Soft Synth for a beginner

peterwsmith · #1 12-18-2010, 10:45 AM

I'm thinking about getting into some synth playing, and doing it on the software side of things with midi. I know next to nothing about it. My main question is if I want to get a laptop and midi controller and synth software, what would be the bare minimum/cheapest thing I could get away with?

My wife has a pretty weaksauce laptop with a dead hard drive, but I don't think it would cut it. I don't remember the specs, but seem to remember upgrading the ram to 512MB. So yeah, pretty old.

poorbassist15 · #2 12-18-2010, 03:02 PM

This is what I started out on:http://www.cantabilesoftware.com/lite/

http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php...MogueVA&id=405

It got me into softsynths, and, best of all, it's free. AANNNDD, the MiniMogueVA is an amazing synth, It's probably one of the best Moog clones out there.

Of course, I use THIS now:
http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/...arv/intro.html

peterwsmith · #3 12-20-2010, 04:21 PM

Cool. Any recomendations on a decent laptop to use?

M0ses · #4 12-20-2010, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poorbassist15

Of course, I use THIS now:
http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/...arv/intro.html

Is that worth the money? Free VST Moog-ulators seem to get 90% there. That thing would have to be pretty damn close to the original to warrant the price tag.

OP - anything with lots of processing power and a decent sound card will be fine, especially for a beginner.

poorbassist15 · #5 12-20-2010, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M0ses

Is that worth the money? Free VST Moog-ulators seem to get 90% there. That thing would have to be pretty damn close to the original to warrant the price tag.

OP - anything with lots of processing power and a decent sound card will be fine, especially for a beginner.

Actually, I use the demo version.

It's got a sound I can't get with ANY other Moog modeler or modular VST. It sounds amazing, I can get some pretty awesome basses and some epic Keith Emerson leads. I love the user added modules, though I wish Arturia would include the transistor ladder filter as a added module. For someone who wants to start from scratch with a blank synth, it can be a little tricky to figure out. But, I love it, and I'm planning on buying the full version, and maybe even the ARP2600 while I'm at it. I can't say for sure about how close it comes to the real thing, as I don't have a real System 55 or 3C to compare it to. But, compared to recordings of real Moogs, IMO, pretty damn close.