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Limit yourself with some kind of an all-in-one-box?

Voider

From the future
Hey guys! I want to share a thought and ask for recommendations right after it.

Sometimes I am tired of doing all the sounddesign. Well, not quite tired but it consumes time before I come to the actual process of writing music.

Sometimes I just listen to old soundtracks like this one from the old first Deus Ex:



It just sounds great. The sounds are dated yes, but somehow this little world of sound stands on its own. No risers, brahms, booms, huge impacts, cinematic trailer libraries, no 500€ strings, no complicated five times layered synths with an SFX chain of 8 instances on its back and tons of different plugins.

I have to think then back when I visited Michael McCanns website (who composed the OST for Deus Ex: Human Revolution) and listened to his album "Persona" from 1998. The description stated that he produced, mixed and wrote the album completely on the Kurzweil K2000.

I'm asking myself if it sometimes would just be a relief to have something with fixed, simple sounds and just compose with it for the sake of composing. I know I could just open up Kontakt 5 and use my cheap orchestra library in it which is a lot of fun.

But let's say I still want to use synthesizers, electronic percussion and at least reverb and delay - just like in the original Deus Ex OST linked above. Do you know any all-in-one solution?

Do I have to look for some big sampler keyboards? Does something like that exist in the software world? Something with a consistent sound because everything is coming from the same source, if you get me. A piece of hardware or software-box that I just open up and then need almost nothing else and can just jam and create.
 
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I guess you could argue a lot of soft synths would kind of meet these requirements. My first inclination was to say Omnisphere 2, but there's quite a variety there. They do all come from the same source though. Then there's other somewhat more limited synths that are more traditional, like TAL-U-NO-LX, ANA 2, some U-He ones, etc. Also, some of the hardware synth workstations that generally run 1-3k$ could probably fit this boat too.

Somewhat related, I love McCann's stuff. Have you checked out Disasterpeace's score to the game Hyper Light Drifter? Has a similar aesthetic of all coming from a few synths:

But for versatility and all in one, can't say enough good about Omnisphere 2. @PaulBrimstone can back me up on this one as we've had several discussions around that line. Phenomenal bang for your buck, worth every penny.
 
I guess you could argue a lot of soft synths would kind of meet these requirements. My first inclination was to say Omnisphere 2, but there's quite a variety there. They do all come from the same source though. Then there's other somewhat more limited synths that are more traditional, like TAL-U-NO-LX, ANA 2, some U-He ones, etc. Also, some of the hardware synth workstations that generally run 1-3k$ could probably fit this boat too.

Well I am not looking for just a synth. More like the workstations you mentioned in the end. I expect it to have synth patches, (cheap) recreations of orchestra instruments like strings and percussive samples, acoustic instruments. I think it's even not worse if the quantity is higher than the quality, since the idea here is just to be covered as much as possible from one source and then just to start. :)

Somewhat related, I love McCann's stuff. Have you checked out Disasterpeace's score to the game Hyper Light Drifter? Has a similar aesthetic of all coming from a few synths:

I love McCanns stuff too, and that track from HLD is cool! Sounddesign heavy though.

Omnisphere 2 and you’re welcome.

Just checked the library list, now that's huge. Looks promising, but might be a bit expensive at the moment to me for just an experiment. Is there something else like Omnisphere 2, something smaller on a budget? :D
 
Well I am not looking for just a synth. More like the workstations you mentioned in the end. I expect it to have synth patches, (cheap) recreations of orchestra instruments like strings and percussive samples, acoustic instruments. I think it's even not worse if the quantity is higher than the quality, since the idea here is just to be covered as much as possible from one source and then just to start. :)



I love McCanns stuff too, and that track from HLD is cool! Sounddesign heavy though.



Just checked the library list, now that's huge. Looks promising, but might be a bit expensive at the moment to me for just an experiment. Is there something else like Omnisphere 2, something smaller on a budget? :D

Check Blue 2. there is some samples (strings,bass,choir,and pan flute and some percussion) and powerful oscs in here. sometimes indeed simple setup sounds nice i try also develop relative simple setup i want mainly focus composing.
 
If you don't mind retro or "cheap" sounding there is the Rhythmic Robot Emulator II Kontakt library

It sounds awesome!! I love retro/cheap sounds :)

For what you're talking about I also suspect that a hardware unit might be a better choice. A Motif or even a Roland JP-08 sort of thing?

I checked workstations yesterday night and I think they begin at 500€ upwards, that's a bit steep for the beginning. But there seems to be a lot cool software solutions. But yeah, maybe one day a hardware rompler! I would prefer that actually.

@ Topic
Found these two yesterday!

C-Tools by Heavyocity
coming with a little FM-Synth, a drum computer and a string machine. Not quite a big rompler but maybe a way to do it for really few bucks
https://heavyocity.com/product/c-tools/

Synth-Werk by bestservice
I like the preset showcase demos a lot, though it's lacking percussion as far as I can see
https://www.bestservice.com/synth-werk.html
 
Have you checked out Super Audio Boy? It's all sounds sampled from old game systems, but you can build your own instruments by layering the samples and adding effects, and there's a nice amount of presets without being overwhelming.
 
Have you checked out Super Audio Boy? It's all sounds sampled from old game systems, but you can build your own instruments by layering the samples and adding effects, and there's a nice amount of presets without being overwhelming.


Good idea! Seen it a couple of times, never took it though it's free. It's a bit too chiptune for my purpose but I think it could still be funny to make a track with it.
 
Nothing to add to the discussion really, but - oh, the good old Deus Ex! I played the heck out of that one as a whippersnapper. Still like the soundtrack. Good times.
 
If you don't mind retro or "cheap" sounding there is the Rhythmic Robot Emulator II Kontakt library

That's a great, fun idea. An even cheaper rompler, Xpand!2 by Air, is presently $5 on PluginBoutique. I use it all the time for little synth elements, backing vocals, dirty strings, etc. It also has a neat and simple feature for making multis. Not all the sounds are up to scratch (or, as with the Emu, maybe they are if you like retro sampler sounds!), but there's a ton there to play with, a lot of the sounds are quite good, and it's dead easy to use. I don't know what it would be like to make a whole project with just these tools, but it would be an interesting experiment. (Or maybe pair it with one good, easy-to-use synth? Tyrell N-6 is free, has a ton of very tweakable and useful presets, and I think sounds great.)
 
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UVI has a ton of these sampled as well. Not just analog synths. Check The Beast (Synclavier) and Darklight (Fairlight).
 
You can laugh now, but I noticed that it was in front of me all the time: Halion SE that comes with my Cubase Artist 9.5 version xD Super cool thing, though I think it's just a taster/light version. Maybe I will still get the Korg M1 collection that was recommended here earlier since I really liked the sound demos. :))
 
I say just get a Roland JV 1080, still sounds great!!!!

I have been thinking myself of going back to my old setup of a Roland JV1080, an Akai S3000xl, an Access Virus B, an Akai MPC 3000, and a Mackie hardware mixer.

In a lot of ways, quality hardware has a sound quality that software just doesn't have.
It may be just me imagining things, but Kontakt seems to impart a 'sound' onto everything, and it all starts to sound a bit samey and kind of fake compared to hardware through a hardware mixer.
A bit like amp modelling no matter how 'good' is just never coming close to a great tube amp.
 
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