# “Best” synth for hybrid orchestral music



## kimarnesen (Jan 11, 2018)

Looking for recommendations on synths to use for hybrid/cross-over orchestral music, so together with my orchestral sample libraries. 

It can be pads, loops, arps, basses, pianos, and more. I’m not experienced with synths but I do have Massive, Absynth 5, Lunaris, Signal and Hexeract. So there’s a few, but something tells me I should have Omnisphere, Nexus and Zebra, but which one?


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## Anders Bru (Jan 11, 2018)

You can do plenty of excellent synth-work with Massive. Personally, I use Serum and Omnisphere mostly. Serum for more digital, "synth" sounds (also excellent for making wavetables out of your own recordings), and Omnisphere for when I want a bit more of an "organic" sound. Omnisphere has a good, integrated sampler, and comes with a huge library of sounds, that can easily be mixed with synthetic sounds to create all kinds of cool sounds. Nexus can be good if you just want to have usable, good sounds (I don't use it personally), but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for hybrid orchestral music. I would suggest you download the demos and try them out for yourself


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## markd (Jan 11, 2018)

I primarily use Iris 2 and Hybrid 3.

I use Hybrid 3 for typical synth stuff (basses, leads, basic pads, sequenced stuff). And it's only $1! It's great for creating sequenced sounds heard in tons of action movies.
https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/4-Synth/1545-Hybrid-3

My workhorse synth for pads, atmospheres and rhythmic stuff is Iris 2. It's so easy to create moving, ethereal pads and rhythmic pads and pulses. I use this for creating horror/suspense pads a lot, mixed with orchestral samples.


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## synthpunk (Jan 11, 2018)

Massive can be quite useful for wavetable style sounds and more. You either love it or hate it. Check out the Unfinished soundsets for Massive. The demo's on his site and there are a couple of good freebies here: http://www.theunfinished.co.uk/free/

U-he: Zebra HZ or Diva. There are free demo versions of both that you can give them a try and decide which you like best. There are also some great U-he freebies: Podolski, Tyrell N6, Zebralette, Beatzille you can check out.
http://www.u-he.com/

Omnisphere. Versatile, Does allot of things really well. Check out soundsets by Midissonance and The Unfinished.

Serum, Avenger, Sylenth, have more of a EDM edge

Seeing you are not into programming much I would not recommend a sound design platform such as Reaktor or Falcon.




Anders Bru said:


> You can do plenty of excellent synth-work with Massive. Personally, I use Serum and Omnisphere mostly. Serum for more digital, "synth" sounds (also excellent for making wavetables out of your own recordings), and Omnisphere for when I want a bit more of an "organic" sound. Omnisphere has a good, integrated sampler, and comes with a huge library of sounds, that can easily be mixed with synthetic sounds to create all kinds of cool sounds. Nexus can be good if you just want to have usable, good sounds (I don't use it personally), but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for hybrid orchestral music. I would suggest you download the demos and try them out for yourself


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## kimarnesen (Jan 11, 2018)

Thanks! After some big investments of sample libraries I think I’ll just pick one at this point. What are good criteria to think about for this usage?


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## sostenuto (Jan 11, 2018)

kimarnesen said:


> Thanks! After some big investments of sample libraries I think I’ll just pick one at this point. What are good criteria to think about for this usage?



One often overlooked, strong feature with Omni*2* is major addition of content from Spectrasonics Legacy Libraries !!
Really worth checking out apart from well-documented strengths:

https://www.spectrasonics.net/products/index-legacy.php


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## synthpunk (Jan 11, 2018)

Your personal taste and which inspires your own voice and inspiration to be unique.



kimarnesen said:


> Thanks! After some big investments of sample libraries I think I’ll just pick one at this point. What are good criteria to think about for this usage?


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## Jaap (Jan 11, 2018)

Zebra 2 and the Dark Zebra are really great to add all kinds of good synth stuff to your hybrid productions. Omnisphere 2 is great as well, but can be quite expensive when starting out, however it is worth every penny in my opinion.


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## Living Fossil (Jan 11, 2018)

I remember when i demoed Zebra 2 in the early 2004. At that time u-he was a one man company and not yet very known. After some minutes with the demo i was amazed how well its sound coexisted with real (orchestral) instruments, much better than any other softsynth that existed at that time.

Now, 14 years later, i still think it's the best choice if you want to expand an orchestral palette without losing a homogenic sound. Zebra is perfect in providing sounds that could be "real" instruments, but just aren't.

Omnisphere is also a great choice (I'm still with version 1...), however, if i'd had to pick one it would be Zebra.
PS, i would also add the HZ version and some soundsets.


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## Puzzlefactory (Jan 11, 2018)

Serum is pretty powerful and you can get it on rent to buy too.


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## synthpunk (Jan 11, 2018)

2 payments left Pf! 



Puzzlefactory said:


> Serum is pretty powerful and you can get it on rent to buy too.


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## Greg (Jan 11, 2018)

Omnisphere 2 by far for me. You can do anything with it and the sound source selection is unbeatable. The only downfall is the on board effects are pretty bad. I'd rather have omnisphere than every other digital synth on the market combined.


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## agarner32 (Jan 11, 2018)

Greg, I have Omnisphere 2 as well. I know there are tons, but can you or anyone else recommend some sound sets? I'm looking for more organic sounds that blend with orchestral instruments much like the original poster requested.


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## synthpunk (Jan 11, 2018)

Here are a couple favorites:

http://www.theunfinished.co.uk/shop/omnisphere-colossus-ii/

http://midissonance.com/
(Including a free bank to try out)



agarner32 said:


> Greg, I have Omnisphere 2 as well. I know there are tons, but can you or anyone else recommend some sound sets? I'm looking for more organic sounds that blend with orchestral instruments much like the original poster requested.


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## sostenuto (Jan 11, 2018)

Those for sure, and Luftrum is another fav here. 

Have not faulted Omni2 FX ….. however, any of recent Pluginguru Libs contain large (~160) set of FX presets which are darn useful.
Recent MegaMagic: Cello is an interesting change for John Lehmkuhl, with Viola(s) on horizon. 
Watch for frequent 'Sales'. 

https://www.pluginguru.com/products/megamagic-cello/


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## agarner32 (Jan 11, 2018)

Thank you guys for the great suggestions.


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## Ashermusic (Jan 12, 2018)

I would say that the U-he Repro 1-5 tandem would fit the bill.


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## blougui (Jan 12, 2018)

There's a lot you can do with Avenger,considering it boats now a granular engine and you have both Arpegiator and Sequencer... 

Other than that, Omni and Zebra are pretty standard in the media scene. Omni is really easy to get good result with,right out of the box thanx to its zillion of presets.


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## synthpunk (Jan 12, 2018)

Love them both but do not know if they would be my "one" choice for hybrid. 



Ashermusic said:


> I would say that the U-he Repro 1-5 tandem would fit the bill.


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## Ashermusic (Jan 13, 2018)

synthpunk said:


> Love them both but do not know if they would be my "one" choice for hybrid.



For John Powell-ish?


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## synthpunk (Jan 13, 2018)

Jay, I think I seen two synths in John's last template: Omni and Alchemy. For older Bourne vibe I would say Omni2 without a doubt. I'm not into his newer stuff as much but if you have some examples I will give it a go. J



Ashermusic said:


> For John Powell-ish?


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## Ashermusic (Jan 13, 2018)

synthpunk said:


> Jay, I think I seen two synths in John's last template: Omni and Alchemy. For older Bourne vibe I would say Omni2 without a doubt. I'm not into his newer stuff as much but if you have some examples I will give it a go. J




Interesting. FWIW, when I do hybrid I think John Powell and Sean Callery. Everyone else is "runner up".


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## synthpunk (Jan 13, 2018)

Wish I could say I listen to much hybrid lately, but I do not. But if that's what I was doing I would suggest you check out @Vin 's Midissonace Omni2 patches.


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## Ashermusic (Jan 13, 2018)

Cool, thanks for the tips, Synthpunk.


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## synthpunk (Jan 13, 2018)

Your welcome Jay.



Ashermusic said:


> Cool, thanks for the tips, Synthpunk.


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