TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Production Studio
-- are soft synths easy to use?

are soft synths easy to use?

i've been using fl studio for a long time now and i was thinking about broadening sounds with some vsti's but i wanna know if like vanguard and v-station are easy to use... any opinions?

those are probably one of the easiest

Yeah everyone can learn those, will cost you maybe half an hour to use such a vst to its fullest... Maybe read some documentation as well etc..

yes.

it doesnt take half an hour to learn vanguard to its fullest! it takes MUCH longer!

if you havent used subtractive synths outside of fruity azndragon then loading up vanguard for the first time can be a bit daunting but as subtractive synths go its one of the easiest to program for the following reasons

1) the layout is clean and everything is given a little rotary so that you can modify any setting on the control surface and see what effect it has on the sound you are producing without you having to flick through sub menus, parameters and extra windows.

2) modulation options are pretty low. the LFOs are hardwired to the oscillators so that LFO 1 is hardwired to osc 1, LFO 2 hardwired to OSC 2, LFO 3 hardwired to osc 3. keeps things simple and logical. whereas it doesnt offer the mod options of say zeta or a virus, it makes sense and doesnt overwhelm as these 2 synths are prone to do from time to time.

3) arp isnt programmable. the effects are stripped down to a bare minimum. this has drawbacks but it keeps things simple and easy to use. the glide (portmento) function is easy to use, logical and it works better than fruity's glide function.

4) vanguard is a good starter because it eases you into subtractive synthesis. at the same time its also very suited to trance type music but is very versatile for other types of music too. it sounds fab. whilst i cant seem to make the sound evolve and morph like i can on my virus b (owing to the more extensive modulation options), the sheer amount of modulatable parts on the virus makes my head spin. vanguard is the type of synth where you can dive in and not have to think so much about what you are doing and keep track of the parameters you are changing. virus is the type of synth where you have to consciously keep track of what is affecting what. i.e. on the virus the 1st filter cutoff determines the effect of the second filter cutoff which is modulatable via the filter envelope and 1 or both filters can be routed to the 2nd LFO. if you twiddle 1 without thinking about it you can turn alot of patches into bassy sludge. vanguard is more forgiving in this respect. just try out the demo - you have absolutely nothing to lose. check it out on www.kvr-vst.com and run a search for refx vanguard.

vanguard is sissy synapse hydra is the way to go

yeah hydra is underrated, i like it too

the threadstarter didnt ask what synths are underrated and which ones are 'sissy.' he asked if they were easy to use. vanguard is one of the easier ones. simple.

i appreciate the in depth analysis for me derivative.

my question is if i can use vanguard or v-station in fruity? like as a vsti plugin or something.

other than that, from what you say it seems like any typical soft synth to me. fl studio comes with wasp whcih is an emulated analogue synth or something.

about hte arp, doesn't fruity have that menu with the choice of arp and all those variations? that could probably program the arp.

last question...what exactly is substractor synthesis

how's v station?

It definately will take more then a half an hour to learn a VST to it's fullest, maybe 3xOSC will take about a half hour, I still haven't learned all of Vanguard and I had it for about a month and a half. Pro-53 is pretty decent to learn, and the power of that softsynth is awesome, I would go with that, I made some pretty awesome sounds with V-Station also.

One VSTi that is a bitch and a half to learn though is Z3ta, I see that and I feel like a computer programmer, Z3ta takes some time to learn.

And yes you can use vanguard or any VST in fruity, install it on your computer, right click in Fruity where the Sequencer would be, click on insert channel, then click more, there should be a box that says refresh. Click fast scan and then when you go back the vstI should be there, click the box next to it and then go to Insert Channel again and select the VST.

quote:

Originally posted by Dj Pyster It definately will take more then a half an hour to learn a VST to it's fullest, maybe 3xOSC will take about a half hour, I still haven't learned all of Vanguard and I had it for about a month and a half.

Dude.... It's even easier to use than Reason's subtractor And that took me 2 days to learn... and it was the first time I had ever seen a synth

learning 3x osc works something like this: "hmmm, how does this work...............(3 secs later).. Oh, that's simple"

quote:

Originally posted by Derivative the threadstarter didnt ask what synths are underrated and which ones are 'sissy.' he asked if they were easy to use. vanguard is one of the easier ones. simple.

well, the one he was asking about is of poor quality. i felt obliged to give my opinion.

umm i realize that a lot of the soft synths come with the chorus delay and other effects as well...i'm not too sure about parametric equalizer...i don't htink v-station has it...but umm ya v-station demo is kind of hard...are there any synths like WASP where I can like use fruity plugins instead of the ones that come with the synth...not used to those knobular things

quote:

Originally posted by azndragon0613 umm i realize that a lot of the soft synths come with the chorus delay and other effects as well...i'm not too sure about parametric equalizer...i don't htink v-station has it...but umm ya v-station demo is kind of hard...are there any synths like WASP where I can like use fruity plugins instead of the ones that come with the synth...not used to those knobular things

what is so hard about v-station? if you think it's hard, then you got yourself a wrong hobby, v-station is one of the simpler synths to use. anyway, v-station has a one-band eq, but most of the synths do not have any eqs, and a lot of them don't even have effects. that's why you have insert fx slots and send fx slots in your sequencer of choice.
if you plan to use only standalone synths, then there is no way to use fruity plugins. then you can get some cheap vst hosts like energyxt, and put fx onyour synths in there.
about wasp - the fact that you can use fruity plugins with it is possible because it is a fruity plugin - nothing stops you from adding a compressor-delay-reverb-chorus-phaser chain of effects in fruity loops, cubase, energyxt, logic, sonar, etc.
fruity plugins can be used only in fruity. and if you are not used to 'those knobular things' get used to them quickly, because almost EVERYTHING concerning synths, hardware or software, is about knobs. lots of them actually.

quote:

Originally posted by azndragon0613 i appreciate the in depth analysis for me derivative. my question is if i can use vanguard or v-station in fruity? like as a vsti plugin or something.

yes.

quote:

other than that, from what you say it seems like any typical soft synth to me. fl studio comes with wasp whcih is an emulated analogue synth or something.

yes, it is a virtual analogue synth, just like vanguard, vstation, pro53, or any synth that has oscillators and filters.

quote:

about hte arp, doesn't fruity have that menu with the choice of arp and all those variations? that could probably program the arp.

yes, you could. but i almost always prefer the onboard arp, if it is available. the best way is to write arp sequences yourself, but it is not necessary.

quote:

last question...what exactly is substractor synthesis how's v station?

v-station is a virtual analogue synth, based on substractive synthesis. substractive synthesis is based on a waveform(oscillator) or mix of several waveforms, which is then put through a filter, which passes certain frequencies, and kills (substracts) other frequencies. basically, synth based on substraction synthesis has a filter, and that's about it.
and that is SUBSTRACTIVE synthesis, not SUBSTRACTOR.
substractor is a substractive-based synthesizer included in reason.

other types of synths have filters and oscillators too i should mention. subtractive synthesis is usually a good starting point. FM synthesis is exactly the same except for the way the oscillators behave. in FM (frequency modulation) synthesis, 1 or more of the oscillators modulates the frequency of 1 or more of the other oscillators. you know how the filter can be modulated by the filter envelope? imagine that on the oscillator and thats an FM synth. the oscillators can behave really weirdly though if you are used to subtractive synths. tuning the oscillators in particular creates interesting effects.

and yes, v-station is another one of the more user friendly virtual analogue subtractive softsynths around. if you were to look at some complex modular type hardware like nord modular g2 or alesis andromeda be prepared for the biggest mindfuck of your life. synths like reaktor and VAZ modular are mindfucks too only in software. i have quite a bit of respect for people like rb2k and that guy who is always building hardware sounding stuff out of VAZ - actually build entire synths out of proggies like this. suffice it to say, its probably best that you forget that reaktor and VAZ modular even exists at this point in time. both are pretty scary.

quote:

Originally posted by Low Profile Dude.... It's even easier to use than Reason's subtractor And that took me 2 days to learn... and it was the first time I had ever seen a synth learning 3x osc works something like this: "hmmm, how does this work...............(3 secs later).. Oh, that's simple"

I still haven't really tampered with it, it just looked complicating. Silly me.

Go minimoog

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.