Your Go to......Synth!

[sureno]

Ok well from the title im sure you guys and i can now confidently say Gals know what to do here and for those who dont well il explain. when you start a fresh virgin project what is the first (in this case) synth you reach for?
I must stress this isn't a review just a way of letting other members know what you use as your staple, so you can just list the name or explain a little. I hope this doesn't tred on Monarchs reviews, if it does il delete and just amend my review

I myself always go for Tone2 Gladiator

a quick overview of the features

Synthesis features

Advanced HCM (new synthesis, unique sounds)
FM
AM
PWM (can be applied on every waveform)
Sync
Phase modulation / PM
Vocoder sounds (512 bands)
Waveshaping
Supersaw (can be applied on every waveform)
Additive sounds (512 harmonics)
Resynthesis sounds
Phase distortion
Sample playback
Real stereo
18 oscillators per voice
74 different oscillator types with 30208 waveforms
Additional user defined waveforms with modifiers
Aliasfree / 162x oversampling (sample playback)
Modular routing

Filters and effects

40 different filters in high-end quality (Analog, vocal, comb, elliptic, phaser, lowpass, highpass, bandpass, notch, EQ, ...)
20 different effects in high-end quality
7 distortion types with warm, analog sound
Programmable arpeggiator, step LFO and trancegate
BPM syncable
IQM for clearer chords (intelligent microtuning)
4x stereo unison

My personal review of this can be found HERE

i use this because it has a great sound set covering all angles in 10 categories:

Arpeggiator
Nature Vintage
Pads
Synth
Lead
Bass
Athmos
Drum Perc
FX
Vocoder

it also has some great in built signal processing fx and some great sounding presets

Dance
Techy

so this is my go to synth, lets hear yours?

[Khazul]

Access Virus TI - we actually have two of them - a TI Keyboard which is what use most and my co-producer has a little TI Snow, another mate that I sometimes work with also has a TI desktop

http://www.accessmusic.de/

Sounds - well - it one of the well known staples of all kind of trance (along with the roland JP80xx and Novation Supernova and KS series synths), but particularly it excels at the softer more 'entrancing' sounds.

These days - its all over tech house and electro house - probably the most commonly used digital hardware synth is both (I qualify with digital as of course Moog and SE analog synths are very common in electro house).

By far the most versatile synth I have ever owned or can think of - its still has an old VA engine derived (and backward patch compatible with) the original Virus A/B from end of 90s, early 2000 era, so those 000s of patches are all available to you if you really need them. These days its a wavetable/granular synth as well for making all sort of wierd noises and can get eally nasty too.

Most recognisable in alot of music for its character once you know it - its phaser sound and filters in particular are often very noticable. Its one of the few synths who effects actually sound great in the context of the rest of the synth.

Alot of people tend to think of it as a trance synth - as said above the Virus B was indeed all over trance, but its moved on it capabilities alot since then and its pretty much good for anything from glitch to prog rock.

The best thing I can say for it is I have a heap of synths (VA, sample manglers, romplers, wavetable, FM and an analog) here and of all of them - it allmost doesnt matter what crap I play on the TI - non-muso friends (as well as the muso types) just love the sound of it compared to the others, even when doing something as basic as dialing up a single OSC raw saw and messing with one filter it still grab them in a way that the other just dont.
Funny enough when messing with basic waveforms and a single filter - more so than doing the same on my SE ATC-X which is an analog mono synth which includes moog LP, ARP, Oberheim and 303 style analog filters in it!

Another nice trick it has - its also hardware accelerated a VST plugin for use in your DAW.

[tyronehowe]

Well at the moment – I am trying out Omnisphere as much as possible.

But my normal go to synths are Rob Papen Blue and the Virus TI. Since Khazul has already written an excellent post about the Virus, I’ll just mention Blue.

Reasons? Sounds great, huge range of sounds, updated often, lots of presets to use as starting points, excellent easy to use GUI, no dongle (the most recent versions do need a dongle), reasonably cheap.

Features:
6 oscillators with over 70 waveforms
Traditional synthesis and FM
19 superb effects
Very comprehensive Arpeggiator section (including pitch control)
Step Sequencer
64 Banks of presets (2048 in total) giving a very wide range of sounds.

If I need a pad, synth bass, lead or (most importantly) an arpeggiated sound I go to Blue (and the Virus TI as well). But the real beauty of Blue is that it has such a wide range of sounds. Wrote a short piece earlier this year for my Music for the Media Course – I was asked what processing the guitar track had on it – I replied ”No guitar at all, just Blue!”

[cane creek]

ive been using U-He zebra quite alot lately...

what ive noticed about zebra is the factory soundbank is rubbish and doesnt show off the synth at all.

ive just purchase a few 3rd party soundbank's (science howardscarr/oldskool soundset) and ive totally change my view on zebra , it is awesome like folks have been saying.

[sureno]

Originally Posted by cane creek

ive been using U-He zebra quite alot lately...

what ive noticed about zebra is the factory soundbank is rubbish and doesnt show off the synth at all.

ive just purchase a few 3rd party soundbank's (science howardscarr/oldskool soundset) and ive totally change my view on zebra , it is awesome like folks have been saying.

what music have you been aiming it at?

[cane creek]

I "Try" to make downtempo/IDM


i own virus/powercore , Spectrasonics Atmosphere , Trilogy , Stylus RMX , Omnisphere ,
FXpansion Guru , NI Komplete synths , Elektrik piano 1.5 , B4 II , Kontakt 3 , Reaktor 5 , Akoustik piano
U-he Zebra 2.2 , Gforce M-Tron Pro , Virtual string machine , Arturia 'V' collection so i have a good sound palette.

[sureno]

Originally Posted by cane creek

I "Try" to make downtempo/IDM


i own virus/powercore , Spectrasonics Atmosphere , Trilogy , Stylus RMX , Omnisphere ,
FXpansion Guru , NI Komplete synths , Elektrik piano 1.5 , B4 II , Kontakt 3 , Reaktor 5 , Akoustik piano
U-he Zebra 2.2 , Gforce M-Tron Pro , Virtual string machine , Arturia 'V' collection so i have a good sound palette.

cool, very similar collection to me, and here is a pic of zebra for those not in the know

[JAYDMF]

Right now my blofeld and Reaktor 5, got a wavetable synth that i love for really mad pads and bizarre noises. Blue and Albino are damn good too although i dont have them to hand atm which sucks but hey ho.

[cane creek]

I could easily answer my go to effects plugin's like reverb , delay , compressor etc however a go to synth is a cagey subject as all my synths are go to depending on what sound i want.

[modz1]

Originally Posted by cane creek

I "Try" to make downtempo/IDM


i own virus/powercore , Spectrasonics Atmosphere , Trilogy , Stylus RMX , Omnisphere ,
FXpansion Guru , NI Komplete synths , Elektrik piano 1.5 , B4 II , Kontakt 3 , Reaktor 5 , Akoustik piano
U-he Zebra 2.2 , Gforce M-Tron Pro , Virtual string machine , Arturia 'V' collection so i have a good sound palette.

Hi Cane Creek
I know EDM stands for 'electronic dance music'- what's IDM?
Also, you've been a valued member here for a while now but not formally introduced yourself HERE
Would be great to know more about you and perhaps tell us where we could check out your music...?

[sureno]

Originally Posted by modz1

Hi Cane Creek
I know EDM stands for 'electronic dance music'- what's IDM?

"I=Intelligent" my dear watson

[tyronehowe]

Originally Posted by modz1

I know EDM stands for 'electronic dance music'- what's IDM?

My sympathy with you, modz1, I had to look up IDM as well.

It was kinda funny to find out that some of the music I have been listening to for years is called Intelligent Dance Music.

[cane creek]

Yes the Genre was kicked off by the warp label with a series called "artificial intelligence" in the early 90's , Autechre & Blackdog were early pioneers and somewhere along the line the music press abeled it IDM and its kinda stuck , Boards of canada seem to be the benchmark in the Genre.

IDM seems to be very popular in car comercials , check out 'Pluxus - Transients' in the latest Ford fiesta advert.

[sureno]

Originally Posted by cane creek

Yes the Genre was kicked off by the warp label with a series called "artificial intelligence" and somewhere along the line the music press labeled it IDM and its kinda stuck.

i remember when ltj buken and roni size came about, there stuff was intelligent in my op

[tyronehowe]

Originally Posted by cane creek

Yes the Genre was kicked off by the warp label with a series called "artificial intelligence" in the early 90's , Autechre & Blackdog were early pioneers and somewhere along the line the music press labeled it IDM and its kinda stuck.

Originally Posted by sureno

i remember when ltj buken and roni size came about, there stuff was intelligent in my op

Yeah – I wasn’t saying that the same was bad – in fact I think it’s a great name. Sums it up. Orbital was the first I heard of this genre, quite a while ago. Still listen to it now regularly because it has a raw and unfinished but musically quality. Can’t really explain!