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View Poll Results: What software company makes the best softsynths?
Native Instruments 51 62.96%
Propellerheads 23 28.40%
Tascam (Gigastudio) 2 2.47%
Steinberg 5 6.17%
Voters: 81. You may not vote on this poll

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  #1  
Old 08-05-2003
BlindOwl BlindOwl is offline
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Favorite softsynth - what's yours?

My favorite softsynth by far is Native Instruments B4. What about the rest of you?
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  #2  
Old 08-06-2003
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Crystal... 3 oscillators, great modulation, a whole bunch of built in delays, does everything from analog-sounding to sampled to FM to grain, plus wavestation style wave sequences, automatic tempo-locking...


oh yeah, and it's free.
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Old 08-06-2003
BlindOwl BlindOwl is offline
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DL page for Crystal

http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/download.html

Here's the DL page for Crystal. This looks very good. The only drawback could be its a bit of a CPU hog.
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  #4  
Old 08-06-2003
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Malstrom!!! Though I love my Pro-52, and yearn for the Arcturia Moog Modular.

I also love my B4, but I wouldn't classify it as a synth - or else my EVP-73 would qualify too, which I like even better. But Malstrom's the best!!!!

Daf
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  #5  
Old 08-10-2003
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There are a lot of great soft synths not on your list. I checked NI becuase I like a lot of what they do but some of my other favorites include Tassman, Spectrasonics Triology and Atmosphere (verry good synths), VirSyn stuff like Tera and Cube, the rgc stuff like Pentagon and z3ta+, LinPlugs Albino etc. Of course, the ones you listed are good also, I have some Steinberg synths and Reason. I doubt if I could limit it to one but I am very fond of Atmosphere, Albino and Absynth. I think I'm really going to like Cube as well.

I am not considering emulations like Lounge Lizard or B4. Similarly, I am not considering samplers like Giga or Kontakt which really have a different purpose.

It is great having all of these choices however!

Take Care
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Old 08-11-2003
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Emulation vs. Synth

I think you make a good point here. As a result, I would change my favorite from B4 to FM7. I have found the FM7 to be usable in almost any mix. It has a wide range of capability.

I own Tassman, but have not really explored it much. Since I am in Education, I received the Educator's discount and saved a lot of money on it. I really should take some time to learn how to use it.

Another program that I am finding extremely useful that does not fall in the synth category is Groove Agent. I think this program is incredibly well written.
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Old 08-11-2003
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I think the FM7 does a great job with FM synthesis. Tassman is interesting because it is physically modeled, so there are some fun models included. I don't program it a lot, but the sounds that come with it are pretty musical. For programming, I really like Albino... it has many interesting programming features (like changing the pulse width of any of the analog waves). As stated in my post... Atmosphere is a great synth but is not the programming beast that some (like Tassman) are. I like'em all!

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  #8  
Old 08-14-2003
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Would you guys consider the Edirol Orchestral a soft synth? I love that program. The B4 is killer too.
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  #9  
Old 08-16-2003
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Probably either Absynth 2 or Malstrom in Reason 2.5.
The Arturia Moog Modular V is interesting also.
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  #10  
Old 08-16-2003
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i'd have to agree with the majority here: pretty much everything NI has released is astounding. (especially absynth)

as for freebies, crystal is the leader of the pack. i also like galactix and borderliner is good too, if you want something crazy!
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  #11  
Old 08-26-2003
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I usually don't find myself using softsynths that often. But when I do, the one that I always turn to first is Absynth. I love how easy it is to get evloving atmospherics out of it. Admittedly I also like the fact that version 1 aliases... haven't upgraded to 2.0 because of this.
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  #12  
Old 09-01-2003
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I'm not a keyboard player,but I just got Kompakt and I'm very impressed.I have gigastudio and various free and included with Sonar softsynths.Kompakt has replaced them all.
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  #13  
Old 09-04-2003
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Crystal and lately, Oddity.
I also like Exciton too.

peace.

homershines

for phat drum sounds & samples
contact me at homershines@yahoo.c-o-m
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  #14  
Old 09-11-2003
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http://www.supermodelfever.com/galle...aylor/006.html
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  #15  
Old 09-11-2003
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Quote:
Originally posted by skyy38
http://www.supermodelfever.com/galle...aylor/006.html
Dude , will you just grow up or shut the hell up!

And BTW, real mature to tell somebody off in a private message.

Looser...
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  #16  
Old 09-11-2003
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Quote:
Originally posted by brzilian
Dude , will you just grow up or shut the hell up!

And BTW, real mature to tell somebody off in a private message.

Looser...
"Looser"
Yeah,I feel "looser"...

they don't teach *spelling* at PS 69 in "New YAWK" do they....?


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  #17  
Old 09-12-2003
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Absynth is INSANE.
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  #18  
Old 09-12-2003
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I like novation v-synth
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  #19  
Old 09-17-2003
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Synth1...
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  #20  
Old 11-19-2003
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Yea, I've synth tried V-station and it's pretty cool as well...
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  #21  
Old 11-19-2003
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What do you guys think about Sonic Reality's "Sonic Synth"? I just got it, I like it, but haven't compared it to those in the poll.
Larrye
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  #22  
Old 11-19-2003
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Well,

After bitching and moaning about certain features (like filter cutoff FM) I finally broke down and got Reaktor... uhm... simple analog emulations seems to be quite easy to implement, and once you jack up the sampling rate you don't hear any aliasing (OK... past 88.2 ) and the ability to up the unison count reallly allows for some fat, fat, fat sounds... I think I am gonna like this more and more as I get the hang of it and start exploring the more...uhm...interesting modules like the Grain Cloud... pure industrial mayhem!!!!!!

Gotta love those NI folk.
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  #23  
Old 11-19-2003
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Sorry I'm slow jumping on this thread while I'm considering some softsynth/sampler options...

1. going back to Crystal mentioned earlier, is it compatible with Sonar 2.2? Would I need a VST wrapper?

2. How about VSampler 3 (DXi), any good?
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  #24  
Old 11-22-2003
Chrisjob Chrisjob is offline
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Oh yeah......


Remember Skyy?
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  #25  
Old 11-22-2003
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Quote:
Originally posted by MaxB
Synth1...
Is that the one that's supposed to be close to a Nord?
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