The "I don't get it" or your 3 overrated synths thread

[disturb]

Am i the only one thinking Blue and Albino sound very dull ?
I've read tons of ppl saying they love them, and i reckon they must make for easy mixes, but there is no ear candy in there IMO... ?

[pdxindy]

I was brutally underwhelmed with Reaktor. When a synth is purported to be able to make 'any sound imaginable', it's disappointing that you can't find a single decent tone in any of the included ensembles.

bingo

[dreamkeeper]

Thanks bud, I DID already know about the STATED features they added. That wasn't my point.

I figured that. My point is, there ARE features that'll give you new sound options, compared with v2. Doesn't mean that the preset designers made heavy use of it.

[disturb]

I was brutally underwhelmed with Reaktor. When a synth is purported to be able to make 'any sound imaginable', it's disappointing that you can't find a single decent tone in any of the included ensembles.

bingo

From the little experience i've had with reaktor, it seemed more useful for building devices (mostly sample/buffer based for me) that rely on particular ergonomics, workflow, or just something that hasn't been done before... More like a very handy toolbox (which needs A LOT of dedication to become of any use) rather than the holy grail of sound.

[pavvel]

Optimus Prime

Where's the link?I can't find it

grymm might be skinning it now? (hope so. ) (he might decide its too shite)

Ha, Gotcha!

WHAT!??

[JerGoertz]

Thanks bud, I DID already know about the STATED features they added. That wasn't my point.

I figured that. My point is, there ARE features that'll give you new sound options, compared with v2. Doesn't mean that the preset designers made heavy use of it.

If they didn't, I wish they would have. Would be nice to hear in action what's so great about the new options.

Every synth on the market can list a bunch of features which make it new, revolutionary, and groundbreaking. But it's the sonic result that matters.

[thelizard]

For some reason, I prefer Triple Cheese to Zebra 2... I'll probably give it a second chance eventually, but Triple Cheese just had the immediate wow factor. I've already used Triple Cheese on three or so tracks. I made nothing with the Zebra demo.
I wouldn't call them overrated, but Surge and Albino did nothing for me really. Cameleon too, to an extent (although I did enjoy a few of the sounds I made... I'm not spending two hundred on it.). With the amount of money I'd spend on any two of those synths, I'd rather go out and buy a piece of multi-fx hardware like a Kaoss Pad. A good effects unit can make any synth cool, really.

The things that piss me off are 90% of romplers. I know a lot of people in here have been ripping on Absynth, but have you made patches by importing samples or.... this is a lot of fun... entire songs that you have made? Same goes for Reaktor... it's daunting at first, but some of the ensembles are so damn inspiring once you add your own touch.

Meanwhile, the romplers like Atmosphere are horrifying to me. "Here are your sounds. This is it. We'll throw in some filters that aren't nearly as good as free ones that you can insert immediately following the signal. Hell, just for fun, we'll make the sounds extra distinctive so you can hear your presets being used by more famous artists. We appreciate your purchase."

A good sampler (i.e. Shortcircuit, Kontakt, Directwave...) destroys any rompler. If you like romplers, invest some time importing random samples and finding fun things to do with them.

I'm trying to decide what I think of Wusik. I really like the routing, but it's such a pain in the ass to import your own sounds. If it supports more formats, I'll bite. Any comments on Wusik importing?

[diverdee]

Am i the only one thinking Blue and Albino sound very dull ?
I've read tons of ppl saying they love them, and i reckon they must make for easy mixes, but there is no ear candy in there IMO... ?

Albino I like, fairly simple, yet capable of being complex & one can coax some nice sounds out of it which fit into a mix.
Blue i'm unsure of as yet - I've been looking for another reasonably complex synth that is capable of making fairly long evolving sounds & sounds that 'move' & of the few i've tried Blue is the one that appears to be the easiest for me to understand, with regards to picking apart a patch & restructuring it to my liking.
Not totally sure about the sound though, maybe it doesn't 'shine' enough for me, compared to another candidate Rhino whose sound I immediately loved, especially the crystalline & shimmering, moving & evolving pads & soundscapes, but which I found unintuitive with regards to working out how patches were constructed.
I dunno, one mans food another mans poison & all that I guess.

[dreamkeeper]

If they didn't, I wish they would have. Would be nice to hear in action what's so great about the new options.

Every synth on the market can list a bunch of features which make it new, revolutionary, and groundbreaking. But it's the sonic result that matters.

I agree. And I have to say that I wasn't that impressed with Aby3 presets either, but then I make ALL my patches from scratch anyway.

To be fair to the sound designers, I think many of the newer features have been used in a way that they just don't stick out in the sounds. Like someone else mentioned, as soon as a synth is getting established and being loved for its special character, one may not leave that path. It's when you're programming yourself that you come to appreciate these features and you will find ways that were impossible to go before.

FWIW: At a time when Aby3 already was there, I made some patches for a friend who was still on v2 - so I had to use that. Often I had to look for workarounds and "waste" more modules for something particular than I would have had to use in v3 - and still couldn't get the same result.

werner

[seamoss]

I think synths in general are overrated.

I mean, if you think back throughout your whole life....even when you were a young child....how many of your favorite songs even contained a synth in it?

synths are cool but they are just what they are ...."synthetic"

I think the overly saturated vsti market makes you believe synths are more important than they really are.


"I used to play the guitar and write songs. Now I tweak vsti filters"

[ianweb123]

I mean, if you think back throughout your whole life....even when you were a young child....how many of your favorite songs even contained a synth in it?

errrr... Pretty much all of them!!

[jackson]

Rhino
Z3ta
Cameleon 5000

If this thread had been started a year or two back and anyone had listed even one of those three, they'd have been lynched in a second. Glad to see it's not such a sensitive subject anymore.

[hcv242]

anything by native instruments...most of theyre plugs are heavy on the cpu for what they do... are released with tons of bugs... are expensive...yes they do some cool sounds ...but that can be done with much less expensive plugs, bug free and with less cpu hit...

[Notron User]

I understand your point, but I always assume a developer, particularly one as detail oriented as Urs, assembles presets that present the instrument in ways that reveal its very best characteristics. Although there was a variety of preset categories and many examples in each, there was a distinct "sound" that many of them shared despite their variety. I didn't find that to be the case with, say, Blue. In the end, I felt that I would have to work hard indeed to overcome this sound personality of Zebra, which seemed to not fit my needs easily. I ended up buying Komplexer, which is even more expensive, but had many sounds on which I could build easily. That's why I emphasized the personal aspect of these synths.

I think that it was wise of Urs to enlist Howard Scarr to develop a set of presets geared toward performance rather than showing off capabilities.

Perhaps you should download the demo and try the Christmas Present bank to see if your opinion changes.

[setAI]

1- Arturia synths- like others have said they sound lifeless and boring-

2-Reaktor- I have always wanted to like reaktor- I am very into modular synths and granular glitch sounds- it's just that at the end of the day everything made on reaktor sounds sameish and thin in a not-good way- to me NI's greatest acheivement is VOKATOR- a unique and powerful FFT spectral synth/processor/granular sampler

3- moog emulations- I too don't really like the moog sound- I always found it to be like a muddy electric organ sound- moog never had that cosmic sparkle like the Arp/EMS synths had