Beginner synth

Mai Tai looks like the perfect synth to begin with. Easy to learn on. A classic subtractive synth with an easy layout. Btw, have you checked Arturias own tutorial for Pigments? They have a multiple episode tutorial which describes Pigments which is pretty decent and also includes a few step-by-step guides on how to create certain sounds.

Check out Uhe Zebra lite, it’s a stripped down version of Zebra 2 with only one oscillator, and once you master that it will be easy to transition to the full version of Zebra 2

jenssieckmann said:

Thank you. Yes, I already thought about Syntorial. It's quite old but the basics never outdate I think. I will at least checkout the free parts of the tutorial.

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Syntorial has been around for a bit, but they did release version 2 just a few months ago, so it has been freshened up a bit. And you’re right, as it covers the basics quite well, it isn’t the kind of thing that will fall out of date.

Katzenjammer said:

Mai Tai looks like the perfect synth to begin with. Easy to learn on. A classic subtractive synth with an easy layout. Btw, have you checked Arturias own tutorial for Pigments? They have a multiple episode tutorial which describes Pigments which is pretty decent and also includes a few step-by-step guides on how to create certain sounds.

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Yes, I know there is a Pigments tutorial playlist. I will certainly take a look at that.

Syntorial is real good. It has made its way even into academic studies so I think it is the best option (apart from getting a hardware synth). The first lessons are free and you can try it on a tablet or on a PC so I'd suggest to start giving it a try

I'm a visual learner so I too would think Vital would have been a good choice for me as a first synth. I believe I would have found that to be easier than a very barebones simplistic 1-osc synth that has only 10 knobs but no visualization. If someone finds the visualizations to not be helpful I could see how they'd fare better with a more basic and limited emulation of an old hardware synth though. Worth trying both I guess. It should be pretty obvious what you find more intuitive.

José Herring said:

...The best way to learn is to get a simple hardware synth....

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+1 to this. My first synth was a Yamaha CS5 in the late 70s. Simple monophonic, each control only did one thing. Best way to learn, IMO. It really nailed down the basics of synthesis for me. While I love all of my soft synths, I would hate to start learning on them.