hey all,
so after trying lots of vst's and stuff, I was thinking about synths and sound design:

1. is it possible to create "the same kind of synth/sound" with different vst's?

2. are there any actual limits to sound design and creating synth sounds?

thank you all

 

1 Yes
2 No

 

1. Yes, ofc.
2. Not really. Only the limitation of the synth and your imagination/skill/experience/expertice. Once you throw in the DSP (effects) into the equation the possibilities are basically endless.

Sidenote: VSTs (effects) and VSTis (instruments). No apostophes needed.

 

There are some limits, in that, a given type of synthesis (subtractive, FM, additive etc) or synth brand can kinda lock you into a particular sound that is most natural for it. It might be possible to break out of that box with clever synth programming, but realistically you're going to be too lazy to do it. And rightly so, because it's a lot of effort for little gain.

Synths are very interchangeable in theory, but in practice if you want a particular type of sound, you're going to go to the particular synth that you know is good for that, and you'll be pissed if forced to use something else other than what you wanted, or if the emulation of the synth isn't up to par... Again for the same reason, because a lot of them have a characteristic that is easy to get used to and like.

Don't forget about samplers. They are more powerful than any synth in the right hands, and samplers is where you truly have no limit on the type of real-world (or not) sound you can capture and then use.