Ultrabeat: still the best soft drum synth

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It's a bit frustrating to me that after all these years, still nothing touches Logic's ultrabeat. A lot of you are probably saying "that's not true blah blah blah" but think about it for a minute.

It has two oscillators per voice, one of which can be changed into a sampler with modulatable sample start point (and you can FM the other oscilator with the sampe which is fantastic), it also has a physical modelling osc. If has filters that are great, distortion, noise, eq, fantastic lfo's and envelopes, and you can modulated almost everything (including modulation by midi sources). And of course the sound quality of everything is top notch. Not to mention the internal sequencer which allows you to offset EVERY PARAMETER by step. It's bonkers.

What I don't understand, is why someone hasn't basically just made the same thing in VST format for everyone who doesn't use logic. There are some really great soft drum synths out there, but Ultrabeat is really the only one I can see covering all my bases. Unfortunately, I don't use Logic anymore, it just doesn't suit my workflow as much as FL studio (what a change I know), so I'm stuck pining away for my sweet Ultrabeat.

Ya feel me?

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Totally agree, Ultrabeat is a MONSTER, just like Sculpture. They both sound incredible. One of the reasons i still use Logic X.
I also wish Apple would sell them as separate plugins so we could use them in any DAW....I use Live everyday, because my creativity just flows unhindered with it.....Logic makes some things harder than they should be imo. But that's another topic....

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Also the new Retro synth is dangerously good for a bundled DAW synth.

The analog part sounds exactly like a Juno.

The FM is very good for bells and electric pianos.

It can do everything apart from the Moog mono sound, the Virus hyper saw sound [& zero delay filters], which should be fixed in the next update :wink:

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I actually love using Ultrabeat, and I own Geist and Tremor which are both very awesome plugins as well. However I like the Ultrabeat setup and I think it is a very capable drum machine.
:borg:

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I used ultra for the 3 years I was at Uni - hands down the best software drum app I've used too. Sculpture was awesome too.
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i remember the interface of ultrabeat just puts me off, the whole gui was terrible. (i think thats the reason many don't know what it's capable of).
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You could easily just rely on logic plugins to create professional sounding electronic music. Some might consider this heresy here at KVR but it's true.
:borg:

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I always liked the 'sci-fi' interfaces of logic's instruments. I can totally understand folks not liking them though!
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V0RT3X wrote:You could easily just rely on logic plugins to create professional sounding electronic music. Some might consider this heresy here at KVR but it's true.
Not really true, Logic doesn't have a modern sounding synth that can do huge unison leads. Nor does it have a proper Moog emulation or a realistic piano.

I would say Logic + Massive + Monark + Ivory is what you need to make professional sounding edm.

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djquikcompton wrote:I would say Logic + Massive + Monark + Ivory is what you need to make professional sounding edm.
Ivory? You need a classical piano* to make convincing edm? :dog: :nutter:

Logic and some creativity is plenty of tools to make good things. Of course, other tools will give more variety, options and make some things easier and faster to get to... basically, in this day and age, the tools are not a problem and not a limiting factor.

Similarly, there are plenty of people with *all* the tools, and their music is still godawful.

FWIW Whenever I've tried I always found Massive to sound bland and uninspiring, or just boring. The best thing about it is it's interface, but hey, we all like different things and that's a good thing...

* Or maybe you mean this: http://www.kvraudio.com/product/ivory-w ... ne/details

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djquikcompton wrote:
V0RT3X wrote:You could easily just rely on logic plugins to create professional sounding electronic music. Some might consider this heresy here at KVR but it's true.
Not really true, Logic doesn't have a modern sounding synth that can do huge unison leads. Nor does it have a proper Moog emulation or a realistic piano.

I would say Logic + Massive + Monark + Ivory is what you need to make professional sounding edm.
In the right hands a good artist could easily just use logic to put out a hit. I'm not talking about preset producers who buy a synth just to use presets, but someone who has knowledge in how to do their own sound design.

For instance..

If you needed a supersaw synth or something you could use sampled synthesizers in EXS.

Glitches could easily be done manually with the audio editing functions.

Sure maybe Logic does'nt have something like Massive with its amazing modulation system, but it does have plenty of options to modulate stuff with daw automation using ES2.

Considering that most people who are going to listen to this song on the radio won't give a shit if a synth has unison or not, i don't see the need.

A minimoog emulation? Again just load up some EXS samples of a moog. Also the new retro synth can do very good moog-like tones.

I also think that having multisampled pianos isn't going to be a real necessity in EDM since most people are going to focus more on the drop, synthesizers, risers and drums. EXS has a decent piano in it and again i think with the right amount of sound design knowledge you can create some realistic sounding piano sounds, and if all fails...

You can use logic and just record a real instrument where you don't have a plugin option.
;)
:borg:

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I accept that Ultrabeat has great facilities, but its GUI is awful. It's not easy to remember or intuitive to learn whatsoever. I wish Reason's Kong was available inside Logic instead. That thing is straight forward.
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Sound and feature wise Ultrabeat is pretty great. But I think Maschine 2 has it beat overall as a drum machine with all it's new drum synth types and the overall workflow.

Ultrabeat is pretty cool looking if you're into spaceships, but the interface is just too small.

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Yes the interface is crappy, I will concede.

Hmm curious about the new drum synth modules on Maschine 2, but I don't think I'll ever end up getting it because I'm a nerd who mostly draws everything into the piano roll.

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djquikcompton wrote:Also the new Retro synth
They called their synth WHAT?! :dog:

They should be beaten with a plushie of the word "retro". I can't even google that name to find out more about it, because pretty much every VA synth comes up when you search "retro synth" :D
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