Absynth

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

Ah yes...Absynth.

How much do you guys use it? Just curious if you guys swear by it or not. I haven't picked up any banks for it yet. Any that you recommend? It's crazy deep and I feel like I'm only seeing the surface!

[Red Fog]

Although quite old now and not getting solid updates anymore unfortunately, it’s indeed a very deep and great synthesizer... I’ve it used in the past on various ambient projects, but decided to sell it later on... The main reasons were the general workflow & interface not working very well with me, I’ve never really enjoyed its gui... I also found its granular possibilities too limited for my tastes & needs... But still, it’s a monster soundscape machine in the right hands, that's for sure...

[robojam]

I don't use it very often really and when I do it's usually just because I've found a sound that is a good filler rather than something that inspires a whole track.

I know it's capable of a lot more than I use it for, but I just have never dedicated the time to learning it fully.

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

Good points, both of you. I think that's where I'm going to categorize this monster...in the realm of possible fillers and inspiration for new ideas. I've been trying to layer it over existing productions and it tends to dominate the mix no matter which way I try it, and sometimes in a really odd and off key sort of way! :razz: Kind of like adding curry to a dish...the moment you add it you are instantly making a curry flavored meal, no matter what! :razz:

Glad I own it though. If an Absynth 6 ever does come along, I wonder they'll completely redesign it or just polish up the GUI. Only NI knows the answer to that one right now!

Cheers Robo and Red Fog!

-S1gns

[Red Fog]

Love that curry analogy, so true!

[seismic1]

...the moment you add it you are instantly making a curry flavored meal, no matter what! :razz:

-S1gns

Workaround - try starting out with a curry - ftfy :biggrin:

[Nemo]

One could say that it's been more or less superceded by Alchemy, but it's still a good synth. I hope N-I don't decide to abandon it. If they do abandon it, perhaps the contract will allow Phil to take it back and keep working on it. Curry is good... in a world of mush! e.g. if fewer people are using it now that makes it perhaps more unique.

Be sure to check out Simon's presets as well as the presets from Biolabs and Tim Conrardy at the Camel site.

[teezdalien]

I love absynth, I think it's often overlooked and underrated... the envelopes, my god.. easily the best I've used in any synthesizer ever, the things you can do with absynth's envelopes alone are truly mind boggling... there's also so much potential when used to process other external audio sources. It's my favourite of NI's synths. (beside reaktor, but then that's really a different animal)

As for soundbanks, I highly recommend John Lehmkul's (pluginguru) absynth power pack, really shows off a different side to absynth as a lot of the sounds are geard more towards straightforward dance music styles I guess, but the patches are excellent and could still be quite useful for ambient and downtempo music styles, particularly the patches designed for effects processing.

[Heaven And Hell]

I'm learning programming for Absynth in developing my new bank. I really love the sounds that this synth can produce. And yes, the envelopes are like non other.

[Sampleconstruct]

I used to be an absolute Absynth maniac for some years and created and published many many patches on absynthsounds.com, then I lost interest in it last summer, also because NI seems to have abandoned it - I mean the latest version was released with a severe Combfilter Bug and they haven't even fixed that in months although us Betatesters have been urging them to do so. But I spent some hours with today and caught fire again, so just leave a synth alone for a while when you've had too much of it, then rediscover it
The same counts for all my synths btw except for Alchemy which I never lose interest in despite it's quirks and little annoyances.

[UnstaticNoise]

We use about one Absynth instrument per project, but that's not a rule. Sometimes is two, sometimes there are a few (mostly one and the same bank, but put through different effects) - sometimes none. It's a good plugin.

[Hilyard]

Ah yes...Absynth.

How much do you guys use it? Just curious if you guys swear by it or not. I haven't picked up any banks for it yet. Any that you recommend? It's crazy deep and I feel like I'm only seeing the surface!

I absolutely adore Absynth! Some of my projects are completely Absynth based with several instances of the instrument including the Absynth FX on sends lol. But, it is definitely not the only Synth I use. Absynth definitely has a habit of dominating the mix and throwing certain things off key. I usually just try and tweak it like crazy to fix it. I also run into heavy phasing issues when using multiple instances of the instrument. But overall, this is an extremely powerful tool for ambient composers and sound designers. I feel it's a must have for me.