Too Many Softsynths: Need a good synth!

[JLOAKS]

I really screwed myself earlier with spending so much on software synthesizers... my computer (or most computers) can't handle a lot of softsynths running at a time. I'm currently looking for a good multi-timbral synth to pick up a lot of the slack.

My budget is roughly $1,500. I'm trying to steer away from vintage synths with that whole ideal that "only buy one if you can fix one".

The music I'm trying to somewhat emulate is similar to this:


Any recommendations or tips on my situation would be greatly helpful! Thanks!

[Susceptor]

Uhmmm.... I'd choose a Virus TI.

As for the computer... I think it's just your computer, most current day computers can handle at least 16 synths at once (results may vary depending on complexity of patch, polyphony used).

If you already have a lot of softsynths, I'd honestly upgrade the computer.

[Yoozer]

Why aren't you using your DAW's freezing options to alleviate the load?

What do you already have in terms of software synths?

Which of them do you want to replace?

Analog and multitimbral aren't commonly found together.

[SWAN808]

for this music I'd look at Camel Alchemy and some sound packs...and a new computer. You could get a Virus Snow/TI. They are good but better DAW and Alchemy IMO would be better overall.

[soundmagus]

Omnisphere for the win

[JLOAKS]

Originally Posted by Susceptor

most current day computers can handle at least 16 synths at once

I currently use a 2008 iMac... For example - using Ableton Live - I open up Native Instrument's Maschine, Massive, FM8 & Reaktor all in one song and it already starts to glitch and lag. Will definitely look into upgrading the computer.

Originally Posted by Yoozer

Why aren't you using your DAW's freezing options to alleviate the load?

What do you already have in terms of software synths?

Haven't used freezing options before, simply overlooked it. Will definitely look into this, however.
At the moment it's all Native Instruments & Aalto. Battery/Reaktor/Maschine/Massive/FM8/Guitar Rig

[Don Solaris]

Originally Posted by JLOAKS

My budget is roughly $1,500. I'm trying to steer away from vintage synths with that whole ideal that "only buy one if you can fix one".

Moog Voyager OS. Sounds really good, alive and so organic. Seriously, try one, you won't regret!

[Jomox]

+1 on the above.

[The MPCist]

Moog Voyager also gets my vote. You won't ever need to sell it as long as you do music!

[Yoozer]

Originally Posted by JLOAKS

Haven't used freezing options before, simply overlooked it. Will definitely look into this, however.

In Live, right-click on a track, choose Freeze. When it's frozen, right-click again, choose "Flatten" - and now it's just plain audio, or unfreeze if you want to edit some things again.

In Live you can route one track to another, so if you still want full control over the FX, you could consider creating an extra track with just the FX as inserts and routing the output of a frozen track into the FX-only track. I should test this though since I'm not sure if it works like that, but I think it does.

It's a great feature if you want to re-sample synth sounds, too, so for instance you let an arpeggiator run, flatten the result, pick the best part - perhaps chop some of it up, and now you can use that as a loop.

edit: the suggestions above for an OS (you'll need MIDI to CV added to that!) and the fact that only 500 were made - hm, not sure if that's such a good idea. Or that you can still get one for $1500. I bought mine from Armen - seems like he's putting his stash on eBay piecewise - but 1500 really wasn't enough to get one. Sale went fine though, so if you really want an OS, that's where you can have 'm.

[SWAN808]

with your iMac - when you are using Live you can try increasing the audio buffer to give you more CPU - but there will be some latency if you want to play the instruments. Otherwise you can freeze/flatten.

Moog Voyager is a nice synth. However - did anyone just listen to the track he posted? I really dont think its appropriate use of that budget given the music style...
That is modern sounding softsynth music. Particularly ambient and gritty.

Alchemy would be ideal with their soundbanks for inspiration. Sell the 2008 iMac and get a quad core i7 iMac.

Maybe look at some nice fx reverbs like Valhalla Shimmer for instruments and vocals along with the RP-Delay...

[Keytar Platypus]

Agreed, you don't want a Voyager from listening to that video.

I have one (non-OS, though wish it was), it's great (especially fun to play and tweak knobs), but it's monophonic and can't do the same kinds of grit and chords you might be looking for above.

If you're already on a computer setup, I can't see it worthwhile spending money on a Virus seeing how much they've jacked up prices and now that there's acceptable software competition.

[CoolColJ]

Good effects processing will do all you need with even the humblest synth

Even that $100 castaway will do a decent job enough with an Eventide H8000 or software equalient powering it
That sample clip sounds pretty heavy on the effects, and pretty light weight on synth power and sonic pressure

[Susceptor]

I don't really think the Voyager is really suited for the style employed by iamamiwhoami...

But you know, it's GS and it's just fun to throw an analogue synth recommendation whenever somebody asks for a synth... because you know, analogue is JUST SO WAY BETTER than anything else...

[CoolColJ]

Analog is better, it's how we hear things

[BlackBackDrop]

Yeah that sound is heavily weighted on the effects side.

Great video, naked woman dancing in the woods... umm

[monad]

To the OP:

Here: Solaris Overview

buy this and you're sorted.

[Don Solaris]

Originally Posted by Susceptor

I don't really think the Voyager is really suited for the style employed by iamamiwhoami...

But you know, it's GS and it's just fun to throw an analogue synth recommendation whenever somebody asks for a synth... because you know, analogue is JUST SO WAY BETTER than anything else...

TBH i just went for his "good synth" comment. As of that particular video, something like Neuron would do the job perfectly, but then, we don't talk about $1500 neither.

Back to topic, with $1500 and seeking for a hardware keyboard for the ambient / ethereal with high quality sound i'd go with Kurzweil PC361 over Virus any day or night.

[Don Solaris]

Originally Posted by JLOAKS

I really screwed myself earlier with spending so much on software synthesizers... my computer (or most computers) can't handle a lot of softsynths running at a time. I'm currently looking for a good multi-timbral synth to pick up a lot of the slack.

Sorry didn't checked the video.

Short answer - this:



Kurz PC361. Check the videos here:

Product: PC361 | Kurzweil Music Systems

And go straight to chapter 12. Then tell me your opinion.

[Rooftree]

+1 on setting your DAW audio buffer higher to eliminate glitches. I have a new PC with lots of RAM and I still run into problems with having too many soft synths. Of course, I freeze tracks quite often. And I regularly switch back and forth between high and low buffer sizes during mixing and tracking.

[StringBean]

Originally Posted by CoolColJ

Good effects processing will do all you need with even the humblest synth

Even that $100 castaway will do a decent job enough with an Eventide H8000 or software equalient powering it
That sample clip sounds pretty heavy on the effects, and pretty light weight on synth power and sonic pressure

Could I ask you guys what you mean by "good effects processing"? Do you mean the parameters WITHIN the synth or the reverb/eq/compressor-type add-ons?

[Yoozer]

Originally Posted by StringBean

Could I ask you guys what you mean by "good effects processing"?

Eventide - H8000FW

Put a fart through that and it'll sound good. To give you an idea:

http://soundcloud.com/eventideaudio/eventide-h8000-audio-demo

Do you mean the parameters WITHIN the synth or the reverb/eq/compressor-type add-ons?

What you call "add-ons" are called "processing".

[ChristianRock]

Originally Posted by CoolColJ

Good effects processing will do all you need with even the humblest synth

Even that $100 castaway will do a decent job enough with an Eventide H8000 or software equalient powering it
That sample clip sounds pretty heavy on the effects, and pretty light weight on synth power and sonic pressure

This man speaks with wisdom...

...and he should know. He has some of the best sounding synthesizers in existence, as well as good effects.

[enossified]

I have a 2009 MacBook (Core Duo) and use Live 8...similar to your setup.

Track freezing is the way to go with hungry softsynths. You can always unfreeze any track for further tweakage.

How much RAM? Live can't use more than 4GB but I'd make sure I had at least that much. Increasing your audio buffer size will also help.

[Lumin One]

can a fizmo be had for under $1500 these days?
i got mine for $500. im sure with some searching, it could do the job. a lil more difficult to program but i think it does the ethereal thing nicely.

[JLOAKS]

Completely overwhelmed with the amount of responses... really appreciate every single one. I have tons of bookmarks at the moment from all these recommendations!

Originally Posted by enossified

How much RAM? Live can't use more than 4GB but I'd make sure I had at least that much.

Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

The big question is whether to upgrade to 4GB or sell this one and get a new quad-core iMac (I can manage this because I know someone who would take it and let me get a new iMac for ~half-cost).

Originally Posted by SWAN808

Sell the 2008 iMac and get a quad core i7 iMac.

Maybe look at some nice fx reverbs like Valhalla Shimmer for instruments and vocals along with the RP-Delay...

Valhalla Shimmer looks really appealing... and for only $50! The main concern is the CPU overloading issue which an upgraded/new computer would hopefully solve. Also looking into Alchemy.

Originally Posted by CoolColJ

Good effects processing will do all you need with even the humblest synth

Even that $100 castaway will do a decent job enough with an Eventide H8000 or software equalient powering it

Definitely noted. And although the Eventide sounds like heaven's angels from that sample @Yoozer posted, $5,000 is a hefty fee!

[Don Solaris]

Originally Posted by JLOAKS

Definitely noted. And although the Eventide sounds like heaven's angels from that sample @Yoozer posted, $5,000 is a hefty fee!

Eventide DSP-4000 will suit you just fine and $900 gets you one:

Eventide DSP4000 Harmonizer Effects Processor | eBay

[CoolColJ]

Originally Posted by JLOAKS

Definitely noted. And although the Eventide sounds like heaven's angels from that sample @Yoozer posted, $5,000 is a hefty fee!

I didn't specifically mean to get the Eventide

Just that you can buy a $100-500 hardware synth and coupled with good multi effects processing, will be transformed into something entirely different and better.
Not just reverb, delay and eq - but saturation, chorus, pitch shifting, vocoding, flanging, phaser, doppler, multi-taps, resonators, and dynamic filtering... and so on, and not just a few, maybe all at once
Hardware or software

It's not like the music you propose requires an upfront dry TB303, where then only the real thing or a clone will do.

[seancostello]

Originally Posted by JLOAKS

Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

The big question is whether to upgrade to 4GB or sell this one and get a new quad-core iMac (I can manage this because I know someone who would take it and let me get a new iMac for ~half-cost).

RAM is CHEAP right now. I would definitely get 4GB. If the machine will take 8 GB, I would go for that right away. A RAM increase will significantly improve the speed of your machine.

Valhalla Shimmer looks really appealing... and for only $50! The main concern is the CPU overloading issue which an upgraded/new computer would hopefully solve.

ValhallaShimmer is pretty light on the CPU. I designed it on my trusty 2006 MBP, and I can run a ton of instances on that machine without any stut-tering. Of course, you'll be running other things as well, but I designed Shimmer to be thrifty.

Here's an example of several series instances of ValhallaShimmer processing a $59 analog synth, the Korg Monotron:

http://soundcloud.com/seancostello/monotronshimmerdrones

The raw synth waveform being processed by ValhallaShimmer:

http://soundcloud.com/seancostello/monotrondronenoshimmer

In general, you can use effects to turn the simplest synths into huge soundscapes. The Eventide H8000 is the ultimate example of this, with something like 1000 unique algorithms in there, and 35+ years of R&D behind it. Run a Casiotone through one of those, and it will sound beautiful.

For bang-for-your-buck hardware, get a rackmount Yamaha FM synth (often found for around $50), and run it through a Moogerfooger lowpass filter, to get the analog sweep and overdrive. Then get a bunch of plugins going, or cheaper older rackmount gear from Alesis, Ensoniq or the like.

[ksandvik]

Get any of the new iMacs with Thunderport and memory expansion to 16Gb. That should handle most loads for the next 3+ years.

SW synths are just fine, they just require tweaking like any other synths.