I do want to say that subtractive synthesis is much more famous and more popular than additive synthesis. Kind of like guitarists, everyone has their own approach to synthesis, producing, and music in general. Now I have a whole suite of virtual synth plugins as well as a huge rack of physical synthesizers. I'm not asking what specific products to buy, but what techniques are generally used.īackground: I'm a guitarist of 27 years who had piano lessons as a kid and got addicted to synthesizers about ten years ago. I'd like to learn a bit about pros and cons and common practices before investing loads of money and time in learning new things and buying gear.
What does the modern metal producer do? Learn how to use additive synthesis to create the sound they want from the ground up? Buy lots of physical keyboards with good sounds? Plugins? Orchestral sample packs, or some other kind? Some combination of the above? When a guitarist is working on their tone, they invest in technique, stompboxes, amps and so on. However, these seem to be making mostly electronic music.
But when looking at videos by modern producers, I mostly see FM synthesis and DAW plug-ins. I used to play keyboards some 20 years ago, and back then I simply used the sounds available in the one unit I owned. I have a solo project where I write rock/metal, and I am interested in adding synths to my music in order to expand the sonic possibilities, add more interesting textures, make the tracks sound bigger and so on.