Potential synth purchases. Would like some advice

[Hades]

Reverb is your friend with pad sounds. Even bad reverbs can sound really cool on basic pad patches.

sure, but you gotta be careful with that too.
if you're just making ambient, then it's no issue, but if you're making techno/house/whatever you gotta be careful not to drown it too much in reverb.

[Hades]

its a pretty easy synth to use.

i can get some really nice sounds out of it. it has a really nice lofi sound about it, just i need to replace the battery so i kind of havent bothered to properly learn it. i find the whole asdr really confusing and i suppose i should sit down with it and the manual, but i find it hard to work that way. i tend to just go straight into making tracks rather then sitting there playing around. im quite direct in the way that i make music and i dont get a lot of time to do it, so i prefer to make something that i can play or listen to rather then sitting there messing around.

i posted up a track i made a while ago, but here is another one that is made just on the esq1. the kick is the mbase and some hi hat/clap samples but the rest is the esq1

nice track, reminds me a bit of deepchord but in a funkier way.
funny thing is, because you've put some samples in there on the background, I was convinced my youngest (6 months) was crying in the next room where she was asleep, so I went to check on her 3 times before I was really convinced it was just in the music somewhere.

wasn't the Myst soundtrack completely done with an ESQ-1 ?
I guess naming a game that old shows my age, but my god, even though I was never a big gamer, I still remember the night I first fell in love with the atmosphere in that game. I mean, the whole plot wasn't really worth a lot, but the atmosphere my god...
by today's standards it would probably be one of the most boring games ever

[Hades]

i suppose its the same for all synths/sounds really.

i mean i never not liked any of my synths because of the sound they made, i disliked them more to do with their interfaces.

I definitely agree with you there.
Interfaces are very important if you ask me.

but I'm not sure if I agree with the statement that all polysynths can get you nice pads.
Yes and no, that's only like 90% true.
It's true that pads are probably lot more easy to program (their envelopes sure are tons easier than bass or lead sounds) on most synths, but there were so many synths made that you can still get a synth that gives you crappy results. Luckily, nobody talks on fora about the crappy synths usually.
Some synths out there really are excellent for pads (see above : Omnisphere, K5000, JD800,...), and most good polysynths will do, but...
urrmm... wait
let's put it this way
all synths are equal, but some synths are more equal than others

[lem]

Reverb is your friend with pad sounds. Even bad reverbs can sound really cool on basic pad patches.

sure, but you gotta be careful with that too.
if you're just making ambient, then it's no issue, but if you're making techno/house/whatever you gotta be careful not to drown it too much in reverb.

Oh yeah you gotta be careful. All I was trying to say was I could add a reverb to a kids toy keyboard and get awesome pad sounds out of it.

[MarkA]

the esq1 sounds great

[::BLM::]

its a pretty easy synth to use.

i can get some really nice sounds out of it. it has a really nice lofi sound about it, just i need to replace the battery so i kind of havent bothered to properly learn it. i find the whole asdr really confusing and i suppose i should sit down with it and the manual, but i find it hard to work that way. i tend to just go straight into making tracks rather then sitting there playing around. im quite direct in the way that i make music and i dont get a lot of time to do it, so i prefer to make something that i can play or listen to rather then sitting there messing around.

i posted up a track i made a while ago, but here is another one that is made just on the esq1. the kick is the mbase and some hi hat/clap samples but the rest is the esq1

nice track, reminds me a bit of deepchord but in a funkier way.
funny thing is, because you've put some samples in there on the background, I was convinced my youngest (6 months) was crying in the next room where she was asleep, so I went to check on her 3 times before I was really convinced it was just in the music somewhere.

wasn't the Myst soundtrack completely done with an ESQ-1 ?
I guess naming a game that old shows my age, but my god, even though I was never a big gamer, I still remember the night I first fell in love with the atmosphere in that game. I mean, the whole plot wasn't really worth a lot, but the atmosphere my god...
by today's standards it would probably be one of the most boring games ever

those samples are of my 2 year old.

I used the soundcloud record app on my iphone to record her shouting at my dog then put it in the track.

I have no idea what myst is

Either way though its a fantastic synth that can be picked up for less then £100. It does a range of sounds and im always using it on my music.

i suppose its the same for all synths/sounds really.

i mean i never not liked any of my synths because of the sound they made, i disliked them more to do with their interfaces.

I definitely agree with you there.
Interfaces are very important if you ask me.

but I'm not sure if I agree with the statement that all polysynths can get you nice pads.
Yes and no, that's only like 90% true.
It's true that pads are probably lot more easy to program (their envelopes sure are tons easier than bass or lead sounds) on most synths, but there were so many synths made that you can still get a synth that gives you crappy results. Luckily, nobody talks on fora about the crappy synths usually.
Some synths out there really are excellent for pads (see above : Omnisphere, K5000, JD800,...), and most good polysynths will do, but...
urrmm... wait
let's put it this way
all synths are equal, but some synths are more equal than others

I just have never struggled with pad sounds. for me bass, is my main problem. I know what i want to create, but really struggle to get there. When I was using vsti's I was using the atmosphere for pads, which you mentioned earlier. Thats a fantastic vst really, all you ever need for pads is right there.

[Hades]

those samples are of my 2 year old.

I used the soundcloud record app on my iphone to record her shouting at my dog then put it in the track.

I have no idea what myst is

Either way though its a fantastic synth that can be picked up for less then £100. It does a range of sounds and im always using it on my music.

...


I just have never struggled with pad sounds. for me bass, is my main problem. I know what i want to create, but really struggle to get there. When I was using vsti's I was using the atmosphere for pads, which you mentioned earlier. Thats a fantastic vst really, all you ever need for pads is right there.

yes, if it's you're two year old, that explains.
funny thing is, I would have never thought it was an actual child I heard, I just figured it was something high pitched that was in there at a very low volume (will take a closer listen).

btw, the fact that it reminded me a bit of deepchord is probably because you used the ESQ-1. I've never played one in person, but I do believe these are rather noisy-synths, noisy as not in a bad way, but with a lot of "hiss" on their sounds, no ?
And deepchord uses a lot of white noise washes all over his tracks, doesn't he ?

yes, Atmosphere is great, but Omnisphere is like 20x better. Atmosphere was only a rompler. A fantastic rompler though, but Omnisphere is a full-blown synth + rompler with granular, FM, ringmod, waveshaper,... options, plus massive modulation possibilities.
It's no doubt the best sounding softsynth I ever heard.
I remember reading an interview once where even Carl Craig said the only synth he used almost straight out of the box, was omnisphere, simply cause it just sounded so good.

[Hades]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst

apparantly, he used a EMU proteus for the soundtrack.
and hearing it play now on Amazon, it sounds rather outdated
a bit too much new-age like to my taste.
oh well, back in the day it was great fun.
so was carmageddon, or double dragon, or...