Super 8 - New polysynth by Native Instruments

[Hallo Spaceboy]

Look at other Samplers like HALion, Falcon, etc. They all have UIs that become overwhelmingly information-dense when using them for real, complicated tasks work.

I agree that HALion and Falcon's UI's are also overly busy and as you say, information-dense. But they are not nearly as convoluted as Kontakt's. Sure, with enough time any horrible UI becomes familiar and perhaps even understandable. But Kontakt is a particular challenge in this regard. It's what happens when the lunatics run the asylum, i.e., when engineers start making UI decisions that they are not qualified to make.

IMO, all the best technology companies are led by what are essentially former Product Managers, everyone from Apple on down to Spectrasonics. It's telling that Apple isn't as innovative as it once was now that an Operations guy (Tim Cook) is running the show.

But back to the topic at hand. Super 8 has an excellent, easily understandable UI that is deceptively powerful. That's what companies should strive for, IMO.

[Gam456]

But back to the topic at hand. Super 8 has an excellent, easily understandable UI that is deceptively powerful. That's what companies should strive for, IMO.

Everyone wish a scalable UI. But I believe is a dead end with Native.
Sound wise UAD PolyMax sound more alive but with less feature

[EvilDragon]

It's what happens when the lunatics run the asylum, i.e., when engineers start making UI decisions that they are not qualified to make.

Except this is not true, Kontakt's UI was not created by engineers, nor are UI decisions in Kontakt made by any engineers. Engineers merely implement what the UI design folks decide. As is the norm in pretty much any software company that has departments.

See, it's easy to make a random stupid guess and present it as an unverifiable fact from one's armchair, but a whole other thing when you actually talk to the people building the thing.

[Ah_Dziz]

I've never noticed any problems detuning Osc 2 in super 8.

As an aside I use kontakt all the time both for large libraries and making sample based instruments. I don't have any problems with the UI. Everything is where it has been since version 1. It could be better but it's fine.

[Trensharo]

I've never noticed any problems detuning Osc 2 in super 8.

As an aside I use Kontakt all the time both for large libraries and making sample based instruments. I don't have any problems with the UI. Everything is where it has been since version 1. It could be better but it's fine.

Kontakt's UI is pretty bad.

I don't "have a problem with it," but that is independent from the "goodness" of the UI design.

Personally, I don't think NI has good UIs on any of their discrete virtual instruments plug-ins, save for Massive X (itself not fantastic).

I think some of the REAKTOR Ensembles (and some of their FX) are better, though (Super 8, Razor, etc.).

The older Ensembles (lots of it relegated to REAKTOR Factory Library) suffer from the same issue as their other software, though. It does give "engineers slapped this together" vibes.

[Trensharo]

Hey guys

Can we get back to the topic? Super 8

I would be shocked if there was anything new to say about this synth that wasn't mentioned in the past ~5 years since this thread was created... ... ...

[LoveEnigma18]

Only thing I have to say for Super 8 is it is an awesome synth. I just wish NI did not discontinue the VST3 version (and also developed an AU version now that I also have a Mac). That's all!

[digitalboytn]

Only thing I have to say for Super 8 is it is an awesome synth. I just wish NI did not discontinue the VST3 version (and also developed an AU version now that I also have a Mac). That's all!

I'm lucky enough to have the VST3 version,because Reaktor gives me vertigo

[LoveEnigma18]

Only thing I have to say for Super 8 is it is an awesome synth. I just wish NI did not discontinue the VST3 version (and also developed an AU version now that I also have a Mac). That's all!

I'm lucky enough to have the VST3 version,because Reaktor gives me vertigo

Guess you still have Super 8 R2 in your account? I think I sold my Super 8 R2 for some reasons and I regret it. But didn't NI remove it from Native Access and you lost access to it on discontinuation even if you had it installed? I remember something weird happened back then, not able to recall exactly.

[anttimaatteri]

still not resizable i guess

[Gam456]

still not resizable i guess

nope

[Trensharo]

Only thing I have to say for Super 8 is it is an awesome synth. I just wish NI did not discontinue the VST3 version (and also developed an AU version now that I also have a Mac). That's all!

I'm lucky enough to have the VST3 version,because Reaktor gives me vertigo

You can always just host in Komplete Kontrol, which hides the player REAKTOR GUI. I do think the VST3 has a better user experience, though. The Preset Browser, along, is almost worth using it over the Ensemble. Issue is the thing is unusable on macOS without Rosetta 2 and it's a ticking time bomb on Windows OS. I can't be bothered.

I wish they would move all the extra presets from the VST3 over to the REAKTOR Ensemble.

Besides that, I don't want it in my Plug-in browser, because the entire synth is redundant. It's a Subtractive VA synth; the most saturated market sub-segment for software synthesizers. Most DAWs have a pretty good one, and many have better than Super 8.

Outside of using presets, I can't think of a reason to spend time using it over Retrologue, Analog, Retro Synth, Subtractor, MX4 and other stock DAW Synths.

It's kinda overpriced at $99, as well, IMO (but I think a majority of software synths are /shrugs ).

[Trensharo]

Only thing I have to say for Super 8 is it is an awesome synth. I just wish NI did not discontinue the VST3 version (and also developed an AU version now that I also have a Mac). That's all!

Super 8 R2 has been discontinued since M1 became a thing. They dropped it the same time they dropped Absynth 5. They rolled it back to the R1 Ensemble release. You cannot buy the R2 release anymore, and they will not update it. It will never be Apple Silicon Native as a discrete plug-in.

On macOS, you absolutely should be using the REAKTOR Ensemble. The VST3 still works on Windows for now. If an OS or DAW update breaks it, they will not fix it, though.

[chk071]

Only thing I have to say for Super 8 is it is an awesome synth. I just wish NI did not discontinue the VST3 version (and also developed an AU version now that I also have a Mac). That's all!

I'm lucky enough to have the VST3 version,because Reaktor gives me vertigo

Guess you still have Super 8 R2 in your account? I think I sold my Super 8 R2 for some reasons and I regret it. But didn't NI remove it from Native Access and you lost access to it on discontinuation even if you had it installed?

No. You keep it in Native Access.

[EvilDragon]

Most DAWs have a pretty good one, and many have better than Super 8.

I don't agree with that statement.