Waves Element - Worth buying?

[musikmachine]

It's a different synth with a own sound (which is of course great).

But the feature list is not very long. Unison is very limited, it's only doubling, no control of stereo spread, detune, amount of voices "stacking", nothing. Effects are usable not many options eg. the reverb and chorus are only one knob for the mix level! No modulation time, room size.. nothing.
Some interesting ideas like the switchable DC/VC oscillators and that oscillator 1 can be modulated with a sine wave.

The Arp is very limited, no velocity or binding of steps.

Yes, I think it's worth $30 but not $200
To be honest, I have no interest for this synth. They started with a good idea but doesn't bring the whole thing to a new level. It stopped somewhere in the middle of the idea. Maybe that Waves had some limits how much they pay the developer.

It's weird coming from Waves with their reputation for high quality fx and then putting a $200 price on it, with the stuff available these days it has to pretty fantastic! I need to try it but it means installing mercury bundle...

[musikmachine]

OSC 1 has a Sine waveshaper.

The "Sine Mod" feature is adding FM using a hidden additional Sine oscilator as a modulator.
The result of this could be used as a modulator for Osc2 using the "FM" amount.


Ingo

That's interesting!

[DamienStaab]

Waves Element is not worth of buying, Reveal Sound Spire Synthesizer is way better. This synth is the closes thing to Virus! but It's relatively new and unstable. I hear some noise and crackling and it really uses CPU. Sound is more then great for ITB synth. Element is the first synth ever made by Waves and it seems to me that Waves is inexperienced in soft synth making. They don't even have a good reverb but some of their plugins are really cool.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Yeah I got to say the sound of spire wipes the floor with element IMO.

[Numanoid]

I hear some noise and crackling and it really uses CPU.

Well, that's more a problem with your rig, than Element though.

. Element is the first synth ever made by Waves and it seems to me that Waves is inexperienced in soft synth making.

And how many synths have Reveal Sound made then?

[fisherKing]

i really like Element; i wouldn't give up any of my other synths for it, but it has it's uses...and has earned a place in my arsenal (i use about 6 synths; i own many more...).

good for what it's good at...like most other synth plugins. hardly worth an argument: use it if you like it, move on if you don't. simple...

[musikmachine]

A few of my highly personal observations:

-The oscillators are truly great. I love the one-knob approach that can radically change the timbre of the oscillators.
-The filter is no jaw-dropper but sounds great as long as you're not overusing the resonance.
-Envelopes are cool - you can make them real snappy.
-Effects are all good apart from the reverb which really doesn't work with a one-knob approach.
-Arpeggiator/Step Sequencer is very nice and capable as well.
-The equalizer have a distinct bite and works very well on synthetic sounds.
-The unison is decent and gives a bigger sound - but you cannot push it into the stratosphere.

All in all - Element is actually a DAMN FINE synth. Yesterday when I was playing around with it, I felt my respect of it rise with almost every function I tried.

The only time I felt 'oooh... this sucks' was with the reverb. The sound of the verb is not bad, it's just that the one-knob approach really really don't work with a reverb.

I've already planned a soundset for this one.

If you are on the fence - get it.

/C

Sounds good but i used up all my plugin budget! Arp as a mod source sounds like it could be good for complex sfx, stuff like that? I know you like Synth Squadso does it rank alongside? I use them a lot but in maschine can hit the cpu hard with a few instances, that's why i'm looking at this, plus it's cheap!

[ScottZ]

I hear some noise and crackling and it really uses CPU.

Well, that's more a problem with your rig, than Element though.

He was referring to spire not element in that instance.

[bjporter]

Definitely something beautiful about the filters in Element. The price with the coupon is similar to TAL U-NO-LX, so I imagine people will jump on this.

[musikmachine]

Is it down to 30 bucks already? I thought it was 30 euros or 40 dollars...

Anyway, you can have my license

I can't tell if you're being serious or not!

I think it was about $30 after discounts were applied.

[fluffy_little_something]

Is it down to 30 bucks already? I thought it was 30 euros or 40 dollars...

Anyway, you can have my license

I can't tell if you're being serious or not!

I think it was about $30 after discounts were applied.

Yes, I was being serious I have that new license with a full year of WUP, but it turns out that synth does not work in my DAW...

It cost me 40 dollars, i.e. 30 euros. That was why I was surprised you said 30-dollar synth

[musikmachine]

Is it down to 30 bucks already? I thought it was 30 euros or 40 dollars...

Anyway, you can have my license

I can't tell if you're being serious or not!

I think it was about $30 after discounts were applied.

Yes, I was being serious I have that new license with a full year of WUP, but it turns out that synth does not work in my DAW...

It cost me 40 dollars, i.e. 30 euros. That was why I was surprised you said 30-dollar synth

My bad, i just checked and it's $35.

[4damind]

Btw.. this synth was developed by Guy Rotem afaik a musician/developer from Israel. After the synth was released he wrote also on Gearslutz to answer some questions.

[musikmachine]

I hear some noise and crackling and it really uses CPU.

Well, that's more a problem with your rig, than Element though.

He was referring to spire not element in that instance.

Spire would eat my cpu for breakfast but my what a beautiful sound, seems geared towards trance from the demo but really inspiring.

[Numanoid]

Two months later, do you feel the synth was worth the money?