How have fab filter kept cpu so low on Twin2? Most under rated synth of the decade?

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Can barely sell at a decent price in MP..

yet recently snagged this from Rob to help him out and the price was so silly...so what the hell.. was like buying volcano which i adore and getting twin2 for free.

it has a lovely tone, to me, maybe i am wrong, it's no diva in the analogue department yet it sounds more analogue than many VA's going for the analogue sound that use more cpu.

Perfect comparison. Waves Element. Watch a core get eaten up by a 16 voice pad, and the sound is good but nothing special.(got it for free with mercury so am not too fussed).

Yet play a beautiful pad (in this example Rob Lee's stunning Geneva Pad) on twin2 with long release and maximum 32 polyphony, and my 2.2 ghz laptop on 128 buffer with a usb *1.1* interface.. I used studio one to get a precise percentage measurement and furthermore S1 is flaky on a macbook at low buffer, and it is using maximum 15% with 32 polyphony! wtf? Logic shows similar low usage.

This is what i want to talk about..

Twin has rompler type efficiency (like nexus, but probably less).

yet is a fully programmable, decently analoguish, warm, fully native synth, with great fab filter erm.. filters.

Ok so my questions are.. Do you think it's because it was made a time where cpu's were not as powerful as now, hence on modern system we are seeing low cpu....but what the new breed of "supersynths" are doing is sacrificing every ounce of cpu usage for a " really not that much better" sound? Or is it just damn good coding from the fab filter geniuses? Or am i on crack and does it sound crap?

I just find the whole thing interesting how they managed to get a good sound with such ridiculous low cpu usage. Another example is saurus but it's not as efficient as twin, but do we really need anything these days to construct warm sounding music, that sucks the cpu to a large degree?

I was really shocked TBH, i think it must be the lowest cpu synth i have, but certainly not the weakest sounding by a long shot. Why does discovery pro use so much cpu for example? just one comparison.

Shame there aren't more 3rd party preset banks and the synth was never taken that seriously, yet at least there's some nice banks available at fabfilter.. but would love to see some more 3rd party bank support, but that's another story.

Anyway, if this interests you at all, please discuss.

[aMUSEd]

Twin is lovely, I really wish they would bring out a more sophisticated synth plugin instead of more (for me) boring mastering fx.

[budweiser]

what the new breed of "supersynths" are doing is sacrificing every ounce of cpu usage for a " really not that[/] much better" sound? Or is it just damn good coding from the fab filter geniuses?

this.

[cryophonik]

Twin2 is definitely one of the most underrated synths around IMO. The raw oscillators sound great on their own, but combine those with those filters and that lovely semi-modular interface and you've got a solid foundation for a killer synth. I don't know how they do it, but FabFilter's filters are excellent and very efficient. As much as I love Volcano for getting crazy effects, I find Simplon to be one of those secret tools in my arsenal that handles virtually every other filtering need I encounter. The only FabFilter plugin I don't own is Micron, and even that seems like it would get a ton of use in my projects....but I guess I'm way off topic now. Yeah, Twin2 rocks!

[cron]

what the new breed of "supersynths" are doing is sacrificing every ounce of cpu usage for a " really not that[/] much better" sound? Or is it just damn good coding from the fab filter geniuses?

this.

Yip yip. It often feels to me as though 90% of the CPU cycles are going into polishing the last 10% of the sound, if you know what I mean. I've only really noticed this recently as I started using synths again (I hadn't installed a new plug since 2006 until late last year) and it's astonishing how quickly my (admittedly ancient 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo) machine is brought to it's knees using the newer synths. I was running 20 tracks of audio with loads of effects for the price of a single oscillator in 2013 money!

Don't get me wrong. Time marches on, and I don't think that new synths should suck up the same amount of power as they did this time 7 years ago. I'd just rather those extra cycles were going into something more interesting than correcting the slight difference on the oscilloscope between that Sallen Key filter on your shitty f**king MS20 and the emulation on your synth, y'know?

[V0RT3X]

You can do a lot with Twin2. I think the interface might be a bit confusing for some, but once you get used to it I think it is a very decent semi-modular synthesizer.

The closest sound I could compare it to is the Nord lead. I mean it it really can do some great acid bass sounds! Also the fact you get a delay with another pair of multi-mode filters is a serious bonus!

I think they need to update Twin2 with these things though.

- Comb filters
- Oscilliscope
- A few more OSC shapes.
- Distortion module (Maybe some algorithms from Saturn?)

Still it is seriously underrated! You can get so many tracks before your CPU even begins to hiccup with this one, and it has a great quality sound to it.

[cryophonik]

The closest sound I could compare it to is the Nord lead.

It's funny you mention that because I've always thought the same thing.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Thanks for the answers.. but i must ask.. cause not really been addressed.. ok we are agreeing the new batch of supersynths sound a bit better at the expense of cpu explosion..

but.. do you think that twin is as good as some synths (if so which ones) that are cpu obliterators?

Do you think as I do, that fab filter could probably build their next supersynth to be a true diva competitor, at half the cpu?

[Resonator63]

Twin 2 is certainly overlooked, it also sounds very good.
I think it tends to sound very clean,nothing wrong with that.
If you add a bit of saturation to some of the sounds they warm up very nicely.
My main problem is that I don't find it very easy to create sounds with,there are other vsti's that seem to make it easier.
Fabfilter One is nice and easy to tweak and still sounds great for a one oscillator vsti.
So what i'd like to see is a Fabfilter vsti with a single page interface like One but with the sound capability of Twin.
That said maybe I need to spend more time learning and getting to grips with Twin2,the sounds are certainly in there as many have proved.

[V0RT3X]

Twin 2 is certainly overlooked, it also sounds very good.
I think it tends to sound very clean,nothing wrong with that.
If you add a bit of saturation to some of the sounds they warm up very nicely.
My main problem is that I don't find it very easy to create sounds with,there are other vsti's that seem to make it easier.
Fabfilter One is nice and easy to tweak and still sounds great for a one oscillator vsti.
So what i'd like to see is a Fabfilter vsti with a single page interface like One but with the sound capability of Twin.
That said maybe I need to spend more time learning and getting to grips with Twin2,the sounds are certainly in there as many have proved.

It's kind of hard to create a synth like Twin2 on a one page interface, without having a HUGE GUI. The way it is laid out is very compact and space saving.

It does take a bit of time to learn the "modular" structuring of it, but I can assure you it is very straight forward and easy to use once you get it.

[Resonator63]

Twin 2 is certainly overlooked, it also sounds very good.
I think it tends to sound very clean,nothing wrong with that.
If you add a bit of saturation to some of the sounds they warm up very nicely.
My main problem is that I don't find it very easy to create sounds with,there are other vsti's that seem to make it easier.
Fabfilter One is nice and easy to tweak and still sounds great for a one oscillator vsti.
So what i'd like to see is a Fabfilter vsti with a single page interface like One but with the sound capability of Twin.
That said maybe I need to spend more time learning and getting to grips with Twin2,the sounds are certainly in there as many have proved.

It's kind of hard to create a synth like Twin2 on a one page interface, without having a HUGE GUI. The way it is laid out is very compact and space saving.

It does take a bit of time to learn the "modular" structuring of it, but I can assure you it is very straight forward and easy to use once you get it.

I think you make a fair point about GUI size there
I must find more time to learn Twin2, I really must

[SadPuppyBlues]

I always disliked the way Twin2 handled monophonic sounds. I don't remember what it was, but there was something about how it behaved when you held a note and pressed another, I think.

[@midnight]

Thanks for the answers.. but i must ask.. cause not really been addressed.. ok we are agreeing the new batch of supersynths sound a bit better at the expense of cpu explosion..

but.. do you think that twin is as good as some synths (if so which ones) that are cpu obliterators?

Do you think as I do, that fab filter could probably build their next supersynth to be a true diva competitor, at half the cpu?

In a word - No, no it's not.

You can test it yourself simply by loading a sawtooth wave, playing the highest notes on the keyboard, with the filter engaged and wide open, and then pitch bend. You will hear a lot of aliasing.

The only way to avoid that is to add oversampling, which costs CPU.

It's a great synth but it does not hold up at the extremes as well as Synth Squad or Diva.

I actually really like it as a backing synth, layering synth, and pad synth. But not for exposed leads or chimey/bell sounds/anything that needs lots of high frequency harmonics and clarity.

[pdxindy]

Thanks for the answers.. but i must ask.. cause not really been addressed.. ok we are agreeing the new batch of supersynths sound a bit better at the expense of cpu explosion..

but.. do you think that twin is as good as some synths (if so which ones) that are cpu obliterators?

Do you think as I do, that fab filter could probably build their next supersynth to be a true diva competitor, at half the cpu?

In a word - No, no it's not.

You can test it yourself simply by loading a sawtooth wave, playing the highest notes on the keyboard, with the filter engaged and wide open, and then pitch bend. You will hear a lot of aliasing.

The only way to avoid that is to add oversampling, which costs CPU.

It's a great synth but it does not hold up at the extremes as well as Synth Squad or Diva.

I actually really like it as a backing synth, layering synth, and pad synth. But not for exposed leads or chimey/bell sounds/anything that needs lots of high frequency harmonics and clarity.

Twin also does not have feedback, filter FM, ring mod, or other features that demand more cpu... IIRC the Twin unison is just Osc Unison, not the whole signal path which keeps the cpu down too...

It is good that there are high cpu synths and low cpu synths for different uses.

btw... is there something weird with panning in Twin? I remember when I tried it, I could not pan an osc all the way to left or right...

[BDeep]

It's kind of hard to create a synth like Twin2 on a one page interface, without having a HUGE GUI. The way it is laid out is very compact and space saving.

See Fabfilter Twin (the first version, I believe that had a single page GUI - and admidattly some features less)

EDIT: now with picture.