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ok. i think 'best' is being bandied about too much here. first off if you want a new synth you first have to think about what kinds of sounds you want to make. dont just buy a synth cuz loads of other did and said its good. you also have to like it, not just the sound of it but how you use it. how easy it is to program. how fun it is to program. how well its laid out.
its all well and good buying a DX7 if you like 80s synth pop but it'll be damn frustrating to make any patches on it. its all well and good buying a JP8000 cuz its 'the trance synth' and then realising a couple of months down the line you wanted realistic acoustic type sounds as in solar stone trance, not lots of detuned VA oscillators. in which case you should have looked into sample playback synths and/or workstations.
please tell us what kinds of sounds you want to create. please tell us if you prefer the feel and action of piano type keys as opposed to synth type keys. what about the types of sounds? bell like and harmonic tones (ala FM), warm fuzzy bassy but artificial (analogue or virual analogue), cold, crunchy digital sound (unsurprisingly, digital), wind type instrument sounds (physical modelling), real acoustic (sampled). theres so many things to think about.
if you dont like dark, very forward sounding, thick, warm, artificially bassy type sounds you wont like a virus. which ever way you spin it. although it can do a mind boggling variety of different sounds from lush pads, to plinks, to weird analogue type noises to distorted leads to whatever. for some reason (and this is possibly why its so popular, it always seem to have a characteristically bassy, underside to it and always it hovers on the slightly dark side or you can swing it that way easily enough with its FM capabilities and sub oscillators.
if you like that sound then go for it. i typically hear most of the virus sound coming out in hard house. especially the hard 303 acid lines, the distorted lab4'esque filter sweeped leads.
if you like something more understated, arguably more subtle characteristic sound you might like the supernova. the supernova isnt a very forward sounding synth. it makes much more understated, pad like or soft lead type sounds. yea a virus can do pads and soft sounds and so can a nord lead 2 but both of those seem to like turning things aggressive, fast. its just a weird thing that happens when you program it. again supernova is a VA so i wouldnt expect it to realistically compare to any real acoustic sound sources. but you can here it alot in certain types of deep house for those jazzy lulling kind electric piano type sounds. again if you like that, you'll love the supernova. it does those sounds very well (+ the effects on it are more extensive and controllable than the viruses). if you dont like that sound and intend to write gabba then you will have no use for the supernova. the keyboard version has an amazing keyboard although the virus keyboard is very nice too. the nord lead 2x keyboard is a bit shit and its alot more expensive than either supernova or virus b. the rack version is alot cheaper though.
if you intend to play any of these in the dark (gig with them) you got problems. not without light sources around you. especially with the supernova cuz its got blue writing on blue backing plate meaning you can see what the fuck you are programming even in dim light. UV light just makes everything turn purple.
you can find both for similar prices (around £400 to £500 typically) but think about what you want to do with it. dont buy one cuz its famous. ideally if you can try them out instore before you buy one then do it.
Last edited by Derivative on Jan-26-2005 at 18:03
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