Best synth program for a PC

[Krebs]

Ive been messing with programs from fruity loops to sonar for awhile but I havent found a really useful program. Im still very new to this sort of medium. Anyone have any recomendations for an easy to use program to create music/synth sounds?

[stillafool]

Cakewalk's project five looks pretty cool. Go to www.computersandmusic.com. There's a review of project five, and a comparison to Propellerhead's Reason.

[dr grip]

I'd recommend ALL the Native Instruments Softsynths...

They run standalone, so you don't need a host app like Cubase or Cakewalk like you do with VSTis.

B4 - Hammond b3 softsynth
FM7 - Dead on emulation of the Yamaha DX7
Pro-53 - Best analog modeling sound yet...emulates the Prophet-5

Reaktor / ABsynth - These are extremely powerful synth engines that you can use to create totally new sounds...much more difficult to program but infinitely more deep. Absynth is the simpler of the 2. Reaktor has a lot of the same features as the MAC generative audio programs like MAX/MSP and the Cycling '74 stuff.

I'd also recommend audiomulch for getting started...you can get a free beta at www.audiomulch.com

The Lounge Lizard is a pretty slick emulation of a fender rhodes / wurlitzer sound...can't remember who makes it though...

[JES]

And then, of course, there's Reason, which has a little of everything, kind of so-so presents, but lots of programmability.

Best,
--JES

[ottokbre]

Native Instruments, and there is none higher!

Every thing they make can cut a record. Check out their artist section, the interviews are actually quite good.

[cassembler]

Anothery aye for NI stuff... I have Dynamo and it eats my lunch.

[the velour fog]

all hail NI!

[midiot]

I love NI stuff. I am having problems with Reaktor though. As a standalone I get a lot of skips and brrps and such. I keep adjusting my sample rate but no matter what, it keeps happening. I installed a patch for SoundBlaster cards and VIA chipsets that was supposed to be a fix, but, it only helped a little.

[guitar4lyfe]

Id say go with reason if you use other programs like Sonar, because it has the ReWire technology which will connect the audio and midi channels and sync up the 2 open programs for easier use. I use reason matched with sonar to program string parts into ballads, etc. works great

[stillafool]

NI stuff is definitely cool. I especially like the prophet emulation -- the pro-53.

[midiot]

PRO-53 is a great soft synth. I use it almost daily!

[Mr. Dipity]

Cakewalk's project five looks pretty cool. Go to www.computersandmusic.com. There's a review of project five, and a comparison to Propellerhead's Reason.

I wasn't impressed at all myself, by either the project 5 (I was sent a full prerelease copy from CW) or Computers and music.

The project 5 is someone's determined attempt to come up with a all-in-one synth package that 'doesn't look like Reason'. Guess what? - it doesn't look like Reason. If they'ld spent as much effort into making the tool intuitive, functional and good sounding, they might have gotten somewhere. As it is, they have a confused, POS, also-ran on their hands, that is as about as clunky to sequence in as you can get.

Computers and music? I wanted to buy a sampler from them a while ago. After quoting me a barrel of features it didn't have (the usual misread-from-the-marketing-blurb music store sales B.S.), they promised to have it set up for me to demo the next day. And the next day, and the day after that, and the next week, and the week after that. I'd just come in to find the sales person surfing the web, day after day, with the sampler still sitting in it's shipping package.

Worse service, and worse prices than Guitar center(!). Bunch of tossers.

[silversound]

So many to choose from, but I prefer N.I. for most everything from Virtual samplers like Kontakt to synths like Absynth. But from the way your question sounds I think you need REASON. It is by far the easiest to get going on and the community is out there to keep it around for a long time to come. But it does not record audio or transmit midi so hold on to your Sonar for audio.

[guitar4lyfe]

Reason can recieve midi and if you use the rewire technology built in since Sonar 2 (Insert>Rewire device>Reason) you can use its sequencer abilities while u play audio files in sonar and you can use sonar to transmit its midi signals. Sonar acts as the midi time master so it will run Reason in sync with whatever tempo you choose in Sonar.

[Jesse Skeens]

the creamware synths are the best virtuals, including their prophet 5 one which is better than NI's. No latency either. Their Vinco comp is amazing, I just sold my dbx blue 160sl because Vinco sounds as good or better.

Jesse