Best all in one synth for beginners?

[Teksonik]

Back in my day this was the best all in one instrument:

All in One.jpg

Sorry, thought the thread could use a bit of levity.

I agree with Synthmaster One and it's bigger brother. But to me "all in one" describes VPS Avenger perfectly.

Not sure it's in your budget but if I'm not mistaken there have been a couple of second hand licenses in the Marketplace recently.

[exponent1]

@OP, I suggest Surge

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io

It is a really powerful and easy to use free Synth that you must try, before buying a commercial one. It's quite stable now and is also undergoing a lot of enhancements/but fixes. Go try it out, you'll be amazed

[pdxindy]

Zebra is a great synth for learning. It can do subtractive, FM, additive, wavetable and some physical modeling. Each of them is not complex to understand and work with so easy to learn on and develop some understanding of that synthesis type. Because it is semi-modular, you can try all sorts of things and see how they sound. It has a very good balance of capability without being overwhelming.

It can be simple... just put in a single Osc and explore. Doesn't use too much CPU, super stable and well supported.

[aciddose]

"The best all-in-one" is sort of contradictory because it's trying to simplify and narrow things down to a single point by specifying everything... like the whole universe in a bottle?

The reality you have to be very aware of is big "mega-everything-synths" are great when you need flexibility, but that flexibility can seriously kill inspiration and how you enjoy using the instrument.

Sometimes when you just want to make a banjo sound; the solution is a banjo.

[zzz00m]

@OP, I suggest Surge

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io

It is a really powerful and easy to use free Synth that you must try, before buying a commercial one. It's quite stable now and is also undergoing a lot of enhancements/but fixes. Go try it out, you'll be amazed

Surge would be an excellent first choice for a free synth to learn synth programming on!

It is one of the synths covered in the free ebook "How to Make a Noise: a Comprehensive Guide to Synthesizer Programming", by Simon Cann.

KVR topic "How to make a noise: Free Book": viewtopic.php?f=100&t=76293

Author's webpage: https://noisesculpture.com/how-to-make- ... ogramming/

[zklaus]

Zebra is a great synth for learning.

I agree...just recently been "getting into" u-he synth demos and that would be a great pick if it's not out of your budget. Also, you're going to want a useful, as well as, fun sequencer. u-he's repro is probably my favorite one so far. Repro https://u-he.com/products/repro/sounds insanely good to my ears too...no wavetable's though, if that's a requirement...

[exponent1]

Do you have any other recommendations for an all-in-one type synth that will get me far? Thanks!

In addition to my suggestion of trying Surge, I'd like to tell you that there are very few All-in-one synths which would be in your budget. In case you do want to buy, these are the ones:

• Synthmaster
• Pigments
• Avenger
• Icarus
• Falcon

But I'd recommend you to start with free synths if you want to learn synthesis. Head over to the One Synth Challenge threads and you'll be able to see/hear what can be achieved only using free synths, even from drum and fx sound design.

Then again, I still recommend Surge and Modulair.

[Robmobius]

Im telling this to people who always responds to those threads (they know who they are). And again you clearly misinterpretating. Im not suggesting NOT TO HELP. Dont get butthurt where you shouldnt.

Its not your place to do that. The procedure if a thread is in the wrong place is to contact a moderator, not abitrarily decide youre in charge of who posts what.

Yep... Like I said He's a moron.

[Robmobius]

Surge is a great synth. But for a beginner, I think the interface is a little off-putting. No harm in trying it!

[Danilo Villanova]

I'm sorry for posting in the wrong section (maybe a mod can move the thread?). Thanks to all who responded. I will go with one of the free substractive ones and go as far as I can with it.

[rlared]

I'd recommend VPS Avenger. You can get it used on here for around $130 and at that price it's a steal. It's "All in one" and covers a lot of ground, has excellent sound, and there's a lot of visual feedback that will be helpful for a beginner. For example, when you adjust envelopes you can visually see what it's doing. At the same time, it won't overwhelm you with complexity because it has a great UI. But you can grow into it over time.

[Bump1]

How about something like Full Buckets Blooo? Or the Mono/Poly emu? Or TAL's Noisemaker?

They are free and have straightforward architecture,...learn subtractive synthesis then make the progression.

[Vertion]

This thread should be moved to 'Getting Started' forum. Everyone here already knows 'advice, recommendation and opinion' threads are just threads for companies to promote and hype their products. Such threads produce virtually no value for readers.

[BBFG#]

Do you have any other recommendations for an all-in-one type synth that will get me far? Thanks!

Maybe give us a little more detail on what makes it "all-in-one"? e.g. Synthesis types, w/ or w/o effects, ability to use wave tables, samples, etc.

Download everything you can that's free or has a demo. Synthmaster has a free version, U-he has Zebralette (which is the only free one with effects afair). Native Instruments has a free bundle. Rapid and Avenger have demos for those kind of a-i-o's. Analog Lab demo is another good demo to get further ideas of narrowing in your chosen requirements.
Because... YMMV!

And remember guys, if a "newbie" posted perfectly the first time, then they're probably not really a "newbie".

Welcome to KVR.

[whyterabbyt]

This thread should be moved to 'Getting Started' forum.

Then follow protocol and report that to a moderator.