Getting into synthesizers, a question -

As far as learning how to use soft synths, SONAR already has some synths that will let you get your feet wet and explore the ins and outs of how they are used. Why not do that for a while longer so that your choice will be more informed when you do decide to spend money.

It depends on whether you primarily want to play with sounds that are already created eg samples or whether you want to twiddle knobs and dials and create your own or both. dimension Pro will let you do both to a larger degree than either Rapture or z3ta 2+ but z3ta is a quite different as well. Its a big question which you already partially answered when you said you  figured the best place to start was with the Cake stuff you already have

Of course your budget is also an important  consideration. If you have a good bit of budget then you couldn't go past Native Instruments KOMPLETE bundle. Cakewalk also has some specials on at the moment.

There's also a bunch of freebies and cheapies too.

The following free video covers the DreamStation synth, but it also includes some basic info about working with synths in general...
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/video.asp?ID=9

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

Not to put a damper on your quest... but if you're a synth "noob", and try to take your baby steps with one of the full-featured, commercial synths, you are likely to become overwhelmed pretty quickly by all the features/controls. 
 
There are plenty of free synths and tutorials out there, so you don't have to spend any money at this point.
 
Scott (Garrigus) gives an excellent example in his post above.  His video tutorial uses Dreamstation --which you already have if you use Sonar (see his video on how to install the synth).
 
When you're done watching that video, check out Ethan Winer's tutorial, also using Dreamstation:   http://vimeo.com/1309545
 
If you're still game and want to learn more about programming, there are literally dozens of quality, free synths out there.  Synth1 is arguably the best known.  (There is a 10,000 patch collection available - and yes, it's free!).
 
It's not my intention to talk you out of buying Rapture  (With the CW sale going on now, it really is an insanely good upgrade price).... My point here is that the aforementioned tutorials will give you a good, concise introduction to the art of synth programming -- and the synth and videos are entirely free.
 
Start with those... then if you feel like you want to expand on what you've learned, check out the links in Jeff Evans' post. 
 
Hey, you still have 4 days to take advantage of Cake's sale (Regardless of what synth you may decide to buy).
 
Good luck, and have fun.  

I don't know perhaps a jump into a Moog Modular V would do more to put him off synths than any other virtual synth..If he masters it then he can master any synth.

Really, Z3TA 2 is a very good synth to get started with. It is well documented and it has a nice new GUI.

We should not be so frightful about someone looking into synthesis. Its not that difficult.

Michael Five
I'm thinking about upgrading from rapture LE and getting the video tutorial. Does this make sense to you who know these things? 
 

That's exactly what I would do.
The full version of Rapture is 10x the LE version. You have plenty to work with, and it's fairly easy to grasp the basics, yet you can get pretty deep with it if you choose to do so.
The SWA video will help you get your legs under you, and many of the concepts presented can be extrapolated to other synths.
It's true there are many decent freebies available, but for a guided introduction with a good synth, this is a very good package.

Rapture is your best bet.  a minimoog clone or something that resembles hardware would be best to learn on, but Rapture, tho not laid out on one page is pretty explicit.  You won't learn signal flow from it, tho, w/o a lot of work.

@

xabiton


If I had to pick a Cake synth to learn Synthesis on it would be Z3ta but honestly I don't think they are the best synths to learn synths on if programming is your thing. Depending on your budget Sylenth1 is a good basic synth to learn on. Tal Elec7ro is free one one of my favorite synths to make sounds on. Maybe I am jumping before I leap though are you looking for synth presets or are you looking to actually learn how to make sounds on a synth? I Just assumed you were looking to learn how to make sounds on a synth.  

i have to agree with you on this,z3ta is a great synth and surely one could use the presets that comes with it but its pretty indepth when it comes to making changes to the settings.and learning about lfo's

My favorite is Z3TA+ in the soft synth realm. After that Rapture. But my curent #1 is the Fantom Synth in the V700R which is a scaled down version of the Fantom G synths. Since you're a keyboard player you have the moves. When you start using synths you'll find the voices-tones-notes are structured differently than a normal keyboard note. They are built using a generated wave of which there are numerous types which are then shaped and effected in terms of tone,duration,on time, off time, etc.etc.. Z3TA+ is a good synth to study this in. Anyway... in short, some voices have a duration of their own after striking the key so you must adapt your playing to the voice and visa versa.

John

JonD

John


We should not be so frightful about someone looking into synthesis. Its not that difficult.

Um, okay. 

With all due respect, it's also not that hard for folks who aren't even experienced synth programmers to advise complete noobs to pick up a particular deep synth or 300 page book on programming without any thought as to what happened when they themselves were advised the same thing years ago...

(See those books there on your shelf, gathering dust?  How about trawling through the 50+ soft synths in your VST folder and tell me how many you actually know how to program like a pro... Yep, that's what I mean).

I'm advising the OP the way I wish someone did me when I started so many years ago.  That means:  Easy.  Free.  Short video (vs book).   Then OP can go from there...

I'll re-iterate that I think the Rapture deal is a nice one. 

I just think there are much easier ways to learn synth programming, that won't leave him discouraged soon out of the gate.

You make conclusions from a simple statement that are not warranted. Further, no one advised me on how to use any synth. I started with hardware synths way before there were soft synths.

You don't no my history or anything about me. You assume way too much.

As I pointed out Z3ta 2 is an ideal synth to learn the basics on because it is well organized and it shows how things interact with each other.

Other synths only have knobs to turn or buttons to press.

What is so odd about this is if you looked at my post with some care you would have perhaps realized it was meant to be a little humorous. At least I thought so.

 
I should have said "average user"  Implying the majority.  (OK, clearly that's not you).
 
Humourous?  How so?  Are you saying you actually meant the opposite -- that it is difficult? 
 
Someone's asking for advice, you might consider -- if you insist on using vague humor -- putting in one of these --->   or these:  .
 
 
 

Here is something else that may be helpful. James Bernard works for Propellerhead software and is a good sound designer about a year ago he did a synthesis tutorial series on YouTube. While in the examples he is using Reason synths the concepts carry over to almost any synth for the most part its just a matter of finding what knobs are where. This is the first video and it covers the Subtractor which is just a basic Virtual Analog synth which a good 90% of the synths you find online will be. Check it out if you like it the rest of the series is available for free on YouTube 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUfJgNodnpY