Producers: Virtual Instrument Suggestions?

[fro1156]

u guys seemed to cover most of them...
For me:
Spectrasonics (omni especially)
NI stuff
Rob Papen
Auturia
G Force
Camel Space

[rkiesler]

To start with just grab one synth for every one of the major synth types:

Subtractive synthesis
Additive synthesis
Granular synthesis
Wavetable synthesis
Frequency Modulation synthesis

Do you know if there's a good website for explaining the difference between those synth types (substractive, additive, etc) in simple terms.

Of the top of my head:

- Subtractive: Generate a waveform or more (e.g. a sine wave) and take away from it (e.g. by filters). E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimoog . See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtractive_synthesis

- Additive: Screw the filters. Instead add sine waves of different frequencies until you're happy with the sound. E.g. Kawai K5 http://www.kfuenf.org/ . See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_synthesis

- Granular: Chop out tiny parts of a sample and put them in sequence creatively. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granular_synthesis

- Wavetable: Instead of just one waveform, use samples of different but similar waveforms and switch between these quickly. E.g. PPG Wavecomputer http://www.ppg.synth.net/360/ . See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granular_synthesis

- FM: Take a couple of oscilators and make them modify themselves. E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_DX7 , See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_synthesis

[Str8upDrew]

My favorite free vsti is the minimoog va available at,

http://glenstegner.com/softsynths.html



There's also a Arp2600 vsti on the page, but i haven't used it yet.