Bazille 1.0

[Urs]

As a matter of fact listening to some Bazille presets is rather depressing

That's just how I felt too. Since there are so many really bad presets there, I was quite amazed at how bad they were.

hehehe, I see what you did there

[basslinemaster]

Well, I tried the demo and turned off HQ mode, still relatively high CPU, and virtually none of the presets impressed me (I only use presets). I then loaded up Sylenth to compare, and the preset packs I have sounded way better and more useful to me than almost everything in Bazille - there are loads of pretty poor presets in there. Hundreds of them, in fact, to my ears. Just my two pence worth, you may love it, but for me there was nothing that stood out. But then, I am a preset only user, I was just expecting more from the presets.

IMHO the presets are outstanding - but then I'm one of those who think Sylenth is boring.

Can you tell me which presets you think are outstanding? Let me have another go at the demo tonight and I'll post up a few hundred which, for me, are just completely unusable and 'unmusical', and just downright poor sounding, i.e. when I listen to them, I wonder why my CPU is reaching 30% on a three note chord, when the preset it's producing sounds worse than just about anything I get out of Sylenth - nothing to do with the power of the synth, just the presets themselves.

[aMUSEd]

I don't see any point, this is clearly a matter of different tastes rather than 'good' or 'bad' sounds - it would be much more constructive if you accepted that and moved on rather than just dismissing them as 'bad'.

[Urs]

Hmmm, why would you expect any preset of Bazille to sound like anything you get from Sylenth1?

We have made very precise guidelines for the preset designers. Those guidelines can be paraphrased as "presets must sound nothing like those found in Sylenth1", i.e. we wanted something different. We specifically did not want anyone to even think about comparing Bazille to Sylenth1. It's kind of disturbing that now someone tries to, given how different those concepts are, and given how different the presets are.

That said, I don't have anything against Sylenth1 and the presets it ships with. It's just not what Bazille is designed to rival (and vice-versa)

[pdxindy]

Zebra felt intimidating at first, but now I'm creating my own unique patches with ease. I just feel Bazille is way more 'out there' with it's synthesis methods.

The fractal stuff is interesting, but I've only read about it in synthesis books designed for PhD students (again, punching above my weight, lol).

Sorry, I'm a bit slow on the uptake. Took me months to really start patching in ACE. FM synthesis still confuses me a little. But I'm eager to learn and experiment.

I wouldn't want to miss out on the intro deal, out of my own stupidity. It's not that Bazille doesn't click with me, it's just that I'm not very consistent with it (right now)

Thanks.

Bazille is definitely different. At first I could not do anything with it. I thought... what the hell is a lag generator and a quantizer and rectifier?? And so many inputs and outputs to wire together was daunting. I was also disappointed that the envelopes were seemingly so basic and that there were just 2 LFO's...

Now I smile at some of my initial reactions. I am so used to modulation in Bazille, that now I miss lag generators, quantizers, rectifiers etc when I use 'regular' synths.

Some synths have higher level modulation modules like multi-segment envelopes. Bazille is more a set of simple modules that can be wired in complex ways and which take some time to wrap the head around but which also lead to different results... including stuff that evolves in ways that cannot be done with a standard MSEG.

My point being, I think it is well worth it to put the time into learning Bazille. I'd guess there will eventually be some tutorials from Howard like the Zebra ones and in the meanwhile, there are now the 1700 presets to dissect and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[Numanoid]

Don't like the presets -> simple solution -> roll your own

[BBFG#]

Well, I tried the demo and turned off HQ mode, still relatively high CPU, and virtually none of the presets impressed me (I only use presets). I then loaded up Sylenth to compare, and the preset packs I have sounded way better and more useful to me than almost everything in Bazille - there are loads of pretty poor presets in there. Hundreds of them, in fact, to my ears. Just my two pence worth, you may love it, but for me there was nothing that stood out. But then, I am a preset only user, I was just expecting more from the presets.

IMHO the presets are outstanding - but then I'm one of those who think Sylenth is boring.

Can you tell me which presets you think are outstanding? Let me have another go at the demo tonight and I'll post up a few hundred which, for me, are just completely unusable and 'unmusical', and just downright poor sounding, i.e. when I listen to them, I wonder why my CPU is reaching 30% on a three note chord, when the preset it's producing sounds worse than just about anything I get out of Sylenth - nothing to do with the power of the synth, just the presets themselves.

Well, to each their own so it depends on what you're looking for or if you just try to see what it has to offer. A lot of the sounds are rather 'meh' to me and sound like what I hear coming from Sylenth also. (I don't think Sylenth is a bad synth, just never heard any programming that interests me yet). Sylenth does have a nice character though and what I find really good in Bazille is its character underlying even those 'meh' sounds. That being said, I don't stay on them more than a handful of notes before checking out the next sound.

The sounds that grabbed me right off though are many of the pads; leads and even basses. And quite a few of the competition winners do show some nice tricks too. There is one developer that I think does great sounds, but not any I ever use and even he had a couple in there I felt were a cut above his rest.
It is subjective of course. And may take some time to really go through them for some. I have a particular focus which makes it easier for me to seek out my tastes and each has to find their own particular focus for theirs.

[foosnark]

Dammit, I wasn't going to buy any more synths. But now it looks like it's out of my hands

[mutantdog]

Those guidelines can be paraphrased as "presets must sound nothing like those found in Sylenth1"

Man, that's a good selling point in itself.

Anyway, got thursday & friday booked off work so that's a nice long weekend with this sorted.

[justin3am]

Well, I tried the demo and turned off HQ mode, still relatively high CPU, and virtually none of the presets impressed me (I only use presets). I then loaded up Sylenth to compare, and the preset packs I have sounded way better and more useful to me than almost everything in Bazille - there are loads of pretty poor presets in there. Hundreds of them, in fact, to my ears. Just my two pence worth, you may love it, but for me there was nothing that stood out. But then, I am a preset only user, I was just expecting more from the presets.

IMHO the presets are outstanding - but then I'm one of those who think Sylenth is boring.

Can you tell me which presets you think are outstanding? Let me have another go at the demo tonight and I'll post up a few hundred which, for me, are just completely unusable and 'unmusical', and just downright poor sounding, i.e. when I listen to them, I wonder why my CPU is reaching 30% on a three note chord, when the preset it's producing sounds worse than just about anything I get out of Sylenth - nothing to do with the power of the synth, just the presets themselves.

I can't tell you which presets you will like but I can tell you to ignore any presets that start with '3AM'.

A lot of the patches I submitted weren't really intended to be musical... Most of my patches exploit artifacts that emerge when abusing feedback paths and audio rate modulation. I also commonly use modulation sources to generate audio.

All of these things result in sounds that are fascinating to me but may sound like garbage to others. It's just a matter of taste.

[Urs]

Can you tell me which presets you think are outstanding?

Here's one example:

02 Basses/HS Quartertone Mini.h2p

This is a decent Minimoog-Type bass patch. It is however programmed in a tricky way so that when two keys are pressed, the resulting tune lays in-between those notes. As result, one can play chromatic and quarter tone scales without using micro tuning. With a patch like that it's easy to switch between western and oriental scales on the fly.

The library is loaded with presets that explore modular trickery like that. It's a treasure that needs to be discovered, not a be-all-end all collection of all sounds you'll ever need / you've ever heard for a single genre of music.

[justin3am]

As I have now gone through almost every preset, making sure to play with performance controls, I can say there is a staggering amount variation in the factory library. I'm particularly impressed by many of the patches by Aiyn Zahev, Howard (no surprise), Tasmodia and The Unshushable Coktor.

Thanks goes to everyone involved. Bazille has been my favorite soft-synth since the day the first alpha was available and I'm constantly finding new and interesting things it can do.

[ghettosynth]

I don't see any point, this is clearly a matter of different tastes rather than 'good' or 'bad' sounds - it would be much more constructive if you accepted that and moved on rather than just dismissing them as 'bad'.

I can't think of a synth with presets that doesn't have some that I don't like or would never use, even on actual classic analog hardware.

[pdxindy]

IMHO the presets are outstanding - but then I'm one of those who think Sylenth is boring.

Can you tell me which presets you think are outstanding? Let me have another go at the demo tonight and I'll post up a few hundred which, for me, are just completely unusable and 'unmusical', and just downright poor sounding, i.e. when I listen to them, I wonder why my CPU is reaching 30% on a three note chord, when the preset it's producing sounds worse than just about anything I get out of Sylenth - nothing to do with the power of the synth, just the presets themselves.

Bazille may just not be for you... You can go spend $5000 on a euro-rack analog modular and it will not sound like Sylenth either.

If you want Sylenth, there are other synths to look at (Dune and Spire for example). Bazille is something different. I guess that one of the reasons Bazille is priced cheaper is exactly because it is out on the edge. If you love synthesis and exploring the world of modular sound, then Bazille is exciting. If you are looking for a bunch of standard trance leads, then look elsewhere.

Personally, I find Bazille far more interesting and 'musical' than Sylenth. Sylenth is like an over bred dog and Bazille is a wolf... wild and untamed

As for the presets, I have not tried many of the 1700 myself... I'm too busy making my own. But I do know that with my own presets, they shine when I am playing them. They are alive and need to be explored. With the non-linear responses in the modulation, all sorts of cool stuff happens.

[Fred_Abstract]

Picked this up blind as a 'new job' treat today. So, so happy I did. One of my favourite sounds (although one that hasn't made it into a track in years) is pure filter self-oscillation, with the tiniest touch of noise set to modulate the cutoff frequency in addition to keytracking. It's nearly always the first thing I try on synths that can do it. I've never heard it sound as organic and alive as it does in Bazille. Wonderful!

+1 That is Bazille! Organic and Alive

best digital filter ever!! (imo)

i like the way the filter sound with modulation, maybe half the patch i made if not more, use self oscillation and modulation, sound really organic.. for me right now it s the strenght of this synth.