surprised that I forgot how much I love the sound of reaktor.

Don't get me wrong the ableton suite is great value. But Reaktor is just unstoppable.

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 8:50 pm

You need to get Sylenth with the group buy, because then it'll be cheaper for ME ME ME

http://www.lennardigital.com/modules/sy ... oupbuy.php

Grappadura · Post by **Grappadura** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:17 am

I vote for the suite. Sampler and 3 synths, all well integrated, plus the machinedrum collection. Also, there is a discount now. Since you´re probably new to production, you might be a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities of zebra or reaktor. The abe stuff is easy to handle and does also offer lots of possibilities, especially if you regard live itself as an instrument. Get into racks etc. you will see there are endless possibilities.

ze2be · Post by **ze2be** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:57 am

Well, to give you some different perspective: I can tell you that I dont like to work with Zebra at all! I mean I like the sound of it, the synth engine is great, but I really DONT like to work with the interface. Its to tiny for me.

Also I dont like fM8 very much because of the interface. But it sounds good.
I dont like reactor, because theres always something that fucks up over time.

I like Operator but it could use a few more lfos.. Its great for drums, and for fast general programing. Tension is great for Virus type dream pads, and acoustic type bass. I dont like analog. Silly limitations and mediocre sound. The vocal filter is fun though.. Sampler could be great but havent tested it properly yet. Theres lots of videos on youtube w/Henke etc.

Synth 1 is absolutely great! Its free to..

I love the sound of Karma FX modular synth. To me it can sound as good as the virus. The interface is interesting but can get a bit untidy.

Predator could be great, but it seems unstable and I find Albinos interface a lot cleaner and faster/eazier to work with. I dont like Sylenths envelopes. I use envelopes a lot, and its envelopes freaks me out!

Circle looks to be great, but the filter is really lame. Love the interface though.

What else...discovery is nice.. but synth 1 is more fun.. both great and to the point, and good sounding nordlead clones. simplistic and fast results.

synplant was fun! But its for effects mostly.

It all depends what you want. I tend to prefer fast and easy synths because when I work on tracks I like to work fast. But if you like to take your time with modulars etc, then it might be your thing!

When I spend the whole day program presets, I prefer doing it on hardware, to get the face away from the screen, and its good to give the mouse arm some rest too. Mostly on my Virus Ti these days. HW is cosey!

If you really like to dig deep into synth I would suggest Max MSP! It might be something worth wile investing time into, regarding the future of Live. If not, Synth Maker seams really great! Much nicer then Reactor imho. You dont have to deal with the reaktor interface on your synths and effects, they end up as proper/normal vsts. Max MSP can easily get visually cluttered, or so it seems at least. I never tried it myself, but ive seen some demos by friends.

my 2 icelandic kroners

Macrostructure · Post by **Macrostructure** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 2:29 pm

last man on earth wrote:I can't believe nobody has even mentioned Minimonsta yet - that thing is a go to for great bass, and has a bunch of nice lead presets as well, and it falls under your budget. They also have a bunch of extra presets made by users for download through their home site - if nothing else, worth checking out. yeah, it's not new, but I use that plugin on a ton of tracks, and it never fails to impress.

http://www.gforcesoftware.com/ins_minimonsta.php

+1

supamonsta · Post by **supamonsta** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:48 pm

minimonsta is great, but it will drain all your cpu power in no time when browsing presets.

Automat is really cool, try to find one of the last beta versions, the new ones are more cpu hungry. really fat fat fat analogue emulation. and fm abilities, routing... and totally FREEEEEEE.