Fabfilter Twin

[justjazz]

...

[shamann]

I'm with you, I haven't found much use for it either, but I'm the type that never works with presets. Somewhere in between us is a guy who likes to load presets and adjust them a lot who is perfectly happy with Twin.

[dusted william]

I though firebird was just as good as twin, but I got twin because I could adjust the LFO's without having to do it in time with the host.

dw

[ATS]

so far I haven't used twin in a song either since the group buy. I used the heck out of the delay though.

[Cintronic]

Dont know why you feel like this way about twin. I use twin in every song i create and most of the time more than one instance of it. Mostly used for leads, sometimes bases as well as ambient effects and pads. It is also a synth i find doesnt need many effects to fit in songs. If I had a better mac i would even consider useing twin for everything. It is my main synth and if where to bin all but one synth, twin would be the one i keep.

But about fabfilter one. Although I loved the sound it made i couldnt fit it into any song just like problem you have with twin. Then I bought a different sequencer - Numerology. For some reason it really brought fab one to life to the extent its the first synth i now load up.

So maybe twin isnt for you but at least give it another go but tis time try different sequencing teckniques or someting with it you wouldnt normally do. You may be supprised.

[Shane Sanders]

For anyone considering Twin, it offers quite a bit in the 'playability' department if you drive it with something like a Roland-ready guitar, ztar, or keyboard with all the cool x-y pads and joysticks. Plus, it really can do some fantastic bass sounds that also have that little extra ooomph because of the expression routing.

I was immediately attracted to the drag and drop routing, too. It's just fun and clear to me what I'm doing.

[smart]

It's awesome! Great sound, super easy to use, delicious filters and the coolest mod matrix ever designed. What more can I say?

[DHR53]

Great Basses... But eats way too much cpu on the Mac for a 2 oscillator synth w/no FX? Still can't figure that one... If you turn down the Unison, it just doesn't sound too good either. I'm using it for bass though.

[waveriderarts]

I purchased Twin as part of the recent group buy. I have been happy with the filter and delay, but I have not been able to find too much use for Twin. I usually work with presets and have not found sounds that stand out next to wusikstation, C5K or firebird. Can some of you share your successes and tricks with FF twin?

I agree in a way, but give you more time. I got it at the same time you did... but I know it takes longer to place a synth in your compositional palette.

I do this with every synth I buy, load it in every song I work on, adding it on top or replacing existing instruments, loosing a lot of time trying and finally giving up....

I agree the presets really suck. I cannot use any myself. I also noticed the filter introduce a lot of DC offset.

I stated programming from scratch, 1 osc 1 filter sounds at first, now full on. I have better sounds now....

I just released my first piece using it today:
Horizon Holy War
Song page

...anyway I took more than 3 months to use ToxicIII and that is an easy synth. Twin will take longer.


PLEASE POST ANY LINKS TO SONGS using Twin!!!!

[bmanic]

I purchased Twin as part of the recent group buy. I have been happy with the filter and delay, but I have not been able to find too much use for Twin. I usually work with presets and have not found sounds that stand out next to wusikstation, C5K or firebird. Can some of you share your successes and tricks with FF twin?

Umm, all the ones you mentioned have AFAIK built in effects. FF Twin is like the oldschool analogues, it gives you the synth parts only, not any effects (not even a delay). Try adding a quality delay plugin (timeless) and a reverb and some chorus after Twin.

This reminds me a lot about the time some kids were comparing a Korg Trinity to a battered second-hand Roland SH-101 that was sitting under it in the shop. They were raving about the huge sound of the trinity compared to the SH-101. So I go to them and switch off all the effects on the trinity and say "compare them now". Needles to say, they got my point. (ever compared the raw square wave (the sample, not the prophecy board which is good) of a trinity to the SH-101? Ouch..)

Cheers!
bManic

[bmanic]

I agree the presets really suck. I cannot use any myself. I also noticed the filter introduce a lot of DC offset.

It would be very appreciated if you could give some more feedback on why the presets suck. Maybe it could help for future synth releases. What kind of sounds are you looking for? Any audio examples or even better, presets, of the sounds that you have made that you are now happy with?

Cheers!
bManic

[mayan]

I own Twin but haven't used it a whole bunch...yet. Typically, it takes a while for me to find the sweet-spot of a synth. There are very few that I've been able to just open up out of the box and find instantly inspirational. I suspect that once I start playing with it...learning it's tao, so to speak...that it is a quality instrument. Tweaking the presets and having it "talk" to me to tell me how it wants to be used. (I also think that the point about the on-board effects - or lack thereof - is also important to realize.

[kritikon]

FF Twin never did it for me. It has some nice sounds, it's filter is a bit richer than the usual offering, but ultimately it sounds a bit lifeless to me. When I regularly use things like Wusikstation, impOSCar, Wavestation, an MS20, MC202 etc...it takes something good to wow me. FFTwin promises much but doesn't deliver on alot of it. It starts to sound ever so slightly Korg MS-like at a certain stage of its filter res, but then stops short of anything really characterful. At high res, it still sounds like a flat extra tone over the top of the oscillators (even though more musical than standard s/w filter res).

And I know it's only personal dislike, but the GUI doesn't make me want to delve in. It puts me off playing with it...too convoluted. Which is a shame because I like complex synths and don't use presets. And I know FFTwin is capable of some good complexity.

I had FFTwin sounding quite lively through a few FX, but ultimately as already mentioned...a good synth shouldn't need lots of FX to sound good. That filter that stops short of life almost always needs an overdrive or distortion on it IMO. And no decent filter should require extra distortion to do the job. If you put a decent overdrive on it, it sounds a bit more MS-ish. But it still doesn't sing to me.

Also-it just isn't enough fun to make me want it. That ABL thing with the patchbay. Absolute fun to use...and sounds more lively than FFTwin (although it's a completely different sound, I admit). I'd happily use that instead of my 202. But FFTwin seems to me to be trying to be a Korg MS with bells on...but if you want a poly MS20...you'd obviously go for the Korg VSTi. And compared to a simple mono MS20 (or even an MS10), FFTwin just sounds dead. I'd rather sample my MS20 and layer it up with a sampler to play poly pads, than use FFTwin.

I'm pretty sure that one day FF will come up with something I really like though. They're certainly better than a whole load of the regular shite that is out there, in terms of analogue wannabes.

[beej]

I tried the demo quite a while ago and liked it - it was fairly CPU heavy for me, but I thought it sounded better than many of the usual "analog-a-like" synths, with a great range of presets.

But I can only speak for me, of course...

[bmanic]

FF Twin never did it for me. It has some nice sounds, it's filter is a bit richer than the usual offering, but ultimately it sounds a bit lifeless to me. When I regularly use things like Wusikstation, impOSCar, Wavestation, an MS20, MC202 etc...it takes something good to wow me. FFTwin promises much but doesn't deliver on alot of it. It starts to sound ever so slightly Korg MS-like at a certain stage of its filter res, but then stops short of anything really characterful.

It's really amazing how different opinions on sound we all can share and this is good of course. I know people who have owned (and still own) a bucket load of classic analogue synths, modern workstations etc. Latest big love for this one particular guy was the Alesis Andromeda (which I find sounds rather bland and weak), wich he bought as soon as it came out, and now he is utterly in love with FF Twin, refusing to hook up a lot of his hardware "go-to" lead, pad and bass synths. Well, maybe the fact that he runs FF Twin trough his Eventide Orville has something to do with it but he also runs the juno, alesis andromeda etc. trough it too for extra spice.

Of some of the synths you mentioned I also fail to get impressed. For instance Wusikstation I can't understand. I think it sounds like a wannabe mediocre workstation "do it all" synth, but a bad one at that (though considering it's price it's insane value for money and I would heartedly recommend it to anybody starting out with synths for a huge pallette of sounds). Also, Wavestation fails me completely. I never really seemed to be able to use it. I always admired people who could get something fresh out of the units but somehow it didn't click with me personally. Go figure..

My point is, it's good to hear the differing opinions of people as it confirms something we all have known always, tastes vary so damn much that there simply is no 'best' 'worst' 'right' nor 'wrong' way to do these things. Not even in some thoroughly narrowed down, particular cases (aka. what is the best lead synth).

Cheers!
bManic