U-he repro vs phase plant

[chk071]

Can Phase Plant do Super Saws?

Yes. But, only the phasing ones.

[SLiC]

Phase Plant is very interesting and nice to play with once you have all of the fx, can be pricey but there are lots of sales and bargains to had, I think I ended up with ultimate (everything they make) for about £250 just buying everything in sales. I like the way as you add 'stuff' to your collection with Kilihearts the price to upgrade to everything lowers each time so you never loose out on sales and deals.

[ghettosynth]

I am assuming you have never actually used one? It's the best designed UX and the best synth I have ever played. Not the thread for singing the praises of the Hydrasynth, but if you ever get the chance, try one for 30 minutes. The keybed is great (the polyphonic AT is a dream) and the ribbon is also surprisingly useful! The OLED screens, high-resolution encoders with LED rings and architecture based 'module select' buttons make programming very easy (and manual free!).

Okay... you have sold me on the Hydrasynth. I'm buying one. If I don't like it, i will be blaming you for a long time to come!

It strikes me as a hybrid of the Matrix 12 and ESQ 1 approaches combined with dedicated filter knobs. I like both of those synths because they are fast and deep and I think that knob per function would be overwhelming.

That approach has its limitations but it's a great compromise on getting a deep synth on a smaller panel. I don't like how the M12 spreads the module buttons out on the panel and I don't like how the ESQ1 doesn't have encoders per function. Together, it's a great approach.

I'm torn on this because I only want one keyboard these days. I can get the Hydrasynth now and it's less expensive than the Osmose, but I really want the Osmose and I feel that I will use the actual synth that comes with it more than I'll use a hardware VA.

[pdxindy]

Does it have chaining? What I mean is, if one were to buy the keyboard and the desktop, can they be chained as one 16 voice synth? (like you can do with the OB-6 - 6+6 there)

I don't currently have a satisfying keyboard controller. So yeah, using it as a controller interests me too.

I believe so - I read you can daisy chain the module version with the keyboard one to make a 16 voice version. The module version with its poly pressure pads is also pretty cool!

Yeah... I prefer the size of the desktop model and the poly pads look cool... but of course the poly keyboard and ribbon is a big draw too. If they can be chained, it could be worth it to have both. You sound unsure if it really does chain.

Okay, I just checked. There is a mode called overflow which will give you 16 voices. There is another mode where they are 8 + 8 (bi-timbral) but they are clock synced. That sounds excellent. They company also seems on it. They have added a lot since it originally shipped.

Right now my 3 polysynths I am using are all 8 voices and sometimes I want more for certain sounds, so another 8 voice is not addressing that. Now it can be 16!

[pdxindy]

I'm torn on this because I only want one keyboard these days. I can get the Hydrasynth now and it's less expensive than the Osmose, but I really want the Osmose and I feel that I will use the actual synth that comes with it more than I'll use a hardware VA.

I feel done waiting for the Osmose. That is not to say I am not enthused for whenever it arrives, but I have avoided getting something like the Hydrasynth with PolyAT for over a year. Not gonna wait anymore.

Also, I have the Continuum, and EaganMatrix is not user friendly for sound design. Haven't tried any sound design in it for over a year. Whenever the Osmose arrives, I'll give the EaganMatrix another go. Who knows, maybe it will just click this time!

[SLiC]

I'm torn on this because I only want one keyboard these days. I can get the Hydrasynth now and it's less expensive than the Osmose, but I really want the Osmose and I feel that I will use the actual synth that comes with it more than I'll use a hardware VA.

I solved that problem by having an Osmose on order and buying the Hydrasynth to play with while I wait. The Osmose is a completely unknow quantity (as is the delivery date!), information is still pretty scant but knobs and outputs are definitely limited and the EM is notoriously difficult to program. I hope the Osmose is great, and the initial price hooked me in ($1000) but I paid the deposit back in 2019 and we are now looking at 'the summer' of 2021 at the soonest for the first pre-orders!

Worst case scenario if they overlap too much and I much prefer one to the other there is always ebay...You rarely loose much selling hardware (with Eurorack modules I occasionally make a profit!)

[ghettosynth]

I'm torn on this because I only want one keyboard these days. I can get the Hydrasynth now and it's less expensive than the Osmose, but I really want the Osmose and I feel that I will use the actual synth that comes with it more than I'll use a hardware VA.

I feel done waiting for the Osmose. That is not to say I am not enthused for whenever it arrives, but I have avoided getting something like the Hydrasynth with PolyAT for over a year. Not gonna wait anymore.

Also, I have the Continuum, and EaganMatrix is not user friendly for sound design. Haven't tried any sound design in it for over a year. Whenever the Osmose arrives, I'll give the EaganMatrix another go. Who knows, maybe it will just click this time!

Well that helps. As excited as I am for the Osmose, it has occurred to me that the new tech may be finicky in the first few years and so that causes some concern.

I guess I'll keep thinking about it for a while.

[SLiC]

Okay, I just checked. There is a mode called overflow which will give you 16 voices. There is another mode where they are 8 + 8 (bi-timbral) but they are clock synced. That sounds excellent. They company also seems on it. They have added a lot since it originally shipped.

Thanks for double checking-- I had read it could be done on a forum but you know how unreliable that sort of information can be

[BONES]

The OLED screens, high-resolution encoders with LED rings and architecture based 'module select' buttons make programming very easy (and manual free!).

As I said, not unlike Ultranova, MicroMonsta or Uno. I really like that matrix edit style interface, I've been using it since I bought a CS1x in 1997. It so easy and totally intuitive for me these days.

Hardware synths are different. There is a different tactile and hands-on experience.

I'm pretty sure that's just your perception, not the reality of the situation because a MIDI controller can offer exactly the same things.

There is a different visual experience where the eyes focus at different depths on real objects rather than flickering lights on a flat plane.

Clutching at straws, here.

There are different sonic results. Some hardware has no software equivalent, and so on.

That's a nonsense argument because I can guarantee you that for every piece of hardware without a software equivalent there are hundreds of pieces of software without a hardware equivalent. e.g. All of my most used VSTi - Thorn, Pigments, ArcSyn, TRK-01, JP6K. Even bx_oberhausen goes well beyond the SEM it emulates.

For me, and based on my own direct experience, these things are as collectively obvious as whether it is day or night.

Then I can only assume you've never put much thought into it.

Me, I enjoy my hardware synths. They do stuff that software doesn't.

No, they don't and you saying so is just a flat-out lie. You can prefer what you like but you can't make statements like that, which are laughably untrue.

Can Phase Plant do Super Saws?

https://youtu.be/v2NeUeplghM

And that's what's great about Phase Plant - if you only need one oscillator, then that's all there is. No diving through menus and tabs switching things off and/or turning them down.

[E_Anderson]

Can Phase Plant do Super Saws?

Yes. But, only the phasing ones.

How do you mean? That these saws do not cut wood?

[BONES]

I believe it was an attempt at humour.

[TribeOfHǫfuð]

I'm pretty sure that's just your perception, not the reality of the situation because a MIDI controller can offer exactly the same things.

Yup. Left Software in 2015 for many of the "usual" reasons. Came back last year to a highly upgraded Reason and the Nektar Panorama P4. With its automapping of 85%+ of both the REs and VSTis you buy for it, the old tactile argument seems hollow now. Friggin amazing when you have been gone so long.

That's a nonsense argument because I can guarantee you that for every piece of hardware without a software equivalent there are hundreds of pieces of software without a hardware equivalent.

Yup. That argument does not seem to work that well either now a days. Not that it worked that much beyond 2009 or so, but even less now.

Me, I enjoy my hardware synths. They do stuff that software doesn't.

No, they don't and you saying so is just a flat-out lie. You can prefer what you like but you can't make statements like that, which are laughably untrue.

Well, this is not a partucularly diplomatic language, but I am afraid the author is pretty friggin right. If you prefer hardware to software and want to explain it, you better stick to the personal preferences because the worn out generalizations and universals have become way too fallacious...whether they already were or not a decade ago.

[BONES]

Yeah, especially after today. I just got my Seaboard back from my bandmate and I'm sorry, no hardware synth can come within a bull's roar of the connectedness you feel when playing that thing with any MPE enabled VSTi. He's had it for about 3 months and it's soooo freakin' good to have it back! I'll never let it go again.

[TribeOfHǫfuð]

Good point again. The MPE. I am sure gonna steer clear of the old songs about the superiority of hardware, they are completely out of tune anno 2021.

BTW: My last argument for preferring my analogs for synthbasses went down the drain when I got my hands on Repro 1 a week ago. I do not even have that straw anymore, but that is good, because it was a hysterical and impracital quirk only related to production and not end result: A bass function is a bass function, and VSTis have worked for all practical purposes since forever. I am just picky-nicky.

I am demoing HIVE btw. Tempting. Teeeempting!

[TribeOfHǫfuð]

HA! Panorama P4 maps HIVE too! ^^^. So cool playing with the filters and env instantly, and it sounds stunning. I will own it within the day. Seems like I am all into the VSTi business again. What an evolution since I was gone.

And for the worth of hardware: I wouldn't live without it for jammning. My bandmate and I spend two years having jam session before we found a focus. It is always cool to have a bunch of hardware synths up running and pretend you are JMJ or whoever. But now focus is found, jamming is over, and production ahead.The pragmatics of staying ITB as much as possible finds its own natural way into all of it.