If you could only use ONE synth for a whole year, which one would it be?

[BRIGGS]

familiarity breeds contempt

Can you imagine, how sick of it, you'd be?

I'm not shure how much I agree with that saying. Yes it's sometimes true. Other times it's not at all. Completely depends on the thing/person imo.
But if I went for something deep like Expanse or Zero I don't think a year is enough to get tired of it. If you treat it like learning an instrument, like really commiting to learning an instrument and growing with it, a year really isn't that much.
Using a synth can entail so many different things. Understanding and knowing it inside out, making a big patch library, making songs/projects with it, exploring how the synth interacts with different effects. It could even entail collaborations, or synth challenges. If you did all that, you would ask for two years.

These days I think people (myself included) are overstimulated with new shit coming out all the time. There's often very little time invested on the things we consume. It's just getting/consuming the new thing, treating it like fast food, then quickly moving on to the next thing. It's kind of sad really.

Thanks for the comment. It sparked a lot of ideas, as you can see.

Variety is the spice of life.

[Jac459]

Whaou, you really are a fan of vintage... Subtractor is nice but...

Not specifically vintage fan but subtractive synthesis itself. Another favourite VST is Synth1. I just like the old-school-ish sound I can produce using such synthesis. Second favourite is of course wavetable synths, but if I could choose one, I would always go subtractive. Easy and and quick to use.

It is not a secret that Subtractor (and all the rest of Reason's plugins) by itself is very "thin sounding" so all the magic is at stacking your synths on top of each other. But usually 3 instances are enough to make the sound good, comparable to commercial VSTs and rather complex/original.

I love subtractive too.
I agree some reason synths are a bit thin or should we say usable? Serum sounds are excellent but you can't place a lot in a mix...

[integerpoet]

I think there are a great many modern synths one could learn to live with exclusively for one year.

I mean, personal preference isn't nothing, but it wouldn't kill you if you didn't get it.

I'd be a little surprised, though, if there were many vintage synths people would be happy to live with exclusively for one year.

Let's say "vintage" means introduced in 1985 or earlier.

And let's assume the synth is both mint and effortlessly remains in good working order the entire year.

Which?

[crimsonwarlock]

I think there are a great many modern synths one could learn to live with exclusively for one year.

I mean, personal preference isn't nothing, but it wouldn't kill you if you didn't get it.

I'd be a little surprised, though, if there were many vintage synths people would be happy to live with exclusively for one year.

Let's say "vintage" means introduced in 1985 or earlier.

And let's assume the synth is both mint and effortlessly remains in good working order the entire year.

Which?

I could easily take a year with a Korg Mono/Poly

[BRIGGS]

Come to think of it, Grain makes a good candidate because of it's extreme versatility.

It can be any synth, or no synth at all. Just load whatever into it.

[Jac459]

Come to think of it, Grain makes a good candidate because of it's extreme versatility.

It can be any synth, or no synth at all. Just load whatever into it.

Oh yes, grain .
My crush of this summer.
Did a full song with a tweaked zero hybrid sequence mashed up into grain. The sound is just awesome.

I bought the star-synth pigments 3 recently (which to be clear I know I didn't need at all). It has a granular engine but for what I see, grain is far ahead...

[SebAudio]

Come to think of it, Grain makes a good candidate because of it's extreme versatility.

It can be any synth, or no synth at all. Just load whatever into it.

Oh yes, grain .
My crush of this summer.
Did a full song with a tweaked zero hybrid sequence mashed up into grain. The sound is just awesome.

I bought the star-synth pigments 3 recently (which to be clear I know I didn't need at all). It has a granular engine but for what I see, grain is far ahead...

Presets are better in Pigments but I can make my own sounds with Grain so better in the end.
To choose a synth for a year I’d go with Reaktor Blocks/Racks base&prime. Such great sounding modules to explore and combine !

[Jac459]

Presets are better in Pigments but I can make my own sounds with Grain so better in the end.

You summarized it quite well. Even if presets in pigments are actually quite meh...
But in grain it is quite easy to have very good results.

[TritoneAddiction]

I'm not shure how much I agree with that saying. Yes it's sometimes true. Other times it's not at all. Completely depends on the thing/person imo.
But if I went for something deep like Expanse or Zero I don't think a year is enough to get tired of it. If you treat it like learning an instrument, like really commiting to learning an instrument and growing with it, a year really isn't that much.
Using a synth can entail so many different things. Understanding and knowing it inside out, making a big patch library, making songs/projects with it, exploring how the synth interacts with different effects. It could even entail collaborations, or synth challenges. If you did all that, you would ask for two years.

These days I think people (myself included) are overstimulated with new shit coming out all the time. There's often very little time invested on the things we consume. It's just getting/consuming the new thing, treating it like fast food, then quickly moving on to the next thing. It's kind of sad really.

Thanks for the comment. It sparked a lot of ideas, as you can see.

Variety is the spice of life.

True. I do like having a varitey of synths. Both in terms of capabilities and the visual aspect. Looking at the same image/GUI everytime can get boring after a while. And it's nice that different synths do things a little differently even if they're similar in many ways. I've never liked the Omnisphere approach for that reason. I'd rather have 10 different smaller niche synths than one synth that does it all.

[RobC]

Subtractor : D

[Re8et]

I have to learn Mimic... and I haven't even mastered Grain yet
Definetly samplers.
HW wise
Volca Sample Probabilty.poly mod, and or Microgranny 2.5 (Grain in Hardware, only mono)

[Micha1973]

Only in Reason: Subtractor (with some FX VST) or G-Force Oberheim SEM

[jakrbt]

For me this question has a very simple answer.....

Access Virus TI2

It's a powerhouse and the sounds that can be generated with it are incredible. And i think it would likely take me nearly a lifetime to learn completely

[Jagwah]

Even though I made the thread I'm having a hard time picking a synth myself. There are so many different reasons to pick different synths.
But if I had a whole year to play with a synth I'd probably go for Zero Hybrid Synth. I've felt such a huge resistance to learn it because I've found it complicated and non intuitive. I imagine one can play with that thing for a long time without running out of new sounds. Seems like a pretty deep synth.

Algortim is so intuitive and nice to use if you follow how it works you should be able to work out how to use Zero.

Europa gets my vote!

[illlumen]

Software: Tal-J8
Hardware: Novation Peak

[dvdrtldg]

Viking VK-2

It's such a beast, not one of those "can do anything" synths but I love the sound of it and could happily spend a year becoming a super user. There's a lot going on there

[Heater]

Korg WaveState plugin

[Chi-Individual]

Native: Grain because granular.

RE: Algoritm would be my choice cause I think I can learn so many different types of synthesis with it.

VST: Generate cause the sounds it creates are otherworldly in the most delicious way.

[selig]

familiarity breeds contempt

Can you imagine, how sick of it, you'd be?

I can't. I've played piano since I was very young, and drums since I was 14. Both are extremely familiar and yet I have never had even 0.1% contempt for either of them. Piano would even by my #1 desert island instrument (if it were possible!) if I had to choose one, and I've logged almost 60 years on that instrument alone.
So no, I can't imagine it nor do I need to!

[BRIGGS]

familiarity breeds contempt

Can you imagine, how sick of it, you'd be?

I can't. I've played piano since I was very young, and drums since I was 14. Both are extremely familiar and yet I have never had even 0.1% contempt for either of them. Piano would even by my #1 desert island instrument (if it were possible!) if I had to choose one, and I've logged almost 60 years on that instrument alone.
So no, I can't imagine it nor do I need to!

In that case... A one year challenge, would be the ultimate test.

[AndrasHaasz]

Nord Lead A1

[Aosta]

Antidote

[selig]

I can't. I've played piano since I was very young, and drums since I was 14. Both are extremely familiar and yet I have never had even 0.1% contempt for either of them. Piano would even by my #1 desert island instrument (if it were possible!) if I had to choose one, and I've logged almost 60 years on that instrument alone.
So no, I can't imagine it nor do I need to!

In that case... A one year challenge, would be the ultimate test.

The first 20 years of my life was already a “one year challenge” on piano, and then I got my first synth…

[BRIGGS]

In that case... A one year challenge, would be the ultimate test.

The first 20 years of my life was already a “one year challenge” on piano, and then I got my first synth…

soooo....you don't want to only play piano, for a whole year?

how did I know?

[polysix]

Ensoniq ESQ1 for digital synth
Korg ms20 (mini) for an analog...