Ultimate Sound Design via Synthesis!

[tomorrowstops]

Recently I got to do some sound design work on a friend's film. It was a film about the supernatural, so the sky was the limit. Pretty freakin' fun!

What's your favorite synth(s) for sound design?

[samuraipizzacat29]

My favorite for that sort of thing is probably the one most often overlooked is the technics sx-wsa1. ultra powerful but also immediately gratifying. dx synths are uber-powerful as well as wavetable synths, the sx-wsa1 and maybe yamaha ex5 are the most fun to just get down and dirty with.

that and the modular and a good sampler.

[silikon]

Symbolic Sound Kyma with Pacarana. Hands down the most intense and deep "instrument" (environment) I've had the pleasure of working in.

Actual hardware synth wise, it would be a close toss up between the Andromeda and the OB-Mx.

The question seems somewhat slanted to Keyboard/Rack based equipment versus a modular, because one could just say "duh, my Dotcom! " and it would really speak little to which PART of the dotcom is the most intriguing. So if you plan on answering anything regarding a modular, in all fairness - do share the one or two modules that are key players in alot of your patches...

[samuraipizzacat29]

errrr a VCO?

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no, I kid. id' say it's more the ability to patch something in and re-sample it that has more of an effect for sound design than actually "having a modular" like some elitist anas. I use the intellijel mu-scale basically every time I turn the dern thing on. and the more sequencers, eg's, funky gate switcher trigger ma whoosy what's and fm-ing wave-folding crazy osc's you can get the more fun you can have creating sound.

.....but i almost always end up sampling it and then beating the heck out of it in the pc anyway. hence the duality of sound design.

I should add that the mu-scale is awesome because you have a ton of scalar options, but the ability to shift upwards downwards and all over the place with an input signal is huge. put a little slew on the output cv and you have some pretty dang awesome abilities.

[silikon]

dang

[skizzle]

Virus indigo 2

[calyx93]

V-Synth - can sound very epic, spooky, sci-fi, glorious, etc.

[CS_TBL]

yes

[_seph]

the SX-WSA1r is something I'd definitely still like to try someday.

my top 3 would be: V-Synth, EX5 and Z1 -- (with the V-Synth in the lead by a large margin), but I imagine that newer super-synths like the Solaris and Oasys/Kronos would be great as well.

on the software side I'm currently looking into Alchemy after having been impressed by their free iPad app. So far it looks very intriguing and it's perhaps the one program outside of Ableton that I'd care to run. Really what I would love to see is for AAS's Tassman to get finally get updated and preferably worked into Live alongside their other apps, that + MAX might be the be-all and the end-all combo for me.

but (if you have the right disposition) Kyma is really still the king. Every now and then I think that perhaps giving it another try with the newer Pacarana would be very cool, but then I also think that it would potentially be the worst thing I could introduce into my studio (I do not have the right disposition)

and MetaSynth should get an honorable mention. Great app that used to be my go-to, but mine is now outdated and hasn't been used in years. Brilliant at sound design and the new version looks nice.

[Sir Ruff]

TB-303

[Alex E]

monotron

[Sir Ruff]

theremin

[b3groover]

on the software side I'm currently looking into Alchemy after having been impressed by their free iPad app. So far it looks very intriguing and it's perhaps the one program outside of Ableton that I'd care to run. Really what I would love to see is for AAS's Tassman to get finally get updated and preferably worked into Live alongside their other apps, that + MAX might be the be-all and the end-all combo for me.

Alchemy is a great softsynth. You won't regret it.

[Shreddie]

yamaha ex5

I'd go with that (though mine is the lesser EX7).

Actual hardware synth wise, it would be a close toss up between the Andromeda

I'd go with that too!

But for me it's what you can do with a whole combination of things rather than just one synth... Field recordings, VST's, synths, hardware effects etc etc. Although I don't have a modular synth, I use all my gear like it is one sometimes.

[tomorrowstops]

yes

I actually came across your video a few days ago - great work! FM8 is definitely a tantalizing piece of software!