Steinberg synths

[VitaminD]

they need to include the locked synths to SL and SE

[Jeremy_NSL]

Oh wait - I forgot. Waldorf Attack and PPG Wave are both awesome and got plenty of updates. But I guess that was because Waldorf co-produced them.

[TotcProductions]

Oh wait - I forgot. Waldorf Attack and PPG Wave are both awesome and got plenty of updates. But I guess that was because Waldorf co-produced them.

No more updates on those though....waldorf dead..they go bang bang.

Ashame really...I loved waldorf. oh well...think i'll go cry myself to sleep about it now.

peace!

[kritikon]

They have so many, inc, d'cota, xphraze, A1, embracer, monologue, plex & hypersonic, yet none seems to feature in anybody's must-have list.

Somtimes maybe it's also part of the host application thing...by that I mean, some of those synths are part of the Cubase SX package (Monologue, A1, Embracer) and you tend to lump everything within the package as being Cubase. I consider all of the FX and other bits inside SX to be part of SX, so I almost automatically don't throw them in the list to compare with 3rd party plugins. I probably should, but I just don't.

Doesn't mean I don't use them though...I suspect a fair number of Cubase users use many of the included FX and synths without even thinking about it on a regular basis. For example, the chorus within Cubase is my favourite chorus...I find it the richest and creamiest of any I've tried - I rarely even check out new ones simply because I like the SX chorus so much. Their midigate...I use that so often, it really is an integral part of Cubase. The vocoder holds its own to this day. Likewise I'll almost automatically turn to their Waldorf VSTi if I want synth sounds with a fair bit of grit and dirt - industrial type sounds. And Monologue gets used regularly even if only for spcial FX such as the odd sweep or blip or boing etc. They do the job very well.

You're right though...Steinberg as a 3rd party seller don't do very much to sell them on their own. If they were actively marketed, I'm sure they'd sell a heap more of them. XPhraze was almost criminally neglected. And some of their other VSTi, FX and apps are good quality. There's a bit of a bandwagon for reflexively slagging off Steinberg...we forget too easily that they became a bigger company simply by making good products.

[x_bruce]

Hi JonathanDragonDJ, I'd like to clarify things a bit.

I don't rip on companies that do a good job of supporting and developing products.

Here's an example. If you go to Cakewalk, you can update to Sonar from older Cakewalk Pro packages, that goes back a decade.

I asked Steinberg what it would cost to update to SX3 from Cubase 5.1 VST and was told I couldn't. My response to that, fine, they lost a customer, though I had some money left on a Guitar Center store credit and chose to get a deeply discounted Cubase SE, figuring if I'd want to try and make ammends with Steinberg, and you know what? It's a better sequencer than 5.1 VST which is pathetic. Their cut down, limited, $60 sequencer was more powerful than the Dongled, $300 sequencer.

I see things like that and think the company is not doing things well.

I buy PLEX for a job I'm doing. Like Tim I like PLEX a lot, but I've been using it longer and trust me Tim, you'll want to know why Steinberg didn't bother to support the synth with a converter utility for user, akai, giga or HAlion support.

Then there's D'Cota, probably the most successful of the newer batch of synths. What did they do with it? Not much, but give Harry Gohs has offered an upgrade to TERA 2 for $160. Sounds pricy? Try TERA 2 and get back to me about whether it's worth the upgrade or not. D'Cota is a good synth, no doubt, but TERA is a superb synth that cost $70 more when D'Cota came out.

I tried to get people to give TERA a listen as D'Cota is a mini version of it. TERA 2 makes TERA 1 seem almost limited because of it's new interface that lets you work in multiple synth templates rather than the big, semi-modular GUI. You can still use it, but you probably won't want to as it feels like you are getting seven synths right out of the box, even though they are sub-sets of TERA 2, and they are all about equal in power to D'Cota. When it came out I tried to convince people to go to TERA 1 but I guess Steinberg got a good jump on the publicity.

Meanwhile, TERA 2 was a free upgrade to TERA users and D'Cota... like so many other synths from Steinberg it remains in suspended animation. You can buy it for nearly $70 less than TERA 2 to this day.

The only thing I can say is at least D'Cota users got a mature synth by the person that created TERA.

Thankfully Xphraze is now being updated and sounding better than ever! It's nice to be using it again and very encouraging to see the new Wizoo libraries. Trance/dance users didn't like the original sample set though I thought it was pretty good. Still do, for that matter.

So, I'm not dumping on big companies. I think Native Instruments does a great job. Any time I needed an answer to a problem I got it within 24 hours. I've always liked their synths and love their sampler based products.

I think VirSyn make the best overall line of synths and they're not exactly a small developer. Similarly, G-Media, though about to be distributed elsewhere has been there from the start with help, encouragement and friendly staff, from M-Tron down to the astounding impOSCar.

Synapse Audio do a great job of making Orion into a strong, high quality studio and put out excellent VST instruments.

Ohm Force rock, they are great people to talk with and make some of the most unique effects on the planet and possibly one of the most unique synths ever made with Symptohm:Melohman.

It's not big companies that bother me. It's big companies that don't do anything for their users, high end or low. Let's look at it this way; I spent a lot of money through Steinberg. I don't feel they warrant my support as they've done little to make me feel they are worth saying nice things about for the reasons outlined in this post.

[pepelogu]

Personally, i think Xphraze, Hypersonic and Plex are three absolutely fantastic apps. Or, they could have been if it weren't for the boring, crappy, 1993-sounding sampled content all three are crippled with.

It's time for Steinburg to ditch Wizoo.

Imagine Xphraze with Spectrasonics sample-material...

I love A1, use it all the time.

[Mr Arkadin]

It's not big companies that bother me. It's big companies that don't do anything for their users, high end or low.

Hear, hear. i think most of the posters 'defending' Steinberg probably aren't Mac users, otherwise you'd know how their Mac support has become diabolical (VST 5.2 anyone? Let alone the arse that is SX). i for one will not give another penny to them unless Yammy come up with some decent Mac support, and to be honest, if i have to pay a load of wonga to update anyway i'd rather put it towards a new host.

Mr A

[HHaynes]

Personally, i think Xphraze, Hypersonic and Plex are three absolutely fantastic apps. Or, they could have been if it weren't for the boring, crappy, 1993-sounding sampled content all three are crippled with.

It's time for Steinburg to ditch Wizoo.

Imagine Xphraze with Spectrasonics sample-material...

I love A1, use it all the time.

I think that for the most part - Steinberg and Wizoo have parted ways. There are products in the Steinberg catalog that were created for them by Wizoo that will *stay* there, but all of the new stuff from Wizoo is going through a new channel (M-Audio). That's my understanding as of this year's winter NAMM show. I'm sure if you blink or take a nap that might change again...

...but my understanding is that the "hold-up" on the Xphraze update and expansions was because of some political in-fight between Wizoo, Steinberg, with Micheal Kleps and reFX caught in the middle.

As it is, Xphraze is a synth I use every day, and the bundled synths and effects with Cubase and Nuendo can be quite handy. I still pull out Arturia's minimoogV FX as often as Steinberg's Tonic for cramming a sound through a filter, although I'm starting to find Tonic is very easy to handle and offers a good selection of filter types that I'm just now getting to. Also, the bundled ring modulator and leslie cabinet effects have kept me happy enough that I've not gone looking elsewhere for replacements (even USB's Charlie has presets that use a sampled Leslie - so if I need to change cab speeds in a part I pull up a straight-toned preset and pipe it through Steinberg's Leslie simulator - and VIOLA! -- like magic I'm back in the 60s)

Xphraze's sample import utility really allows it to take on the personality of any multisample you can give it - so although it didn't come *bundled* with knock-you-out sample content, you can certainly find good content to put in there. I've been using sample folders from HALion and Kontakt, as well as extracting GigaSample content to either of the other two sampler formats and then canibalizing the sample folders and sucking them into Xphraze. "Cool" is an understatement - it's more like another world.

There are a lot of things about the Steinberg's general business practices (whether from their own decision or at the behest of their partners or owners) that leave much to be desired. I do think that Xphraze was criminally neglected for a long time, and I'm sure part of it was because things weren't going to the satisfaction of one or two people so they put the brakes on the whole operation. That's not professional at all - it's petty and immature, for sure. But more pernitious is the *business model* that allows those types of decisions/feelings to control or prevent the development of a partnered product. It's like having an Ivy League university under the control of 12-year-olds.

It is still my hope that someday Steinberg will put the right people in place to figure out how that's BAD FOR THEIR BOTTOM LINE (which is the only way they'll make a decision to change the way they operate), NO MATTER HOW BIG THEY ARE IN THIS INDUSTRY and make the necessary operational and cultural adjustments.

I have a glimmer of hope... but I'm not holding my breath just yet.

[CANE CREEK]

some of their synths need a dongle which i think is off putting for some customers......

[Kim Lajoie]

It's like having an Ivy League university under the control of 12-year-olds.

Forever,




Kim.