Hole in my pocket

Dimension pro seems to be a favorite in here. Its probably the next one i pick up. I just got rapture about 2 months ago, it blows my mind on some of the sounds i can create and when i finally get a good grasp on this synth (its the first one i really owned, im primarlly a guitarist, bass'est, and drummer) learning how to think of a sound and then creating it in rapture or any other synth, I will get Dimension Pro.
Cj

gut z3ta, and it can be amazing.

I have tried Dim pro and didn't like it anywhere near as much as Rapture. Rapture inspired me to tweak like a madman and create step patterns that work with what I'm doing. I feel like I'm scoring 4 measures of a song every time I work with the step generator. Also I was blown away by the default presets in Rapture, with Dim Pro not so much. I think I'm happy with what I can do with my M1 to cover most of what Dim Pro can do. I was thinking more along the lines of an analog, FM, Subtractive, Additive type Synths. I tend towards more spacey trippy kinds of music. Not that I don't like Dim Pro, I just don't see it filling my needs at this time. I also was looking at Atmosphier and the sounds blew me away, its a ROMpler also. This is the one that impressed me Attack of the Spectrum ,not that I would buy Atmosphere just to make this sound, but I like how Ozric Tenticals meats Pink Floyd sound.

Until you have the cash there are a lot of free synths out there to play with. Search the Cake
forums for recommendations.

I have the cash, I was just saying it will be another year after my next purchase befor I buy another SoftSynth, so I want to make it as useful or educational as possible.

Its on its way now, ordered it Wed.

OK - I would like to rephrase my question a bit I guess. I'm very new to the Synth world and I have been doing nothing but reading on this subject, Also I have just recently Purchased the Korg and Rapture synths. From my understanding I have 2 Wavetable synths, Wavestation and Rapture. Rapture being a cross between a wavetable synth and a ROMpler with heavy Sequencing ability's. Wavestation being a wavetable synth capable of morphing between sounds and some sequencing. M1 being a Classic Workstation with some really nice realistic sounds and some really good modulation. What I would like to do is cover the spectrum of synthisizers; mabey a subtractive synth, or a realy good FM synth. I'm totaly new to this game but when I get started I typicaly dive right in. I currently love my synths, but I feal I'm missing something in the synth catagory. I also don't know enough about them to make good desitions based on what the packadge says. This is why I'm asking.
Will a subtractibe, FM, or additive synth add anything to my library I don't currently own?
If so what will it add?

I know their are a lot of different types of synths out their, all with more capability's than I can differentiate between them. So this is why I'm asking for input on this.

Pablo, have you tried z3ta+ demo? It looks like you might be at home with it, provided that you like Rapture.

My Question is this - are their any holes I could fill with another SoftSynth?

I just bought Zebra 3 which has some interesting sounds but I like the interface it has which is different then many vsti synths out there.

I love Vanguard and its different then any synths you listed so far.

You should check out free vsti synths out there like Novakill

Slayer 2 has some great guitar lead sounds but you being a guitar player wont need that will you?

Manystation is a good synth but I think as far as simplicity goes similar to Dimension but the sounds are different and each compliment each other

Motion2.8 has alot of nice banks


As far as effects LFX-1310 is a great free effect out there that does a myrid of cool things to your sounds post edit

I have a hole in my pocket and get a few new vsti synths every year...

Once you start that road you will be vsti rich and money poor ha ha. Dare you travel?

Whitefalcon

2 Wavetable synths, Wavestation and Rapture. Rapture being a cross between a wavetable synth and a ROMpler with heavy Sequencing ability's. Wavestation being a wavetable synth capable of morphing between sounds and some sequencing.

Wavetable synthesis is actually is two different techniques - same name different processes. Wavetable synthesis means scanning a table of samples. In Rapture's/Dimpro's world that means a clip less than 3000 samples long. Then the engine automatically turns it into a wavetable so the "sample" can be played up and down the keyboard w/o artifacts - munchinization and darth vader effects, etc. René and others can do a much better explanation of this. In the wavestation, ensoniq's transwave and the Wave series of hardware synths (along w/ the soft synth Komplexer) wavetable is a little different. For instance, you might have a "pulse" (square to rectangluar) wave saved as a series of samples. Like the old analog synths you can "sweep" across the enitre spectrum so that you something that sounds like pulsewidth modulation, where the internal timbre of the sound itself changes (in sync, if you want, to the music). With digital wavetables you can have any series of samples across the sample wave, making for a wide pallet of basic shapes you can sweep through - also picking start and stop points in the table, along with speed, direction etc. So, this second type of wavetable synth is very good for doing virtual analog since you can sweep through what would otherwise be fairly static analog samples, doing width modulation for triangle waves, for example. it can also do plainly digital sounds, since analog couldn't sweep through totally different kinds of waves or digitial snippets. An example would be ohhs and ahhs or other formants to make a synth "sing" or a series of similiar bell tones or stuff that is totally unrelated. Another nice synth that does it is Wusik, which lets you piece together the wavetable to sweep. Wavestation's wave squencing covers this too, as well as the 4 part bit (hint, hint, René - I'd love to see Rapture/DP map 4 actually sounds to the pad).

As I understand it, this is a lot harder to do than simply taking a small snippet (3000 samples) and turning it into a spectrum that can be pitch altered w/o artifacts (tho I believe Terretec does it for Komplexer). Hopefully Cake is working on that, since it opens up a whole new vista of sound control and René has developed the cleanest sounding engine around.

M1 being a Classic Workstation with some really nice realistic sounds and some really good modulation. What I would like to do is cover the spectrum of synthisizers; mabey a subtractive synth, or a realy good FM synth. I'm totaly new to this game but when I get started I typicaly dive right in. I currently love my synths, but I feal I'm missing something in the synth catagory. I also don't know enough about them to make good desitions based on what the packadge says. This is why I'm asking.
Will a subtractibe, FM, or additive synth add anything to my library I don't currently own?

FM is different, again, and is basically modulating the frequency of one ocillator w/ another - esp. if the modulator is not an LFO but is actually fast enough to make a pitch. Rather than simply adding vibrato you start getting "clangorus" sounds w/ all sorts of overtones. FM synthesis needs several ocillators so that you shape these overtones to sound like other instruments. The DX 7 was one of the earliest digitial commercial synths and had 6 oscillators. It was famous in the 80's for doing EP sounds, as well as some brass stuff and cheezy organ sounds (which was mainly done additively by using the 6 oscillators' actual outputs rather than using some as modulators). It is kind of pigion-holed, however, since it was overused in the 80s, tho it is also good for long, clangourus experimental sounds - imagine stretching a bell sample over 30 seconds. It is also hard to program, since you are dealing w/ an oscillator w/ envelopes times 6 or 4 or whoever many operators (the term for an fM's ocillator) the synth has and then you start modulating one w/ the other. It is slow and can get very messy. Same w/ additive synthesis, which has never caught on except in computer music (it is very complicated, too, since there may be 32 or more oscillators to program). In fact, FM was John Chownings way of simplifying additive synthesis. Imagine Line (FL Studio) has Toxic, which seems to solve much of FM's confusion - take a look at the demo. I'm fooling w/ it these days. I can not think of a commerical additive soft synth off the top of my head, but I'm sure someone has one.

My advise would be to learn what you have already. The Korg series certainly covers a lot of ground, Rapture can cover most your synth needs. Dimpro can do more than the M1, but I don't know if it is worth it. Wukstation is like the Wavestation but is cheap. Komplexer is expensive, tho they are coming out w/ hardware for it (trés cool!). You might try Toxic since it is only $100 and covers the one aspect of synths you don't have. Try the demo.

thankx for the feed back Whitefalcon. I suspect Virtual synths are somewhat like tattoos and potato chips. The lead sounds are most defiantly to harmonize with my guitar playing, I love repeating phrases between instruments. My techniqe is tending towords acompanying my guitar playing but I wou;ld love to lay down a killer rythem track on Guitar and wale over it with a killer lead sound. I do this a lot with my Violin, kinda gets me out of that 80's shred mode.

You should check out Kansas and David Ragsdale has some killer violine leads in some of his stuff. Its up on iTunes.
Rapture and Dimension both have some nice drum banks in them.
You can take those and use a program like Metalurgy that is only $20. It was giving an award by Computer Music Magazine. It has about 300 mutation effects you can apply to drums etc that will give you some interesting paths to follow. This added to what you already have will give you even more possibilities to explore.
Good luck.
Whitefalcon