KVR Audio

OneOfManyPauls · Post by **OneOfManyPauls** » Tue Nov 21, 2017 8:48 am

Personally I love Zebra2/HZ - but here are some to at least try the demo for:

Obscurium (the sequencer *is* the sound design in that weird puppy)
Morphine
P900 Modular
Synplant
Maybe give Thorn a quick whirl too

AdamWysokinski · Post by **AdamWysokinski** » Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:53 am

Thank you all

Regarding you suggestions:
Obscurium – interesting, will try it (also Cosmos f from SonicLAB)
P900 Modular – tried it, to “regular” for me, poor workflow
Synplant – tried it, it’s more like a Tamagochi than a real instrument

Thorn – tried Diversion in the past, nice but nothing really special for me
Aalto – tried it, found it too limited
Phonem – had it, nice sound, but finally not my taste
Icarus – tried it, too clinical, prefer Serum
Diva – I like Diva a lot and consider it, although I already have Monark and feel these two overlap significantly
Falcon – will consider it
MPowerSynth – looks like a combination of Serum and Synthmaster, I detest Melda gui
Massive, Synthmaster, Sylenth1, Spire, Hive, Dune – already have Serum and Alchemy for these types of sound

Still Zebra 2 (and 3) seems to be the "least worst" option.

OneOfManyPauls · Post by **OneOfManyPauls** » Tue Nov 21, 2017 11:09 am

re synplant, don't forget you can go into the "dna" and set up the synth engine there too - there are a lot of interesting tones lurking in there for weird/ambient.

re Obscurium - that is capable of chiptune sounding stuff (which a lot of the demos and just random bashing ends up with) through to some pretty sweet Trentemøller-eque ambient eg the Argonaut/Argonus preset. Took me quite some time to figure out what was actually going on so that it didn't end up just a giant random digital-sounding mess. The sugar bytes tutorial vids are pretty good in that regard.

re Falcon is a great synth with massive scope for sound design - it certainly has that bright/clean/modern tone on hand - personally I prefer Zebra, but we're all different

Mpowersynth - the additive oscillator mode and the crazy modulation options are the key to that one for moving it beyond what the other stuff does imo.

One more to add is softube modular, especially with the newer "add-on" modules eg the buchla

ckoe · Post by **ckoe** » Tue Nov 21, 2017 12:06 pm

In my opinion you should wait for Zebra3.

OneOfManyPauls · Post by **OneOfManyPauls** » Tue Nov 21, 2017 12:07 pm

ckoe wrote:In my opinion you should wait for Zebra3.

no need given the upgrade paths:

viewtopic.php?t=362210

Urs wrote:Actually, we've started to work on Zebra3, that's true. Because we're not Apple and we're too excited to keep it a secret, we came up with a devlish incentive to still get Zebra2:

Price for Zebra2: 199$

Price for Zebra3: 249$

Upgrade V2->V3: 30$

Upgrade from Zebra2 + The Dark Zebra: Free

daymand · Post by **daymand** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 3:48 am

Izotope Iris 2- unique spectrogram sampler with versatile modulation system

image line harmor- additive / subtractive /image synth, audio resynthesizer with multipoint envelope editor.

tone2 gladiator - unique Harmonic Content Morphing Synthesis

vengeance vps avenger - don’t think, it’s needs to introduce
NI FORM - transformative sample-tracking synth

spunkmuffin · Post by **spunkmuffin** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 5:18 am

AdamWysokinski wrote:Zebra 2 or ...?

Zebra 2 or bust

Also remember when Zebra3 comes out and if you 'upgrade' to it from Zebra2 you will still be able to use Zebra2. You will have 2 separate synths each with their own unique character for that price.

In the meantime I highly recommend The Dark Zebra upgrade/soundset for Zebra2.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 5:40 am

AdamWysokinski wrote:Icarus – tried it, too clinical, prefer Serum

Heh... just shows how subjective it all is...

the one word that most describes Serum to me is clinical.

atya · Post by **atya** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 8:10 am

AdamWysokinski wrote:I detest Melda gui

You're not alone.

OneOfManyPauls · Post by **OneOfManyPauls** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 8:43 am

atya wrote:
AdamWysokinski wrote:I detest Melda gui
You're not alone.

I'll chime in for the other side - took a while for the penny to drop, but when it did it means that it's easy working across all of their plugins and there's no doubting the power that their stuff has once you get past the UI.

atya · Post by **atya** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:42 am

OneOfManyPauls wrote:
atya wrote:
AdamWysokinski wrote:I detest Melda gui
You're not alone.
I'll chime in for the other side - took a while for the penny to drop, but when it did it means that it's easy working across all of their plugins and there's no doubting the power that their stuff has once you get past the UI.

I guess I know what you're pointing at, I own several of their plugins and I agree on the power or flexibilty of Mstuff but somehow their GUIs remind me more of control applets for a power plant or CNC machine than for an instrument or FX. Same with their pdf manuals, pretty dry stuff but then that's just a personal impression - YMMV.

Back OT ...

AdamWysokinski · Post by **AdamWysokinski** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:54 am

spunkmuffin wrote:
AdamWysokinski wrote:Zebra 2 or ...?
Zebra 2 or bust

Also remember when Zebra3 comes out and if you 'upgrade' to it from Zebra2 you will still be able to use Zebra2. You will have 2 separate synths each with their own unique character for that price.

In the meantime I highly recommend The Dark Zebra upgrade/soundset for Zebra2.

I've got Zebra

And will get Zebra 3 when it arrives.

AdamWysokinski · Post by **AdamWysokinski** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:55 am

pdxindy wrote:
AdamWysokinski wrote:Icarus – tried it, too clinical, prefer Serum
Heh... just shows how subjective it all is...

the one word that most describes Serum to me is clinical.

It is. That's what I have it for - sharp, precise, clean sounds. But Icarus was like Serum on steroids - more of everything. Too much for me. Also, I really like Serum workflow.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 11:28 am

AdamWysokinski wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
AdamWysokinski wrote:Icarus – tried it, too clinical, prefer Serum
Heh... just shows how subjective it all is...

the one word that most describes Serum to me is clinical.
It is. That's what I have it for - sharp, precise, clean sounds. But Icarus was like Serum on steroids - more of everything. Too much for me. Also, I really like Serum workflow.

For two wavetable synths... they could hardly be farther apart in character. I would not call Icarus clinical at all. I find it digital, but musical. Not my favorite synth, but a decent compliment to my more used ones.

Serum I find very hard to get anything I like out of it. I finally gave up on it. Also, I kinda dislike the Serum workflow... too much tabbing for such a simple synth and it is clumsy for importing sounds as wavetables cause it has no ability to fade between waves.

Anyway, great if it works for you.

Julien Unison · Post by **Julien Unison** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 11:49 am

OneOfManyPauls wrote:
atya wrote:
AdamWysokinski wrote:I detest Melda gui
You're not alone.
I'll chime in for the other side - took a while for the penny to drop, but when it did it means that it's easy working across all of their plugins and there's no doubting the power that their stuff has once you get past the UI.

I totally agree : I don't really like the gui but THIS SOUND !

You put Mpowersynth as the instrument and MgranularMB as an effect and you can obtain some of the best evolving and massive pads you've ever heard (on the software or hardware sides).