# Best soft synth(s) for "soundtrack" cyberpunk/cinematic style of sounds/tracks?



## Arise

Hey guys, I would like to do cyberpunk, cinematic, ambient, underscore, dramatic, futuristic type of stuff, and currently I actually don't really have a soft synth.

For reference I'm thinking Deus Ex Human Revolution/Mankind Divided, Tron, etc. stuff like that I guess, but not just limited to those.
Cool ambient sweeping organic sounds maybe, mixed with some nice plucky arpeggios, and all kinds of dramatic, cinematic, cool electronica. 


I have used stuff like Serum, Zebra, Diva in the past. 
Serum I really liked how super intuitive it was with its amazing GUI. It's the one I had the most fun using and the one I used the most out of the 3.

Zebra looked to be really deep, but nowhere near as intuitive as Serum. But I can see it being possibly capable of even more than Serum (?)

Diva had amazing sounds, the presets alone just had me playing around so much with it, so beautiful...however I prefer something like Serum or Zebra where it gives you more depth in the sound design department, more options to make your own sounds, I don't want to rely too much on presets.

I was also considering Omnisphere, though it is quite expensive I heard a lot of praise on it.

I am thinking of returning to Serum or saving up for Omni. 


Would love some suggestions!


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## DivingInSpace

Imo Serum is harder than Zebra to get those organic sounds from, it just have something that sounds a bit cold and digital to me. With that said, i have done Synthwave tracks with Serum as my main synth, and definitely find Serum easier to use, but there is just something that i find less cold and digital about Zebra compared. Some people might disagree though, this is just my take.


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## whiskers

Arise said:


> Hey guys, I would like to do cyberpunk, cinematic, ambient, underscore, dramatic, futuristic type of stuff, and currently I actually don't really have a soft synth.
> 
> For reference I'm thinking Deus Ex Human Revolution/Mankind Divided, Tron, etc. stuff like that I guess, but not just limited to those.
> Cool ambient sweeping organic sounds maybe, mixed with some nice plucky arpeggios, and all kinds of dramatic, cinematic, cool electronica.
> 
> 
> I have used stuff like Serum, Zebra, Diva in the past.
> Serum I really liked how super intuitive it was with its amazing GUI. It's the one I had the most fun using and the one I used the most out of the 3.
> 
> Zebra looked to be really deep, but nowhere near as intuitive as Serum. But I can see it being possibly capable of even more than Serum (?)
> 
> Diva had amazing sounds, the presets alone just had me playing around so much with it, so beautiful...however I prefer something like Serum or Zebra where it gives you more depth in the sound design department, more options to make your own sounds, I don't want to rely too much on presets.
> 
> I was also considering Omnisphere, though it is quite expensive I heard a lot of praise on it.
> 
> I am thinking of returning to Serum or saving up for Omni.
> 
> 
> Would love some suggestions!


Omni is totally worth it if you can afford it.

I've not [yet] specifically tried for the cyberpunk vibe, but love that style (of music, or themes in general). Also perhaps look at u-he's Repro and Diva, and TAL-U-NO-LX.


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## Arise

DivingInSpace said:


> Imo Serum is harder than Zebra to get those organic sounds from, it just have something that sounds a bit cold and digital to me. With that said, i have done Synthwave tracks with Serum as my main synth, and definitely find Serum easier to use, but there is just something that i find less cold and digital about Zebra compared. Some people might disagree though, this is just my take.



It does have that more harsh digital sound. Though I enjoyed using Serum much more and got pretty comfortable using it, so I would still maybe take it over Zebra. Hmm


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## Arise

whiskers said:


> Omni is totally worth it if you can afford it.
> 
> I've not [yet] specifically tried for the cyberpunk vibe, but love that style (of music, or themes in general). Also perhaps look at u-he's Repro and Diva, and TAL-U-NO-LX.



It sounds tempting with all the praise, for sure. Outside of the presets do you find it to be good for sound design, making your own custom patches of all kinds (either organic sounding or more synth?) Would you say it is intuitive in this?


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## whiskers

Arise said:


> It sounds tempting with all the praise, for sure. Outside of the presets do you find it to be good for sound design, making your own custom patches of all kinds (either organic sounding or more synth?) Would you say it is intuitive in this?


sadly can't say I've messed too much outside of presets, but from what I've seen and the little I've done, it seems pretty straightforward. Spectrasonics has a decent bit of high quality tutorials IIRC


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## germancomponist

U-He Hive


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## Arise

germancomponist said:


> U-He Hive



I never looked too closely into Hive. How
does it compare to the rest of the U-he synths ? (Mainly Zebra and Diva) I assume it has its own special use?


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## whiskers

germancomponist said:


> U-He Hive


how would you differentiate Hive vs Repro and Diva? I know both those synths are more "retro," does Hive have a similar sound?


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## germancomponist

Hive is a mixture of U-He's synth's. (My definition). It is so very great! So far as I know, they will sell a new version at the end of this month .... .


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## Arise

germancomponist said:


> Hive is a mixture of U-He's synth's. (My definition). It is so very great! So far as I know, they will sell a new version at the end of this month .... .



Is there any news about "Zebra 3" ? Kinda out of the loop on that but hasn't it been anticipated for a lot of years now? Will check out Hive, sounds interesting


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## sostenuto

Plughugger.com is a member here, and talented sound designer with many Omnisphere libraries created for sale.
http://www.plughugger.com/
Carl Lofgren is amazing talent to interact with and always willing to share via e-mail. While his libraries extend to many other synths …. Diva, Repro, Virus TI, Hive, others …. Carl would be a cool individual to contact re. your questions and interests ….. imho


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## Greg

Omnisphere by far. They have sampled so many analog synth waveforms in there and they sound great. The lofi out of tune cyberpunk sound is a bit tricky to get in the digital world but its definitely possible with Omnisphere by using subtle modulations on the fine tune & envelopes. I love the UI of Serum too but absolutely hate the clinical sound.


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## D Halgren

Arise said:


> Is there any news about "Zebra 3" ? Kinda out of the loop on that but hasn't it been anticipated for a lot of years now? Will check out Hive, sounds interesting


Zebra 3 is scheduled before the end of the year.

Hive is their wavetable synth, plus other tricks


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## José Herring

The thing about softsynths is that you can't just have one.


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## chimuelo

If you can’t get your work done with Zebra using another synth isn’t going to help.

The reason why Zebra3 is taking years is because ZebraHZ and 2.8 are that good.
Personally I think they’re full of crap, you can’t top ZebraHZ and 2.8.

I got a rack of hardware synths that received proper burial in my studio because of Zebra.

I bet they’re still sitting around telling themselves we have to give them something.

Just level with the customers and tell them here’s some new themes, presets, browser, etc. Ain’t no way in hell anything will sound better.


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## Arise

D Halgren said:


> Zebra 3 is scheduled before the end of the year.
> 
> Hive is their wavetable synth, plus other tricks



Ah ok, cool, because several times in the past I saw that mentioned that it was just around the corner. Curious to see what it will add


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## Arise

josejherring said:


> The thing about softsynths is that you can't just have one.



I get what you mean heh, but I don't Wana go all GAS on synths atm, and just want one that is really powerful for a start, not super unintuitive to use (not interested in stuff like Reaktor) and can do a wide variety of things.

Serum, Zebra and Omni are my top 3 I'm considering to choose from


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## JPQ

josejherring said:


> The thing about softsynths is that you can't just have one.


Sample applies also hardware synths actually even more.


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## José Herring

Arise said:


> I get what you mean heh, but I don't Wana go all GAS on synths atm, and just want one that is really powerful for a start, not super unintuitive to use (not interested in stuff like Reaktor) and can do a wide variety of things.
> 
> Serum, Zebra and Omni are my top 3 I'm considering to choose from


I will start off by saying that I don't own Zebra, Serum or Omni. And, I will tell you why. I'm a stubborn ass bastard that goes against the norm. EVERYBODY has these synths so I ran the other way. But....In that running I discovered a lot about synths.

First I will say that All the aforementioned synths are really good. I did a comprehensive study of synths and found a few things. Firstly, I've never been really convinced that a softsynth can sound as good as a really good analog hardware synth. I've poured over many scores done by Zebra and no matter how many people say "It's amazing, it replaces hardware, I've played Zebra and it's better than my hardware--I just don't hear it. To me synths like the CS80 used in the original Blade Runner are just AMAZING sounding". Sure Zebra can be AMAZING sounding too but it just doesn't sound as deep or musically expressive as even the Juno 60 ( ducks and dodges tomato). I heard this totally amazing retention of Hans Zimmer Time that was done just using the Arturia Microbrute. There's just something about real Analog that perks up my ear. And, I've been around and around on this issue. Then finally decided that Analog does best what analog does best and softsynths do best what softsynths do best.

Okay, so in my search I will briefly sum up what I found. First, digital synths have been around for ages. In looking back at the computer based Andromedia synth and that one that JXL has from the 70's and the synclav, I found that due to the nature of digital they excel in flexiblity, in being able to stack up wave forms (super saw) and FM synthesis. Also of course you really can't do wavetable without digital. 

So, for etherial pads sounds, sonic wonders that can't be easily described, like ambient rhythmic stuff, for routing that is out of this world ect.. Yeah by all means go with Zebra. Personally I use MPower Synth because it's great and nobody else uses it. Also, for harsh digital stuff and some pretty good way digital sounding synthesis I also use Reaktor mostly blocks these days as delving into Reaktor Core and Library can be way too hard. 

In the late 80's and 1990;s there was a wave of analog modeling synths. Digital synths that emulated analog synth hardware. The Roland jd 8000 I this was a beast in it's time. Personally I picked up Lush 101 to emulate that. It had a supersaw feature that allowed for Saw waves to be stacked so you can create this really cool lush sounding pads. Sort of like the CS-80 but kind of not as thick sounding. I really like Lush 101 for that. 

Lastly, for leads and bass and that kind of stuff that only analog can do, I got some hardware. Looking now for an analog polysynth because right now I just had mono synths modular and semi modular stuff. I did it because it just sounds more alive to me and can stand up to some pretty brutal processing without fizzling out. 

In the end, it's the user that decides what can be gotten out of a synth. They all are fairly good. Digital lacks a little life for me and sounds a little thin but it's a minor point really. Those traits can be used for great musical advantage. 

Also, I just love the sound of analog synths. So I'm bias. I can listen to things like scores to Manhunter, Blade Runner, and Black Hawk Down all day. For a classical I guy I just love hearing that stuff. So take what I say with that in mind. I've heard plenty of shootouts with digital vs. the real thing, Diva or The Legend against a real minimoog respectively. I couldn't really tell the difference. The real thing sounded a tad bit more lively with its flaws. I played the shootout for a my son, he doesn't know anything about synths and I didn't tell him this is real or this is the fake one or anything and he listened to the shootout with me and just picked The Legend, every damn time. I was almost getting annoyed. He liked the fake one more than the real one. So there it is.

If I had to get only one, I would start with the Legend or Diva. Then when I got a handle on that I would graduate up to Hive and Repro 5, then once I got a handle on that I would step it up to Zebra. But, I'm a stubborn fool. And, I don't own any of them because everybody else does so, I use Lush 101, Mpower synth and analog gear for all my synth stuff. 

Though...I will probably get Zebra, just because I like it.


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## blougui

Omnisphere,probably. Instant gartification.
Zebra : its arpegiator is annoying as hell to programm,at least for me.


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## AdamKmusic

Zebra/ZebraHZ or Diva without a doubt!


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## Ned Bouhalassa

Soft only? If so, too bad, ‘cause nothing IMO says cyberpunk like the Knifonium: http://greatsynthesizers.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Knifonium-900pix.jpg


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## Reid Rosefelt

Whatever you can say about Zebra, it was not designed--like Omnisphere, Go2, and Arturia's Pigments--to be really easy to program. Rightly or wrongly, I believe the majority of Zebra users buy presets. If you buy only The Dark Zebra (99 €), the cost of Zebra is already $337.

Here's how to program Omnisphere. It comes with 14,000 sounds (including many from over 30 famous hardware synths) programmed and curated by Eric Persing, one of the greatest sound designers in history, and which range in quality from A+ to A+++++. Find a preset that lets you crossfade 2* sounds with the mod wheel. Replace the 2 sounds with two you find in Omnisphere's browser which IMHO is the easiest to use in the business. Or drag in _any_ audio file(s). Congratulations! You have made an Omnisphere patch.

There's very little on the main page of Omni, but notably there is cutoff and resonance with assignable LPF or HPF. That gives you a little more modulation. Years of work have been spent designing Omnisphere to be a breeze for somebody with zero knowledge of synths.

Your new preset sounds very much like what you had in your head (probably a lot better) and nobody in the world has this exact preset, as opposed to the zillions who have purchased presets from other synths.

You never have to learn any more than that, but if you have a few hours free, you can take this free course, and you will be able to take Omnisphere a trillion times further. If you want to delve even deeper than that, spend time on PluginGuru's YouTube page. While Omni is designed to be easy-as-pie, if you dig in it just gets deeper and deeper, and it is one of the most complex and powerful synths that has ever been made.

I would also say that while you can create soundtrack/cyberpunk/cinematic/textures/pads/ noisescapes with Omnisphere--here are some film and TV examples--it also comes with a thousands of solo vocals, choirs, guitars, ethnic instruments, keyboards, bells, organs, percussion, etc and just really weird stuff one-of-a-kind instruments that can only be found in Omni. (Ya wanna play stalactites?) If you remember to check it, it will save you hundreds of dollars from not buying little $10 or $15 libraries where you already have something much better in Omni. I believe that in the long run, it can pay back its cost, particularly if you don't let too many years go by while you talk yourself out of it because you think it's too expensive.

The only argument against buying Omnisphere is that version 2.6 is coming out soon. You will have to pay more money when Omni 3 comes out. No idea when that will be, but it could be years.

*In a recent update, Omni allows you combine up to 4 sounds.


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## gsilbers

blougui said:


> Omnisphere,probably. Instant gartification.
> Zebra : its arpegiator is annoying as hell to programm,at least for me.



try using 3rd party skins
https://plugmon.jp/product/massive-modular/#gallery


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## sostenuto

Ned Bouhalassa said:


> Soft only? If so, too bad, ‘cause nothing IMO says cyberpunk like the Knifonium: http://greatsynthesizers.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Knifonium-900pix.jpg



No need for extra room heater either !!


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## geronimo

I love ZEBRA 2 but don't forget fXpansion Cypher 2 .


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## blougui

gsilbers said:


> try using 3rd party skins
> https://plugmon.jp/product/massive-modular/#gallery


Thanx Guillmero I'll look into that.
Erik


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## Solarsentinel

Why not the V collection of arturia. You ll got a lot of 8ies synths for this kind of project?


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## Arise

Solarsentinel said:


> Why not the V collection of arturia. You ll got a lot of 8ies synths for this kind of project?



Looks cool, but not into that type of stuff (recreated iconic keyboards, presets). I want one synth that is quite versatile. I'm thinking Serum, Zebra or something like that. Serum is the one I can use the most comfortably as I know it the best, Zebra I used before but found not nearly as intuitive, but if it overall has more capabilites to create a bigger variety of sounds, than I will reconsider it.
Omnisphere looks great too, but it is sadly out of my budget


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## Arise

I'm curious what people here think of Vengeance Avenger. Anyone use it?


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## DS_Joost

If you want an all in one synth solution, I would (like people suggested) take a good hard look at Omnisphere. It might seem like a lot of money, but that instrument is criminally underpriced considering the value you get.

I would also take a good look at Falcon. Falcon is a deep instrument, not the easiest to learn, but in terms of synth sounds, there is just no limit. Anything is possible within that thing.


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## Arise

DS_Joost said:


> If you want an all in one synth solution, I would (like people suggested) take a good hard look at Omnisphere. It might seem like a lot of money, but that instrument is criminally underpriced considering the value you get.
> 
> I would also take a good look at Falcon. Falcon is a deep instrument, not the easiest to learn, but in terms of synth sounds, there is just no limit. Anything is possible within that thing.



Thanks for the suggestions. I actually got a synth now. I might reconsider Omnisphere in the future, and I heard great things about Falcon, though I prefer something more intuitive, but it looks to be the best option for deep sound design and sampling.

I was considering Serum/Zebra due to my experiences with them but ended up actually going with VPS Avenger. It's pretty awesome and versatile and can do almost anything and has a nice interface as well.


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## DS_Joost

Arise said:


> Thanks for the suggestions. I actually got a synth now. I might reconsider Omnisphere in the future, and I heard great things about Falcon, though I prefer something more intuitive, but it looks to be the best option for deep sound design and sampling.
> 
> I was considering Serum/Zebra due to my experiences with them but ended up actually going with VPS Avenger. It's pretty awesome and versatile and can do almost anything and has a nice interface as well.



Avenger is a great choice and it can do some seriously deep synthesis. I never liked it's interface though... But I know that is completely up to the person. Congrats though on getting one of the best synths out there, you won't be lookong at another one soon!


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## Arise

DS_Joost said:


> Avenger is a great choice and it can do some seriously deep synthesis. I never liked it's interface though... But I know that is completely up to the person. Congrats though on getting one of the best synths out there, you won't be lookong at another one soon!



It is very powerful for sure. It does have a sort of neutral sound/no character, and while the interface is nice it could be better at some things.
There is definitely one more synth I'm thinking of revisiting though and that's u-he's Diva, since I just love the sounds you can get out of it. Though I'm not sure if that would be fitting for making cyberpunk ambient soundtracks.
I'm looking at something similar to this style:


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## Arise

germancomponist said:


> Hive is a mixture of U-He's synth's. (My definition). It is so very great! So far as I know, they will sell a new version at the end of this month .... .



Hive is honestly very cool and I love the one page layout and focus on getting things done fast!
How do you find it when you want to create more organic/cinematic sounds - plucks, arps, pads, etc. and not just the typical "EDM" sounds?
I'm very interested in the workflow and layout it offers. 
The reason why I love Serum so much is because how intuitive it is and how comfortable and fast I can be making patches in it. 
Hive looks like it could provide that kind of workflow.


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## Cinebient

There is no specific synth really. Depending on genre there might be some better options than others but that is also mainly a personal preference.
Omnisphere is indeed good. But there is tons of other great stuff.
There is also so much Omnisphere and all the other super synths cannot do.
F.e. good and creative FX are more important for me mostly than the synth i use.
Something like Logic´s Sculpture or even ES2 combined with 2CAudio Kaleidoscope and a really good reverb is so much more unique and interesting than all these super synth for me.
Also layering several synths and FX in a DAW template is for me much better and at the same time even more cpu efficient than using something like Falcon for huge sounds.
But a big plus for me is with Omnisphere and most U-he synths (while i prefer others in terms of sound, filters, workflow etc.) that you can easy import tuning files for microtunings.


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## DerGeist

TigerTheFrog said:


> Whatever you can say about Zebra, it was not designed--like Omnisphere, Go2, and Arturia's Pigments--to be really easy to program. Rightly or wrongly, I believe the majority of Zebra users buy presets. If you buy only The Dark Zebra (99 €), the cost of Zebra is already $337.



I'm probably completely alone in this but I find Zebra to be one of the most immediate and easy to program soft synths. I can go from Init to something unique (or bread and butter) faster than I can in any other software or hardware and I'm hardly a power user.

I fully accept that this is probably just me.


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## Living Fossil

TigerTheFrog said:


> Whatever you can say about Zebra, it was not designed--like Omnisphere, Go2, and Arturia's Pigments--to be really easy to program.



Zebra is extremely easy to program, once you invest a small amount of time in learning the basics.

Another synth i'd recommend for soundtrack-cyberpunk would be u-he's Bazille.
Which by the way is quite tough to program...


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## Arise

Living Fossil said:


> Zebra is extremely easy to program, once you invest a small amount of time in learning the basics.
> 
> Another synth i'd recommend for soundtrack-cyberpunk would be u-he's Bazille.
> Which by the way is quite tough to program...



I find that all of U-he's stuff is very nice in their own way each with its own signature sound and workflow. Just top notch stuff.

Anyway I just got Hive a few days ago and I am absolutely adoring it. My favorite u-he synth for sure.


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## Reid Rosefelt

DerGeist said:


> I'm probably completely alone in this but I find Zebra to be one of the most immediate and easy to program soft synths. I can go from Init to something unique (or bread and butter) faster than I can in any other software or hardware and I'm hardly a power user.
> 
> I fully accept that this is probably just me.





Living Fossil said:


> Zebra is extremely easy to program, once you invest a small amount of time in learning the basics.
> 
> Another synth i'd recommend for soundtrack-cyberpunk would be u-he's Bazille.
> Which by the way is quite tough to program...


I took a long look at Zebra 2 and you two are right and I was wrong. If I put a bit of time in, I could program it.  Of course I know I never will. Too many other things I want to do. 

But I still don't think that U-he designed it with the main purpose of making it the easiest to program synth they've ever done.

Rob Papen designed Go2 to be the easiest to learn synth that he sells. It's marketed that way and sold really cheap to try to pick up a market of people who want to get started.

But you are right to encourage Zebra owners to make their own sounds.


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## Living Fossil

Arise said:


> Anyway I just got Hive a few days ago and I am absolutely adoring it. My favorite u-he synth for sure.



Yes, Hive is another great one, specially with the new wavetables...


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## DerGeist

One of the things I like about programming Zebra is that it feels like it was designed to be programmed on a computer with mouse. To many that may sounds like a bad thing but I find the deeper the capabilities of a soft synth the more I appreciate a UI that accepts the fact that it a piece of computer software and not a 70s inspired keyboard face.

It's one of the reasons I'm much happier programming zebra than something simpler like Repro which though simpler has a design more suited to a physical keyboard.


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## Living Fossil

TigerTheFrog said:


> But I still don't think that U-he designed it with the main purpose of making it the easiest to program synth they've ever done.



What means "easy to program"? 
This question isn't that easy to answer as it might seem.
When i have a specific sound in mind which in itself is quite sophisticated, very often Zebra is the easiest way for me, since i can make a chain of the needed modules.
On a "easy-to-program" synth it might be easier to program _some_ sounds, but usually it's harder to program those sounds that exceed the sweet spot of the circuitry.

(btw. it's quite similar with Melda's MXXX... most users find it hard to use, but once you've learned how it works, it's extremely easy to realise ideas that go beyond the usual suspects...)


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## Arise

TigerTheFrog said:


> I took a long look at Zebra 2 and you two are right and I was wrong. If I put a bit of time in, I could program it.  Of course I know I never will. Too many other things I want to do.
> 
> But I still don't think that U-he designed it with the main purpose of making it the easiest to program synth they've ever done.
> 
> Rob Papen designed Go2 to be the easiest to learn synth that he sells. It's marketed that way and sold really cheap to try to pick up a market of people who want to get started.
> 
> But you are right to encourage Zebra owners to make their own sounds.



I would say that is Hive's role, the easiest and fastest to program u-he synth


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## Reid Rosefelt

Living Fossil said:


> What means "easy to program"?
> This question isn't that easy to answer as it might seem.
> When i have a specific sound in mind which in itself is quite sophisticated, very often Zebra is the easiest way for me, since i can make a chain of the needed modules.
> On a "easy-to-program" synth it might be easier to program _some_ sounds, but usually it's harder to program those sounds that exceed the sweet spot of the circuitry.
> 
> (btw. it's quite similar with Melda's MXXX... most users find it hard to use, but once you've learned how it works, it's extremely easy to realise ideas that go beyond the usual suspects...)


Absolutely. "Easy to program" depends on who you are and what you want a synth to do.


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## Ned Bouhalassa

Speaking of HIVE, here's a little something I just put together with the still-in-progress version 2:


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## StefanoM

Arise said:


> Hey guys, I would like to do cyberpunk, cinematic, ambient, underscore, dramatic, futuristic type of stuff, and currently I actually don't really have a soft synth.
> 
> For reference I'm thinking Deus Ex Human Revolution/Mankind Divided, Tron, etc. stuff like that I guess, but not just limited to those.
> Cool ambient sweeping organic sounds maybe, mixed with some nice plucky arpeggios, and all kinds of dramatic, cinematic, cool electronica.
> 
> 
> I have used stuff like Serum, Zebra, Diva in the past.
> Serum I really liked how super intuitive it was with its amazing GUI. It's the one I had the most fun using and the one I used the most out of the 3.
> 
> Zebra looked to be really deep, but nowhere near as intuitive as Serum. But I can see it being possibly capable of even more than Serum (?)
> 
> Diva had amazing sounds, the presets alone just had me playing around so much with it, so beautiful...however I prefer something like Serum or Zebra where it gives you more depth in the sound design department, more options to make your own sounds, I don't want to rely too much on presets.
> 
> I was also considering Omnisphere, though it is quite expensive I heard a lot of praise on it.
> 
> I am thinking of returning to Serum or saving up for Omni.
> 
> 
> Would love some suggestions!




I suggest you also this of course:


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## DerGeist

gsilbers said:


> try using 3rd party skins
> https://plugmon.jp/product/massive-modular/#gallery


Wow, that looks great.


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## kessel

I know it's almost a year gone since the OP started this thread and he/she already bought a synth for cyberpunk and cinematic stuff, but I wanted to name a couple of synths that haven't been mentioned here and in my opinion are great choices for cyberpunk/synthwave and cinematic sounds.

I am talking of *ANA 2*, which in my opinion is a very nice sounding synth that has a good strength if you're looking for cyberpunk/synthwave retro synths but still want to have a modern full and rich sound.

Here is a demo of how its synthwave expansion presets, in my opinion perfect for cyberpunk stuff



The other one I'd like to recommend is more for cinematic sounds, very experimental, and it's called *Aparillo*. In my opinion a very good sounding synth as well with a lot of flexibility but a very peculiar UI that might not be for everyone, I personally like it though...






Sugar Bytes | Aparillo







sugar-bytes.de





Other synths I would also consider would be of course *Serum*, *Spire* - mostly used for EDM but capable of doing cyberpunk/synthwave sounds quite well too - *Sylenth1* and *Dune3*


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## Pier

chimuelo said:


> The reason why Zebra3 is taking years is because ZebraHZ and 2.8 are that good.
> Personally I think they’re full of crap, you can’t top ZebraHZ and 2.8.
> 
> I got a rack of hardware synths that received proper burial in my studio because of Zebra.
> 
> I bet they’re still sitting around telling themselves we have to give them something.
> 
> Just level with the customers and tell them here’s some new themes, presets, browser, etc. Ain’t no way in hell anything will sound better.





I thought that many times too. The bar is just too high. I'd love a more efficient and modern looking UI though.


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## José Herring

Was reminded of this thread today. Reading what I said, I've got some updates.

Since this time I've gotten Zebra2.8. Will get the HZ version shortly. Zebra is a beast. Took me like a day of reading the manual to get the hang of it but I got to say it has some life to it. No matter how deep you program it, and how far you go it just gets better and better. Truly amazing.

With the purchase of Zebra my beloved MPowersynth is getting no love these days. Still using Lush 101 for its supersaw feature though.

Also, I've invested into getting Reason synths moving. Complex-1 is hands down one of the best sounding synths I've used. Europa is an amazing Waveshaping synth. Put it head to head with Zebra's waveshaping capabilities and Europa can do a whole lot more but it takes some work to get it to sound really good.

I've become a little bit of a synth whore and I'm using way too many. So If I had to pick 3 it would be Zebra, Lush 101 and Europa. But....Expanse for Reason has my eye because it can load all of the Serum wavetables. So.....I'm looking at that too. Trying to avoid getting Serum, but never say never.


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## VgsA

I don't know if you like this kind of ''cyberpunk'' style, but I relied a lot on Air's Vaccum Pro for this track, and it's a synth I like a lot (and goes on sale often at Plugin Boutique). And of course UVI stuff, although I'm obviously biased there


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## chimuelo

Pier Bover said:


> I thought that many times too. The bar is just too high. I'd love a more efficient and modern looking UI though.



Haven’t seen GUI in months.
Scope DSP is my project window and my Physis K4 just automates everything.
Only use about 53 sounds.

And still folks will say but have you tried this #%!&(....
No, and I don’t want to.
I hate getting disappointed again.
After 6 years ZebraHz is a gift that keeps giving.


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## vitocorleone123

New wavetable synth out by Audio Damage. $79 release price. Maybe give the demo a try?

https://audiodamage.com/collections/plugin-instruments/products/ad051-continua


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## proxima

OK, since we're bringing back this thread, I thought I'd throw this out there for anyone, like the OP, really interested in Deus Ex type sounds.

The Unfinished created some Zebra soundsets (http://www.theunfinished.co.uk/shop/zebra-lazarus-vol-i/ (Lazarus)) that are directly inspired by Deus Ex. So not only is it possible to get sounds like this from Zebra, you'd have a straightforward place to start, especially if your synthesis skills aren't yet great.


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## kessel

I forgot to mention a couple of software versions Korg does of some of their "vintage" synths that fit perfectly these kind of sounds as well. My favorite ones are Korg Polysix and Arp Odyssey, here some demos



The demo for polysix goes rather in future bass direction when it comes to melodies but the sounds are classic retro synthwave sounds too





There are also a lot preset sounds in this style for Spire here:





Reveal Sound :: Synthwave / Retrowave


Project Description




www.reveal-sound.com





Here are some interesting ones for Serum as well:





XferRecords.com Forums: Does anyone uses Serum for synthwave 80's style?







xferrecords.com












Synthwave Sounds for Serum


Were you looking for those retrofuturistic melodies, synths and basslines? Then we have a solution for you!"Synthwave Sounds for Serum" is packed with arps, basslines, subs, pads, plucks and a huge amount of synth sounds. We also included 15 MIDI files,…




www.ghosthack.de





The ones I still like the most are the ones for ANA2








ANA 2 Presets Vol 7 - Synthwave


Sonic Academy presents our most hotly anticipated ANA 2 preset pack yet. __ANA 2 Presets Vol. 7 - Synthwave__ has been designed by _Bluffmunkey_ and ANA 2 lead designer _Phil Johnston_. This pack f...




www.sonicacademy.com












Sonic Academy


Home of the Best Electronic Music Production Tutorials in Ableton Live, Cubase, Logic Pro, FL Studio & Reason - Music Production Video Tutorials in Ableton Live, Cubase, Reason, Logic Pro and Traktor Pro - Recommended by Top Professional DJs and Producers. Home of the award winning KICK and ANA...




www.sonicacademy.com












Synthwave Sample Pack


This is the big one, nearly a year in the making and made by some of the hottest talent on the scene. Sonic Academy presents - __'Synthwave Sample Pack'__ An almighty 4GB of Arps, Bass, Drums, P...




www.sonicacademy.com












Sonic Academy


Home of the Best Electronic Music Production Tutorials in Ableton Live, Cubase, Logic Pro, FL Studio & Reason - Music Production Video Tutorials in Ableton Live, Cubase, Reason, Logic Pro and Traktor Pro - Recommended by Top Professional DJs and Producers. Home of the award winning KICK and ANA...




www.sonicacademy.com












Sonic Academy


Home of the Best Electronic Music Production Tutorials in Ableton Live, Cubase, Logic Pro, FL Studio & Reason - Music Production Video Tutorials in Ableton Live, Cubase, Reason, Logic Pro and Traktor Pro - Recommended by Top Professional DJs and Producers. Home of the award winning KICK and ANA...




www.sonicacademy.com





Here the full list, but the ones above are well worth a listen
https://www.sonicacademy.com/products/genres/synth-wave
And there are lots for sylenth1 as well, I liked the one by Ste Ingham a lot, he does a bunch of tutorials for synthwave and retro wave on youtube as well








Retro Thunder - Synthwave for Sylenth Bundle (Vol 1, 2 & 3)


229 Sylenth Presets designed for Synthwave! Now you can get... Retro Thunder - Synthwave for Sylenth Vol.1 Listen Demo Preview Retro Thunder - Synthwave for Sylenth Vol.2 Listen Demo Preview Retro Thunder - Synthwave for Sy




producerbox.com





I would like to find some good synthwave presets for Dune3 that are made for Dune3 and not for previous versions, if someone knows some I'd be very glad to hear from it


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## chimuelo

Well since we’re pimping, here’s my quad Filter hardware ZebraHZ sound.
Since Solaris is basically ZebraHZ with a Feedback loop for 4 Oscillators here’s one of my signature sounds that nobody likes.


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## kessel

chimuelo said:


> Well since we’re pimping, here’s my quad Filter hardware ZebraHZ sound.
> Since Solaris is basically ZebraHZ with a Feedback loop for 4 Oscillators here’s one of my signature sounds that nobody likes.




Well, I do like it 

Is that sound coming from Solaris itself? I actually like it better than what I've heard from Zebra so far


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## Pier

chimuelo said:


> Well since we’re pimping, here’s my quad Filter hardware ZebraHZ sound.
> Since Solaris is basically ZebraHZ with a Feedback loop for 4 Oscillators here’s one of my signature sounds that nobody likes.




What is Solaris?


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## brenneisen

Pier Bover said:


> What is Solaris?








John Bowen Synth Design


John Bowen Synth Design home of the Solaris Synths and Zarg Music Scope plugins




www.johnbowen.com


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## Pier

vitocorleone123 said:


> New wavetable synth out by Audio Damage. $79 release price. Maybe give the demo a try?
> 
> https://audiodamage.com/collections/plugin-instruments/products/ad051-continua




I've been playing a bit with the demo of Continua and it's a nice little synth. It's not really wavetable though. It calculates the waveforms in realtime based on some parameters on each oscillator.

The procedural oscillators sound great, you can easily achieve stuff that I think isn't possible in Zebra. In Zebra you can morph between 2 waves but in Continua you have like 3 params that alter the wave and can all be modulated at the same time. Then of course in Zebra you have the oscillator spectral effects which are another rabbit hole but it's not the same.

Continua is versatile but OTOH it lacks a lot of expected features. For example in unison mode you have no control over the panning or the detuning of the voices. The effects are very nice but again only chorus, delay, and reverb.

*Edit:*

The other synth I've seen that does this realtime procedural wave thing is Waverazor by the devs that do the Tracktion DAW.


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## JashandeepReehal

I am writing late though there is another new one. Called Hexeract by Auddict it is really nice.


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## asherpope

I haven't checked out the thread but the Tyrell N-6 by U-he could do the job, plus it's a freebie


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## JashandeepReehal

Yeah tyrell is awesome. I use it. It's is amazing uhe has more free ones like podolski and triple cheese. If you wanna spend there is also Continually by audio damage. It is really good.


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## JashandeepReehal

But though I don't own it. I have used hexeract and it will really do a good job with the genre


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## JashandeepReehal

Output signal is also fun to use. They also have a free version of it that works in Kontatk full. It is really fun to use


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## asherpope

JashandeepReehal said:


> Yeah tyrell is awesome. I use it. It's is amazing uhe has more free ones like podolski and triple cheese. If you wanna spend there is also Continually by audio damage. It is really good.


Didn't know that! Thanks for the tip!


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## Rctec

DerGeist said:


> I'm probably completely alone in this but I find Zebra to be one of the most immediate and easy to program soft synths. I can go from Init to something unique (or bread and butter) faster than I can in any other software or hardware and I'm hardly a power user.
> 
> I fully accept that this is probably just me.


Zebra is obviously my soft synth of choice. it’s super easy to use, truly endlessly inspiring, and I’ve used it on every film synth “The Dark Knight”. If you want to go Cyberpunk, get the Knifonium. The software version really is very, very good. I have both hardware and software Knifoniums.


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## JashandeepReehal

Yeah. Zebra is just mindblowing I have used it on a friends machine. I am thinking if getting it


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## Solarsentinel

If i may give you an advice : choose the synth you re the most confordable with. Because even if the synth offers you more options, generally you ll return to the one that you know and who is easy to work with. I think if serum is the one for you go for it!
Furthermore you can do pretty everything with this synth. You cannot go wrong with it.


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## JashandeepReehal

Yeah that is the main thing actually. I have analog lab lite. And I am really comfortable with it. I am gonna buy the collection soon, when I get enough money. I really like analog modelling. The next one I like is Signal by output. I use the free version. I find them very comfortable to work with although uhe are amazing, they weren't really my type


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## Ned Bouhalassa

I love the cyberpunk aesthetic. In keeping with the style, I would go with a past-future instrument, hardware more than software. If you don’t want to go vintage, Arturia’s MicroFreak and Dreadbox’s Typhon would be very appropriate.


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## vitocorleone123

Rctec said:


> Zebra is obviously my soft synth of choice. it’s super easy to use, truly endlessly inspiring, and I’ve used it on every film synth “The Dark Knight”. If you want to go Cyberpunk, get the Knifonium. The software version really is very, very good. I have both hardware and software Knifoniums.



I need to try Zebra again now that I have more experience (and have hardware synths like the OB-6, which really helped me learn what I'm doing with the 1:1 interface) - the one time I've tried it I think I was scared off by the depth. It seems like an instrument you need to be able to spend time getting to know, and I failed to do that. I think Zebra3 could be revelatory, and reflect all that they've learned in the intervening years.

To date, I'm using Hive2 for sounds in this direction (or Omnisphere). I just picked up DS Thorn, which is even more "crisp" sounding - I wanted something even more unabashedly digital to have on tap.


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## h.s.j.e

...And now I have to add Knifonium to my list. 

If you're reading this post on the night I wrote it, you can grab Unfiltered Audio's LION for $20 with the Plugin Alliance voucher. In the early days of designing sounds and playing with it, I'd say it's suited for exactly this kind of thing.


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## Minko

Arise said:


> Thanks for the suggestions. I actually got a synth now. I might reconsider Omnisphere in the future, and I heard great things about Falcon, though I prefer something more intuitive, but it looks to be the best option for deep sound design and sampling.
> 
> I was considering Serum/Zebra due to my experiences with them but ended up actually going with VPS Avenger. It's pretty awesome and versatile and can do almost anything and has a nice interface as well.


That what I wanted to suggest. I actually love the interface and the ease of use. I hope they will go to a dongle licensing with v2.0 cause I don't like the current licensing solution they use.

But I wanted to ask. How is it working for you?


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## romanr

Rctec said:


> Zebra is obviously my soft synth of choice. it’s super easy to use, truly endlessly inspiring, and I’ve used it on every film synth “The Dark Knight”. If you want to go Cyberpunk, get the Knifonium. The software version really is very, very good. I have both hardware and software Knifoniums.


I'm usually more a passionate lurker here than an author but somehow I stumbled upon this thread because I'm recently working on some Cyberpunk-influenced tracks, too (but mixing them with orchestral elements). @Rctec definitely +1 for Zebra, Hans, couldn't agree more! I always find super inspiring sounds in the Zebra presets (and in some Zebra-packs by The Unfinished) that can provide any "hybrid" track with some very tasty special sauce. And even for me as a synth noob, basic tweaking is really intuitive. Also, thanks for the other hint, that "Knifonium" sounds awesome!

BTW @Arise if it helps: for the track I mentioned, I mainly used Zebra 2 (around 90% of the synths) and a tiny bit of NI's Massive. You can find it below in the "Spoiler". Have fun with your new synth as well of course, feel free to drop some samples of your work with it !



Spoiler


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## Greg

Diva by a mile


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## Daniel James

I ventured into this world recently and so from my own tests I found:

If you are going for 'Cyberpunk', and by that I mean like the music one would think when they think of the upcoming videogame Cyberpunk. The all the mentioned Serums, Massive...general wavetable nonsense, mixed with a synth that has balls like a u-he diva pinned underneith will get you all the filth you need for that sort of style. If this is the type of sound you are going for you can always consider things like re-sampling from 'loop packs' as found on Black Octopus or Loopmasters.... These kinds of electronic generes use very particular sets of sounds to be considered authentic to the genre, you can usually pick up a sample pack for like $30 that will have all the correct drums you could need, plus usually some one shot bass synth samples, which you should totally resample and smash together. Thats part of the genre!

Or as I see you mentioned more of the filmic, or synthwavy sorts of tones. You should definitely pick up a Juno clone, like the incredible one from TAL. It has 'that' sound you are hearing in your head. Its super easy to program, and the sounds are so clean they are really easy to sound design after the fact. *





TAL Software


TAL VST, AU, Audio Unit, AAX plug-ins for OSX and Windows




tal-software.com




*
Anyways happy synthing!

-DJ


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