KVR Audio

Kinh · Post by **Kinh** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 11:25 am

.jon wrote:
Kinh wrote:Yeah 5 years ago but things change, new software hits the market, all of a sudden the old stuff doesn't look so cool anymore. Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe you use Prism on a regular basis and it's your go-to synth more than Omni and Falcon.
Or maybe you dont use it much at all which makes you a bit hypocrite.
I'll just uninstall all the vsts released 5 years ago, new stuff looks so much more cooler

Prism is probably my most used ensemble, yes. I keep only a handful of synths, Reaktor forming the core of my humble home setup, the rest of the synths aren't exactly mainstream or general purpose either. Prism is more of an electro-acoustic instrument than a traditional synth, if you'd have a clue you wouldn't compare it to Omnisphere of Falcon, or them to Prism. It isn't a generic workstation for sure, neither can such replace Prism.

I'm talking usability and overall quality, you're talking personal preference = Your opinion matters not.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 11:39 am

Any opinion doesn't matter if you're gonna say it like that.

.jon · Post by **.jon** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 12:08 pm

Kinh wrote: I'm talking usability and overall quality, you're talking personal preference = Your opinion matters not.

Your opinions on usability and overall quality don't seem to correlate too well with reality then. But yes, you and I, like everyone, choose our instruments based on personal preference.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 5:48 pm

.jon wrote:
Kinh wrote: I'm talking usability and overall quality, you're talking personal preference = Your opinion matters not.
Your opinions on usability and overall quality don't seem to correlate too well with reality then. But yes, you and I, like everyone, choose our instruments based on personal preference.

Well, I think that what he actually means by "usability and overall quality" is "his personal preference."

.jon · Post by **.jon** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 7:38 pm

Well, I've been playing with Razor while being highly unproductive and unfocused on pretty much anything, and come to the conclusion that it just barely fails to wow me. It's a breeze to use, and can be quite expressive, but maybe the modulation system fits some contemporary music style better than my pursuits. There's also something about the sound I can't quite put my finger on, could be the number of partials of just my imagination, who knows.

spacekid · Post by **spacekid** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 7:51 pm

.jon wrote:Well, I've been playing with Razor while being highly unproductive and unfocused on pretty much anything, and come to the conclusion that it just barely fails to wow me. It's a breeze to use, and can be quite expressive, but maybe the modulation system fits some contemporary music style better than my pursuits. There's also something about the sound I can't quite put my finger on, could be the number of partials of just my imagination, who knows.

They have abandoned their single product line since the beginning, focusing on Kontakt and Reaktor instead...maybe they'll come around. Could Battery use a step-sequencer? -10 years ago? ...true, I'm used to using the one in FL Studio, but it kind of means I have no reason to upgrade from my old version of Battery. But, if I could write out patterns in a stand alone version, then I would do it. And the synths were good at the time, Pro 53 and FM7 ... would be nice to see a few new stand-alones to see what NI could do now. Not that I don't like Kontakt and Reaktor..they are ok. I find their interface cumbersome, I always have. I've given it time and effort but there is just an easier/more efficient method to getting things organized in the program, without having to navigate multiple views/screens/menus.

sharke · Post by **sharke** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 1:12 am

bungle wrote:
sharke wrote:One thing NI is missing is a fully featured drum machine VST like Geist. I think they could probably get away with adding a pattern sequencer to Battery.
Was this mean't as sarcasm because of the poor updates ?
NI has one of the best drum sequencers ever created, Maschine.

Not everyone wants, or needs, the Maschine hardware.

sharke · Post by **sharke** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 1:14 am

waltercruz wrote:
sharke wrote:One thing NI is missing is a fully featured drum machine VST like Geist. I think they could probably get away with adding a pattern sequencer to Battery.
I only have Geist 1, would love to see a Geist-like drum machine with the usual NI GUI.

I think they'd have to really push the boat out to beat Geist 1. fxpansion didn't even manage it with Geist 2 IMO, which I remain disappointed with.

sharke · Post by **sharke** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 1:24 am

Kinh wrote:
.jon wrote:
Kinh wrote: There's few videos on Prism because people just dont bother with with it. It's actually quite easy to understand but it just doesn't do enough.
It's pretty highly regarded tbh, and for a reason, it's one of the few original and inspiring VSTis released in the past 5 years or so. It seems that your taste is limited to certain type of sounds, and you try to expand this to everyone and everything.
Yeah 5 years ago but things change, new software hits the market, all of a sudden the old stuff doesn't look so cool anymore. Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe you use Prism on a regular basis and it's your go-to synth more than Omni and Falcon.
Or maybe you dont use it much at all which makes you a bit hypocrite.

Prism is somewhat of a specialist synth designed to synthesize "real" sounding instruments. It's probably comparable to Chromaphone more than anything. My beef isn't with the quality of it, but that I don't think they've made any attempt to explain it well to the average user. I've read through the manual and there was just too much I didn't understand. It's not as if I don't understand synthesis because I get along fine with synths like Massive or FM8.

When I first got Prism and developed an interest in learning it the first thing I did was look for a video. There are none. And therein lies another problem with NI - they don't make as much of an effort as some other synth developers when it comes to tutorial videos. They have one for Prism but it's more of a 2 minute overview or trailer. Totally useless. I like when a company puts out videos to explain their products. Spectrasonics ate good at this, and fxpansion has some very useful videos for Geist. I'd love to see NI put some decent tutorials out. I'm not really a fan of their manuals. Too technical in parts (some people are great at explaining technical concepts to the non-technical user - NI aren't) and too much redundant information (they do a lot of copy and pasting).

sharke · Post by **sharke** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 1:26 am

Another area I think NI could improve vastly are its presets. I know a lot of presets are there to showcase what the synth is capable of but damn, NI synths have an excess of unmusical, unusable presets.

waltercruz · Post by **waltercruz** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 3:22 am

loachm wrote:...yup, Mike Daliot also developed Grobian, Titan, Carbon, Kaleidon, Carbon 2 and Photone - some of them very strongly point at Massive's direction. I think, he also developed Driver and since it's available as a Reaktor Block, it could also have a Reaktor background (whether it matters or not ).

I think, Max Zagler developed Rounds - such a brillant design. Its one flaw for me is that only its macro controls are mapped in KK/Maschine, otherwise it probably would be one of my go-to synths.

Mike Daliot confirmed on "Modeling" on Driver and there's an additional "Application Development" by two other people there.

Max Zagler confirmed on Rounds concept and development.

bungle · Post by **bungle** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 7:40 am

sharke wrote:
bungle wrote:
sharke wrote:One thing NI is missing is a fully featured drum machine VST like Geist. I think they could probably get away with adding a pattern sequencer to Battery.
Was this mean't as sarcasm because of the poor updates ?
NI has one of the best drum sequencers ever created, Maschine.
Not everyone wants, or needs, the Maschine hardware.

So just buy the software, it is on sale regularly second hand.

loachm · Post by **loachm** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 11:25 am

waltercruz wrote:Mike Daliot confirmed on "Modeling" on Driver and there's an additional "Application Development" by two other people there.

Max Zagler confirmed on Rounds concept and development.

loachm · Post by **loachm** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 11:31 am

...on another note - after carefully reading all the comments here I'm now totally convinced that Prism is in fact a very crappy synth and that it's all NI's fault that the majority of users doesn't understand or is used to how physical modelling works or that it's in the synthesis' nature to react a bit quirky at times. It's the same reason why I really hate AAS String Studio or Chromaphone. Why can't everything work the way I want it to...

Kinh · Post by **Kinh** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 12:47 pm

loachm wrote:...on another note - after carefully reading all the comments here I'm now totally convinced that Prism is in fact a very crappy synth and that it's all NI's fault that the majority of users doesn't understand or is used to how physical modelling works or that it's in the synthesis' nature to react a bit quirky at times. It's the same reason why I really hate AAS String Studio or Chromaphone. Why can't everything work the way I want it to...

Not true. Chromaphone is a Ferrari compared to Prism. I understand what Prism is, it's just not as good as others of it's kind.

20 years Native Instruments