Personally i can play hours and hours with a synth( the stuff with knobs an sliders)

But how important are sythesizer sounds to you as an arranger player?

Bachus, to me inspiration comes from movement. Whether your using a synthesizer or an arranger...rhythm grooves from an arranger or arps from a synth I find inspirational.

Since my ability to play keyboard in a trained fashion (even though I had years of training) is limited...having other elements embellish your performance, I find to be the most pleasing.

JM

Since I consider myself "neither of the above"... LOL... if I had the raw talent and training... I would probably play a synth in preference to an arranger... or... to take things even further, if my training and talent were even greater... I would probably select a Grand Piano to express my deepest musical emotions.

That leads straight to my personal debate with myself about whether I like instruments with keys more than stringed instruments like guitars??? When it comes right down to it... I love 'em all.

Arrangers are so special to a Klutz like me, though. I hope you understand my rationale.

Perhaps because of my age, I prefer the sounds of actual instruments, mostly analogue. I tend to associate the instruments with the songs I play, and, am not knowledgeable nor interested in modern synth music.

I can understand your link from synthesizers to EDM..

But that doesn’t justify the musical powers of the synthesizer in all its aspects
- for example there is the synthesizer clasics from the likes of Vangellis, jean michelle Jare, jan hammer and a few others..
- and offcourse there are quite some synthesizer based sounds many use witouth realising its synthesizers, like pads, some synthesizer bases.. synths have been part of our music for almost 50 years now..

So what do i like about synthesizer sounds?
Well, i cattegorise them in 2 cattegories..
- first there is beeps, cracklings and noises witouth much round harmonic nature, those sounds i really dislike, its like they hurt my ears..
- but there is also those sounds that are round and harmonic, often withlots of interesting movement, and thats the kind of synth sounds i really love..

So where do i use those synth sounds?
Sometimes the sounds are so beatifull and can be played with much feeling, so you can play them solo.. but most often i combine them with traditional sounds like a grand piano to add some form of character to the sounds, this often helps when playing a part thats normally the vocal line of a song.( i dont sing) and thats where synth sounds can add character to an acoustic instrument to mimic a singer.

As an electronics engineer i love playing with analogue oscilators, wavetables and filters.. so its fun creating your own sounds with synths. These days i use the ipad for those synth sounds, the touchscreen is a perfect way to interact with those knobs and sliders..

With your explanation, Bachus, I find I was too quick to categorize the synth as EDM type music. There is some older synth music I like.