SPC ArcSyn

[nordickvr]

A thing I'v found using ArcSyn is, even with all those presets (which are great by the way),
the first thing I do when opening it is to hit the Init button.
It says it all for me.
Great inspiring synth!

[urlwolf]

Congrats Steven on a fantastic piece of work. I hope you understand how great a response you have gotten!

Quick question: There's an osc type called wavetable, is this also computed on the fly (ie not real wavetables, which are small one-cycle samples that are read, not computed)? The waves there look quite complex. All the osc types are pretty amazing. I have to wonder how complex waves can be generated with a formula. Seriously impressive.

Related question. What is the advantage of computing all oscs in real time instead of using small one-cycle samples as in wavetables? Is the final sound less likely to alias?

Since you seem to have put quite a few popular synths under the oscilloscope, could you share your results? If you prefer to keep it undercover so you don't publicly say bad things about your competitors, feel free to PM me

[fluffy_little_something]

When it sounds so cool, what is its CPU consumption compared to others?

[urlwolf]

Very, very reasonable CPU consumption.
The GUI is very nice in that the knobs are really big target for the mouse.

Now, after Serum any synth that wants to have a state-of-the-art GUI should have

- Great display on LFO, env where you can see the position
- Waveform display, filter display. That is, animations on the exact shape the filter has when moving cutoff and resonance, and same thing with the waveform. Editing sounds 'in the dark' feels so pre 00's nowadays More so with unconventional waveforms and filters.

[urlwolf]

In fact, in 2016 even $500 hardware synths show you the waveforms in real time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuZpEtZF-hg

[Sendy]

Very, very reasonable CPU consumption.
The GUI is very nice in that the knobs are really big target for the mouse.

Now, after Serum any synth that wants to have a state-of-the-art GUI should have

- Great display on LFO, env where you can see the position
- Waveform display, filter display. That is, animations on the exact shape the filter has when moving cutoff and resonance, and same thing with the waveform. Editing sounds 'in the dark' feels so pre 00's nowadays More so with unconventional waveforms and filters.

Use an oscilloscope, and/or a spectral waterfall display. I use both all the time when learning new synths, and/or sound designing. To be honest a lot of the oscillator setups in ArcSyn seem a bit non-deterministic to have graphics, because they depend on freerunning oscillator clusters operating in complex ways... and some of the more exotic filters are very chaotic (like the repeater, which is an audio-rate buffer effect which can scramble harmonics) so displaying the frequency response would be almost impossible. It's not a synth where pre-rendered display animations would be feasible, in my opinion. A built-in oscilloscope would be a neat feature, but you can easily run a free one.

One thing I did want to see that I didn't get space to mention in my review was that I would liked to have seen the LFO shapes scale up and down when you alter their size (via the value under each segment), so you could see when two shapes are flush. But I can live without it.

There's also a full description of all the oscillators, filters and effects in the online manual, you just have to click on the right word, and it's a bit hard to tell that they're links.

BTW: Just to avoid any confusion, I'm not involved with the synth in any way, I just have taken a great interest in it and analyzed it for an upcoming review, so I can't speak for the developer in any way.

[Vintage73]

The Windows VST link seems to be down.

[UncleAge]

There's also a full description of all the oscillators, filters and effects in the online manual, you just have to click on the right word, and it's a bit hard to tell that they're links.

Thanks for this. I read the manual online and it never occurred to me that those section titles were links. And there is quite a bit of detail in those linked pages.

[Sendy]

In case anyone is interested, here's my review of ArcSyn at Bedroom Producer's Blog, complete with an audio demo reel of the sounds I made while I was testing the synth.

http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2016/02 ... yn-review/

[hesnotthemessiah]

I love this plugin!! I was going to list everything I loved about it but my head exploded with excitement so all I will say is try this beauty out if you like to experiment with your sounds.

What I would like to see:-

As mentioned here in this thread - the ArcSyn logo does seem like a waste of space. I would love to be able to see all the modulation matrix at once - it's a vital tool for sound designing in ArcSyn. How about splitting the modulation matrix view into two, always visible, panels of 8? You could use that current ArcSync logo space for the extra panel.

It seems such a shame to me that you cannot modulate the fantastic fx that ArcSyn has from within it's modulation matrix. This is really the one feature that I am surprised is missing in ArcSyn.

I would really like to be able to have the A and H and D and S and R for each envelope as individual modulation destinations aswell. For example, I have just been editing the lovely "Massive" preset and used Env1 to modulate the COMB filter which really adds a nice variation to the sound. Tweaking the sustain part of Env1 whilst playing added some more nice "movement" to the COMB filter. Now if I could automate the sustain setting with an LFO, or velocity or............ I love this plugin!!!


Thankyou Steve for providing me with my dream synth for creating original sounds. Developers like yourself make my life worth living Plus Party Rings of course.

[Touch The Universe]

Yeah! Last time I said its a great synth, but after playing around with it some more, it is an exceptional synth. Love it!! Super clean, super phat, super edgy, withs lots of character and unique modulations sources.
Forget the gui, work on that later.

Please add right click menu to assign modulations - please!

[urlwolf]

And a simple ring showing the amount of modulation around a knob (or slider) would be killer. Better yet if it's animated (example: corona). When there are lots of modulations going it's hard to explain the sound to yourself by just looking at the matrix.

@sendy: great review!

[wagtunes]

You know, it's a great sounding synth. Not you're usual fare. But I just can't work with that GUI. It literally hurts my eyes to look at it. I don't know what the designer was thinking. He made a great sounding work of art, but a train wreck of an interface.

Unfortunately, until a better one comes along, I'll have to pass on this.

[UncleAge]

For a week straight the ArcSyn demo has been up on my screen non-stop. In my book that makes it a must-buy. Heck one night I sat and played with the filters for hours. I like 'em! The have a good amount of character to them. I cranked the Resonance and Drive up to 90-100% and jumped back and forth between a few filters and oscillators adjusting the shape and filter cutoff and was just pleased as punch. I have only skimmed the surface of the sequencing lfo's. It really is a fun synth and I love the sounds I'm getting out of it.

And I'm changing my mind about the gui. I'm personally ok with the look but from a marketing stand point I think the gui is the weakest link. It's an outstanding character synth and deserves an outstanding interface. Just sayin'...and I won't bring it up again.

I am sure to purchase it soon.

Oh and I liked that review Sendy.

[SPC Plugins]

There's also a full description of all the oscillators, filters and effects in the online manual, you just have to click on the right word, and it's a bit hard to tell that they're links.

Thanks for this. I read the manual online and it never occurred to me that those section titles were links. And there is quite a bit of detail in those linked pages.

I agree that those links aren't very clear at all - I'll try and find a better way of doing it.