hibr
I’m about to upgrade to cubase 8 pro and also wish to increase my arsenal of decent synths.br
apart from the built in synths I have various feebees plus ANA and Kickbr
I’m toying with either Sylenth or Massive. I work in various EDM genresbr
Any input/thoughts would be appreciated
Sylenth is the obvious choice, it ticks all the boxes, it’s easy to program, easy to get great sounds, that’s why it’s been the the most popular synth of the past 10 years. However if you’re looking to create sounds that have an edge and are different I would go for Spire, it’s effects, envelopes and routing are superior and it has a huge wave table like ANA. Downside is its CPU heavy. Massive is also a great synth, but personally I find myself reaching for sylenth, ANA or spire. Zebra is also a really good option but it’s not fixed oscillator, so require a lot more effort on your part, but it’s very good if you put the time in. I’ve also heard great things about Z3ta +2 but not used it myself, same with Serum.br
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Really it comes down the effort you put in, they’re all capable of making the sounds you need IMO
You might like to check out the synth that has been called a “Sylenth killer”, u-He’s Hive. It’s still in beta but it’s pretty much all there, and is available for $99 + VAT now ($149 + VAT on full release). It will come with over 1500 presets, including a large number of EDM styles. There are also a lot of third-party presets already. I have almost 3,400 in total on my system, the non-factory presets being mostly free ones downloaded from KVR.br
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You can try it out for free, and check out 67 tracks made with it here and another 17 here. [Disclosure: one of them is mine, but it’s not EDM.]
I definitely recommend z3ta +2. You can create some truly awesome sounds in that synth, if you know what you’re doing. The presets aren’t that impressive, but if you learn how to program it, there’s very little you can’t make it do.
Xfer serum is well worth a look… its quite different to ANA, Sprire, Zebra, Sylenth etc.br
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Lots of the presets are very edgy but can do all sorts of crazy **** too.