Peter Dzoghi

My newest and favorite virtual synth is the reFX Nexus2. Big library of high quality sounds available and high quality effects (reverb, echo, etc). The Sylenth1 has hereby been knocked off as the Peter Dzoghi favorite software synth.

 

The Sylenth 1 is a bread and butter synth for trance and electronic music. Last time I checked this one was only $180 bucks. That beats two or three G's for a hardware based synth back in the 80's. The nice thing about it is that there's tons of sound set designers selling sounds that you can buy for the Sylenth. That means less time spent tweeking up new sounds.

 

Rob Papen's Albino 3 has been discontinued but I feel it's also a benchmark tool for trance music. It picks up where the Synth 1 leaves off. I don't use it as much as the Sylenth 1 but it picks up nicely. Not many sound sets out there. I wish more people would go to work and create some.

 

Native Instruments Massive is most popular for dubstep music but it's definitely got a few trance sounds that you can use. Massive has a fat, smooth character. Just check it out. There's also quite a few Massive sound sets out there that you can buy.

 

Camel Audio's Alchemy is built around sampled sounds, which means less flexibility. But for the sounds that it does have you can expect some nice, complex sounds. Alchemy has nice clarity and detail too. Just when I need something different to fill out a song, Alchemy often steps up and delivers. Unfortunately Camel Audio discontinued Alchemy in 2015. Apple bought out the synth program and is now bundled as part of their Logic Pro X production suite.

 

Here's a little bit of my music (Peter Dzoghi on SoundSloud). Now get busy with your own music!

 

-- Peter Dzoghi