Hey all, I’ve been debating whether I should use more Ableton’s stock synths (I mostly use Drift, Wavetable, and occasionally Analog, but I really hate the sounds that come from Operator). I have Ableton Suite, but I often find the stock synths sound weak, lacking power and ‘warmth’.
In contrast, my Digitone patches consistently sound much fuller and more dynamic. Is this just a matter of my skills with Ableton’s synths, or do others feel the same way?
operator is great
Digitone is just fantastic, that’s the real problem.
Ableton stock synths feel much more pieces of an overall synth. Like you use them as a building block with the rest of the pieces in ableton to make the good good
just add harmonics (distortion) and “analog” (micro pitch modulation)
Here’s what I do and it’s far from lifeless (well for me)…
Make an instrument rack with 3 layers, Drift, wavetable and meld…so much modulation possibilities…
Then add loads of effects, especially Roar…so good…
Now that’s a powerful instrument.
Personally, I love all Ableton’s instruments. Operator, Wavetable, Analog, Drift…all good. Ableton just released some Operator presets you can download for free. Maybe give those a peek to see if you’re maybe not giving Operator a fair shake in it’s abilities.
Digitone is a very solid instrument though. As far as FM synths go, it’s one of the easiest and quickest I’ve ever used to get some good to great sounds out of. Ain’t nothing wrong in leaning on it.
“Warmth” is a highly subjective term. I’d bet the lack of that lies in the fact that you’re working in the box. You can always toss various plugins on to warm it up. Maybe you need a tube emulator. Same for a fuller sound. Saturate, a lil drive, some compression, amp, all those will alter the sound. Also maybe slightly widening the stereo field might help. Utility allows you to do that pretty easily though of course there are more advanced plugin versions out there.
Yeah all of abletons presets sound mad sterile/overly “precise”
I’ve spent some time over the last many months and it’s very possible to get them to sound as good or better than modular/grooveboxes
some things to look for
these should help getting your sounds to be a little more organic and make your patterns waay more groovey. I also love the gates, auto filter, and any of the transient stuff to smear and clean up certain sounds
It’s not just you but I don’t really like any digital synths. The ableton synths are pretty bland though. I thought drift might be an upgrade but now I realize it’s a cut down version of analog meant to work on note/move. But whatever they’re ok to write with, and move’s a lot of fun. Digital is what it is. Get some real synths, write with the plug-ins if it’s more convenient but then replace them with something that sounds good.
This album is 100% Operator + Delay
I think Ableton synths require some tweaking and FX, but you can make crazy sounds.
Kinda crazy though when there are really simple basic analog synths where you press one note and it sounds good
like a 15 min worth of programming jam on ableton with scenes, heritage drum rack with some extra sauce with stock plugs
this isn’t anything ground breaking but it doesnt sound all that diff to me than what i do with a4 and rytm
i really don’t think its about sounding good these days, its more about the interface is like and what inspires you
i don’t think modular or analog is faster or better/worse sounding. what sounds good are limitations and an inspiring interface, which is something that grows and evolves with a users experience and needs
i do want serum, omnisphere, and diva tho 
its a slippery slope and i have too much hardware to explore so i will resist and enjoy learning the stock stuff in ableton
I think the same.
Using Push 3, I was often discouraged by the lack of consistency between engines, the modulations were very different, it felt like the UX of each synth was done by teams that would not communicate.
While I love playing on the Push, synthesis is not a source of joy to me, not immediate enough.
Ableton synths are meant to be processed. It’s an ITB synth so you may be missing the grit and stereo inconsistencies of older hardware synths and their convertors. I use both hardware and ableton synths, and can get my mixes nice and warm.
I felt the same way about ableton and many of their instruments, generally uninspiring. Looking back, this was a skill issue on my part since I knew people who made fantastic music using ableton instruments at the time.
The problem doesn’t matter though, not as long as you can find a tool to write with like digitone, for me that was bitwig and now digitakt 2. Ironic that bitwig is so similar to ableton but the difference is enough for my brain to take a step forward when something doesn’t work rather than shutting myself down, because that’s what was happening.
We’re pretty simple beings, allow yourself this minor quirk and make some music on that digitone. If you’re on a learning plateau, just have some fun and keep practicing.
I control Live via Push 3 about 90% of the time now so my perspective on Live’s stock synths (I have 12.1 Suite) is shaped by how they feel I program them on the Push. Essentially, treating each synth like hardware.
A few things I’ve noticed:
the UI on some of the newer synths (Drift, Meld) is much cleaner and more logical than the old Live stock synths, which IME makes it faster to dial in the sounds I want from an init patch. The layout on Push (8 x knobs, 8 x buttons for specific sections of the signal chain) is similar to the way my Hydrasynth Desktop worked when I had it.
that said, the UI from one synth to the next is really inconsistent, on Push and on the computer, which makes it harder to switch quickly from one synth to another and get to work on a sound. This is particularly annoying on Push where with one synth you need to turn a knob to switch between different oscillators but another requires a button press. I’m always losing a few moments each time when I try to remind myself where the damn oscillator toggle is (same for filters). UI is important I think… part of how we feel about the sound of a synth is determined by how hard it is to get to that sound in the first place. An impossible UI means relying on presets, and I like shaping my own sounds.
IME some of the stock synths have way more life and presence out of the box as an init preset than others. Drift can sound very fat and full with the two oscillators set to sawtooth and slightly detuned (I’ve stored this as the default preset) and the Meld supersaw with spread and motion is pretty big too (also my default preset). I don’t find that with the Analog stock synth, for example, which can be a bit weedy by itself. Wavetable can cover a huge amount of sonic ground but doesn’t have the rawness of Drift and needs work to bring it to life. Upside is Wavetable makes for fantastic pads, just add the built-in ensemble, send to reverb, done.
I often feel like that, but I’ve watched a few episodes of things like Tape Notes where huge producers say “I just use operator” and make amazing tracks.
I think it’s just that you really have to know what you are doing.
It’s true. Operator is amazing if you know what you are doing. I ended selling my analog monos because I could get operator to sound exactly how I wanted due to how good its envelopes are.
The only mono I kept is the little Roland s-1. A little digital emulation that sounds fantastic. I run it through an analogue saturating di and compressor before it hits the daw.
I run my software synths like operator through hardware filters a lot. This adds a lot of movement and drive. But I did the same thing with my analog ones too. Operator is legendary.
They are incredible if you know what your doing😊