What Synth to Buy for my Birthday

Hey Sam!  Buying the best synths for FL Studio is not easy.. because every producer has different needs..

The most important thing to understand is the difference between a Synthesizer and a ROMpler.

Synthesizers are very customizable, so great for full control, but when new, are very overwhelming because you have to learn all the knobs and how it works!  (You can get around this by buying good preset packs.. but that can be hard to find sometimes!)

ROMplers are meant to be “click and play”, meaning you select the sound, and it is a great starting point!  You have some knobs to fine-tune the preset a bit.. I personally still enjoy ROMplers after many years of producing.

I have not tried Electra3 by Tone2 (at the time of writing), so cannot give ANY advice on it.

When buying a virtual instrument, it’s important to think about:

• CPU Usage (how hard is it on your computer.. some VSTi’s are very hard on your CPU while some are very light, meaning you can open TONS of VSTi’s, without any difference in sound quality.. just how it’s coded).
• Pricing / Long-Term Support (You always want to buy from a company that will be around the longest, as they’ll make sure their plugin is not buggy in your DAW!)

You can watch my what is a ROMpler video, where you see I like using reFX Nexus a lot.

The reason I like Nexus is because:

1. It’s pretty lightweight on the CPU!  (I can open many instances of Nexus, even on an older computer!)
2. The sound design is by Manuel Schleis from vengeance-sound.com (the presets are amazing for beatmakers)
3. It has a built-in arpeggio, trance-gate, and because it’s a ROMpler, it’s literally “click and play” for amazing sounds from pianos, guitars, classical horns/flutes, and more!

If you purchase Nexus, I suggest their “Starter” (the lowest end one), then you can grab a couple “expansion packs”.. be careful of their  “sequence” patches.. these are not very good for beatmakers.

In short, Electra3 by Tone2 seems popular, but I cannot give any advice on it, so you’re on your own from my education here!

Have you looked at any other virtual instruments?

Why are you looking at Electra3? – Was it recommended to you from a friend?

Let me know, I’ll try to give help where I can here!  🙂

Hey good points, William.

Yes, I’ve dealt with plugins for so long with music production and running this website.

The secret to selecting a good plugin is:

• Good licensing terms (you just pay once, and don’t need an iLok or eLicenser USB Dongle)
• The plugin is versatile and does the job well

Try to limit the amount of plugins you have in your producer tools..

We obviously need to have SOME plugins.. but if you select wise plugins, you’ll see it’s much easier because you learn the plugin really well over the years, and save money by not getting sucked in to so many options out there.