hello my name is neil , and iam a complete newbie to sound and musical stuff , iam creating a film and would really like to be able to produce some late 70's early 80's style synthetic film scores, like john carpenter stuff, i don't have a sound card , and i dont understand the jargon yet, but iam commited to using this fantastic musical form , i have allready downloaded audacity and had a play, then i downloaded a stand aloan programme called AXS v3.00 that is really good but i cant seem to save any of the preset notes out to wav. i have read the the instructions but they assume a level of understanding that i dont have yet. if anyone can help me i would be truly greatfull , like i said iam a complete newbie so the simpler the better , , if you could reccommend some similar programs that are free and not to complicated with a good set of electronic 80's style preset sounds that i can save then import into audacity or just some help with AXS.v3
thanks and regards neil
ps i have tried using some vst promgrammes in audacity with little succes. the dont have a nice gui interface.

I hope AJ (AKA Bluezplayer) finds this thread since he can recommend a few very good free software synths as well as point you in the right direction in terms of choosing an audio card and a sequencer/audio host application to run all that stuff.

I use a Mac so I can't really do much but recommend a few soft synths that I personally like using for that vintage "John Carpenter" kind of sound.

1. Arturia Moog Modular V.
2. Arturia CS-80.
3. Arturia Minimoog V
4. Gmedia Oddity
5. AAS Ultra Analog
6. NI Pro 53

list goes on but those are probably my favorites. I also like to use this plug-in synth called "Vector Sektor" since it emulates the original Prophet VS synth. Not sure if John Carpenter ever used a Prophet VS (I know that Prophet 5 and 10 as well as a few modular systems by Bob Moog were used on his wellknown "Escape from new York" and "Assault on P13" soundtracks).

But basically what you should be after are some classic sounds (or instruments) that emulate Prophet 5 and Moog 900 Modular systems. That's what I mostly hear on early John Carpenter's works. Although a Prophet VS got used on probably every soundtrack made in late 70's and early 80's.

Okay, hope this helps.

-ED-

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A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.
- - - Oscar Wilde

thank you very much , for your reply its really appreciated, i managed to hold of a programme called fruity loops , it seems really simple and intuative, the synths sounds are nice as well. i will try to find a vst plugin that emulates the synthesisers you reccomend , thanks again .


“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

Tennessee Williams

Sorry to have come to the "party" so late.

If you're still interested, I might recommend the following freeware synths:

Pads - Superwave P-8 and Galactix

Nord lead sounds - Ichiro Todas Synth 1 - Actually an all around excellent analog modled synth also excels for simple yet detailed editing.

FM Sounds- Ugo's Texture and Syncer's Polyvox station. I like Texture as much as I do Image Line's Sytrus, which cost me 179 USd. Apparently so do many of KVR's users, as it's tied for the top rated free synth with RGC's Triangle II.

Mono analog modeled- RGC's Triangle II. Great leads and bass sounds.

Hybrid FM / Wave based ( soundfonts ) - Crystal. This one is usually near the top of KVR favorite's list.

Agressive in your face sounds - Almost any of the "Killer" softsynth series, Dash Siganture "DaHornet", and "Karnage".

General all around analog modelers- Lin Plug's "Alpha" and Andreas Ersson's "Polyiblit".

Tonewheel Organs Rumplerausch's "ZR3"

Honorable mention - Mik Sybrandt's series of MIK softsynths and Krakli software's series of softsynths.

There is enough to play around with there for quite some time. Most of these can be found over at the Kvr_Audio site.

AJ

not so late mate, cheers for the list , i really appreciate the time taken to fill in a newbie, thanks again .

You're quite welcome. While you're at it, you might want to load up on a few of the freeware effects available as well. If there is one area where some of these freebies may lack a bit ( but certainly not all of them ) , it is in the effects area.

Look at the Voxengo and kjaerhus stuff. Kjaehus freeware reverb and chorus modules are excellent. Klang Labs, Acousmodules, and MDA also have some very decent freeware offerings.

Just adding a slight touch of chorus, reverb, etc into the individual instrument's fx channel in FL can make all the difference in the world.

Sometimes when I really want to fatten up a very basic but good sounding synth ( one with a limited amount of oscillators ), I run two seperate instances of the same synth with the same patch and use little tricks like slight detuning of one or very subtle changes to the other basic parameters.

AJ