Unloved synths

[Dirtgrain]

I also find that people put way too much emphasis on modulation, as though it was something you use in massive amounts. . . .

I don't do sound design

[recursive one]

The difference is obvious - I don't do sound design, I write, produce and perform songs. Patching the sounds I use is not something I see as a separate process worthy of its own title, it's just what I have to do to achieve my objective of finishing a song. It's an important part of the process, it has to be done properly, but it's not a skillset I rate that highly. Unfortunately, people who do see it as an end in itself tend to spend a lot more money on this stuff than people like me, so that's the market the developers tend to cater to.

I can relate to that 100%.

Making patches for various synths is fun on its own and it was my occupation for a long time (some of my patches even made it into factory banks of a commercial synth) but when my goal is to make a track I take the synth that does the job done and not the one which is the most versatile. If a synth is really good only for some specific kind of sounds and sucks big time at anything else, or just can't do anything else, I'll use it for these sounds.

That's the reason I never got along with Zebra, which was the first synth I bought. It's just too much flexibility and making actually worthy sounds takes too much tweaks. When I later got Sylenth, then Spire, then other more focused synths my life became much easier. Also that's why I stay away from Phase Plant, Avenger, Synthmaster etc.

On topic, it seems Tal-Mod might have some more love, deceivingly simply looking synth which sounds amazing.

[V0RT3X]

TAL-mod is a incredible sounding synth. I've been finding it complements Diva quite well.

[oonabe]

The problem is "good" for you is not necessarily "good" for me and, honestly, if something is hyped around here, I am more likely to think it's probably not all that good. Often it is the synths that fall through the cracks here that I find the most useful. e.g. There is not much love for either TRK-01 or Equator around here, yet they are two of my favourite and most used VSTi.

I think very similar to this. If I had followed this forum recommendations I guess I would have ended up buying Zebra 2, or Diva, or Omnisphere...

Instead of that I made my decision completely by myself and not by asking others. I took the time to listen to different songs and demos made with the synths, to look at reviews, at their features... and I ended up buying a complete different list of synths than what you see hear recommended every second thread because I never believed in things being better just based in their popularity, and that is exactly because of the first sentence on the quoted message: what is "good" for you is not necessarily "good" for me.

The synths I chose fitted my needs better than what most users here recommend, they also sounded better to my ear, and I find this is a great thread to get an opportunity to do this, to research on a list of alternatives and see if any of these fits better your personal needs or if it's really the most popular synth the one that you need.

[Ploki]

The problem is "good" for you is not necessarily "good" for me and, honestly, if something is hyped around here, I am more likely to think it's probably not all that good. Often it is the synths that fall through the cracks here that I find the most useful. e.g. There is not much love for either TRK-01 or Equator around here, yet they are two of my favourite and most used VSTi.

TRK-01 because people don't want to buy into NI ecosystem. (that's my reason anyway)
Equator because its not marketed as anything else but a Seaboard extension, that's their issue.
My issue is, no custom wavetables, no sample import, which severely limits it as a sounddesign tool.

The synths I chose fitted my needs better than what most users here recommend, they also sounded better to my ear, and I find this is a great thread to get an opportunity to do this, to research on a list of alternatives and see if any of these fits better your personal needs or if it's really the most popular synth the one that you need.

which did you choose

That's the reason I never got along with Zebra, which was the first synth I bought. It's just too much flexibility and making actually worthy sounds takes too much tweaks. When I later got Sylenth, then Spire, then other more focused synths my life became much easier. Also that's why I stay away from Phase Plant, Avenger, Synthmaster etc.

that makes sense. Zebra was the last u-he synth i bought, I bought every other synth before it.
And while I like it, i more often use Hive or Diva when i need to make something fast.
But when i have time, Zebra is really really fun.

[e-crooner]

I also find that people put way too much emphasis on modulation, as though it was something you use in massive amounts. . . .

I don't do sound design

What I am wondering: if he is not into modulation, why is he such a fan of ArcSyn, which is all about modulation?!

[e-crooner]

The problem is "good" for you is not necessarily "good" for me and, honestly, if something is hyped around here, I am more likely to think it's probably not all that good. Often it is the synths that fall through the cracks here that I find the most useful. e.g. There is not much love for either TRK-01 or Equator around here, yet they are two of my favourite and most used VSTi.

What do you mean by "hyped"? That a lot of people like it? I doubt they say so if it were not the case. When many people say they find a synth great, it is safe to assume that it really is great, regardless whether a few people disagree.

Which synths do you think are "hyped" on KVR?

[oonabe]

The synths I chose fitted my needs better than what most users here recommend, they also sounded better to my ear, and I find this is a great thread to get an opportunity to do this, to research on a list of alternatives and see if any of these fits better your personal needs or if it's really the most popular synth the one that you need.

which did you choose

Serum, Spire, ANA2 and Sylenth1... not saying they're better but they seem to fit better the sounds I am looking for. Dune 3 is also on my list of future purchases.

I also have a relative large list of Reason synths like Europa, Grain, Parsec 2, Resonans, Super Audio Cart... and I got Output Signal in the complete Output bundle but I've barely used it.

[Ploki]

Serum, Spire, ANA2 and Sylenth1... not saying they're better but they seem to fit better the sounds I am looking for. Dune 3 is also on my list of future purchases.

I also have a relative large list of Reason synths like Europa, Grain, Parsec 2, Resonans, Super Audio Cart... and I got Output Signal in the complete Output bundle but I've barely used it.

oh for sure, i was just curious.

I had Serum but sold it for Hive2.
I prefer the sound and most above all - the workflow - of Hive, but Serum made it to a few of my tracks regardless. Serum's bank was, for my taste, too loaded with FX, and i like how Hive handles WT+traditional synthesis, and i didn't feel the need for two wavetable synths, and i prefer to limit my software developers as much as possible.
Nothing against Serum tho, i think it's a great synth.

Always liked Spire, but wasn't tempted enough to buy it, yet.

I thought Sylenth1 was popular tho? i never really liked it.

[BONES]

I also find that people put way too much emphasis on modulation, as though it was something you use in massive amounts. . . .

I don't do sound design

Perhaps if you'd quoted the entire passage not just the bit that suits you - "Patching the sounds I use is not something I see as a separate process worthy of its own title, it's just what I have to do to achieve my objective of finishing a song." To me, calling yourself a "sound designer" is like someone opening a workshop, hanging out a shingle that says "oil changes" and when someone asks them to check the spark plugs while they are at it, they reply "I only change the oil, that's all". i.e. It's an important process but is part of a broader skill set. Specialising in just doing that is kind of lame.

TRK-01 because people don't want to buy into NI ecosystem. (that's my reason anyway)
Equator because its not marketed as anything else but a Seaboard extension, that's their issue.
My issue is, no custom wavetables, no sample import, which severely limits it as a sounddesign tool.

That's because Equator is not a "sound design tool", it's a f**king synthesiser! It's purpose is to provide timbres for use in music and loading your own samples is completely unnecessary to achieving that purpose. In fact, I just had to fire it up and check that you couldn't load your own samples because it would never occur to me that it might be possible. And honestly, if you can't design some amazing sounds with the 150 or so included samples, then you must be an absolutely shithouse sound designer.

If I were to apply your logic to all my purchases, I'd end up with nothing but samplers because you can't load your own samples into Diva or Legend or any of the Korg Legacy Collection or Thorn or ArcSyn or most of the other VSTi I use every day. That makes your point absolute nonsense.

What I am wondering: if he is not into modulation, why is he such a fan of ArcSyn, which is all about modulation?!

Is it? Not seeing it myself. Yes, it's LFO system is a point of difference but you don't have to use it if you don't want to.

What do you mean by "hyped"? That a lot of people like it? I doubt they say so if it were not the case.

Perhaps but a) most of them are clueless idiots, and b) "good" for them and what they do is not necessarily "good" for me and what I do.

When many people say they find a synth great, it is safe to assume that it really is great, regardless whether a few people disagree.
Which synths do you think are "hyped" on KVR?

The obvious one is Sylenth 1. It is a poorly designed synth that doesn't sound nearly as good as this place would have you believe. Then there are all the emulations/recreations. Some of them are useful but not for the reasons people here like them. Diva is another one, high quality sound but nothing special to me beyond that. Zebra is way too much effort, ditto for other pseudo-modulars, with the possible exception of maybe Phase Plant.

[perpetual3]

TAL-mod is a incredible sounding synth. I've been finding it complements Diva quite well.

TAL Mod is so under hyped I can’t believe it.

[e-crooner]

What I am wondering: if he is not into modulation, why is he such a fan of ArcSyn, which is all about modulation?!

Is it? Not seeing it myself. Yes, it's LFO system is a point of difference but you don't have to use it if you don't want to.

What do you mean by "hyped"? That a lot of people like it? I doubt they say so if it were not the case.

Perhaps but a) most of them are clueless idiots, and b) "good" for them and what they do is not necessarily "good" for me and what I do.

When many people say they find a synth great, it is safe to assume that it really is great, regardless whether a few people disagree.
Which synths do you think are "hyped" on KVR?

The obvious one is Sylenth 1. It is a poorly designed synth that doesn't sound nearly as good as this place would have you believe. Then there are all the emulations/recreations. Some of them are useful but not for the reasons people here like them. Diva is another one, high quality sound but nothing special to me beyond that. Zebra is way too much effort, ditto for other pseudo-modulars, with the possible exception of maybe Phase Plant.

Yes, I did get the impression that ArcSyn is very much about modulation.

I must be one of those 'clueless idiots' because Sylenth1 is my favorite and default synth I don't agree at all that it is poorly designed, to the contrary. And to me it sounds very good. I make all my synth sounds on it, be it electric and synth basses, guitars, brass, keys, pads, or drums and percussion.

Maybe the problem is that you are not into sound design as you said yourself somewhere. If you spent more time with it, maybe you would change your mind...

[Cartwheel]

NI Form... this is a weird little synth... often surprised at the sounds that come out of this thing.

[Ploki]

That's because Equator is not a "sound design tool", it's a f**king synthesiser! It's purpose is to provide timbres for use in music and loading your own samples is completely unnecessary to achieving that purpose. In fact, I just had to fire it up and check that you couldn't load your own samples because it would never occur to me that it might be possible. And honestly, if you can't design some amazing sounds with the 150 or so included samples, then you must be an absolutely shithouse sound designer.

If I were to apply your logic to all my purchases, I'd end up with nothing but samplers because you can't load your own samples into Diva or Legend or any of the Korg Legacy Collection or Thorn or ArcSyn or most of the other VSTi I use every day. That makes your point absolute nonsense.

no, its a versatile MPE synth engine bundled with a hardware controller (unlike diva and legend) and unlike diva and legend is based on samples and wavetables... and sometimes i need sounds and samples that aren’t in it.
And then i need another synth and midi controllability (patch changes) becomes complicated... etc.
I wanted to use it as my go-to seaboard synth but i cant.
And having a dedicated seaboard synth with such dumb artificial limitations is just stupid and unecessary.

Maybe i just found a cool sample i like and i’d like to MPE the f**k out of it. Well yea, but not in equator, that’s actually partially sampled based, just not for you.

[bermudagold]

Equator because its not marketed as anything else but a Seaboard extension, that's their issue.
My issue is, no custom wavetables, no sample import, which severely limits it as a sounddesign tool.

I am pretty sure you can....I believe you have to create a soundfont for the sample you want to input and place the soundfont where the rest of equators sample content is.
I'm sure they didn't make it easy, because like a lot of products they want to quality control the end user experience, especially in the beginning, so that every patch while demoing has a wow factor....and it also provides a stronger economic incentive in the opportunity to sell expansion packs