Best Low Price V.A. Soft Synth

[chk071]

I was extremely disappointed with Codex. How does Element compare to the likes of Diva and such?

Oh well… the sound examples shown here: https://www.amazona.de/test-waves-eleme ... nthesizer/ don't quite knock me out of the shoes. Especially when i then think about that Waves software manager, and that i already own gazillions of similar synths.

[Vortifex]

..

[counterparty]

There's also Dagger (made by the same people as Sunrizer). It's a monosynth, but very nice,

[philsynth]

Lots of good cheap synths. I personally love Sunrizer.

Here's my list to check out.

ACE
Carbon Electra
Element 2
Fathom
Sonigen Modular (free)
Synth1 (free)
Synthmaster (often goes on sale for $50)
Tyrell N6 (free)

Awesome, thanks! Yea, sunrizer has really nice filters + oscillators. Fathom's another favorite, I have the free monophonic version. I'll add the others to the demo list!

I was extremely disappointed with Codex. How does Element compare to the likes of Diva and such?

Codex is a wavetable synth, wasn't really my thing. Diva is next level, at 150, supposedly one of the best next to arturia and such. Definitely not in my price range. I wish, maybe someday.

There's also Dagger (made by the same people as Sunrizer). It's a monosynth, but very nice,

I actually thought dagger sounded really good from the sound demos, however when I demoed it, I was trying waves element 2 at the same time and thought dagger didn't quite compare to element. I'll try it again though, maybe I just didn't spend enough time with it.

Lot's of suggestions, thanks everyone!

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

I was extremely disappointed with Codex. How does Element compare to the likes of Diva and such?

Oh well… the sound examples shown here: https://www.amazona.de/test-waves-eleme ... nthesizer/ don't quite knock me out of the shoes. Especially when i then think about that Waves software manager, and that i already own gazillions of similar synths.

Element imho is more responsive than Codex. More efficient as well. You cant really tell by the demos. Its the finite tweeks that really make the difference. Thats where Tal unolx, Diva and Repro excell as well.. Element2 is definitely in that class.

[chk071]

Diva is next level, at 150, supposedly one of the best next to arturia and such. Definitely not in my price range. I wish, maybe someday.

Keep an eye on the Sell & Buy forum here. There's sometimes a Diva license available for below $100. New, it's definitely too expensive for me too.

[Stefken]

Carbon Electra

+1 although I don't consider it a VA. The MSEG's are really nice to create Flat beat like sequences.

[EnGee]

I was extremely disappointed with Codex. How does Element compare to the likes of Diva and such?

Oh well… the sound examples shown here: https://www.amazona.de/test-waves-eleme ... nthesizer/ don't quite knock me out of the shoes. Especially when i then think about that Waves software manager, and that i already own gazillions of similar synths.

It is not comparable to Diva, RePro or The Legend IMO! It has a nice round and 'pleasant' sound mostly for leads and plucks (nice for sequencing and Arps), but I can't say it has a fat sound neither it is a weak sound.

It is nice to play around with it, but I didn't find it useful to choose it in actual music making. I always substitute it with another synth. So, it ended unused mostly and uninstalled (with Codex as well!). So, in the end not so useful for me and can't imagine it to be my main synth even if I don't have any commercial synth (I would prefer to use freeware and magware instead as my main synths). In the end it depends on the taste.

By the way, I checked the link you posted and I think from No. 10 it is mostly this is what you get (a little bit better actually than those tracks!).

[philsynth]

Thats where Tal unolx, Diva and Repro excell as well.. Element2 is definitely in that class.

Awesome, thanks. I guess Element is technically normally 120.

Keep an eye on the Sell & Buy forum here. There's sometimes a Diva license available for below $100.

Cool, cool. Good suggestion.

+1 although I don't consider it a VA. The MSEG's are really nice to create Flat beat like sequences.

Thanks. Carbon Electra seems popular. I'll demo it next.

So, in the end not so useful for me and can't imagine it to be my main synth even if I don't have any commercial synth (I would prefer to use freeware and magware instead as my main synths). In the end it depends on the taste.

Cool, thanks. What freeware/magware synths would you suggest rather than element 2?

[chk071]

Thanks Scrubbing Monkeys and EnGee for both of your opinion. Frankly, judging purely by sound demos, it sounds a tad more on the digital/thin side. Again, i have so many, also free synths, with more or less the same features, which sound good to my ears, and i passionately hate Waves Center, TBH.

[philsynth]

Thanks Scrubbing Monkeys and EnGee for both of your opinion. Frankly, judging purely by sound demos, it sounds a tad more on the digital/thin side. Again, i have so many, also free synths, with more or less the same features, which sound good to my ears, and i passionately hate Waves Center, TBH.

Hey, I noticed some of you guys are creating opinions based on sound demos alone. I actually went through the painful process of downloading the waves installer and tried element 2, and though I'm not saying it's an amazing synth or anything, I just wanna establish that it's amazing synth compared to any of the element demos on the internet. So keep that in mind, perception is everything. Know what I'm saying? However, I'm definitely open to any suggestions of free synths better than a 30 dollar synth lol. Just name them and I'll check them out.

[Edit] I guess I'm just curious to see what freeware synth you guys (Engee and Ch) think are better than element, because it could save me alot of money. lol

[Stefken]

Thanks Scrubbing Monkeys and EnGee for both of your opinion. Frankly, judging purely by sound demos, it sounds a tad more on the digital/thin side. Again, i have so many, also free synths, with more or less the same features, which sound good to my ears, and i passionately hate Waves Center, TBH.

Hey, I noticed some of you guys are creating opinions based on sound demos alone. .

The only way to really evaluate a synth and to see whether it is your thing, is to demo it.

[EnGee]

Cool, thanks. What freeware/magware synths would you suggest rather than element 2?

Well, you already have one freeware that I use (PG-8X). This is the only freeware installed currently in my PC.
For magware, I already mentioned them But I'll repeat them! DuneCM, BazilleCM and AaltoCM (monophonic though). I purchased Aalto the full version after I fell in love with the CM version, but the full version is a CPU hog little bit! Those are not emulations of analog synths! But they are excellent synths.

Anyway, you can demo Element 2 for one week I think (full version). So it is better to play with it for a while, you might like it, as I said, after all it depends on personal taste

[krabbencutter]

Cool, thanks. What freeware/magware synths would you suggest rather than element 2?

Bazille CM / Beatzille is a beast! If you know your way around basic (virtual) analog synths you can do an awful lot with it. There are also some very handy Tips & Tricks in the Bazille manual e.g. how to add pulse width modulation.

Tyrell N°6 has already been mentioned and there are some nice free preset packs available at http://www.theunfinished.co.uk/free/.

And don't let the information on the CM page fool you, Dune CM is also included in 64bit

[...]Oh well… the sound examples shown here: https://www.amazona.de/test-waves-eleme ... nthesizer/ don't quite knock me out of the shoes.[...]

I encourage anyone to simply try the free 7-Day trial.

[philsynth]

The only way to really evaluate a synth and to see whether it is your thing, is to demo it.

For real, the best sounding demos I think are the Korg (I even previously mentioned it). However I have a suspicion it's because they're a super legit professional synth manufacturer lol.

Well, you already have one freeware that I use (PG-8X). This is the only freeware installed currently in my PC.
For magware, I already mentioned them But I'll repeat them! DuneCM, BazilleCM and AaltoCM (monophonic though).

Ha, ha for sure, for sure. Sorry, so many synths! I guess I'm slightly defensive of Element because I've been using the free trial and imo it's quite good compared to my free synths. However yea, I guess it's personal preference. Pg8x is coincidentally probably my favorite free synth filter.

I guess I didn't understand magware. I thought I could only download those synths from the monthly issue? Or are they still available? I haven't found them on google. I'm not familiar with magware.

[Edit] So it says I download the latest computer magazine issue then I'm able to download all the previous CM synths from the vault?

It's 7:30 am and i haven't slept yet, so maybe it isn't as complicated as it seems, however it says, "Our Zinio edition does not include the DVD but - FROM ISSUE 182 (October 2012) onwards - it DOES INCLUDE the full software, samples and tutorial files to download." So when I purchase this current issue, I receive every plugin from 2012 until now? That's crazy. Is that what's happening? lol