Synth-shopping & the benefits of budgetary limitations
Earlier this summer, I was totally set on Zebra. It was modular, could do a wide range of sounds, and there were a lot of great presets showing it off.
But I'm glad budgetary restraint kicked in as there were 2 hitches:
- There were too many logical reasons to get it (modular, wide range of sounds, it makes Hans Zimmer spooge). And I firmly believe that too much logic and not enough gut is what fucks people up.
- I'm just not inclined to dig in and play with it.
#2 is real killer, and probably has to do with an interface that makes me think a little too much. This is just personal preference - I'm not ripping on Urs Heckmann at all. He's friendly, honest, communicative and a total dsp bad-ass. There's just something about Zebra that I can't totally love, and there's no point owning a synth you have to convince yourself to play with. So I'm way happy that I didn't just buy it at the time.
otoh, there are synths that I do want mess with, either because I love the sound (ImpOSCar), I love the interface (Twin 2, Synplant) or both (Loomer Aspect).
I already bought Twin 2 and finally started digging into it in the last week, comparing it to Aspect with Looomer's roygbiv bass tutorial. Verdict: I like Loomer's raw oscillators a bit better, but Twin 2's filters & modulation are insanely good. I'm happy to own Twin 2 and want to get the Rob Lee soundset to learn how to make those 1990s sounds that I really like.
My synthshopping list currently looks like this:
- Loomer Aspect (intuitive interface & nice range of sounds; many presets don't do it justice)
- SonicCharge Synplant (love the ears first approach; impressive sounds; my 6 yr old wants it too)
- GForce Imposcar (I've always loved this synth & v2 sounds sick)
