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So I have ableton suite 8, reason 4, fm8, and massive. My goal is to just get very good with two synths. Should i spend my time with reason's synths such as malstrom and thor? (rewiring is not a problem or a hassle I have a template saved). Or should i get good with massive and fm8? Which combos can produce the best results. Sorry for the newbie and lame question, but any suggestions would be cool.

thanks.

If you learn one synth like the back of your hand, any others you try will be simplez.

Subtractor would be good for getting to know subtractive synthesis, Thor for more modular type stuff, I wouldn't focus on Malstrom as it's pretty unique.

I rewire reason into ableton and the synths I personally use are subtractor, thor, malstrom, operator, fm8 and very occassionally alchemy, basic64, stringz2, chimera and dub siren but these last few I use for a pad here, an effect there, nothing major.

Basically what I'm saying is the reason synths are don and along with fm8 you will be set. My *opinion* is that massive is pretty waste. I know a lot of people rate it really highly but I don't care for it really, it's better than albino but fm8 > massive every time.

paravrais wrote:I rewire reason into ableton and the synths I personally use are subtractor, thor, malstrom, operator, fm8 and very occassionally alchemy, basic64, stringz2, chimera and dub siren but these last few I use for a pad here, an effect there, nothing major.

Basically what I'm saying is the reason synths are don and along with fm8 you will be set. My *opinion* is that massive is pretty waste. I know a lot of people rate it really highly but I don't care for it really, it's better than albino but fm8 > massive every time.

Dude.

Massive rox

meer wrote:I wouldn't focus on Malstrom as it's pretty unique.

I would, for that reason.

recession proof wrote:So I have ableton suite 8, reason 4, fm8, and massive. My goal is to just get very good with two synths. Should i spend my time with reason's synths such as malstrom and thor? (rewiring is not a problem or a hassle I have a template saved). Or should i get good with massive and fm8? Which combos can produce the best results. Sorry for the newbie and lame question, but any suggestions would be cool.

thanks.

Imo, malstrom and thor are all you need regardless of the sound you're going for, they've both very adaptable and especially if you use them in combination, i.e., using malstrom as an lfo and thor as your synth or vice versa. There's a fuck load you can do with malstrom and thor in reason, I'd learn them just for the fact that you'll get a lot of fun out of the learning process and a lot of time to experiment and try new ideas and get really creative (not saying you can't do this with massive or FM8, just saying, for me personally, it was easier to get this creative with malstrom and thor thanks to their user friendly nature and the layout of reason). They're very, very easy to learn to use. Massive and FM8 are both great synths too. I reneged on learning massive for a long time because I associated it with wobble, and to be fair it is capable of a lot more and I do regret having procrastinated in learning to use it. The best option though, I think, is to just learn how to use them all if that's an option. That way you'll know for definite which synth suits you best and if it fails you or you're running low on creative juices then you'll always be able to switch synth and kick start your writing process again.

kaiori breathe wrote:

recession proof wrote:So I have ableton suite 8, reason 4, fm8, and massive. My goal is to just get very good with two synths. Should i spend my time with reason's synths such as malstrom and thor? (rewiring is not a problem or a hassle I have a template saved). Or should i get good with massive and fm8? Which combos can produce the best results. Sorry for the newbie and lame question, but any suggestions would be cool.

thanks.

Imo, malstrom and thor are all you need regardless of the sound you're going for, they've both very adaptable and especially if you use them in combination, i.e., using malstrom as an lfo and thor as your synth or vice versa. There's a fuck load you can do with malstrom and thor in reason, I'd learn them just for the fact that you'll get a lot of fun out of the learning process and a lot of time to experiment and try new ideas and get really creative (not saying you can't do this with massive or FM8, just saying, for me personally, it was easier to get this creative with malstrom and thor thanks to their user friendly nature and the layout of reason). They're very, very easy to learn to use. Massive and FM8 are both great synths too. I reneged on learning massive for a long time because I associated it with wobble, and to be fair it is capable of a lot more and I do regret having procrastinated in learning to use it. The best option though, I think, is to just learn how to use them all if that's an option. That way you'll know for definite which synth suits you best and if it fails you or you're running low on creative juices then you'll always be able to switch synth and kick start your writing process again.

Do you use reason then?? Now I like you even more XD

Headknot wrote:

meer wrote:I wouldn't focus on Malstrom as it's pretty unique.

I would, for that reason.

i wouldnt focus on any reason synth cause imo even when you program them well they require 1000x more work to make them sound as good as other synths can in half the time with less processing

NI stuff is the standard

Don't use massive myself (got Reaktor baby) got FM8 and it's an awesone synth. If you can master that you'll find the others a piece of piss IMO.

Thanks for the replies. I think Im going to dabble with reason's synths and try fm8 when I get better with synthesis. Massive to me seems a little bit overused.

Well if you're learning synthesis, a modular/subtractive synth will be best to start with, FM8 will just fuck with you. So you're looking at Thor or Massive. I'd go with Massive based on the fact that it's so easy to understand in terms of modulation compared to Thor's matrix. I know Massive is part wavetable too, but you can just use static waveforms and modulate the waves when you understand it better. Who cares how many people use it? The reason it's so popular is because it's easy as balls to program and quite versatile.

massive is great. if you think it sounds overused then stop making the same sounds out of it, it ain't all brutal electro :/

to be honest, i'd go with the two NI ones, the reason ones are very nice but comparatively restrictive, whereas massive is fairly easy to come to grips with, and fm8 is a bastard to learn but comes quite a nice learning curve- and having both will be a nice balance between having a subtractive and an fm synth to play with

but to be honest, come to grips with any one and the others will be a lot easier to understand straight away