industrial synth

[SacredDespair]

i was looking for the best kind of synth to use for industrial metal stuff. I've read a lot of good things about the Korg Electribe A mkII. Would this do a good job for what I want it for, or is there a better one in about the same price range? I want a lot of sounds and a lot of variety with the things I can do with it. I don't know a whole lot about synths, all of your help is appreciated.

[ssscientist]

The Electribe A Mk II has 2 monophonic synths patterned after the sound of the TB-303, a Roland unit released in 1982 only a year or so before midi made it's debut. It was first intended to simulate a bass guitar but the Acid House crowd got hold of it and started to use and abuse it. The original had only DIN sync, but the Electribe version has full midi.

I guess, depending on what style of industrial you're doing, it could be recommended for that but it wouldn't top my list by any means.

I would look at the Alesis Micron first, and the used general keyboard market second.

[noisewreck]

What kind of budget, and what do you mean by industrial? Are we talking about watered down EBM/Synth Pop or Powernoise such as Winterkalte?

For watered down EBM (house music with creepy vocals ) any VA will do. For the way out there deranged Merzbow/Converter stuff, it's less about the synth/soundsource and more about creative ways of abusing it... or, if money is no pbject, you can always get yourself a Kurzweil K2600... that beast can get to the ugly side of the audio sprctrum like no other... plus you can cover the watered down stuff with ease as well

[SacredDespair]

my budget goes up to like $300-$350 for this thing. and I want to do darkwave, definitely not a techno guy. i like the creepy stuff too, but yeah, i guess darkwave is the best way to describe what i'm looking for.

[noisewreck]

Darkwave... such as Das Ich, Deine Lakaien, etc? Hmmmm, well, if you're thinking along those lines then I'd say get a soft sampler, some orchestral libraries, a good drum rompler such as BFD and start taking voice lessons from opera singers

[SacredDespair]

ok, i'm looking for a very unnatural sound, so no orchestral stuff, very dark, and i'll pss on the opera too, it'll be "creepy" (because i can't think of a better word right now) vocals and screaming. So, i need a pretty versatile synth and maybe even when that could double as a drum machine. any other suggestions for my price range? i'm open to anything

i think i may be talking about a sampler here and not a synth, i want something that can give me constant sound and layers over itself. if that's a sampler and not a synth, that's what i meant in the first place. so Electribe? if so, which one? and if not, what would you suggest?

[F_cksia]

Just came home from a Gary Numan-gig. It was great, and I saw mainly Korg stuff and stuff I forgot

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by SacredDespair

i think i may be talking about a sampler here and not a synth, i want something that can give me constant sound and layers over itself. if that's a sampler and not a synth, that's what i meant in the first place. so Electribe? if so, which one? and if not, what would you suggest?

Does it have to be hardware? The reason I am asking is because in the software you'll do much better than the Electribe in your price range. Personally I'd go for Reaktor (and I have) if you're looking for versatility. Plus there are enough deranged noisemakers in the Reaktor user library to keep you occupied for a long while until you get your head around building your own stuff.

[SacredDespair]

i would be ok with software, but my computer is too far behind the times to run any decent software so i think i will have to stick to hardware, any other suggestions?

[altitude909]

I'm a big fan of the Electribe ES-1 (sampler) it can resample and you can easily make all sorts of grungy samples for it

[SacredDespair]

wow, the ES-1 looks like a really good fit for what i'm trying to do. does that sound like a good choice? any other suggestions?

[altitude909]

I would recommend any of the electribes in fact. They look like toys but are solid machines, sound good, and are a joy to use. Plus they are cheap these days

[SacredDespair]

I think I'm going to run up to guitar center on saturday and try to check out the electribes, should i try to read over an online manual before going up there to test them? alos, will they record directly into a multi-track recorder, I have a fostex mr8-hd. keep the suggestions coming please

[altitude909]

You could read the manual but if your used to step sequencers, it should be pretty straight forward.

[Cyanide-Depende]

Originally Posted by noisewreck

Darkwave... such as Das Ich, Deine Lakaien, etc? Hmmmm, well, if you're thinking along those lines then I'd say get a soft sampler, some orchestral libraries, ....

Originally Posted by SacredDespair

ok, i'm looking for a very unnatural sound, so no orchestral stuff, very dark, and i'll pss on the opera too, it'll be "creepy" (because i can't think of a better word right now) vocals and screaming. So, i need a pretty versatile synth and maybe even when that could double as a drum machine. any other suggestions for my price range? i'm open to anything

We use reason and ableton live witha shit load of VST's and some orchestral sound banks, then we plug in 3 maudio keystation49e's to control different parts of reason, and trigger stuff in ableton. If you want good darkwave/ambient/industrial sounds , take natural sounds and fuck with them alot. add reverb, over compress, break all the rules, and you can do all that stufdf inside reason, and reason doesnt use up muych system resources compared to some softsynths. you can get any industrial sound you want from the effect raks in reason, and you have unlimited oportunity to create whatever soudn/feeling you want.

-C$