I agree with Glyn. I have got some pretty weird synths eg Prism and even with those there are lots of very straight up sounds that can be used in the context you are talking about. But those patches are just not up front so much. They tend to feature the more abstract sounds first and you have to dig a little deeper to find the other more normal types of patches. FM8 and Absynth have also got some really nice straight ahead sounds too.

I must be really good at it because after putting a few bars together I am too relaxed to have any motivation to write any more.

So that's why the genre typically has two chords that repeat very, very slowly for five minutes and then fade away on a wash of reverb. It's stoner music! I can relate.

What exactly is the distinction you are making here?

The distinction is that no synthesizer is capable of generating every imaginable sound. Designers have a general type of music/market in mind when they decide what features to include. 


EDM likes bright, aggressive, fizzy sounds, swept highly-resonant filters, arpeggiators and randomizable step sequencers. EDM is all about exotic tonality set to a simple, repetitive beat. Because it is so repetitive and quantized, tonal interest is the only thing it's got going for it. So EDM producers are always on a quest for new and interesting sounds - it's not like they can switch to a 5/4 time signature to mix things up, or use a long acoustic guitar intro to build dynamics. Many basic musical principles are off-limits to EDM producers, lest they drift too far from the required elements of the genre.


Synth vendors who want to cater to that genre are going to try and make it very easy to get those interesting sounds. Let's face it: most EDM practitioners are preset-punchers, and most are actively trying to mimic other EDM artists. Savvy synth vendors make sure that their products achieve that with a couple mouse clicks.


I also use synthesizers for tonal color, but in a more subtle way. The sounds I employ are more likely to be reminiscent of something you could actually create in acoustical reality. It might be a deep percussive hit similar to a large oil drum hanging from a rope, and mixed under traditional tom-toms. It might be a modulated soft wailing sustained tone mixed under a violin lead line, or an ethereal pad that reminds one of distant music wafting over a windswept plain. 


Percussive effects require a white noise generator, and strangely, many software synthesizers don't have one. Not needed for EDM. Evolving pads need multiple independent oscillator/filter/envelope/modulation sets. Not all EDM-oriented synths offer that, because complex evolving pads aren't part of the EDM landscape. I like to base sounds off samples so that they're grounded in reality even if subsequently strangely warped. EDM is content with sawtooth and square wave oscillators.


So yeh, some synths are better suited to EDM than others, while other synths are better suited to my kind of applications. Which is not to say that the line is carved in stone. 

SonicProjects OPX and OPX ProII along with Omnisphere are the only software "synths" I use in every song. I also own Halion Sonic which I use mostly for "conventional" instruments. It seems to have some promising "synth" sounds but I haven't really explored them in detail yet.

Love the OPX demo, which has the balls to duplicate decades of well-known synth leads and pads. It was fun listening to it while trying to name the tunes you'd heard those patches in. This does look like a capable synth, especially if you're going for a vintage 70's or 80's sound.

Now, if somebody would just post a convincing demo emulating Tomita's "Snowflakes are Dancing" or "Kosmos", they'd be getting my money for sure. But sadly, nobody ever does.


EDIT: watch this video, a persuasive demonstration of OPX. Definitely not EDM.

I like what I have seen from Omnisphere, and that synth is on my shopping list in the near future.

What I use most if I want a "old school" synth is Tassman 4. I really like the modular approach, and building some huge (and most times fairly weird) sounds is not that difficult. You can make very organic sounds, but also "model" a snare sound.

I bought this synth when it was offered as "monthly special" (yes - here on the Cakewalk site) for a very affordable price, and never regretted I did so.

[abitofftopic]
As a model for a synth I ever build (partially) myself I can point to the Formant Synth from a magazine called Electuur (Elektor in other country's). It was a self-build synth and every month they described a module (complete with schematics and print-layout, so you could etch the prints yourself).

Years later someone made a virtual synth that was modeled after this self-build thingie. It was fun to hear all those sounds again, but also it showed the progress that was made after all those years. Still - it is a funny little emulation and it is free, altough I think it is not that useful.

Anyway - you can find it here:  http://www.ftec-audio.com/formant-classic/

A word of warning - do NOT start the "Denis Meyer playing the Formant". It does not give a good impression for that synth, and the sound is terrible. The VST is much better than that. I have warned you!!!!
[/abitofftopic]

Anyway - I will take a look at the OPX. It looks like a very interesting and surprisingly inexpensive synth to me. I really like their upgrade approch. Start with a small version, and "build it up" for a relatively small fee at a time, until you have the full model. Nice touch..

SonicProjects OPX

I forgot to mention I have this and use it reasonably often - but the VERY best thing about Sonic Projects is the after sales service - I had some issues - ALL PROBLEMS my end basically with my Akai MPK49.
Peter helped sort them out for me with almost instant responses to my emails - I don't think he ever sleeps!!!
Very very nice Company to deal with - long may they remain in business!!
Nigel

Synthmaster 2.5 was discussed in this thread

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2662517

The Nori Ubukata expansions indicate that this in one that could be worth looking into. I might just give the demo a try.

Yes, Tassman 4 is indeed a versatile synth that would likely suit my needs. Unfortunately, at $350 it's not a contender. Not at this time, anyway. (Although I did cough up $500 for Omnisphere, those kinds of purchases are rare occurrences in these belt-tightened days.) 

Synthmaster appears to be a comparable product, in that it's semi-modular and versatile - but less than half the price of Tassman. Do you think if I told them I was a student of life they'd give me the academic price of $59?

Intriguing feature in Synthmaster:

Multisamples in WAV/AIFF formats could be imported into SynthMaster as SFZ definitions, by simply drag and drop of the WAV/AIFF files onto the oscillator waveform view on the plugin window.

Does this suggest that any wave file could be a sound source, similar to what Alchemy can do? (And Omnisphere users wish it could do, too.)

Somewhat appropos to this thread, anyone interested in vintage synth emulations might want to look into this:
 
http://www.wayoutware.com/products.html
 
Cheers,
Eddie