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

[TritoneAddiction]

Hardware, software, rack extension, VST. It doesn't matter. If you could only use one synth for a whole year, which one would you pick?

The reasons for your choice can be many of course. Perhaps it's an all round synth that's capable of many type of sounds. Or perhaps the choice goes to a synth you would like to explore more and really get to know inside and out. Or perhaps you just really love a particular synth for its sound. Or for ease of use. Looks. Whatever.

[miyaru]

Akai MPC Key 61, anytime, anywhere........

https://www.akaipro.com/mpc-key-61

[MrFigg]

TAL-U-No-LX

[selig]

Currently it would be my new HydraSynth because it’s the newest. Ask me again in a year and I’ll probably have a different answer…

[Jac459]

I would chose a Rob Papen's one... In one year I think I would have the time to listen to like half of the presets .

More seriously, sorry to be conventional but I would choose Serum (and then I would certainly miss Reason Grain very much).

[Jac459]

Akai MPC Key 61, anytime, anywhere........

https://www.akaipro.com/mpc-key-61

That's so much cheating . It is a music production station, not really "a" synth... .
(but definitely a smart choice).

Then I am tempted to say Reason Rack Plugin (it is just one VST )

[DaveyG]

Software: Omnisphere
Hardware: Microfreak

[TritoneAddiction]

Software: Omnisphere
Hardware: Microfreak

It's one, not two. I know it's hard, but you can do it

[TritoneAddiction]

Akai MPC Key 61, anytime, anywhere........

https://www.akaipro.com/mpc-key-61

That's so much cheating . It is a music production station, not really "a" synth... .
(but definitely a smart choice).

Then I am tempted to say Reason Rack Plugin (it is just one VST )

Yeah that's stretching it a bit. I personally I would not pick an instrument that includes over 20 instruments (according to their own video) as that easily leads to me having choice paralysis.

[Yonatan]

I dont use many synths but have a couple, so I would rather try go wthout any synth for 1 year.
Feels like swearing in church in this forum.
But ok, maybe I would choose Friktion in that case. Not a swiss army knife synth but anyway.

Or should I be bold to say “whatever next synth RS releases” or “the first next synth that hits the RS shop”

[Popey]

I think my choice from what I own would be serum as I know it well and can achieve the things I want without limitations of lfo etc (there is a limit but I am yet to hit it).

If it could be anything though I would choose a nord lead (although I do not own one)

[paulred67]

Roland Jupiter Xm.

[huggermugger]

Voltage Modular

[TritoneAddiction]

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.

[jam-s]

Voltage Modular

That's a strong contender there, but I think I'd go with Arturia Pigments.

[raymondh]

Roland System-8.
Because it sounds fantastic, it's super fun to program, it has a deep native S8 engine and fantastic Jupiter and Juno emulations. (The JX3P engine I'm not sold on). Love this synth.

If I was able to choose one of each, it would be:
hardware: System-8
Native-Reason: Europa - doesn't have my favourite sound signature, but it's deep and I feel I need to explore it more.
Rack Extension: Blamsoft Expanse - Versatile and sounds fantastic.
VST: u-he Diva - sounds very analog, very deep with the mix/match of different synth osc/filter/env models. Nearly picked Dune 3 because it sounds very "hi-fi", very deep etc, but I don't really enjoy programming it and can't manage to get great results yet.

[BRIGGS]

familiarity breeds contempt

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

[Jac459]

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.

That would make you master both ring and frequency modulation, which are for me the most complex synthesis...
I really wonder how exode made such great presets with such a complex synth...

[TritoneAddiction]

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.

[Jac459]

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.

If you think about the father of electronic music, they did crazy tunes by pushing simple synths to the max.
You have crazy good tracks with only a 909 and a 303... Or plastikman I think he released a song only with a 808...

So one synth to learn by heart I think would make me a better producer... But just buying new synths is way too fun..

[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.

If you think about the father of electronic music, they did crazy tunes by pushing simple synths to the max.
You have crazy good tracks with only a 909 and a 303... Or plastikman I think he released a song only with a 808...

So one synth to learn by heart I think would make me a better producer... But just buying new synths is way too fun..

Yes you really don't need much to create something. I mean most instruments are basically just one preset.
But yeah buying new shiny toys can be fun for sure. And sometimes a new purchase can inspire you to create more music. So it's not all bad.
But for me I think I've reached a point where getting more stuff in my rack almost feels more like clutter than something I enjoy. It's overwhelming to be met with too many choices. I just counted the number of synths I have. I think I counted 66 synths. And then I didn't even count my sample based instruments like Kong, Redrum, Radical Piano, Stringwerk, Klang, Ambi Nature Generators etc.

[Jac459]

Yes you really don't need much to create something. I mean most instruments are basically just one preset.
But yeah buying new shiny toys can be fun for sure. And sometimes a new purchase can inspire you to create more music. So it's not all bad.
But for me I think I've reached a point where getting more stuff in my rack almost feels more like clutter than something I enjoy. It's overwhelming to be met with too many choices. I just counted the number of synths I have. I think I counted 66 synths. And then I didn't even count my sample based instruments like Kong, Redrum, Radical Piano, Stringwerk, Klang, Ambi Nature Generators etc.

Yeah I think you nailed it...
And same, after a while, it is just adding choice paralysis.

Then I understand where you are coming from revisiting your old synths and crating new patches.

[Propellerhands]

Stock Reason 12 has everything I need, apart from good nice visual EQ (thanks FapFilter for existing). If I wasn't lazy I would create everything entirely using Reason's stock plugins. I could create everything using just Subtractor as my main synth, apart from drums of course, I can't program them and not interested in learning.

[Jac459]

Stock Reason 12 has everything I need, apart from good nice visual EQ (thanks FapFilter for existing). If I wasn't lazy I would create everything entirely using Reason's stock plugins. I could create everything using just Subtractor as my main synth, apart from drums of course, I can't program them and not interested in learning.

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

[Propellerhands]

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.