which synth to buy

P

phaez

New member
i'm looking to get my first synth for as cheap as possible what synth you recommend to somone who wants to produce deep, organic, atmospheric, lush sounding beautiful chords, pad sounds > tech house ?

i don't know much at all about synths, i just know what sort of sounds i want to make. I've tried a couple of softsynths and i currently use fruityloops but find it hard to produce these nice deep lush sounds, i just keep getting lame chessy over the top sounds..
i'm just a student with a very limited income so i don't have the luxury of buying heaps of different synths
this synth will be it for a while! so i want to make sure it's decent and can make the sounds i want.....

suggestions? :hello:
 
If you can afford it: Virus
1) Virus has the most VA features
2) Virus sounds awesome
3) Virus has lots of good factory presets, and lots of presets downloadable from the web; as I suppose you have no experience already with sound creating/modelling
 
Other great synthz for soft pads with different caracter (you can find soundsamples on the manufacturers homepages or at www.vintagesynth.com) that doesn't cost as much as the Virus (wich is one of the kings among synthezisers)

Ensoniq Fizmo - Very strange pads ;) THE synth for ambient! Some new kind of synthesis that i think is something between virtual analog and vector syn.
Korg Wavestation - Very soft pads.. i really like this one =) They sound pretty cold.. and not so phAT-analog. Vector syn.
Korg MS2000 - Here we got the phAT-analog pad.. check it out ;) Virtual analog
Clavia Nord Lead - This one can produce very lush pads.. and they sound really analog.. but not so extreamly fat. Virtual analog
Clavia Micro Modular - almost the same as with clavia nord lead.. but you can make it sound more fat ;) (do not touch this one if your not interrested in advanced sound creating). Virtual analog
Roland Juno-series.. korg poly-series.. blahblah - yeah.. they can do some soft pads.. but nothing that makes you fly. Real analog

(hEY! This is what _i_ think of them.. i will not change my mind even if the rest of the world thinks otherwise on any of them)
There are alot of other good and not so expensive stuff for pads.. but theese are some of thoose that i like the best

Another suggestion is to get a cool sampler with alot of effys and stuff (an EMU maybe? :))... and some nice sample cds
 
It sounds like your wanting to produce exactly what I do produce in my studio!!

For my tech-house/deep-house im currently using:
Roland JP8000
Yamaha AN1x
Korg Delta (old analog whoop whoop)
Yamaha DX9
Korg Triton
Roland D110
FAT Freebass FB383

Theres also some samples as well. Now - considering your on a budget - which do i think is best? Well the Yamaha AN1x is without doubt - FANTASTIC! i've never heard a bad word said about the things it can do - okay the interface aint great but you do still have 8 realtime controllers. Its a doddle to program and can give rise to lush pads and wicked bass. The presets suck as well but who gives. Another damn useful feature is the SCENE feature - you can setup a sound on each scene and then use the modulation wheel to MORPH (yes thats morph, not crossfade) between the two. If you find a sound you like somewhere in the middle of its travel, you can save that to a scene and play about some more! (Sounds like vector synthesis disguised!). Currently they're on the second hand market in the UK for £350 mark. I got mine this summer for £325.
I remember seeing them new in London back in 97/98 at their full price of £999 or something - and even then thinking it was a bargain!:dj:
 
:cheers: :cheers:

i was orginally looking at the virus or jp8000
now i'll have to check out the Yamaha AN1x!!

ukcoolat> where can i hear some of your stuff?

know of a good sample cd which has the sounds i'm trying to make?



:cheers:
 
I've never used sample cd's for the sounds in my studio - but i've heard the X-Static Goldmine series of sample cd's from E-LAB and they're wonderful. Check loads of their stuff out (loads of free samples to download as well) at...

www.e-lab.se

On the front of hearing the AN1x...i'll upload some RealAudio format files to my filespace and post the links okay.
 
Okay i've recorded 4 samples from it - The delay effects used come from the AN1x's own FX unit, but the reverbs have been added by a Lexicon processor in the studio....

This is a really cheesy, but effective sequence - but the realaudio files looses it right near the end because it can't handle the high-frequencies - but its nice...

http://members.aol.com/ukcoolat/arp1.rm

This one is quite a powerful arpeggiated sound...

http://members.aol.com/ukcoolat/arp2.rm

This is a pad thats been used on a looped sequence of chords on cubase, and then had the filter knob movements overdubbed ontop of it in cubase....

http://members.aol.com/ukcoolat/filterpad.rm

And finally a fairly sonically thick pad that reminds me a lot of Orbital's sounds used on their 'INSIDES' album..

http://members.aol.com/ukcoolat/orbital.rm


Well listen thru those and see what you think.
 
mmmm.. nice sounds... i'm impressed.. ;)

the filter pad is pretty much exactly what i'm looking for the others are very nice also.. > arp2.rm!
i'll have to check out this AN1x synth...
 
ENSONIQ FIZMO is the ambient king.
Its pads are so fantastic and alive that I just couldn't believe my ears. You don't hear this kind of sound on every electronic record. UNIQUE.
It uses transwave synthesis, which reminds me a bit of wavetable synthesis of Waldorf Microwave.

I would buy it emediately, but unfortunately lots of users are complaining about its unreliable DC power supply. It hapens that all the chips inside just burn up. In that case you can only say: Goodby Fizmo.

But it still sounds the best.

Well, JUNOs have good pads, too, but not that complex and exciting as FIZMO.
 
ukcoolat, the an1x doesn't come in a rackmount version at all does it? Space is really tight for me, but I need a new synth. I was also thinking about a redsound darkstar, but the an1x keeps getting good props everywhere.

KasioRoks
 
Unfortunately there isn't a rack version of the AN1x (such a shame) but....

Yamaha's new AN200 desktop module is basically the AN1x with a sequencer built in - think of a Korg Electribe EA1 but with an AN1x sound engine. I don't think its AS powerful as the AN1x but from what i remember it still has the morph feature etc - you should check it out - they're £299 i think.
 
That's a blow. I'm fine for sequencers, so I'm not sure that's what I need (although I am intrigued by them - seems like a cool way to come up stuff I wouldn't normally do).

:cheers:
KasioRoks
 
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Tch. The thought of an AN1x built into a little dinky 1U rack package is just too much to bear - maybe they didn't do it for the same reason they won't make an everlasting lightbulb!!! hehehe :eek:
 
I just ordered the redsound darkstar.... I had to buy it, it was only $190 (U.S). And it can be changed into a vocoder for $30 usd when you get sick of the sounds...

dc
 
fishi said:
I would buy [a Fizmo] emediately, but unfortunately lots of users are complaining about its unreliable DC power supply. It hapens that all the chips inside just burn up. In that case you can only say: Goodby Fizmo.
Click to expand...

Nah, you just get the regulator replaced and it works fine!!
 
the AN1X is great but limited compared to todays synths, 2 part multitimbral, 10 note poly, but still it sounds great, the sync sound it produces is really wild...

I wouldn't use it for fat basses though

the AN200 is only 5 note polyphonic
 
fishi said:
ENSONIQ FIZMO is the ambient king.
Its pads are so fantastic and alive that I just couldn't believe my ears. You don't hear this kind of sound on every electronic record. UNIQUE.
It uses transwave synthesis, which reminds me a bit of wavetable synthesis of Waldorf Microwave.

I would buy it emediately, but unfortunately lots of users are complaining about its unreliable DC power supply. It hapens that all the chips inside just burn up. In that case you can only say: Goodby Fizmo.

But it still sounds the best.

Well, JUNOs have good pads, too, but not that complex and exciting as FIZMO.
Click to expand...

I've got one of the ~300 FIZMO Racks around, and had to pull it apart and replace a resistor on the board. Faulty resistors existed on some, and there's no way to tell if you got one with a flakey bit of electronics or not, but it's a relatively simple procedure to fix.

The FIZMO is a wild one. I love it, except for the programming methodology. It's hell to program, even with SoundDiver. Sounds lovely though. Truly wild.
 
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