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reason supports rewire right? i know fruity does. you can just rewire through cubase and use it as a plugin from cubase sx. i found cubase more logical than logic (how ironic). logic just fogs my fruity loop shaped brain. but yes it boils down to personal preference really.
if you wanna get a hardware synth trance-ta you gotta first be aware that its not simply an instant pro-trance machine. they do sound great. and you can create amazing things once you know your way around the machine and your production is really up there. some synths like the virus have a good set of presets that you can use for trance so it works as a good starting point but the bottom line is this - you will never be really happy with your production until you are controlling every aspect of your sound, making your own instruments. not fitting your ideas of a song around a preset. you can do this with just reason alone and having heard some truly awe inspiring stuff created in just reason its really an incentive at least for me to get absolutely every tiny bit out of my host that i can before i start throwing wads of money around. i get the impression that if i had a virus i wouldnt look past the presets because it was only in the last few months that i really got down and dirty with soft synths like vanguard. do you catch what i mean? for example i have audiorealism bassline which is the best emulation of a real tb-303 there is. even still my 303 lines are lacklustre. its not so much the synth itself as the person producing it. this just takes time and practice to get the 303 lines like dadft punk can do them.
if you still wanna get a hardware synth theres alot of popular choices out there.
viruses are very very popular and have a characteristically hard, warm crunchy kind of sound very much suited to hard dance. you can use for many things besides that too. VNV nation use a virus. they arent very good producers at all but are very accomplished musicians. i mention them because many of their songs, like standing and dark angel are just a bunch of virus presets. the arp on a virus is really good but you cant make your own arp patterns. they are pre programmed but they sound nice. also, lab4 make regular use of a virus on tracks like reformation IV and candyman with those MONSTER detuned leads. very crunchy, very fat, very warm. but you wont get those kinds of sounds from presets. you'll need to layer your instruments, have a broad understanding of EQ and a familiarity with subtractive synthesis. viruses are overused though. everyone has one. every hard house act ive seen had one on stage.
nord leads are also very popular. you can get a nord lead 3 for a little more than a virus. a lead 2x for alot less than a virus. some say the lead 3 has less of an aggressive sound to it than its predecessor, the lead 2x. i havent heard a lead 3 but i have played around on a lead 2x. the presets dont do this machine justice. if you want the most out of it you gotta get dirty but its not as hard as it sounds. chi AD, astral projection, heck, pretty much every psy trance band uses one of these live. certainly every psytrancer ive seen live has had a big red keyboard on stage (that'll be the nord). the sound? theres no effects on this machine so what you hear is an oscillator waveform through a filter. the filter on the nord is the crucial bit. the lead 2x has a very...clean sound. its good for making squelchy arps, ala psytrance but even those sound quite clean. you can get alot of...organic sounds out of this machine. the distortion unit on it its good for cranking out monster leads but it has a tendancy to sound a little bit cold and metallic if you overuse this. like the virus its a bit of an allrounder in the sense that its good for leads, arps, pads, basses. the 24dB filter isnt so good. i think alot of people complain about this because if you turn up the resonance it makes it sound awfully thin. other than that the lead 2x is as fat as you like. ive never owned a hardware synth myself but if i were to get one at this point in time it probably be a nord lead 2x because i dont have a midi keyboard, lead 2xs arent that expensive, the rack version is very affordable, they look cool, they sound cool, they are built like tanks. also and best of all imho theres just something fun about making patches on it. i cant explain it. its fun to program a lead 2x. its also fun and easy to program vanguard (VSTi). i dont know why but theres something about the way its layed out...clavia has my respect for that. theres nothing better than an instrument which yu feel is fun to play. respect to reFX too for vanguard.
roland jp8000/8080. *the* trance synth. think of a trance tune. chances are its got a jp in it. that thick detuned saw lead? thats the supersaw on the jp. you cant buy this from roland anymore so you will have to find one second hand or get it off ebay. they are not very expensive anymore making this kind of synth really quite desireable. i havent played on one of these though so someone else'll have to fill you in.
novation supernova. i have never played on one of these either but many people swear that this thing is the fattest thing in existence. i do know you can put an insane number of effects per voice on it which i suppose would make it sound...MASSIVE. i guess. maybe someone around here can fill you in on this one. its expensive though.
waldorf Q. havent played on one of these either but its another machine that has garnered alot of respect.
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