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Hey guys, I was sitting here messin with a track and found myself wondering what Synths other producers out here favor above the rest and which Parameters you find yourselves automating most frequently.

And don't say Filter Cutoff Frequency!

Myself I pretty much grab -Albino3- for like everything. I love the way it sounds, and i love the simplicity of it.

as far as parameters go, i really like attaching the pan (Left/Right) to an LFO to get that fading sound.
I also like to automate the wet knob of certain effects modules with the same LFO I use for my wobble so that as the Cutoff knob slides the given effect fades on then off with it...

I like albino too but only for some sounds like pads and stuff like secuencers i think is too "clinical" for me

The best sounding i don't know

Here's some i like :Z3ta , Predator , Sylenth ,Absynth , Pro 52 ,ymvst(for chiptunes shit) sytrus is good too , wavestation is a great synth but tricky to program , Minimonsta is the best sounding softsynth i ever heard ...And Many Synths in Reaktor

I like to automate Volume and pitch.

Not a synth, but I love to automate the wet/dry level of Reverb and Delay and in turn, automate whatever I'm sending with a high pass or low pass filter. Works so nice with pads.

Favorite synth = Massive

Favorite parameter to automate = all of them. i like to play about with the feedback amount, the simple delay time, wave tables, phase modulation amount. i mostly use the envelopes, lfo's and my midi controls. i don't use the stepper, or performer that much.

Favorite colour = Purple, but i do like Green to.

Favorite synths are Massive for reeses and such, Alchemy for a lot of stuff, and Operator for FM stuff. Favorite parameter to automate is nothing as I resample almost everything

favorite synth technique?? omg soo many...

yesterday i made a pretty cool glitchy bass with operator/FM...
set 2 oscilators up with B modulating A.. set B to the 8th harmonic.. play a nice bass note.. (add another sine osc unmodulated for thump) then sweep the course tuning of osc A all the way up and down (transitions between harmonics should be jagged, not smoothly automated) as you play a long note.... RAAAIIOOOOEEZZWWORORRXXORR!!!!
distort with a sine shaper for extra digital nastiness... mmm gooey

Massive, Alchemy and Blue.

On Massive, I love to automate the serial/parallel filter slider. That lets me go from an envelope attack to a wub all in one patch. On Alchemy I love to automate the symmetry. Blue, volume and symmetry on different oscs when it's running fm.

Definately Thor in reason. I like to assign the LFO to the osc pitch control you can get some interesting sounds going on there

Massive and FM8

if i'm in massive most of the time i'll automate some sort of macro that does a whole bunch of stuff

Atlantis, and automate reverb amounts

Virus Polar - Comb FIlter Freq . I don't do enough automation on it tbh, its often a large ache in my balls.

I really dig Massive, just because it's one of the few synths out there with a really good, straightforward, and easy interface.

TAL Noisemaker is probably going to go up on this list, I loved Elek7ro and this is even better.

Vember Audio Surge is another good one in terms of useability, also with loads of features.


I basically hate two kinds of interfaces:

1) ones where everything isn't laid out on one screen on the GUI (although Blue manages this okay, it's the only one I've found so far...stuff like Twin2 drives me insane for some reason)

2) ones where shit isn't clearly organized (Synth Squad, what the fuck were you guys thinking with that one?)

Nord Lead 2 , automate effects

favorite synth has gotta be blue

favorite parameter to automate - whatever needs it

Malstrom and I like to automate pretty much everything on that bad boy

Haven't got so much experience but i definitely like Albino 3.
Trying to get good stuff by automating the saturation atm.

U know i never thought to automate the feedback amount of reverbs and delays but that is a fantastic idea!

JemGrover, you said you like to automate these parameters and at the same time automate a HP or LP filter via the send.
Could u elaborate a little more on this?

I am always worried that ill cross contaminate my frequencies by doing HP LP sweeps.
I dunno i was just always told to keep shit on its own frequency and as such, i hardly EVER have more than one item on a frequency band.
I just dont want shit to get all muddy and unclear.
Maybe someone who knows more about this stuff could tell me if I'm a little off on my assumption that multiple items shouldn't reside on the same frequency band.

favourite synth is Massive and recently I'm really enjoying automating the ASDR on filter envelopes

Thor, and delay time

AfterEmpire wrote:U know i never thought to automate the feedback amount of reverbs and delays but that is a fantastic idea!

JemGrover, you said you like to automate these parameters and at the same time automate a HP or LP filter via the send.
Could u elaborate a little more on this?

I am always worried that ill cross contaminate my frequencies by doing HP LP sweeps.
I dunno i was just always told to keep shit on its own frequency and as such, i hardly EVER have more than one item on a frequency band.
I just dont want shit to get all muddy and unclear.
Maybe someone who knows more about this stuff could tell me if I'm a little off on my assumption that multiple items shouldn't reside on the same frequency band.

Oh, well I'll set up, say, a Pad and send that to a Reverb and then I'll send it to another channel with maybe an autofilter, or I'll just automate a filter cut off so you get the sound of
: Original Pad
: Verb'd Pad pad with a 1/2 bar delay
: Original Pad a bit quieter with a bit of movement to it as the filter sweeps, just so it's not overly static
Obviously I'm not sweeping a huge range, but just enough so that the texture of the pad changes. I've had mixed results with this, but the best was on a pitched down clean guitar sample I recorded a while back

I'm by no means an expert, but if it sounds good (and especially if the pads are placed wide in the mix so they're not interfering with core elements) I personally wouldn't worry too much if you get a moment of frequency clash as the filter sweeps

Soundcloud
Edit: dug this up; It's the guitar pitched down and I used roughly the same technique as started, but I've taken a couple of Valium right now, so just in the mood to make some more pads as it happens, but yeah... you will see very little in way of the filter sweep. It's very subtle [: