Your Favorite Soft Synth

[LumenStudio]

I'm curious to hear the latest is what people consider their favorite soft synth to be. I currently have Absynth 2 on the way, which I'm excited about. I have Spectrasonics Atmosphere which is really cool to. I'm just starting to dabble in this fun land.

[alfonso]

Creamware Modular3 with FleXor package. Runs only on Creamware dsp's though...but I never heard anything native sound so good.
Of the same great quality are other synths for the platform, like Minimax, John Bowen's Solaris, Pro Tone etc, but I love the Modular concept.

[kosi]

Absynth II, Reaktor 4 and, if it counts: Live 4 by Ableton, the almighty !!!
Couldn't live without this one anymore.

Absynth is the only Softsynth, that has an immediateley recognizeable sound by it's own. And the enveloppies are yummi !
Reaktor 4 is kind of a mystery to me, but I download all the new patches written by some engineers nearly every week. It's running only on PC, on my Macs. it's so slow and buggy, I stopped completely.

chees, kosi

[Wolfgang]

Absynth is a given! Wonderful!

Here are a few not-so-well-known synths i love


ImpOSCar by G-Media

Vanguard by reFX

Moog Modular by Arturia

z3ta+ by RGC Audio

[jho]

Arturia's CS80V is pretty sweet too!

Vanguard is great for techno/trance/arpeggiating things.

Claw is a cool free mono synth.

Don't forget NI's FM7 for the DX7 stuff.

Battery cool for drums and of course, Live 4 needs to host it all. Has anyone checked out the 'chord' and 'scale' effects for midi in Live 4? Outstanding fun...

[J.C. Scott]

Reason is far and away my favorite right now. I do very much like the Native Instruments SS's, but Reason just has a choke hold on my interest right now.

[Teacher]

Edirol Orchestra!!!


I'ma have to check out absynth II

[Sharp11]

I've yet to hear Absynth version 2, but the original was just awful; thin and wheezy sounding. I finally got rid of it.

Currently, I'm really getting into the Access Virus Indigo that came with my tdm system. I've been programming some wonderful sounds. I like it better than my hardware Supernova and about as much as my JP8000.

Ed

[jho]

Originally posted by Sharp11
I've yet to hear Absynth version 2, but the original was just awful; thin and wheezy sounding. I finally got rid of it.

Currently, I'm really getting into the Access Virus Indigo that came with my tdm system. I've been programming some wonderful sounds. I like it better than my hardware Supernova and about as much as my JP8000.

Ed

Oh - I didn't mention virus indigo / tdm. By far my favorite but it's TDM only. The one aweful thing about it, though, is the auditioning of patches. Just terrible.

But it sounds amazin' ! I think vanguard is the only thing close when it comes to arps, but van is very limited in it's sound palette compared to virus.

[keyboardman]

There's a native Virus solution if you're running the TC Powercore.

For softsynths, I quite like Absynth, Crystal and the CS80. I also found the Arturia Minimoog to be really nice.

[LumenStudio]

Originally posted by keyboardman
There's a native Virus solution if you're running the TC Powercore.

Is it the same one as on TDM?

[keyboardman]

They're slightly different. The TDM one is based on the Indigo while the PowerCore is based on the regular Virus.

Here's the comparison chart:

http://www.access-music.de/comparisonchart.php4

[bigbaby987]

atmosphere

[remo]

Just a few I really like and use often:

NI FM7
NI Pro 53
NI B4 Hammond thing
reFx Vanguard
Linplug Albino


but now I've just bought a Virus C I'm gonna be like dfegad softsynths

[Innominandum]

VAZ Modular is the best sounding softsynth I've heard... well, best for my style of music. If you have not investigated this synth, definitely check it out!!!!

[Sky]

FM7 for me. Has anyone tried the Korg Wavestation softsynth yet?

Sky

[LumenStudio]

Just picked up NI Komplete 2. (pretty much all the NI products) Overwhelming the possibilities on this thing. Absynth 2 does sound awesome.

[Bryce]

Originally posted by Sky
Has anyone tried the Korg Wavestation softsynth yet?

I have it. It's totally great. It's worth it just for the visual programming interface, IMO. I think it definitely sounds as good as my hardware Wavestation.

The Poly Six and MS20 that come with it are also a lot of fun, but the Legacy synth that lets you combine those two with fx is way cool.

dB

[kosi]

Is there a standalone software for the Wavestation Softsynth ? Or do you have to buy the "controller" ?

[Jesse Skeens]

Most of the newer Creamware stuff. Mod 3 is really nice, deffinatly as good as my old Nord Mod. Still need to buy the Flexor addons. The analog emus are awesome too.

Native would be te Korg Legacy, really nice.

Jesse

[Vaphoron]

Virus Indigo TDM - patch changing is annoying but will be fixed in a couple months
Absynth 2 - incredibly unique

I really like all the Native Instruments stuff but its not all very stable within Pro Tools and Reaktor 4 is the absolute worst. It sounds great but usually crashes after a couple minutes.

[Renie]

Can it be true the indigo patch system will really change in a couple of months??

Agreed NI stuff rocks but Reaktor is woefully unstable in PT, just trying the FM7 demo it seems a lot more solid...

am curious about the korg legacy shame that's not PT compat...

[Vaphoron]

Originally posted by Renie
Can it be true the indigo patch system will really change in a couple of months??

I actually know from another source but here is a link to a thread on the DUC where they said its coming. Its not going to be for the Indigo only, its for all plugins which is really, really, really, cool.

http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.p...ev=#Post668292

[jho]

It's for the latest PT only...I'm still on 5.3.1....

[Vaphoron]

This next release is a must have for anyone that has said there aren't enough MIDI features or people who work with soft synths/samplers a lot. Its a really nice update with some things I have been needing for a long time.

[Renie]

Jason

any details?

also any sign of a Digi generated/partnered sampler?

cheers

[Vaphoron]

Originally posted by Renie
Jason

any details?

also any sign of a Digi generated/partnered sampler?

cheers

I wish I knew about a Digi sampler but I haven't heard anything. One really big thing is there will be support for multiple outs from soft synths and samplers. Plugins will most likely need updating to support this new feature. I don't know if the Virus Indigo will be updated to take advantage of this like the Powercore version but I hope it will happen at some point. I don't know all the details on the midi features but there aren't any midi plugins like lots of people want. They should release all the details in 2 months at AES because its scheduled to ship this year but we all know that might mean January.