andyriggle
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Need Soft-synth Recommendations
Hey All,
Wanted to start producing some synthy-type indi music and wondered if anyone here had recommendations on softsynths with cool pads here. Preferably some that were velocity sensitive. Tried the ones on board in Sonar from the Roland player and don't like 'em at all- too thin and cheap sounding. I have a motif ES synth and would love the same type of stuff in a softsynth but am always gigging out, so my motif's rarely available. Would like a rack, but wanna stay around $500.00. Anyone here have some favorites?
Thanks for any help.
Andy
Yamaha motif ES8, Sonar 8PE, Finale 2010, Sweetwater Creation Station (3.4 GHz, quad core,8GB Ram, Windows 7), Tascam US-1800 audio interface, ART Headamp 6 Pro, Rokit 8 monitors
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Sidroe
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Re:Need Soft-synth Recommendations
2011/08/01 18:20:42
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As far as Cakewalk is concerned Dim Pro, Rapture, and Z3ta are the ones you want. As far as third party, well, you will probably get as many answers as there are posters on the site at the time. Personally, for synth stuff, Rapture and Z3ta are more than enough for my uses. Depending on your expertise at tweaking sounds, you should be able to get whatever you would need out of just those two. There are some demos on the virtual instrument webpage here at Cake.
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timidi
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Re:Need Soft-synth Recommendations
2011/08/01 20:29:19
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recommendations on softsynths with cool pads
Well, they all have cool pads. If you mean by "pads", the moody dark stuff that slowly fades in. Every synth is loaded with that stuff. Hard to find a soft synth with kick you in the balls fat ass punchy patches though. At least for me.
I don't know the motif ES synth. But, it probably beats most of the stuff out there.
All that said, Omnisphere is supposed to be the Mama of all soft synths. Haven't tried it myself.
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AT
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Re:Need Soft-synth Recommendations
2011/08/01 22:23:39
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Dimpro and Rapture are good ones from Cake. Dimpro has tons of pads etc in several differnet folders (Dimensions is one besides Pads). I'm sure Rapt has a collection but I haven't used the Rapt pads much (dont' use too many pads myself). The new Z3ta should be out soon. All the Cake synths cut very well through a song. More cutting than fat, to my ears, so they might not be your cup of tea.
Omnisphere has scads of everything, but I don't have it, so I can't comment.
Alchemy is a programmer's dream and is fat, obese, etc. And plenty of pads. And they are always releasing more. But, as said by Timidi, just about any synth can do decent pads. The Roland synth in SONAR is a collection of sounds from their classic synths. It has some good 808 etc. drum sounds, but I hardly use it for anything else.
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Fog
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Re:Need Soft-synth Recommendations
2011/08/01 22:33:09
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cakewalk wise, z3ta and rapture...
others NI absynth / massive .. sylenth1 by lennar digital
I like camel alchemy also.
some freebies, look up "tal bassline " and their other synths.. things like crystal and synth1 by a japanese dude.
kvr is a good site to look at
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bitflipper
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Re:Need Soft-synth Recommendations
2011/08/01 23:35:27
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Omnisphere is aptly named, because it's got everything: sampled, wavetable, additive, subtractive, and FM synthesis. The whole enchilada in one package, and sounds really good.
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Rbh
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Re:Need Soft-synth Recommendations
2011/08/01 23:57:46
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The Korg Wavestation and M1 were recently on sale and can produce some decent pads, But having heard your works in the past Andy - I'm not sure they would quite fit the bill. The Z3ta can produce some very nice sounds and you likely have it packaged in your Sonar. Z3ta takes a bit of learning to get depth out of it, There are a few choice pad patches included but you have to wade through an awlul lot of bleeps and blorps to find them. If you're into deep editing - you can get a lot out of Z3ta. Really it only takes a few source decent sounds ( strings, choirs, basic wave forms ) with the right modulation and effects you can create your own. I think Z3ta imports user samples - You may be able to import a few raw Motif sounds for starting blocks if you want to dig into it.
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