Synths that can do 90s-style complex pads?
I got a K2000r in a gear swap recently but decided to sell it as it was very complex to program with the LCD screen, and since I'd been downsizing my stuff lately I parted with it, thinking surely I could just recreate these sounds using VSTs...
...that said I should've settled on an alternative solution before I sold it (*facepalm*)
Here's an example of the kinds of sounds I was getting out of it and intended to use (recorded directly from the K2000r): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZoT8yYNkVdyyteI2csEkxPeuP7q-vK4Q/view?usp=sharing
By the sounds of it that patch is a basic waveform (saw I think), perhaps with noise, run through a filter sweep with sample and hold on the resonance parameter with some modulation on the S&H speed etc. Might be two layers, with one layer going through a HPF to create the air-iness? Dunno.
I love these kinds of obviously-digital, modulated pads, with filters that are precise and SEM-like (?), to my ears anyway. That 90s/early-2000s complex digital synth feel.
What are my options without dealing with aging hardware?
The characteristics of this "kind" of synths are:
- ROMplers in terms of oscillators/sound source (samples, single-cycle waveforms)
- Multimbrality
- Loads of modulation
Here's the kind of context where you'd find these sort of digital pad sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q8H_XZNfjI (from 1999), but also the earlier mid-90s stuff.
I know that Korg has a Triton VST. Also, the JV1080 can be got for cheap but it's old hardware that can fail these days, and again, tedious LCD screen-based workflow (I assume anyway). I just need the end result, don't need to reproduce the 90s workflow.
In terms of hardware, if it comes down to it, I could get one of the later Kurzweils VAST synths? I believe that subsequent iterations are "supersets" of the preceding ones, right?
Of course, I may be just imagining a "category" of synth type for a certain kind of sound that can be created with modern VSTs, and I just need to learn more advanced synthesis, but on the other hand I don't want to follow a red herring and waste loads of time/effort, hence I'm asking here.
Also, some of the DnB guys used samples from CDs and recordings and processed them. I mean I guess I can just use a sampler plugin. I do want to create my own harmonies, not just play play samples at different rates...so a sampler with lots of functions, akin to an actual ROMPler.