Alternative to Hive

[Dasheesh]

The thing about Hive is it is an incredibly versatile tool. It's deceptively simple.

[wagtunes]

What's up chk. Haven't gone back and forth in a minute. Listen to yourself. "he wants a replacement for hive".

Actually, if you read the OP, that's EXACTLY what the OP wants. He doesn't like the sound of Hive. Not everybody does. I know that's hard for some people to accept but not everybody likes every synth.

Shocking, isn't it.

So he wants Hive but he doesn't want Hive... got it.

No, he doesn't want Hive. He wants something similar to it in architecture but something that sounds better.

Kind of like if I wanted Arturia Mini V but something that sounds better, which would be The Legend.

To make a sawtooth filtered pluck or super unison?

For whatever the reason is. Not all Supersaws sound the same. I have at least a half dozen synths that do sawtooth filtered plucks or super unison and trust me, they don't all sound the same. Hive sounds very different from Spire which sounds very different from Rapid which sounds very different from Falcon.

That's why we don't own just one synth.

[wagtunes]

The thing about Hive is it is an incredibly versatile tool. It's deceptively simple.

It doesn't matter if Hive can brew your coffee in the morning if someone doesn't like the way it sounds.

[Igro]

What I'm really wondering why most of the "almost" analog sounding synths are always so limited? Why developers don't go further? For instance, to make Synapse Legend more advanced? (wavetables, waveshaping and so on). But I have a feeling Zebra 3 would be something like that...

[Yorrrrrr]

Zebra 3 will blow everything away, I am sure.

[Dasheesh]

What I'm really wondering why most of the "almost" analog sounding synths are always so limited? Why developers don't go further? For instance, to make Synapse Legend more advanced? (wavetables, waveshaping and so on). But I have a feeling Zebra 3 would be something like that...

Because you would trash them until they went out of business about the CPU hit. It's the edmr's crying about about a CPU cycle.

[Dasheesh]

The thing about Hive is it is an incredibly versatile tool. It's deceptively simple.

It doesn't matter if Hive can brew your coffee in the morning if someone doesn't like the way it sounds.

Well, it uses the same synthesis as arturia and sylenth and every other edm dance synth on the market, with the added benefit of being more expressive so.... don't know where the "it don't sound good" comes from unless you just don't like the way those blip mapping synths sound. It sounds better then most. If you prefer the sample sound or the cycle generating sound I could understand. I use all of them myself.

[chk071]

What I'm really wondering why most of the "almost" analog sounding synths are always so limited? Why developers don't go further? For instance, to make Synapse Legend more advanced? (wavetables, waveshaping and so on). But I have a feeling Zebra 3 would be something like that...

CPU considerations, i think.

[wagtunes]

The thing about Hive is it is an incredibly versatile tool. It's deceptively simple.

It doesn't matter if Hive can brew your coffee in the morning if someone doesn't like the way it sounds.

Well, it uses the same synthesis as arturia and sylenth and every other edm dance synth on the market, with the added benefit of being more expressive so.... don't know where the "it don't sound good" comes from unless you just don't like the way those blip mapping synths sound. It sounds better then most. If you prefer the sample sound or the cycle generating sound I could understand. I use all of them myself.

Sounds good is subjective, not objective.

We all need to remember that.

[Dasheesh]

I'll tell you something else I've learned over the last 2-3 years that I truly didn't understand before. "It's not what you do, it's how you do it". Until that makes sense, and it took a long time for me, it's all meaningless. I mean, these things are going to be processed and produced and spit out all using the same kit and all sounding the same in the end for SoundCloud or what have you. It's all one big homogenous blob at this point. Whatever... I use HIVE and I have played around with the others I mentioned... all those creamy rolandesque type kit. I listed 4. In today's DAW environment pick the one you like working with the best.

[wagtunes]

I'll tell you something else I've learned over the last 2-3 years that I truly didn't understand before. "It's not what you do, it's how you do it". Until that makes sense, and it took a long time for me, it's all meaningless. I mean, these things are going to be processed and produced and spit out all using the same kit and all sounding the same in the end for SoundCloud or what have you. It's all one big homogenous blob at this point. Whatever... I use HIVE and I have played around with the others I mentioned... all those creamy rolandesque type kit. I listed 4. In today's DAW environment pick the one you like working with the best.

That's pretty much it.

[ilmai]

For me, everything in music making is about what makes me feel inspired, not what it sounds to the listener (I doubt 99% of listeners care what synth, delay plugin or guitar amp I'm using). That's why usability and flexible sound design capabilities are so important to me, and that's why, to me, it matters what a synth sounds like. Diva made me feel instantly inspired, like I could lose myself in it, while e.g. Hiva is perfectly fine but didn't inspire me the same way. And that's the number one reason for me to buy anything.

[Igro]

@ greedy.mf

I didn't bother to read thru every post on every page so I don't know what has been mentioned so far, but here are a few that I own myself,

ANA from Sonic Academy. I would say this is the best when reading what you are looking for. ANA will soon be updated with more functions and features. I never really saw the new version. The existing 1.5 that I have is subtractive, one page, a bunch of oscillators, filters, etc. Good thing is that it's fairly cheap to.

Dune 2. Quite different from Hive but it's one amazing sound machine. You can create a whole range of sound types with this one. A bit pricy but worth it for sure.

Strobe 2. I have it and I used presets mostly. It sounds nice but I don't really like the workflow, but it doesn't mean that you will not like the workflow.

NI Massive. This is an oldie but still good. Took a little while to wrap my head around it's workflow but from a subtractive synth point of view it sounds good, even compared to more modern stuff.

Spire. One page subtractive synth will amazing sound. Not a cheap synth but well worth the money.

I also own a few others like Z3TA+2 and Carbon Electra. Those are nice to but they don't come close to the capabilities of Hive. Everything I said here is of course based on my own preferences and experiences and you might agree or not. I just wanted to open your eyes to some other nice synths in case you overlooked any of them. I actually use all my synths fairly equal and each one have it's own good and bad sides.

Yeah, let's have a fresh start in recommending each ones favourite synthie...

Spire is not a one page synth. Any synth that has tabbing in the oscillator and LFO section is a workflow killer.

[Dasheesh]

For me, everything in music making is about what makes me feel inspired, not what it sounds to the listener (I doubt 99% of listeners care what synth, delay plugin or guitar amp I'm using). That's why usability and flexible sound design capabilities are so important to me, and that's why, to me, it matters what a synth sounds like. Diva made me feel instantly inspired, like I could lose myself in it, while e.g. Hiva is perfectly fine but didn't inspire me the same way. And that's the number one reason for me to buy anything.

Well, I own other U-he products, plus synapse products, plus synthmaster; Funny how, when ever I lock myself in a dark playing room late at night and put my headphones on I always reach for HIVE. Because it's the most expressively elegant instrument I own. I mean, if it was hardware it would be top shelf up there with most pricey modern masterpieces. Of course, most people don't have need for that kind of inspiration, 90% of the time now it's just hitting the play button and watching it go round in circles. Which is wholly uninspiring to begin with.

No, there is something else going on here. It's that people don't see the value in it because of the lack of obvious features. In their attempt to make an obvious, thoughtless, uncomplicated piece, they actually made something that forces you to be creative and think. You have to know how to play a little to appreciate it I guess. I have contemplated getting rid of it several times because I thought I can cover it's use with my other instruments (I only use about 6 instruments BTW) but I can't. It's my favorite player piece. It's the most elegant and brassy and gorgeously warm and juicy thing in my rack, and I love having this modern super sound at my finger tips. Carry on.

[wagtunes]

For me, everything in music making is about what makes me feel inspired, not what it sounds to the listener (I doubt 99% of listeners care what synth, delay plugin or guitar amp I'm using). That's why usability and flexible sound design capabilities are so important to me, and that's why, to me, it matters what a synth sounds like. Diva made me feel instantly inspired, like I could lose myself in it, while e.g. Hiva is perfectly fine but didn't inspire me the same way. And that's the number one reason for me to buy anything.

Well, I own other U-he products, plus synapse products, plus synthmaster; Funny how, when ever I lock myself in a dark playing room late at night and put my headphones on I always reach for HIVE. Because it's the most expressively elegant instrument I own. I mean, if it was hardware it would be top shelf up there with most pricey modern masterpieces. Of course, most people don't have need for that kind of inspiration, 90% of the time now it's just hitting the play button and watching it go round in circles. Which is wholly uninspiring to begin with.

No, there is something else going on here. It's that people don't see the value in it because of the lack of obvious features. In their attempt to make an obvious, thoughtless, uncomplicated piece, they actually made something that forces you to be creative and think. You have to know how to play a little to appreciate it I guess. I have contemplated getting rid of it several times because I thought I can cover it's use with my other instruments (I only use about 6 instruments BTW) but I can't. It's my favorite player piece. It's the most elegant and brassy and gorgeously warm and juicy thing in my rack, and I love having this modern super sound at my finger tips. Carry on.

Well, this explains a lot. Your own words. You use about 6 instruments. It's not hard for something to be "special" out of 6 instruments. I use over 100 instruments. In that grand scheme, Hive is nothing special. Not to me. Don't get me wrong. I like it, as I like all U-he synths. But of all the U-he synths (not counting the free ones) Hive would be my least favorite. In fact, if I'm being totally honest, only reason I bought it was to make a library to sell. How does it stack up against my other U-he libraries as far as sales figures?

Out of 52 total libraries

Zebra 2 - 5th
Bazille - 7th
Diva - 13th
Ace - 19th
Repro-1 18th
Hive - 33rd

Now, you want to say that the reason Hive sold so poorly is because I don't love the instrument and only bought it to make sounds, well, doesn't wash. Diva was the exact same thing. Never really loved the instrument. Bought it to make sounds. One of my better sellers.

Hive reminds me of that pretty girl sitting at the bar. Then you walk over to talk to her and you find out there isn't much personality under that pretty exterior. She's okay. But a lifetime with her? Probably not.

My similar synths (at least similar IMO) as far as sales?

Dune 2 - 9th
Electra 2 - 30th
Spire - 24th

And the irony is, I thought Hive was going to do very well with all the talk of it being a "Sylenth1 Killer", another synth I have stayed far away from because I know with all the free libraries out there I'd be lucky to sell 1 copy.

Now, you want to tell me my sounds suck. My design skills suck. That's fair. But I've been told that for all my synths. So all things being equal, Hive still falls pretty far down the list.

To me, Hive sounds thin and lifeless. And the FX are, IMO, abysmal. They are, without a doubt, the cheapest sounding worst FX I have heard on a synth since FM8. And even its FX sound better. You have to literally take almost every effect in Hive and plaster it onto a patch to make it sound good. Programming Hive, for me, was total misery. Spire, a total joy. Dune 2, one of my favorite synths.

And yet, with all I've said, as all of this is totally subjective, I can understand somebody absolutely loving this synth. Hell, I can see somebody absolutely loving OnePingOnly. But for me, Hive is one of those synths that, if I didn't own it, I wouldn't miss it. Not for a second. My other U-he synths, yes, even Diva as I grew to love it, I would miss a lot. Especially Zebra 2 and Bazille.

I'm very glad you love Hive so much. You've made that pretty clear in about at least 50 posts. Everybody should have that one synth that they truly love. I'm fortunate to have quite a few that I truly love.

Hive is just not one of them.