Quote:
Originally Posted by feedingear
Not wanting to start a whole thing here but Alchemy uses Additive, Subtractive, Spectral, Granular synthesis forms across 4 sound sources with a crazy amount of modulation.
But yes, for other synth types, you can use Reaktor and get as deep into modular creation as you like, or check out something like Max/MSP.
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I think Alchemy sounds fantastic and I know it's very flexible, I also have only experience with the limited trial so correct me if I'm wrong but arent most of the CamelAudio presets basically samples with synthesis applied/blended into them? Usually if you install a synth and it takes more than a few megs of disk space, it is probably using sampled waveforms as harmonic basis, and then the line between that and a Motif/Triton type instrument begins to blur in my opinion. As I said I didn't play around with it much but I got the impression it is something like Omnisphere (which I do own), where you can use a sample or synthesis, but most of the really good stuff in their sound library is samples + processing/fx/synthetic variations.
Max/MSP on the other hand seems like it would probably be amazing for learning... maybe even getting so deep that one might get so caught up in the technical aspects that there's no time left in the day to make music
This is why I think Zebra hits such a sweet spot. It's semi-modular so you're not designing a new instrument from the ground up each time. The user interface is absolutely brilliant (once past the learning curve) on so many levels, and makes it very easy to change the paths of signal, modulation, etc. And the ways you can modulate, including the waveshape morphing feature, multisegment envelopes etc are something that I have just not seen done as well in another synth. There is a good reason this synth is consistently at the top of the plug-ins ratings even though it has not changed much in recent years.