Wavetable Synth Poll 2020

[revvy]

^ There ya go, thanks.

So my fave wavetable synth is Korg Wavestation, also not on the list.

The Wavestation is a wavesequencing (or vector synthesis) synth though, not a wavetable synth. I assume you can get similar tones out of it, but, in its core, the synthesis method is different.

Still think it's got as much right to be in the list as, say, Omni or Massive.

[chk071]

I don't know about Omnisphere, but, Massive is definitely a full blown wavetable synth.

[Ingonator]

^ There ya go, thanks.

So my fave wavetable synth is Korg Wavestation, also not on the list.

The Wavestation is a wavesequencing (or vector synthesis) synth though, not a wavetable synth. I assume you can get similar tones out of it, but, in its core, the synthesis method is different.

Still think it's got as much right to be in the list as, say, Omni or Massive.

I do not get why not more developers try to adapt the concept of wave sequencing to new synths.
Recently i had mentioned that in a private discussion with Richard from Synapse Audio (where i am one of the beta testers).

FWIW the way how it worked in Wusik Station never really worked for me and i stopped using that plugin some years ago.

When i was a beta tester for DUNE 1 that did not include proper wavetables but a collection of single waveforms i had used the step sequencer to do some wave sequencing like sounds where the sequencer modulated the waveform selection.

[revvy]

I don't know about Omnisphere, but, Massive is definitely a full blown wavetable synth.

From my understanding of what Ingo says, Wavestastion's synthesis includes an iteration of wavetable synthesis.

[Ingonator]

I don't know about Omnisphere, but, Massive is definitely a full blown wavetable synth.

From my understanding of what Ingo says, Wavestastion's synthesis includes an iteration of wavetable synthesis.

Yes you can mimic wavetable synthesis with wave sequencing but vice versa it gets more difficult.

To mimic wavetables in Wavestation you have to use single cylce waveforms only (for example the Prophet VS waves), use the same length for all steps, avoid a different pitch (semi + fine parameters) for each step and set the same crossfading amount for all steps.

[Sinisterbr]

I'm really impressed with Hive 2 performance in this pool. Someone said it was far from being the U-he's best seller synth, I didn't expected that!

[chk071]

Well... we're in KVR land. Serum will see much more use out there, in regards of wavetable synths.

[FapFilter]

Definetly concur,
there must be more than 66 Serum users out there!

[zerocrossing]

Wavetables are a good example. In DUNE you have to select the osc you want to change, then select WT as the osc type before you can start to do anything. In Thorn, by way of comparison, you don't have to do either of those things before you can select an oscillator waveform. And in DUNE you can never see both osc waveforms at once, whereas in Thorn all three are simultaneously visible all the time.

Another example is adding velocity modulation. In Thorn it is on the front panel, with the envelopes, which is exactly where you'd most likely need it. In DUNE it is in Settings, so you have to switch the panel display or use the Mod Matrix. Either way is more work and less intuitive. And that's just a single layer, if you are trying to edit a preset that's got 4 or 5 layers, it becomes exponentially more of a pain, and all for no good reason, as it is trivial to add 4 or 5 instances if you need to layer sounds.

I don’t know Thorn, and maybe it does everything you need it to do, but from a glance, it gives you only one synthesis type... spectral. Not sure what that even means in relation to wavetables, but Dune offers two basic types (I’m lumping VA and Wavetable together). Switching to FM requires a pretty different UI so having their setup like it is makes sense. Dune does do some things like use faders when a knob will take up considerably less space, but you end up with something that’s easier to look at in a comparative type of way. You might be able to fit three oscillators on the UI at one time if you changed the mixer to knobs in the osc section (like Thorn), but it doesn’t really bug me.

I guess what it amounts to is that when you get to a certain level of complexity, some concessions have to be made. If you cram everything on a single screen, you end up with a more cluttered interface. This matters less over time, but when you first see a very feature dense UI, you can suffer from what I call “hunting fatigue.” If you put things in different panels, you end up making that better, but it makes for more clicking to get the controls that you want.

I once worked on a Pokémon game and the publisher wanted a card-filter screen that had buttons for every conceivable attribute a card/Pokémon had. It was insane. To add insult to injury, many attributes made no difference to actual game play. (For example height and weight) I tried to convince them that we should have the basic attributes always on display, but add a menu where power users could define what attributes were displayed from a list. I got a solid “no” on that suggestion, so we ended up with the most cluttered and useless menu page you could imagine. Probably not an issue for people who had been playing for decades but the point of the online game was to bring in new users who knew the cartoons but had never played the card game. When we play-tested it, most new users clicked on that, looked at it for a few seconds, and then clicked away. Too much at one time that separated them from actually playing the game. I guess I tend to prefer interfaces where I’m presented with a clean and very manageable amount of choices at one time. Sometimes that means an overall simpler plugin. Icarus is one of those plugins where I can just quickly make up a great sound and not have to think about all the possibilities, but you definitely bump up against it’s limitations a lot quicker.

[teilo]

With Icarus, I mostly find myself using its granular resynthesis feature. I mean, it's not really granular, but it is unique and does things that no other synth does. For true granular resynthesis, see Parawave Rapid.

For true granular, it’s pretty hard to beat Pigments actually. One of the best granular engines out there.

So, my memory is playing tricks on me. Rapid does not have a granular engine at all. That's on the roadmap. I was thinking of their resynthesis feature which takes any audio clip, and turns it into a seamless loop, retaining the character and harmonic content of the original sample, with no transients. That plus random, and it's like a super smooth granular patch. It works amazingly well.

[Calenberger]

THIS POLL IS NERVE WRECKING!!!

[metaside]

I voted for Pigments because it's the only one I own.
I have no idea how to use it though.

I bought it on a $49 special hoping it had some usable pad presets.

Thanks for the explanation. Seriously, I have been wondering where those 60 votes were coming from when there are plugins like Serum, Icarus and Infinite out there.

[Vortifex]

Edited

[Spencer Maddox]

I'm really impressed with Hive 2 performance in this pool. Someone said it was far from being the U-he's best seller synth, I didn't expected that!

It might still be, Like Chk said, any data from KVR of course is skewed due to the intense following of U-he on here.
Product's like Diva and I think Repro too, broke into mainstream audiences, but Hive, for whatever reason has never came off as very popular. I've never seen anyone use it outside of KVR, What did surprise me is it beat Zebra...Of course Zebra2s wavetable fuctions are limited but its (To me) considerably, in public eye, and KVR eye, a more popular product.

Definetly concur,
there must be more than 66 Serum users out there!

For better or worse when I go on Facebook and these kind of questions come up its not even a competition. Serum Dominates the Masses.

I voted for Pigments because it's the only one I own.
I have no idea how to use it though.

I bought it on a $49 special hoping it had some usable pad presets.

Thanks for the explanation. Seriously, I have been wondering where those 60 votes were coming from when there are plugins like Serum, Icarus and Infinite out there.

Marketing. I mean pigments is a very Good Synth to begin with, but it was just A Rainbo Serum with an Arp. Then 2.0 came out with the amazing granular features, FM, and sampling and that IMO turned the product in a totally new direction. I dare say its more flex-able on paper then serum now.

Icarus is a lesser known product because Tone2 dosen't have that marketing Hype. its obviously just as good as any product up here.

Honestly for Infinite i tired to like it but couldn't. I might get destroyed for this but wolfgang VSTs are too strange for me. I'm deeply in the Trend of more visually intuitive and responsive interfaces and they just don't work for me.
but of course this is just me and I can't explain all the data trends

I will update my original posts to update the numbers on options not mentioned, I left this thread for a Hot Second.

[Calenberger]

Question is, if the Arturia bunch will finally win or if the U-He fans will deliver a final race to the top?
Any bets?