Your 3 favorite Reason Studios synths?

[TritoneAddiction]

I've probably asked this question before, but either way it's been long enough that I've forgotten about it.

I'm sure there can always be debates about what RS instruments count as synths and not. But these are the RS instruments that I count as synths. So you're just gonna have to live with my subjective selection here.

Pick your 3 RS favorite synths.
And maybe tell us why you've chosen them (if you want to).

[deeplink]

-Complex-1 because it sounds awesome and is fun to use and experiment with.

-Europa because of the level of control you have regarding the envelope and harmonics

- Thor because I guess I'm used to it, the sound possibilities are pretty broad but still quick n easy to implement and it's like the Swiss army knife in Reason - I used it for a ton of other stuff besides synthesis.

[dakta]

Europa because it sounds great to me,

Both the layers because after getting it I had a play with it, forgot about it but when i finally re-found it it was quite good and ended up using it a lot

[Steedus]

I'm not a synth-head - I mostly load patches and tweak 1 or 2 knobs. But I think Europa is genuinely one of the best devices released by RS in probably 10 years.

Feel a bit sorry for Scenic. Seemed to come and go from people's minds in an instant. They never even bothered to do a user manual.

[challism]

Feel a bit sorry for Scenic. Seemed to come and go from people's minds in an instant. They never even bothered to do a user manual.

Seems like it came and went from RS' mind, too. That's pretty brutal to not even write a manual. ha ha ha
I laughed when I saw Scenic with no votes. Tough competition, so it's well deserved. I wonder how it would fare in a three-way contest against Rob Papen Attention and Robotic Bean Cowbell.

I picked Friktion, Algo and Parsec. I almost went with Thor instead of Parsec because Thor is so amazing (and such a Swiss Army knife.. I mean it really does a lot as a synth AND as a utility). In fact, I'm starting to regret my decision as I write this, but the Parsec patches Tritone recently shared with us has got me on a Parsec kick right now. Frik and Aglo are the shiny, new toys in my rack, so maybe that's why I picked them. I think they will stand the test of time. Speaking of, big shout out to Thor, Subractor, and Malstrom.

I need to spend more time working with Complex-1. It makes me mad that it's monophonic, bUt At LeAsT iT's GoT a MaNuAl.

[robussc]

Europa, Grain and Monotone for me. I love that their simple UIs and big sounds. So easy to tweak to dial in the perfect tone or reset the device, start from scratch and get something playable very quickly.

Mimic has become my new favorite sample playback device, again nice and intuitive UI.

[BRIGGS]

Only 3? : (

you make kitty sad

[joeyluck]

I think Scenic would be much better with a more intuitive workflow and slightly reworked UI. It's got a lot of potential under the hood, but the UI is clunky. There's things you can't view at the same time and then there are redundancies to make up for the sort of gimmicky main page.

My suggestion is to move the macros into a panel, just like the other panels for editing. That way you can feel more at home in one 'main page' and view more things at once. Yes, you can currently view macros from the "master section", but that is not intuitive and just another redundancy.

These redundancies wouldn't be necessary and you wouldn't need the edit button:

Scenic workflow fix.png

This is an idea of what it could sort of look like (if wanting to keep the same macro look):

Scenic suggestion.png

I don't see why the macros can't then be labeled from that screen.

The other BIG thing in my opinion is how the macros are assigned manually from the mod matrix. That extra macro panel in the master section is only for labeling and adjusting the same controls. I guess it's also for assigning automation from the device (which is another quirk of the oddball macros I guess).

I consider that a big deal because the entire device is built around the monstrous main screen and the three macros. So assigning them should be the slickest part of the GUI. They should look at how Speo appraoched doing macros for Tribute. Something like this could be added to the right side of the macros panel.

Tribute Macro Assign.png

[strangers]

1. Parsec2 - Very user friendly and easy to dial in. I reach for this RE the most.
2. Complex-1 - I don't fully understand this synth yet but it's a whole lot of fun to experiment with and sounds great in the process. I can dial in some really wild sounds that are perfect for the darker music I've been working on lately.
3. Europa - Similar to Parsec2. Very easy to dial in and pretty hard to NOT get good sounds out of.

[SebAudio]

I think Scenic would be much better with a more intuitive workflow and slightly reworked UI. It's got a lot of potential under the hood, but the UI is clunky. There's things you can't view at the same time and then there are redundancies to make up for the sort of gimmicky main page.

My suggestion is to move the macros into a panel, just like the other panels for editing. That way you can feel more at home in one 'main page' and view more things at once. Yes, you can currently view macros from the "master section", but that is not intuitive and just another redundancy.

These redundancies wouldn't be necessary and you wouldn't need the edit button:


Scenic workflow fix.png



This is an idea of what it could sort of look like (if wanting to keep the same macro look):


Scenic suggestion.png


I don't see why the macros can't then be labeled from that screen.

The other BIG thing in my opinion is how the macros are assigned manually from the mod matrix. That extra macro panel in the master section is only for labeling and adjusting the same controls. I guess it's also for assigning automation from the device (which is another quirk of the oddball macros I guess).

I consider that a big deal because the entire device is built around the monstrous main screen and the three macros. So assigning them should be the slickest part of the GUI. They should look at how Speo appraoched doing macros for Tribute. Something like this could be added to the right side of the macros panel.


Tribute Macro Assign.png

I agree. With Scenic they’ve gone too much to be trending. A lot of new vst go without being to « hardware looking » and it seems RS went that route and it’s not ok. It reminds me of Parsec : v1 UI was bad and not in line with « hardware rack » Reason is famous for. V2 just made it joyful to look at and use ! Let’s hope there’ll be a v2 for Scenic !
A great, if not the greatest, example of a very good UI is Complex-1 ! Not a single tab ! It’s beautiful and sounds marvelously different (or not when you want) !

[plaamook]

I put Grain but is that really a synth?
I'm sure I've had this conversation (argument) already but it loads samples. It's a sampler, right?
At least that's how I use it...

[BRIGGS]

I put Grain but is that really a synth?
I'm sure I've had this conversation (argument) already but it loads samples. It's a sampler, right?
At least that's how I use it...

Grain isn't a synth, or a sampler....

It's a chameleon.

[Jagwah]

Europa, Algoritm, Subtractor.

[Skullture]

To this day, I'm still in love with Parsec. It can make so many sick sounds. I still make a lot of patches for it.

Grain and Malström are my other two picks.

[Nielsen]

I definitely wasn't going to vote for the discontinued PX7, but shouldn't it be a poll option?

Anyway, Thor, Europa and Parsec for me.

[TritoneAddiction]

I definitely wasn't going to vote for the discontinued PX7, but shouldn't it be a poll option?

Yep I forgot about PX7. But too late now. Once a poll has started there's no way of changing it without removing all the votes.

[arnigretar]

Subtractor, Malström and Thor..very basic from me

[TritoneAddiction]

I picked Europa, Parsec and Algoritm.

[mjxl]

I picked Europa, Complex1 and Algoritm. I'd like to pick Grain too though..

[Rising Night Wave]

Potato, Granato and a Banana haha

Okey, i voted for Thor, Monotone and Europa.