Best all in one synth for beginners?

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Take Synthmaster One,there will be a lot more cool presets in default factory with upcoming updates.

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VELLTONE MUSIC wrote: Sat Mar 23, 2019 6:45 am Take Synthmaster One,there will be a lot more cool presets in default factory with upcoming updates.
+1

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SM One is not perfect, but for the money is hard to beat! Cool factory preset collection, and some great sounds!

Pretty much everything is laid out where you can find it on a single page.

https://youtu.be/HK9uoxc-RqY
Windows 10 and too many plugins

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If I could only choose one synth it would probably be Serum.

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My vote would go for serum. The visual feedbacks helped me tremendously when I first started

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klovne wrote: Mon Mar 25, 2019 9:50 pm My vote would go for serum. The visual feedbacks helped me tremendously when I first started
agreed, plus it can be a very basic synth if you want it to be.

But, some days I get tired of fighting with the LFOs which I did not find intuitive at all or the lack of a proper arpeggiator
Last edited by generaldiomedes on Tue Mar 26, 2019 5:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

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aciddose wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2019 2:01 pm We're all morons in the bigger picture and if there is an afterlife or outside greater reality we should all look back at what a fool we've been after all has come to a conclusion. Let's just try to remember that and be nice and have a kiss. *smooch*
amen

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When someone asks me for a newbye synth, I always answer that the best newbye synth is a synth which is the most simple possible and using the synthesis which is the basis of all the rest : the subtractive synthesis and nothing else.

It must have
  1. Two oscillators, to learn the basis of the oscillations and the most elementary knowledge in simple modulations (FM, PM, RM).
  2. A HPF filter and a LPF filter (the second one with resonance.
  3. One or two LFOs. One can perfectly be enough.
  4. An ADSR envelope (multi-segment envelopes will be learned later when the rudiments of what is an envelope are acquired).
  5. Some common effects (embedded or in other plugins) with very simple tweaks. Some of these effects must be modulations and others must be time based effects.
    So: an equalizer (to understand correctly the different harmonics linked to octaves in a timbre, a phaser, a flanger, a chorus, a delay, and a reverb. Nothing else at the beginning. And additionally (at the end of the list, not in its middle), a limiter to learn the rudiments of the dynamics sides of the sound.
    And these effects must be LEARNED AFTER the rudiments of the synthesis.
  6. And the GUIs of that synth must be clear enough to make the easier possible the process of understanding what will be learned.
And I highly suggest to buy one or two excellent books instead of buying already a synth. With an excellent book made to learn on any perfectly simple and well done free synth, the progression to become a very good musician which knows very well what he does is much more enthralling and much more rapid than buying already a complex synth without having a teach book, what would be the worst way to learn the good practices in synthesis.

The complexity will come later.

I remember that when I learned the music in the mid-60's it was with simply a piano and a flute, then at the beginning of the 70's I learned to play guitar while I was (at 12 y.o.) and excellent pianist and an excellent flutist, and it's only at 15 y.o. that I learned the synthesis with very simple synths : a Synthi AKS (which was not mine) in 1975, then a Farfisa Syntorchestra (which became my first owned synth) in 1976 then a Korg Polysix in 1985. It's only in 1987 that I learned the PD synthesis with my first Casio CZ-101 and only in 1992 that I learned the FM synthesis with a second hand DX-7.

Today these very expensive instruments are all free for beginners thanks to the computers, but it is not a reason to burn the steps. Today's young minds are obviously much more rapid to catch the rudiments, yes... but the progression steps MUST be respected to prevent any dispersion which is a natural human attraction to test what makes this or that knob without learning exactly what its purpose is and what happens precisely, graphically, in the sound when it is activated !

Knowing that, I then:
  1. l aways suggest a list of around 10 small freeware synths (TAL-Elektro, TAL-NoiseMaker, Tyrell Nexus 6, Mono/Fury, Nabla, Free Alpha, PG-8X, Xhip, OB-Xd...) which fit perfectly to make understand easily the rudiments of the synthesis without offering other features which lead to dispersions and to disturbances.
  2. And I second this first list by a second one focused on the most important effects to know (those above, an equalizer (to understand correctly the different harmonics linked to octaves in a timbre, a phaser, a flanger, a chorus, a delay, and a reverb. And additionally, totally at the end of the list, a limiter), but insisting on the importance to learn the synthesis itself before learning the effects. The list of effects is always ended by a limiter to let the new musician learn the rudiments of the dynamics once the rudiments of the synthesis then the rudiments of the effects are learned, never before. But this element is extremely important in the pleasure which will be reached by the learner when comes the time to enjoy not only the learning stage but now the moment of actually playing.
The progression steps to learn to play music with a synth is exactly the same order as the progression steps of the signal in the synth: first the oscillators, then the filters, then the VCA (and the LFOs are the exception, being learned after the VCA), then the modulations effects, then the time based effects, finished by the reverb... and at the end, really at the end, is learned the dynamics, mandatory.

All that is the list of steps required (and in the right order) to learn the subtractive synthesis, the most important synthesis to learn because it is the one which gives all the most important knowledge of the basis but also because it is in this subtractive synthesis that we find the main features which will then be in the heart of all the next synthesis learned and used later.
  • And always I suggest a short panel of excellent books to learn the subtractive synthesis step by step. The book from Rob Papen for example, and some other books (a have a dozen of other examples, from Simon Can, Brian Shepard, Martin Russ, Mark Jenkins, Mark Vail, Andrea Pejrolo, Dean Friedman, Steve De Furia... and it also depends the native language of the person and also his technical level in other domains) of this same excellent quality made precisely to learn step by step without going anywhere... or even worse: nowhere.
  • In parallel I highly recommend some books to add the beginner to learn (or revise) the rudiments of the music rules (harmony and melody rules) and of the rhythms, and some keyboard exercises to train his fingers and to make enter the best the practice of the musical keyboard. Because it is totally mad to think that one can learn correctly the synths without learning the music knowledge. Improvisation is music, yes... but only from the hands of correct musicians who already have a quite good practice of the music. Otherwise it leads not to improvisation as it is defined in music (variations on the inspiration but always following the rules of music)... but to a kind of soup which is all what you want but actually not music.
That way the money is much better invested that by already buying a synth (whatever the price above zero dollar/euro) without any knowledge nor practice and thinking that trying to learn oneself with only discussion on forums and hazardous experimentations of knobs which are in fact huge time lost and very often the way... to be discouraged within a very small number of months.
Build your life everyday as if you would live for a thousand years. Marvel at the Life everyday as if you would die tomorrow.
I'm now severely diseased since September 2018.

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I’d start with freeware while learning, and there’s a lot to choose from there, with many great ones already mentioned upthread.

I agree though that Serum is a great choice, should you be keen on spending ‘big’.

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@BlackWinny: Unfortunately, the "4 Element Synth" by Rob Papen is no longer available. Any idea where to get a copy?

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courtjestr wrote: Sun Jul 14, 2019 4:53 pm @BlackWinny: Unfortunately, the "4 Element Synth" by Rob Papen is no longer available. Any idea where to get a copy?
You may replace it by some excellent courses for example as the one that I prefer among the online courses: Syntorial.

I agree with Ryan Leach when he writes this : Syntorial is the Absolute Best Way to Learn Synthesis – Ryan Leach | Composer.

But it is quite expensive: $160 (€143 currently).
But you are really satisfied for the money spent: 199 videos courses! (the first 22 are free).

It is the same quality as the book from Rob Papen and its 4 DVDs included.


There is a couple of dangers when learning the DSP with too much complex synths. The first one is to be disturbed by the huge number of features which are not essential for the current step in the learning curve (and the plethora of features is really disturbing in the mind of a rookie), and the second one is to be lead to mistaken paths by features which are too much specific to the synth used for the lesson. The student MUST use exclusively the modules and the techniques which are taught in the curse, otherwise he will begin to "specialize" his technique to THAT synth, which is the worse way to learn the basics of the synthesis. That's why I always recommend to learn the rudiments of synthesis on real modular synths (even software ones) as Synthedit or Flowstone or MUX or Tangle, because the student build exactly what is asked by the teacher... using exclusively the common elements shared by all the synths of the world and only these ones and without any disturbance by tons of knobs appearing on a panel (or a GUI) which are without any relation with the purpose of the current course.

I'm looking in my own Kindle Library (I have a huge library of ebooks related to music theory and to DSP) those which could fit for excellent starter courses with exclusively features which are common to ALL the synths.
:)
Build your life everyday as if you would live for a thousand years. Marvel at the Life everyday as if you would die tomorrow.
I'm now severely diseased since September 2018.

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My vote goes for Serum or Diva!

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Rommelaar wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:02 am Steinbergs Halion 6.
Serious? Its the most complex and complete, but I have to say probably. I own it, it has the most technocratic manual imaginable and though I have over 30 years experience in synth sound design, its extremely hard to read and get your head around it. Definitely something to discourage a beginner from starting to learn at all...

Bitwigs Grid would be the best to learn synthesis, but its buried within Bitwig and is locked out of the 8-track version. VCV rack is also an option, but its stand alone. And there is the free Modulair from Fullbucket. In modulars you always have the option to look at waveforms at specific points it helps to analyze and to limit you to just the modules you are about to learn...
The already mentioned Syntorial is a perfect start, even if you won’t go beyond the free lessons...

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VELLTONE MUSIC wrote: Sat Mar 23, 2019 6:45 am Take https://hu.flatfy.com/ Synthmaster One,there will be a lot more cool presets in default factory with upcoming updates.
For a newbie is Synthmaster a better choice then? I see Serum is preferred by many here, but is more expensive and is apparently notorious for its high CPU usage.
Last edited by kovacsszandra on Thu Aug 01, 2019 6:28 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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