# What do you use your Synths mostly for ?



## muziksculp (Aug 22, 2020)

Hi,

I thought it would be fun to have a discussion on general topics related to using Synths.

So...What do you tend to use your synths (Both HW & SW) mostly for ? 

Pure Synthetic Music
Hybrid Orchestral-Synthetic Music
Experimental Electronic Music
Sound effects
Ambient Music
Dance type Genres of Electronic Music
etc. etc.

Do you spend a good amount of time designing your own custom sounds ? 

Do you Enjoy experimenting with Orchestral/Acoustic Sounds, and Synthetic sounds from an orchestration perspective ? i.e. Layering bass synths with orchestral Basses ? or use Synths to be part of an orchestral statement, idea, ARP, lead melodic instrument, ..etc. 

Any other related discussion to this topic is cool to discuss here. 

Thanks,
Muziksculp


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## CT (Aug 22, 2020)

For my own music, I'm usually not that interested in the typical leads/pads/basses/arps thing. I'm mostly after strange, interesting textures/soundscapes (I guess that sometimes means pads) to work with/inside the orchestra and other acoustic instruments. I think of it as several keyboardists (using either hardware or software synths) sitting with the rest of the ensemble, playing as part of it, rather than a separate layer on top of the acoustic stuff. If that makes any sense.

As for designing my own sounds, I've found that because of the sort of thing I'm after, I almost have to. There is not much preset (stock or commercial) focus on what I like outside of Omnisphere, really. And yet I still resist buying it....


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## bill5 (Aug 24, 2020)

muziksculp said:


> What do you tend to use your synths (Both HW & SW) mostly for ?


Rock/pop
Jazz
Country
Folk
Ambient/"chill"



> Do you spend a good amount of time designing your own custom sounds ?


Nah



> Do you Enjoy experimenting with Orchestral/Acoustic Sounds, and Synthetic sounds from an orchestration perspective ?


A little, it varies......


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## Technostica (Aug 24, 2020)

I use my Prophet 10 as a coffee table.


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## TomislavEP (Aug 24, 2020)

I'm mostly into neoclassical, ambient, new age, and jazz styles, occasionally classic electronica. Most often I use synths for background elements such as pads, textures, and atmospheres but also leads, arps and other rhythmic pieces.

I rarely program patches from scratch; most often I tweak the presets I like to fit my needs. Also, I quite often come across those that inspire me as they are. Sometimes I even conceive the whole track around the certain preset.


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## Polkasound (Aug 24, 2020)

I use my soft synths almost exclusively for dance/pop music... basses, leads, pads, and plucks. Typically I'll hunt for a preset that is in the ballpark of what I want [I enjoy this process, because auditioning presets can instantly spark a new idea] and then I'll tweak the preset until it's right.


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## muziksculp (Aug 24, 2020)

bill5 said:


> Country
> Folk



Interesting. I don't usually hear a lot of synths being used in these two genres.

Thanks for the feedback.


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## Kent (Aug 24, 2020)

in an orchestral context, I use them as Goldsmith did—a fifth ensemble in the same room.

In a video game context, they’re...all over the place. I’m actually more likely to use romplers


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## bill5 (Aug 24, 2020)

muziksculp said:


> Interesting. I don't usually hear a lot of synths being used in these two genres.
> 
> Thanks for the feedback.


Keep in mind synths can do analog sounds  I don't have any EDM stuff going on there.


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## Pier (Aug 24, 2020)

I've done some media stuff but I'm more from the electronic world (ambient, EDM, glitch, etc).

I don't write much music lately to be honest because this year I've started a solo internet venture.

The past months I've focused on trying out and learning new synths but ended up selling most of my virtual synths and got back right where I started: Zebra.

I'm now spending my music time working on some cinematic patches for Zebra. There's a lot of great stuff out there for beautiful pads and synth sounds (eg: The Unfinished) but I haven't found any cinematic library focused on raw distorted sounds. I'm liking how it's turning out and I'm having lots of fun. I might try to sell it if it turns out alright...


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## Thudinthenight (Aug 24, 2020)

Pier said:


> I've done some media stuff but I'm more from the electronic world (ambient, EDM, glitch, etc).
> 
> I don't write much music lately to be honest because this year I've started a solo internet venture.
> 
> ...



ZebraHZ is the only synth where I do sound design for fun. I have a few others, mostly using tweaked presets... but Zebra is just a vast sonic playground.

Between Zebra and Omnisphere (for those psychoacoustic sounds) all my synth bases are covered. Not getting rid of Diva though!


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## Pier (Aug 24, 2020)

Thudinthenight said:


> ZebraHZ is the only synth where I do sound design for fun. I have a few others, mostly using tweaked presets... but Zebra is just a vast sonic playground.
> 
> Between Zebra and Omnisphere (for those psychoacoustic sounds) all my synth bases are covered. Not getting rid of Diva though!



I actually sold Diva 2 weeks ago 

I know... it's just that it didn't get much use and I prefer how The Legend sounds.


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## jmauz (Aug 24, 2020)

I use my Moog Mini turned up to 11 to seal the deal with prospective clients.

Then I use the plugin during production.

Just kidding.


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## bill5 (Aug 24, 2020)

jmauz said:


> I use my Moog Mini turned up to 11 to seal the deal with prospective clients.
> 
> Then I use the plugin during production.
> 
> Just kidding.


aw - I was going to ask if you were going on tour to perform your Shark Sandwich album live.


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## Daniel (Aug 25, 2020)

Omnisphere/Trilian = for film.
Serum = pop/Experimental Electronic Music/Ambient Music/Dance type Genres of Electronic Music




muziksculp said:


> Do you spend a good amount of time designing your own custom sounds ?
> ....



Nope, I am a lazy preset guy. Hundreds of good presets available in the market these days. Let the professional produces everyday and we will buy which is suitable for needs. 



muziksculp said:


> Do you Enjoy experimenting with Orchestral/Acoustic Sounds, and Synthetic sounds from an orchestration perspective ? i.e. Layering bass synths with orchestral Basses ? or use Synths to be part of an orchestral statement, idea, ARP, lead melodic instrument, ..etc.
> ...............



Absolutely.


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## ThomasL (Aug 25, 2020)

muziksculp said:


> So...What do you tend to use your synths (Both HW & SW) mostly for ?
> 
> Pure Synthetic Music
> Hybrid Orchestral-Synthetic Music
> ...


I'd say to all of those, I use synths as a "natural" instrument in almost everything I do.



muziksculp said:


> Do you spend a good amount of time designing your own custom sounds ?


Oh yes, absolutely! This is where synths differ from most other instruments, you can actually create your own timbre and decide (through modulations) how it will perform, how you actually want to "play" it so to speak.

I try to set aside an hour or two (at least) every week to go down the patch creation rabbit hole. This is where hardware rules in my opinion. I can spend a good hour hunched over my PEAK and just fiddle with an LFO or two :D

Sometimes it turns into a preset, sometimes to songs...

Presets never (almost) have the correct sound I'm after. Sometimes it's actually faster to create a new one than tweak a preset. Depends on how it's going to be performed/played.



muziksculp said:


> Do you Enjoy experimenting with Orchestral/Acoustic Sounds, and Synthetic sounds from an orchestration perspective ? i.e. Layering bass synths with orchestral Basses ? or use Synths to be part of an orchestral statement, idea, ARP, lead melodic instrument, ..etc.


Yes. To all


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## vitocorleone123 (Aug 26, 2020)

A better question for me would be, "what do you use orchestral libraries for?". In other words, I'm always using synths, rarely (to date) using orchestral.

Yes, depending on the synth, I make my own patches. Most presets/packs don't have a lot that I'm interested in, unless it's to help learn the synth. I used to preset surf (still do in Omni), but ever since getting some hardware synths I've become much more adept at making patches on the hardware AND software. Just as studying and experiencing orchestral performances would, presumably, be key to learning how to compose a score, so, too, is it important to study how to create sounds - even if just to more quickly and confidently tweak a preset someone else made.

I'm most actively making patches on my OB-6 desktop. A couple per week, often just for fun, with nothing in mind but seeing where the interface takes me. It's a lot more fun for me to create patches on hardware than software, that's for sure. I'm usually too lazy to use wire up one of the hardware synths to be a knobby controller for software.


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## Wally Garten (Sep 5, 2020)

muziksculp said:


> Hi,
> 
> I thought it would be fun to have a discussion on general topics related to using Synths.
> 
> ...



I make largely science fiction-related music in a rock/post-rock/experimental electronic vein. Obviously, synths are critical, and a lot of what I'm interested in is finding cool sounds to help create a world or a mood. So I do spend a lot of time designing my own sounds, although I'm in no way too proud to use a preset if it grabs me.

Orchestral and other samples are also very important to a lot of what I do, and I think they can add a lot of warmth and humanity to electronic genres. But I'm often not particularly interested in making my organic samples sound "realistic" -- I tend to use them more like another synth. It's a synth with organic texture, but I'm not necessarily trying to mimic a live performance. I suppose for that reason, I tend to really enjoy sample libraries that are designed to be played, and used in sound design, like a synth. Spitfire has a ton of these -- all their grid based stuff, like Kepler and the Hauschka toolkit. In a different way, British Drama Toolkit. The Orchestra and Sonokinetic's Ostinato series also have that quality. 

I do some stuff where I'm thinking more about traditional orchestration and strive for a more "realistic" orchestral sound, but it's not common.


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## clisma (Sep 5, 2020)

I use 

the Matrixbrute for lighting,
the An1x for heating,
the Peak to ensure there’s electrical power.

Occasionally I twist the knobs.


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## whinecellar (Sep 5, 2020)

Inspiration. Getting my eyes off the screen and swiveling to another part of the room to interact with synth hardware has given me countless great ideas. Maybe it’s the change of scenery, but playing another instrument and twisting knobs just plain puts me in great directions.


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## AndreasHe (Sep 5, 2020)

Hi composers! 

I prefer to use
Leads and basses

With other orchestral instruments (Kontakt) and for electronic music. 

Do not want hardware synth, only software: omnisphere, massive. 

Usually I scan existing presets and modify them. And an ARP is very important for me.


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## Saxer (Sep 6, 2020)

I found that simple/cheesy music (drone-based, arpeggios, one-chord-world, slow motion lines) often sounds great on synths but sophisticated things (interesting harmonic progressions, independent polyphonic voices, mid to fast tempo melodies) often sound cheap. Is this just me?


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## muziksculp (Sep 7, 2020)

Saxer said:


> I found that simple/cheesy music (drone-based, arpeggios, one-chord-world, slow motion lines) often sounds great on synths but sophisticated things (interesting harmonic progressions, independent polyphonic voices, mid to fast tempo melodies) often sound cheap. Is this just me?



Hi @Saxer,

Your comment tells me you are not a big synth music fan. Sorry but imho. your comment is blanket and wrong generalization of Synth music.  

There is synth music I dislike, but there is also synth music that I love, so it all depends on what clicks with you, and what doesn't. You can't generalize. 

Maybe you should spend some time listening to more electornic music, hybrid soundtracks, synthwave , Vangelis, Jean Michelle Jarre, Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregsson-Williams, ....etc. and so many more super talented composers/musicians making sophisticated synth music that is very inspirational, and has nothing to do with the word 'Cheap'. 

It's like if I was to say, I find Orchestral music that doesn't have a piano melody often sounds cheap. 

Cheers,
Muziksculp


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## Greg (Sep 7, 2020)

Saxer said:


> I found that simple/cheesy music (drone-based, arpeggios, one-chord-world, slow motion lines) often sounds great on synths but sophisticated things (interesting harmonic progressions, independent polyphonic voices, mid to fast tempo melodies) often sound cheap. Is this just me?



The vast majority of synth music is sterile for sure. But then you find an artist like Lorn or Jon Hopkins and you realize that these machines are capable of saying anything thats in the heart of the musician, much like every other acoustic instrument. But synths have only been around for a little while so a lot of artists are just discovering whats possible with them and pushing those boundaries.


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## antret (Sep 7, 2020)

Hey everyone! I hope you all are staying safe and doing well! 

I use synths in pretty much everything I do. The music runs the gamut from gtr/piano driven ‘post rock’-ish things to straight up electronica to more ambient/chill styles. 

I do always try to mix in some strings,well, because I like them! Chris Hein solo strings and LASS see a lot of action over here. (I’m a sucker for small, dry string sections). 

I don’t always roll my own sounds, but the presets rarely give what I’m looking for, so I do tweak quite a bit. I do like a ton of presets though as I like the ideas they can give me. 

I’ve been really finding that the more ‘straightforward’ synths have been fulfilling my needs greatly. Plus, I can’t get some things together fast. In case anyone is interested, here are my recent faves:

Synth master one & synth master
The HY synth 
All things TAL 

Don’t laugh but I use often:
Ascension from WA Productions
Hybrid 3 from AIR. 
Vacuum Pro from AIR

I’ve recently put my Yamaha EX5 back in the role of master controller and realized those 90’s rompers had some magic, so I have been demoing the korg triton Vsti.


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## muziksculp (Sep 8, 2020)

antret said:


> The HY synth



This is the first time I hear about HY Synth (I googled it, I saw they have the HY-Poly) 

https://hy-plugins.com/

I will check it out. 

Thanks for your feedback. Stay safe, and have fun using your synths.


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## antret (Sep 11, 2020)

Hi!

Yes that's the HY one! 

I just got back some drum tracks for this latest tune. It actually uses Ascension as the 'main pluck/chord' sound, HY-Poly for the bass, Hybrid 3 for the pads, one of the TAL freebies (noisemaker?) as the 2nd bass arp in part 2 of the song. What I find interesting about this song is that the main chords/pluck and bass patterns were written on my phone using Korg Gadget. I then exported all the midi to DropBox and loaded it up into Studio One to add the rest. I really have a hard time using my phone to sketch out music ideas (small fiddly screen), but I decided to give a real go (at least giving it more than 30 seconds...). The drums are real. I work with my friend in AZ often, so we share his drum files via Google Drive.

The pad sound could have been made with any synth really as I was thinking it was going to be a 'placeholder sound'. Everyone seemed to like it so it will stay.  It doesn't really show off anything that Hybrid 3 can do though.... Anyhow, feel free to give a listen!




Take Care,

Anthony


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## muziksculp (Sep 11, 2020)

@antret ,

Sounds very good. 

Thanks for sharing.


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## muziksculp (Sep 11, 2020)

Please feel free to share your Synth/Hybrid music tracks on this thread.


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## bill5 (Sep 11, 2020)

Greg said:


> The vast majority of synth music is sterile for sure.


But as you say, that's due to a lot of "sterile" artists, not something inherent to synths. In fact, if anything, it's more expressive...you can bend and shape and sculpt synth sounds more than you can "traditional" instruments. PS I'm not saying one is better than the other.


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## kevinh (Sep 11, 2020)

Pier said:


> I actually sold Diva 2 weeks ago




You should be banned from this forum. How dare you


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## vitocorleone123 (Sep 11, 2020)

Greg said:


> The vast majority of synth music is sterile for sure.



That'd sort of be like me saying the vast majority of orchestral music is muddy, or something. Judgmental much and untrue.

You don't have to like it, but just because you don't like it doesn't mean your opinion is The Truth. Listening to orchestral might put me to sleep, but that doesn't make me think that all orchestral is boring and hard to hear.


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## chillbot (Sep 11, 2020)

whinecellar said:


> my eyes


You had me at my eyes. Is that your room, woooweee <3 we have a lot of the same stuff. Have you looked at the Sequential Pro 3 SE because man it has knocked my socks off.


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## bill5 (Sep 11, 2020)

vitocorleone123 said:


> That'd sort of be like me saying the vast majority of orchestral music is muddy, or something.


Not really. But you're certainly entitled to your opinion.


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## whinecellar (Sep 12, 2020)

chillbot said:


> You had me at my eyes. Is that your room, woooweee <3 we have a lot of the same stuff. Have you looked at the Sequential Pro 3 SE because man it has knocked my socks off.


Ha - yes sir! I pinch myself often - walking into my room is the fulfillment of all my teenage dreams. Fun stuff.

I haven’t checked out the Pro 3 yet but the few demos I’ve heard sound fantastic - it’s definitely on my list, along with the Hydrasynth. Really cool stuff!


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## Greg (Sep 12, 2020)

vitocorleone123 said:


> That'd sort of be like me saying the vast majority of orchestral music is muddy, or something. Judgmental much and untrue.
> 
> You don't have to like it, but just because you don't like it doesn't mean your opinion is The Truth. Listening to orchestral might put me to sleep, but that doesn't make me think that all orchestral is boring and hard to hear.



I love artists like Nils Frahm, Moderat, Boards of Canada, Lorn, Jon Hopkins, Ben Frost, Trent Reznor. They use synths in a completely different way than most artists. They are alive and organic, often vintage analog machines drifting in and out of tune in a beautiful and musical way. These artists stand out for a reason. The vast majority of EDM and synth music is uninspired shit compared to what they do with synths.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 12, 2020)

Greg said:


> I love artists like Nils Frahm, Moderat, Boards of Canada, Lorn, Jon Hopkins, Ben Frost, Trent Reznor. They use synths in a completely different way than most artists. They are alive and organic, often vintage analog machines drifting in and out of tune in a beautiful and musical way. These artists stand out for a reason. The vast majority of EDM and synth music is uninspired shit compared to what they do with synths.


Love all of the artists you mention there!


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## sostenuto (Sep 12, 2020)

Shallow Soft-synth chops here, even with several good VSTi for long time. 

Recently, have truly enjoyed Arturia - Analog Lab 4 + Sound Banks !! Choices like: Vangelis Tribute, Floyd Tribute, Tangerine Tribute, Aphex Tribute, Synthwave, Richard Devine's Signature, ...... many more ..... let me go back to cool, earlier times and sounds. 
_Not so easy to create these from scratch, but tons of fun trying !_



https://www.arturia.com/analoglab/sounds


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## muziksculp (Sep 12, 2020)

Some of us appreciate, and enjoy a wider range of electronic music, genre, ..etc than others. Just like orchestral music, there are varying degrees of the variety of music we appreciate, relate to, and enjoy in any genre. 

i.e. I like some of The Boards of Canada's music, but find some of their music kind of bland, and boring, our taste buds for music vary a lot, no way to generalize. Again, just because one loves a specific artist, or track, doesn't mean someone else will have the same perception to it.


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## vitocorleone123 (Sep 12, 2020)

Greg said:


> I love artists like Nils Frahm, Moderat, Boards of Canada, Lorn, Jon Hopkins, Ben Frost, Trent Reznor. They use synths in a completely different way than most artists. They are alive and organic, often vintage analog machines drifting in and out of tune in a beautiful and musical way. These artists stand out for a reason. The vast majority of EDM and synth music is uninspired shit compared to what they do with synths.



It's good to have opinions and preferences.

One could easily say the vast majority of all art is uninspired shit. One can easily say a lot of things that may not be true, or may not be true for anyone but one's self. I could easily rewrite what you said from my prospective about orchestral music (or many other musical or artistic genres). But I wouldn't assume that my truth was Truth. Hopefully you aren't, as you render judgement from that high horse.


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## Greg (Sep 12, 2020)

vitocorleone123 said:


> It's good to have opinions and preferences.
> 
> One could easily say the vast majority of all art is uninspired shit. One can easily say a lot of things that may not be true, or may not be true for anyone but one's self. I could easily rewrite what you said from my prospective about orchestral music (or many other musical or artistic genres). But I wouldn't assume that my truth was Truth. Hopefully you aren't, as you render judgement from that high horse.



Why are you taking my opinion so personal?


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## Sleeper Hold (Sep 20, 2020)

For me it is more from a film score perspective. I think I watched my first carpenter movie when I was 10 or something and I guess these simple minimalistic synth scores left a big impression on me. Legend by Ridley Scott is also definitely something where the music left a mark (the movie maybe not so much). Also my father always tinkered around with workstations and MIDI Sound Modules and I loved to just cycle through dozens of these presets and hear new sounds .They must have sounded very exotic to my young ears.

Only much later I got to really know Tangerine Dream and their many projects, of course Vangelis and all the other projects by Carpenter. I like synthesis so much because a synthesizer can be immensely diverse, a clean slate but also a collection of iconic sounds.
So building something expressive from a single waveform or any other INIT Template still feels like magic today and I really love that. The Synthesizer is very unique in that it can be taken in all these extreme directions that work in many environments.

So yeah for me it is an open book and I am rarely not using any synthesis in my projects. Even strictly orchestral stuff can a lot of times benefit from a little sine here and there!


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## doctoremmet (Sep 20, 2020)

Sleeper Hold said:


> So building something expressive from a single waveform or any other INIT Template still feels like magic today and I really love that.


Totally recognizable here! It is sheer magic, after getting my first hardware FM synth sometime in 1986 I have been hooked. Today, the old and by now classic synth pioneers still sound fresh. Wendy Carlos, Gary Numan, Japan’s 1981 Tin Drum album with all the weird ringmod going on, Kraftwerk, electronic stuff by Radiohead, to people like Craven Faults today... the sound of synthesized waveforms still has me on the edge of my seat when done originally. I also totally subscribe to adding synthesized sounds to more orchestral works. From sine sub bass to more evolved pads. I also love to record strings and woodwinds using sample libraries and mangling those tracks into oblivion with Steinberg Padshop or Iris. Synths are so.... creative haha ❤


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