I love synth nerd talk and I am ALWAYS up to talk gear!

Bluetech also uses only software for the most part, or at least he did at one point. I'm not up to date obviously but last I read he said that. He may use a recording or something else here and there but I've seen him quoted as saying almost everything is entirely custom Reaktor synths. Hence, the Bluetech digital, gentle vibe he's got going.

I can't wait to delve into Reaktor but yes, I've heard many accounts of Reaktor sounding "thinner." It's part of my sound design course that we cover Reaktor and pretty much the entire NI bundle but I'm really particularly psyched for Reaktor. Even Massive with all it's fame still has a thin-ish sounding filter, unfortunately, but there ARE some ways to beef up your filter cuts and I've heard of some artists who can fool some of the biggest audiophiles into thinking they use strictly analog gear. It's cool to hear more artists using full software to achieve great sound because some of this gear is sooo insanely expensive. It's not on the level of hardware yet but something in me tells me that in a couple years software will catch up to analog, or at least a comparable character. Analog has it's own character and as much as I love it I can't always say it's better... it's different. So when software can be just as amazingly different, then maybe we can embrace a whole new set of characteristics. As it stands, the hardware VA's are basically boxed in VSTs anyway, granted they have dedicated hardware but probably still not nearly the CPU power of a solid computer. I do love hardware though for the simple sake of having knobs to touch, and not shitty MIDI controller knobs that always end up breaking. And the analog sound... though of course that's analog specific and not just any old hardware will produce that quality.

My thing is, if I can get a solid sound off software, I'm going to start there and expand outward because if I sat down and said "OK I want to make this sound like Infected Mushroom" or whoever really, but IM is a great example, then I will need to start investing 10s of thousands of dollars, if not 100k+. Their studio is SOOO expensive it's ridiculous. I feel there's a point where sound quality goes up only slightly but the price tag goes up enormously, some type of drop off point. If you have the cash to get that extra depth then hell yeah but most of us can't afford it so making our stuff sound good on more affordable but still acceptable equipment isn't a bad starting spot from where I'm standing. Kinda like if you wanna pay a lot of cash for 10 extra HP on your engine then whatever, go for it if you can afford it but most of us would want to invest in something that gives more bang for the buck. (Weird example since I'm not any kind of a car nut, I probably just made myself look like a fool tbh)

Have you considered using external filters to modulate with? I know what you mean about some filters, sometimes they seem better just to design the sound and later I will spice it up with other external filters or effects. It's like they lack some depth or character... some bite. I find this often with software synths. I imagine the Blofeld is largely software based despite it's physical shell... it's not analog, right? I've been playing with FilterFreak by SoundToys lately, which is generally considered one of the better software filters. (I also want to check out FabFilter's stuff) It's obviously not analog but all the SoundToys stuff has a distinct analog vibe to it and has a slight bit of it's own life to it. It does some quirky little analog-esque things like it's not razor sharp like digital filters can be, it has a distinct glow to it. I believe some of their team used to work for Eventide which for me is a big plus because I love the Eventide effects. They make great products either way, worth checking out for sure. Also, this might be obvious or something you already do but I find adding a nice distortion, again, the SoundToys one is great, can really spice up the "bite" you get on a filter sweep. Seems real obvious I guess but sometimes when your sound is ALMOST there and you just need that extra scream, a good distortion can do the trick but at that point I'd be pretty picky about what type of distortion. That and also adding a little Q, either on your synth or on the other filter (FilterFreak etc), can really help accentuate the sweep. Although, I tend to agree, the Q on a lot of the software is lacking, kinda stringy and thin sounding, but sometimes that's the vibe you're after I guess... but maybe a nicer filter is in order once again. Honestly though, I wouldn't want to stop you from getting a Nord Modular, I just thought I'd suggest a few more ways to get something particular out of your software. The Modulars seem like sick synths and I'm sure you'd love it. I need to get my hardware linked up via MIDI but it's been hell doing it. I have the shit to do it except I'm avoiding buying a new soundcard at the moment so I am trying to use my built-in but it always has some issue along the way and literally nobody can figure it out. I'm sure I must be asking the wrong people or something...

Anyway, let me know if you grab the Modular, I'd love to hear about it! Nords seem like great additions to practically any type of studio, I've seen them used to good measure is sooo many kinds of music.

Blofeld is 100% digital. Mine's busted right now though, gotta send it in for repair and I haven't the cash right now The resonances on the Blofeld when you tweaked the filters could be EXTREMELY thin/harsh, however, if you have a Blofeld you shouldn't be asking it to do Analog style noises, that's not what it's for. It does really great pads and sound effects, leads/basses are pretty meh on it. It's a very psychedelic sounding synth, the mod matrix is fucking nuts on it, I loved playing mine. I could get lost in it for HOURS if I smoked before-hand... Truly the weirdest sounding synth I've ever had the pleasure of programming. It has it's ugly side, though, build quality is crap, the onboard effects are (And I'm not even exaggerating) the worst I've heard of any synth -Ever-, hardware or software. I cannot stress this enough, they are BAD. I have no idea what they were thinking when they made them. The reverb sounds like you're adding white noise to the background, the phaser is so synth you hardly notice it. The delay is probably the best thing on there, but it's kinda hard to fuck up delay, haha.

I have thought about external filters most definitely, and if I had some extra cash I'd so buy some! I just need to rethink my whole gear setup really. Right now for hardware I've got

Spectralis 1 (Main HW synth)
Akai Miniak (Sounds almost identical to a nord lead 1, but fatter and less "Cutting/defined") very versatile too, awesome for how cheap it is
Blofeld (Temporarily broke)

Really though, the problem with all my HW synths is that the interfaces are terrible. The Miniak is pretty much only programmable via software, otherwise you have to scroll through countless menus, although it's laid out pretty decently and there's short cuts to get around, editing just takes WAY too much time. Thinking about selling it and getting an Ion instead, same engine, better interface. I think it has slightly less polyphony and less FX, but the FX aren't great anyways so no biggie. If I don't get the modular, I might just get a Nord Lead 3. Amazing interface, really bright and cutting filters, only problem is they aren't very versatile.


What I'd like instead ( I'm definitely keeping the Blofeld though )

Nord Lead3 or Nord Modular 1 or 2
A vintage analog for nasty acid leads/oldschool filter
Yamaha Motif Rack (Sounds amazing...Never played one though)
Mf-103 phaser

It's true Infected's studio is expensive as fuck now, but most of the music I like from them (Let's say 2004 and before for sake of argument, even though I liked a few songs on Vicious Delicious), it wasn't too pricey then. I think most of what's on those CD's was Nord Modular, Nord lead 1/3, Roland V-Synth, Reaktor 5, Omnisphere, and some hardware reverb/phasers. I know they use the MF-103 phaser and it sounds amazing, but it's $300. Classical Mushroom is done entirely with a Nord Lead 1 and a Nord Modular 1 if I'm not mistaken, and it sounds really good to my ears. Very organic, not too processed.

I'm definitely not giving up on Reaktor and Omnisphere. Reaktor has potential to do some really crazy shit. I particularly like the FM noises you can get out of it, and it has formant capabilities so you can make trippy vocal patches too. You'll dig it for sure man, it sounds really nice, albeit complicated. It sounds like the "Converting vegetarians" era of Infected. Omnisphere though, honestly, I think is mainly good for the samples it provides, the synth engine is powerful too, but like I said, those filters man. Just throw me off. I do like how thick everything sounds in it though, and everything seems "Colored" so you can make some really beautiful noises. The onboard effects in it are fantastic too, for the most part. The EQ's in it are just great. I have another free VST EQ and it just doesn't come close. Alchemy has the best delay I've ever heard though. I'm going to see if I can just use it's delay as an effect for other synths. Other than that though, Alchemy is pretty disappointing in terms of sound quality, to me anyways. It sounds...Boring. The sound just doesn't seem to have any flavor, you know? I think Camel Audio should stick to making effects.

I'm definitely leaning towards getting the Modular, it's just so much more versatile than anything else I own and it sounds awesome. I know it'll cause me a lot of headaches programming though, and right now all I want is something I can just GO with, you know? So I might opt for the NL3. We shall see!

That sucks about the build quality and such of the Blofeld, normally you would hope for better quality as time passes but it doesn't always seem to be the case. So much of my gear has ended up with a less than desirable build quality but at least it is more versatile as technology improves.

I watched a video and the Spectralis seems incredibly suited towards psybient style productions... or at least that's what whatever the guy was demoing on it sounded like to me. It said that everything was made on the Spectralis, it seems like an awesome instrument. And yes, I definitely feel your pain on the whole interface issue. I'd like to see a rack module synth with a great big screen and all the knobs. Small but still very visible and easy to work on. I don't need keys usually, it's nice but technically I can always run it into a MIDI controller anyway. I haven't seen a single synth like that yet though, maybe it will come in software form when software is grown up enough to compete with the qualities and character of analog.

I'd definitely like an old vintage synth too. I'm always checking eebay randomly to look at SH-101's. I bid on one once but I don't have nearly the money they are really worth so I didn't have much of a shot haha. They seem to be sort of rising in price too if I'm not mistaken. I want to get one before they're like 5k lol. Also a 303, I know they've been used to hell and back but it's a classic synth with a highly desirable and versatile sound. Ugh there's so many, I just need to come across some thousands of dollars somehow.

It's true that IM's studio wasn't always what it is now but even on IM the Supervisor the production quality is intensely perfectionist, at least to my ears. I know at least around the past 5 years or so their studio has accumulated some incredibly expensive gear for mixing and mastering purposes. They said in one video that one piece, I forget what it was at the moment, was $30,000 alone. Though when I think back on it, I don't know that Simon was working with a big outfitted studio when he did Hallucinogen which is still pretty amazing production for it's time. I can't confirm this though I've read that he purchased the H3000 with an advance from the first record so he would have only been able to use it on one album and even so, that isn't nearly $30k worth so I would assume he was using a fairly home studio-ish setup but I'm not sure if Dragonfly Records had a studio or what. Regardless, I think production quality that could nearly rival that of a studio like IM's could be achieved in the box for cheap with somebody who really knows what they're doing, but that expensive gear still can do things that cheap gear can't. I'm curious to see where this technology goes, so much is being blurred right now and it's really beautiful in a way. It makes music really about personal expression and less about a production team of people pushing artists on big labels for massive money.

I use Alchemy sometimes but I haven't spent a lot of time tweaking it honestly, I've been much more interested in other synths at the moment but I will say the sounds that come with it are not as lush as I was expecting. I really only use it for a pad once in a while, that X/Y make your own pad thing is kind of interesting but like I said, I don't tweak it too much so I don't know it's hidden potential. I really never use effects built in with the normally unless it has a particular quality that I like so I can't speak for the effects really but I'll have to check it's delay out.

Anyway, good luck with your purchase man. I think it's kind of important to be able to just plug and go. I don't spend a lot of time sitting for hours tweaking sounds but a synth that is good at that is special in it's own right. I guess that's something I try to do when I want to practice sound design but I don't do it nearly as often as just writing music. So when I'm in it, really in the zone writing music, if I have to be taken out of that zone to switch mental space to go and now tweak sounds for a long time, it doesn't work well for me. Usually when I make a sound I know what I want to make or I find a preset that gets me close and I continue from there. Everybody has their own style but I guess I'm just emphasizing your point that having something where you can just go with it and find something you can work with is important.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6dRo5oMAhlw#t=222s[/YOUTUBE]

Eh... that's so annoying when it doesn't embed. That song is awesome.


This post was edited by HERETICtheory on Apr 30 2012 01:57pm

Yeah the Spectralis does amazing ambient. The sine waves are very soft and when you put some reverb on it, oh man, they just drift around beautifully. The interface just kills me though, I've had mine for about 2 years now and I'm just really sick of it. There isn't any mod-matrix, everything has it's own separate little menu with routing, nothing seems to be in any kind of logical place or order. It sounds great, aside from my complaints involving the filters. I just need something more accessible. The Spectralis is an excellent and extremely powerful synthesizer, but I find myself just needing something I can work an idea out quick on.
IM's $30,000 chunk of equipment is a lexicon reverb, if I'm not mistaken. Honestly, I don't know WHAT they were thinking when they bought that. There's plenty of awesome cheap hardware reverbs, hell even plenty awesome plug ins for FREE! There's no reason to be spending that much on reverb.
The X/Y Morph pad in Alchemy is really cool, but like I said, just can't get into it's sound.
I like the 303 sound, but I don't think I'd ever buy one, just because it's been used so much. I love it's filter, and it makes some of the best acid noises, but I'd feel like my sounds would be identified with other artists, ya know? The Juno-60 does some really awesome acid noises and isn't as over-used, and it's a helluva lot cheaper than the 303. In fact, I think I may even prefer the filters of the juno to the 303.
I thought Hallucinogen was all mixed in his own studio? @_@ Either way the production is indeed superb. Not a single muddy sound in either album.

Speaking of Hallucinogen, Simon needs to make a 3rd album already...Love to hear what ideas he has for trance floating around in his head.