that's not really the point though is it. i thought this was a why i love microtonic thread, and why do we love it? because its smokes the competition. but does it really?

you said it best yourself, "a marvel of efficiency and a rather simple tone generator" yes, that's what it is. but see that's where im coming from, microtonics controls are very simple, and thus it really does not smoke the competition when it comes to sound design. yes, its quick to program, but there are drum synths that are much more powerful like drumatic and from what others have said tremor. and isnt that the whole point of a drum plugin or any plugin for that matter, the sound, and the sound design capabilities?

im not arguing with peoples 'love' for microtonic im just saying, that if this thread is about saying that microtonic is the end all be all drum synth, that's simply not true. now, if you want to say, microtonic is the quickest synth to program then id agree with you. and if you wanted to say, microtonic knob for knob is the most versatile drum synth, id agree also. but, if you wanted to say microtonic is the most versatile, end all be all, monster drum synth, then id have to pleasantly disagree.

Look at it this way: Microtonic is kind of like the 808 of drum VSTs.
- It is instantly recognizable since it has a very unique sound.
- It may not be the most complex drummachine but it can be used in many different situations nontheless.
- Since it sounds so unique it can't really be replaced.
- It's awesome.

There may be more complex drum VSTs out there but that doens't make them "better". Is Tremor more versatile than MT? Yes! Would I still choose MT over Tremor? Without even thinking!

That's, of course, just my personal taste/opinion!

Cheers
Dennis

This comes as quite a surprise to me, seeing how much you love sound design. You really need to dig in with Tremor, it's an amazing tool. I think it outclasses MT in every way (except for one: MT is a lot cuter). Extensive mod options make the sounds come alive, whereas MT's sounds are quite static.

I think a lot of people are on the fence about Tremor because of two things: the mediocre presets (what were they thinking?) and FXPansion's propensity for turning up that Drive knob on all patches. It makes for a really harsh, sometimes obnoxious sound. Tremor can do warm and cuddly, though, trust me.

But either way, MT has a firm place in my plugin folder.

@Astral: I don't get why you picked my quote, out of all the ones in this thread. I made it pretty clear that I don't think that MT "smokes" the competition. There are many other great drum synths out there, like Extreme DS (which "smokes" MT regarding semi-real sounds).

I see MT delivering a huge variety of 'standard' powerful analog drum sounds. To me its simplicty is the key. Always been a big fan of those typical Kraftwerk percussion.
Just a few more parameters could make MT a real drumsynthmonster (simple filter in the osci section, 2nd LFO, additional self-resonating bandpassfilter, a complex detunable multiwave for hihats and cymbals).
Just remember that classic drummachines make their percussions from bandpassfilters. Even the TR808 bassdrum is no sine osc but a resonating filter. And i've heard wonderful percussion sounds comming from Buchla filters.

If i want more complex drumsounds i just use ACE or Zebra. I even think about getting a second hand Nordlead 2 just for percussion. Also have Attack since many years, i just don't like the gui that much, but sound wise it's still very good.

Ok, but this thread was not about the complexity of MT's synthengine but more about the quick and easy workflow and how inspiring the simple things in life sometimes can be.


@Bronto Scorpio:
I had a lot of fun with the MT Multi Out version and Übermod. Routing bass and snare to single outs and play them dry. Then put Übermod onto the rest percussion. Yummie!

Tremor is surely nice! But the thing is that I always use Zebra, Bazille or ACE for more complex drum sounds and Microtonic for simple ones.
I guess it just doesn't ift into my setup.

I should probably also mention that Tremor destroys my CPU A brilliant combination! I'm trying the Saurus demo at the moment and it works really well with MT too!

Cheers
Dennis

Yepp, very hungry. Also have enough Zebra and DIVA sounds that eat my CPU.

And yes, Saurus looks very tempting. But i swore not to buy new synths in the next few months. Already have too much.
(must resist, must resist, )

Ah, good point. I admire you for doing drum sounds with those synths. I find it a lot easier to use a dedicated drum synth for that. Admittedly, I haven't really spent a lot of time doing drums in Zebra, for instance, but they always end up sounding like 808 snares, fizzy hats and Miami Vice toms. Yuck!

Ohh sorry
I meant the Saturn demo A dedicated drum synth can be a lot faster in that regard but I love to have full control over every aspect of all my sounds. That doesn't have to mean I get good results with that though
But it's certainly a lot of fun

I once tried to get a good emulation of an 808 snare out of Zebra, it's harder than it seems to be
That's how far I got so far: http://www.brontoscorpiomusic.com/SoundExamples/Zebra/808Sna re01.mp3

Especially Bazille is worth learning for that kind of thing though. It's THE drum synth imo. Even if it isn't a dedicated drum synth.

Cheers
Dennis

Totally forgot to mention:
If you think that MT sounds too static just try the Soundmorph function. Or modulate the Soundmorph fader with a midi-lfo like MidiShaper.

+1
I just purchased Geist and find it awsome but for synthesized drum sounds microtonic rules.

I am a little intrigued with Tremor's ability to easily do poly-rhythms. That for me seems to be its biggest selling point over Microtonic for me.

Please, if you own µTonic, have a look at this discussion about expanding it to 16 instruments and/or 32 steps. There's a poll if you prefer standard 8x16, 8x32, 16x16 or 16x32 (instruments/patterns):
http://soniccharge.com/forum/index.php?/topic/276-microtonic -4-featuring-32-steps-and-16-instruments/

I look forward to hearing what you get out of Bazille re: drums!

For me there is one critical difference between MT and Tremor which makes MT far more useful for my purposes and that is the signal path.

With Tremor both the Osc and Noise are first mixed together and only then go through the filter section, whereas in MT the noise section has its own filter which I find crucial in sculpting snare / hi-hat / clap sounds.

I would have dropped an FX slot from the channel to have a separate filter for the noise section because at the moment to create some of the sounds I want I have to use 2 channels.

oh and one other difference is that MT has those scripts which do useful and/or crazy stuff, sometimes i'll happily sit for an hour or so just doing 'Random Morph' -> 'Drag Morph Slider' and save the interesting sounds as drum patches (or complete patterns). Also the 'Pick New Patches' script can be a lot of fun.

For the MicroTonic users among us, I created some new scripts which you can read about and download from the Sonic Charge website :

http://soniccharge.com/forum/index.php?/topic/278-4-scripts- for-microtonic/

have fun