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Whats your go to synth/effect/hardware?

Just give a short explanation of what synth/effect/ect is used for and why/what you use it for.

Abletons Amp- I hear people hating on this all the time but if you know how to use it, it can add a lot to your sound. Ill use it in a chain that has an audio effect rack with 2-3 racks that each have filter's on them to focus on specific fq areas. I love the blues setting, just lower the gain and output.

Bifilter- Love some of the filters, I use it for filter movement on any of my sounds.

Massive- Needs no explanation, A lot of my sounds are made with this

Abletons Vocoder- Again if you know how to use it you can get some awesome effects with this. I usually use a lead synth as a modulator and adjust the settings in the vocoder to work with vocals, then ill copy the MIDI of my lead/chords to this new, muted lead sound. If you put a delay before the vocoder you can get some crazy auto tuned vocal effects.

I have 3 synths i use in all projects which are massive,absynth and the virus ti.Massive i use for quick sounds,absynth for pads,leads and bass.Virus,for all synth duty's too.The virus has a wicked trick where you can assign the appegiator to modulate pretty much anything,hours of fun.

Effects you can guarantee to find in my projects are camel crusher for adding grit to sounds and psp vintage warmer 2 to for tape saturation and limiting duties.Honestly put a heavy amount of vintage warmer on a sub bassline and listen to that thing come alive.

New one i recently bought which is seriously fun for just cracking out weird sounds and glitchy effects is sugarbytes turnado.Get the demo and give this thing a try,me and my friend lost a weekend just tweaking this thing and it has endless possibilities for all types of sound design.

Sure, here goes.

Kong triggered by redrum: I use this a lot, between step sequencing drums to incidentals and such.
Regular Kong: Work horse sampler

Pulveriser: My main Filter, used in conjuction with with the pulsar it's more flexible than anyother filter/lfo combos in reason.

Subtractor: Subs, incidentals.
Thor: Is my go to if I wanna create a unique melodic sound since I know it inside and out.
Malstrom: Is my abrasive synth. (think mentasims, reeses, metallic sounds.)

In reaper,

Spiceyguitarvst. Is just fun to write guitar with, Sounds ok for a free guitar vst.
Camelcrusher: yeah....
Aethereal: Unique sample synth, great for haunting pads, static, washed out sounds.(One of my absolute favorites)
Alchemy cm: Sampler
FerricTds: Warmth
Zebralette: Main synth

lloydy wrote:I have 3 synths i use in all projects which are massive,absynth and the virus ti.Massive i use for quick sounds,absynth for pads,leads and bass.Virus,for all synth duty's too.The virus has a wicked trick where you can assign the appegiator to modulate pretty much anything,hours of fun.

Effects you can guarantee to find in my projects are camel crusher for adding grit to sounds and psp vintage warmer 2 to for tape saturation and limiting duties.Honestly put a heavy amount of vintage warmer on a sub bassline and listen to that thing come alive.

New one i recently bought which is seriously fun for just cracking out weird sounds and glitchy effects is sugarbytes turnado.Get the demo and give this thing a try,me and my friend lost a weekend just tweaking this thing and it has endless possibilities for all types of sound design.

I was getting worried there, such a good jump off topic and no one posted

I have Vintage warmer, its not a go to but I use it to fill in synth sounds. Might try out that bassline trick. Camel crusher's just a few of the features in Camel phat, which i like to use myself just for the distortion. I tend to use that multiband distortion trick with abletons amp a little more then this though.

I have been getting sick of the sound of my leads in Massive, gonna have to check out virus. I was actually already planning to get absynth.

outdropt wrote:
I was getting worried there, such a good jump off topic and no one posted

I have Vintage warmer, its not a go to but I use it to fill in synth sounds. Might try out that bassline trick. Camel crusher's just a few of the features in Camel phat, which i like to use myself just for the distortion. I tend to use that multiband distortion trick with abletons amp a little more then this though.

I have been getting sick of the sound of my leads in Massive, gonna have to check out virus. I was actually already planning to get absynth.

sorry mate i meant camel phat
Honestly vintage warmer is up there as one of my favourite plugs,even on your master with just a touch really warms things up nicely.
The thing i think massive is really good at is quick sounds for filling out sections and just real basic stuff as its quick to work with.Absynth is just a complete box of sonic possibilities it really is such an underrated beast.
The virus if you spend time to learn and use it is a powerhouse,capable of near enough any sound from seriously tearing basslines down to really subtle background pas sounds.Also with the plugin you get 16 sounds and 3 stereo pairs which does not touch your comps cpu so plenty in the armoury.

But seriously get turnado,you will lose days on end fucking around with that thing.

massive, camelphat, fabfilter pro-q, kjaerhus chorus/flanger/phaser, wow filter, distroyr, camelspace, ferrictds

Synth: Access Virus TI, Ableton's Operator (no shit)
Reverb: Ableton (people seem to say they hate this but I really, really like this stock plug)
Distortion: Ableton's Saturator, and Overdrive, and Amp. NI's Driver
Drums: NI Battery
Delays: Ableton Simple Delay
Filtering: Fabfilter Volcano
Compression/Limiting: Fabfilter Pro-C and Pro-L

subfect wrote:Synth: Access Virus TI, Ableton's Operator (no shit)
Reverb: Ableton (people seem to say they hate this but I really, really like this stock plug)
Distortion: Ableton's Saturator, and Overdrive, and Amp. NI's Driver
Drums: NI Battery
Delays: Ableton Simple Delay
Filtering: Fabfilter Volcano
Compression/Limiting: Fabfilter Pro-C and Pro-L

Right, I love abletons reverb personally. Just put a compressor after and it sounds great.

I like simple delay, filter delay, and even ping pong ( as long as you take the stereo down to 20-25%) I think ableton did a great job with some of there stock plugins, and the updates in 9..... Forget about it.

Before this turns into an ableton discussion... How is Fabfilter's volcano? I watch some tutorials on it and it looks pretty sick, but right now I am pretty content with bifilter2.

Scream 4 tape

I love kontakt and maschine. As a matter of fact, I love working with samples. Just load the waveforms, split the bands and go crazy with the filtering. Aside from that, Camel Crusher / tube drive on everything for harmonics.

ehbrums1 wrote:Scream 4 tape

Haha, so much this it's scary.

outdropt wrote:
Before this turns into an ableton discussion... How is Fabfilter's volcano? I watch some tutorials on it and it looks pretty sick, but right now I am pretty content with bifilter2.

I honestly wish I had picked up Saturn instead of Volcano. It's a nice plugin, but it's almost got too much functionality if that's even possible. Although I really so like some of the compression settings on it (the smooth bus glue is impressive).

Nexus (I know... It's a rompler but I fucking love it)
Massive which is oddly being replaced with sytrus for nasty bass.
Saturn for distortion
SIR2 convolution reverb
CMT Bitcrusher (free and amazing)
Flux bittersweet (free amazing transient designer)
Fruity parametric EQ2 for gentle stuff and pro-Q for extreme stuff

If I was stranded on a desert island, I could survive with just those.

Ableton's drum rack. I like being able to program drums in midi. I used audio for a long time but I find it easier to program drums that sound like they are one instrument as opposed to a random group of percussive patterns that sort of gel.

I used ableton's compressor a lot for side chaining. I find it super intuitive in getting things pumping.

My D16 toraverb finds its way on most tracks, and i couldn't live without TALDUBIII i use often.

Massive cops a thrashing to, I know the interface well. I've built up a decent library of stock sounds as starting points. I keep these presets fairly basic so whatever sound I feel the track needs I know which base sound to go to and I can build the patch as appropriate for the track with a lot less hassle.

Reaktor with a bunch of random user made synths I've found
Sausage Fattener
Schaak Transient Shaper

NI Battery 3 (Don't Use It Much)
NI Razor (Never Use)
NI FM8 (Never Use)
NI Massive (Never Use)

Audio Damage Liquid
Camelphat
Cytomic, The Glue
Dada Life Sausage Fattner
iZotope Ozone 4
Lexicon Plate & Vintage Plate
Schaak Audio Transient Shaper
SPL Eq Rangers
Tone 2 BiFilter



Just brought an E-MU E5000 Ultra as I'm trying to get away from software synths, so this is gonna be my main weapon of choice

Logic's space designer gets a lot of use from me

Triphosphate wrote:

outdropt wrote:
Before this turns into an ableton discussion... How is Fabfilter's volcano? I watch some tutorials on it and it looks pretty sick, but right now I am pretty content with bifilter2.

I honestly wish I had picked up Saturn instead of Volcano. It's a nice plugin, but it's almost got too much functionality if that's even possible. Although I really so like some of the compression settings on it (the smooth bus glue is impressive).

Good to know, i was checking out Saturn as well. I got a few things on my Christmas list, lol. One thing i need for sure is a multiband distortion plugin. Its a toss up between Saturn and Ohmicide, but I am leaning toward Saturn because every tutorial i watch on Ohmicide is basically, "turn knobs till it sounds good". I haven't seen one video that really explains what is happening.

billybuxton wrote:NI Battery 3 (Don't Use It Much)
NI Razor (Never Use)
NI FM8 (Never Use)
NI Massive (Never Use)


Dada Life Sausage Fattner

How is it your weapon of choice if you dont use it

Sausage fattner is another one that i forgot about, i always put a touch of this on my bass/sub channel.

Hircine wrote:I love kontakt and maschine. As a matter of fact, I love working with samples. Just load the waveforms, split the bands and go crazy with the filtering. Aside from that, Camel Crusher / tube drive on everything for harmonics.

Just ordered my MK2 last week!!! I am the type of guy that only uses sample for... Vocals of course, drums, and atmosphere. Although a thread here sparked my interest in using different samples, looping small sections and using that as your beginning waveform.
And then automating the start point, that would almost be a rompler... Right?

mitchAUS wrote:Ableton's drum rack. I like being able to program drums in midi. I used audio for a long time but I find it easier to program drums that sound like they are one instrument as opposed to a random group of percussive patterns that sort of gel.

I love drum rack to, I like the fact that every sample has its own set of parameters. You can go in and filter, modulate, pitch, and adjust volume for each individual sound. Its also fun to cut vocals and basslines into it.

outdropt wrote:

billybuxton wrote:NI Battery 3 (Don't Use It Much)
NI Razor (Never Use)
NI FM8 (Never Use)
NI Massive (Never Use)

Dada Life Sausage Fattner

How is it your weapon of choice if you dont use it

Sausage fattner is another one that i forgot about, i always put a touch of this on my bass/sub channel.

I just listed every plugin iv got and was gonna briefly write what i use each one for but i got sidetracked and just posted anyway

outdropt wrote:

Hircine wrote:I love kontakt and maschine. As a matter of fact, I love working with samples. Just load the waveforms, split the bands and go crazy with the filtering. Aside from that, Camel Crusher / tube drive on everything for harmonics.

Just ordered my MK2 last week!!! I am the type of guy that only uses sample for... Vocals of course, drums, and atmosphere. Although a thread here sparked my interest in using different samples, looping small sections and using that as your beginning waveform.
And then automating the start point, that would almost be a rompler... Right?

yup. synthesis can produce some great results but nothing compares to using a 12bit pcm rompler straight into the sampler, all those output converters just adding to the sound
but seriously, you can do almost anything with a sample, sound design, drums, atmosphere... probably the most versatile thing in my studio.

Albino3 for virtually everything
3xosc for subs, that was my first production discovery and i still use it 6 years on haha