Synthmaster, Diva or Spire?

[ontrackp]

I own Synthmaster and Diva, and have auditioned Spire. I did not purchase Spire, can't say exactly why as it's very subjective, but the others seemed more powerful and interesting to me.

DIVA - fantastic sound, fast and easy to program with logical results (i.e. it does what you pretty much think it will do when you program a new patch). Uses a lot of CPU but there are built in work-arounds.

SYNTHMASTER - I find the GUI to be difficult and counter-intuitive, hard to keep in tune because the coarse tuning doesn't just jump to octaves, on screen depictions of waveforms are generic in many of the displays so you don't have good visual feedback, results of programming can be a little difficult to predict -- but it sounds great and is capable of wild, really rich sounds. Really good third party preset libraries but the presets that come with it -- ehhh. Also, some patches are huge CPU hogs.

I think you should look into Zebra2 or Zebra HZ. Programming is fast, easy and intuitive (once you get used to it) and there is a fantastic range of sound making potential.

[BBFG#]

SYNTHMASTER - Really good third party preset libraries but the presets that come with it -- ehhh. Also, some patches are huge CPU hogs.

I also find many of the presets to be, uh... meh. Whenever I open it, no matter where I start, I end up using only the Nori sets (World & Historical).
But I haven't found any third party sets really except for the Art Renaisance and they, like the others are good for what they are, but nothing I find I want to use.
I have to admit that the GUI has made it more of a preset player to me and the 'programming' has been little more than necessary tweaks.

So who else have you found in third party presets for SynthMaster?

[ontrackp]

I actually have not purchased any third party presets -- I've just seen the list on line and the demo sequences sound great, so I assume they're good. When I use SM I just start with a preset and tweak it for what I need. To be honest though, Diva is so easy to program that I am using SM less and less.

[BBFG#]

I think much of the problem I have with the demo of Diva has to do with great presets that show it's power, but nothing I find completely usable, which means I would have to program it from scratch or tweak the sounds supplied a lot to something I would use.

Likewise, with Synthmaster, if I hadn't heard the NU Sounds of the world. I probably wouldn't have bought it. Its power IMO is in the samples as oscillator feature.

[Ingonator]

I think much of the problem I have with the demo of Diva has to do with great presets that show it's power, but nothing I find completely usable, which means I would have to program it from scratch or tweak the sounds supplied a lot to something I would use.

Quite strange with a lot more than 1000 presets. Did you also check the folder called "THIRD PARTY"? This includes more than 800 patches published at KVR during the first public beta.


Ingo

[pdxindy]

I have Diva and Synthmaster. Demoed Spire quite a bit.

Diva just sounds gorgeous. Easy to create sounds cause it pretty much always sounds good. You can really push the synth and get satisfying results. There's a lot of character to be found and small modulations can create lovely unexpected nuances. You get something for the cpu use. Especially with the new osc and filter models, the sonic range is more than it appears at first try. I think Diva would benefit from a simple built-in eq though that is easy enough to do post synth.

Synthmaster and Diva are hardly comparable to me. Synthmaster and Zebra are similar. Complex work horse synths with a huge sonic range that cover lots of synthesis types and complex modulations.

Synthmaster can do so much. With that comes more capacity to not sound good. That is not a criticism, but is just something of the nature of complex synths. It is not as fast to just dial in sounds. In exchange you get a truly vast sonic potential. I'm very glad I have both type of synths (not that they all fall into such simple definitions). Synthmaster can sound great and it takes more work to get there. If you like synthesis, then it is well worth it.

Spire is pretty easy to use, sounds good, with some well defined controls. I would say Spire is the most targeted of the 3 for a specific audience and fits best with what the OP says they are looking for. The cpu use is quite high and for me, I don't get enough for it like I do with Diva.

Spire also still needs some refinement. For example, the scaling on some parameter knobs can be improved. Some of the knobs when off, jump at the slightest change. For example, X-Comp at 0 is off, and if you turn it up even the slightest bit it clicks and the sound jumps (not great for realtime tweaking). The numeric values are also a bit finicky.

For an unabashedly digital synth, I like Diversion (also high cpu use).

[Nokenoku]

I think much of the problem I have with the demo of Diva has to do with great presets that show it's power, but nothing I find completely usable, which means I would have to program it from scratch or tweak the sounds supplied a lot to something I would use.

Quite strange with a lot more than 1000 presets. Did you also check the folder called "THIRD PARTY"? This includes more than 800 patches published at KVR during the first public beta.

Most of those presets aren't for EDM though.



Don't get me wrong:

DIVA is great for what it is. And it comes with some very good and usable presets.
But for the kind of music, which was posted in the OP, it's really not a good choice.

Of course, you can totally use DIVA for EDM, if you actually want that thicker more vintage sound ... going in the direction like Oliver for example:
https://soundcloud.com/weareoliver

But for ultra-clean, digital sound it's just not the right tool.

[synzh]

I also have all 3 and I totally agree with what pdxindy said.
Diva sounds beautiful, similar to analog but eats CPU (can tone that down tho)
Synthmaster is an all-around different synthesis types sort with some nice variety, but can be a little difficult to program at times.
Spire is good for its place which is EDM-type, better for clear/crisp cut-thru type sounds like Sylenth in a way