KVR Audio

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:09 pm

spaceman wrote:it got added to a more money for poor widows bill and it got rejected

Damn those bureaucrats!

TotcProductions · Post by **TotcProductions** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:20 pm

John Vulich wrote:
f**king "preset whores".. the lot of them!

Watch it John...otherwise, I might have to add snuffing you out to my Pro-Sounds marketing plan.

jk

DrGonzo · Post by **DrGonzo** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:23 pm

ChipCurtis wrote:here are some fantastic SynthEdit creations out there, including OP-X, Superwave, Arppe2600va, all the ODO stuff, etc.

Oh yes. The OP-X is really really nice. But isn't it available for Reaktor as well?

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:45 pm

pascual wrote:
fmr wrote:
pascual wrote:For me it's all those FM synths.
They are always seen as the cat's pijamas, or Tarzans mother; but no matter how much i try to like them they all sound like cheap background music for some second rate beauty pagent.
It's that glassy cheesiness that i really can't stand! I hate Fm e-pianos, and i loath any fm bell sounds. Add to that the complicated nature of programming them and forget it!

I don't want no Sytrus, i don't want no FM 7 or 8 or 9 and you can also keep toxic.
Seems like you hate FM synths. Perhaps if you try to study a little in order to understand them, you would change your mind. I am currently reviewing the major FM synths available (FM8, Blue, Octopus, Rhino, Sytrus, Toxic III), and found all of them to be great synths, although very different. All of them go way beyond plain and simple FM, too, adding resynthesis, additive, Ring Modulation, Waveshaping, etc.
They are complex, true, and we can easily get lost, but what we can get out of them is fantastic. So, I think you should pay a little more attention to FM itself, and the FM synths out there. There is a world beyond subtractive waiting for you.
To be honest i would never really turn my back to any instrument or any sound, and if i could afford a bunch of plugins and/or hardware, i would defenitely want to have some quality fm action in my tool box. I have fm7 express, and i like playing around with Ganymed occasionally...
But still, it very often manages to sound sooo very cheesy...to me.

If all you tried was FM7 Express, then you should definitely try one of the others. FM8, specially, is a killer machine to me, in what concerns FM. Fm really shines on it. About the others - Rhino is perhaps the one that I like more, but after that, I would really have a great difficulty in choosing one. But you can download demos of all of them, and decide for yourself. They are not easy, yes, but that's just because they are so versatile. Anyway, you can do the traditional 2/3 Osc > Filter > Amp on all of them, like you do on traditional subtractive synths (and they do sound good on that, too). But that's when you start intermodulate the oscillators that things start to shine. And when you pile envelopes, and start modulate things with them, then...

jjensson33 · Post by **jjensson33** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:58 pm

(EDIT: opinion pulled back, because of flawed test methodology. Maybe i'll update this post later).
jj

lavoll · Post by **lavoll** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:08 pm

1) NI komplete. I want to get it, but I havent yet. All the things I wanted to do in Reaktor, I can make in audiomulch much easier and quicker. Hardly any of the effects or instrumets ever show up in my tracks.

2) moog things. dont really like the sound (except on wendy carlos soundtracks). hehe, guess i'm more of an oberheim kinda guy

3) uhmm... I was kinda underwhelmed by some sonic refills i bought. Do they count?

idobs · Post by **idobs** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:46 pm

You know, now that we know what synths everybody bought but regretted, we should have some sort of followup: Everybody should force themselves to play with at least one of the synths for a few days and report back...

I'll start: Vanguard & Massive, I'll go back to them this week...

-Ido

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:07 am

I have no idea what is so great about Surge... I use it at least 5 times per composition because it happens to be the only synth I own.

...OHWAIT

...

sorry I think I slightly missed the point of this thread. BTW, listening to Massive clips it sounds exactly like layered synths. (nothing more)

SARcazm · Post by **SARcazm** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 4:14 am

It's interesting to note which synths are NOT in this thread, and, tho I'm sure there are more, Korg Legacy hasn't been mentioned, at least negatively. Personally, I highly rate KLC1, but can't really see what the fuss is about the M1, which, IMHO, would be far more useful with better modulation possibilites.

Regarding the preset debate, I can see both points of view, tho I feel that presets can give you an overall feel of the sound of the instrument, which, if it doesn't appeal to you, surely means that no matter how much effort you put into programming it, you'll never be satisfied with the result. Perhaps developers should include two banks with their instrument: one that they feel can be used musically as is; and the other to show off the capabilities and tone of their instrument without necessarily being musically useful. Best of both worlds there.

jjensson33 · Post by **jjensson33** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 4:50 am

SARcazm wrote:Perhaps developers should include two banks with their instrument: one that they feel can be used musically as is; and the other to show off the capabilities and tone of their instrument without necessarily being musically useful. Best of both worlds there.

Great idea!
jj

DWb · Post by **DWb** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 4:58 am

SARcazm wrote: Regarding the preset debate, I can see both points of view, tho I feel that presets can give you an overall feel of the sound of the instrument, which, if it doesn't appeal to you, surely means that no matter how much effort you put into programming it, you'll never be satisfied with the result. Perhaps developers should include two banks with their instrument: one that they feel can be used musically as is; and the other to show off the capabilities and tone of their instrument without necessarily being musically useful. Best of both worlds there.

And they should all include a clearly labelled patch which consists of a basic sine wave oscillator with no filters, effects, envelopes or anything else, for those of us who like to figure synths out from the ground up...

The Chase · Post by **The Chase** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 5:02 am

DWb wrote:
SARcazm wrote: Regarding the preset debate, I can see both points of view, tho I feel that presets can give you an overall feel of the sound of the instrument, which, if it doesn't appeal to you, surely means that no matter how much effort you put into programming it, you'll never be satisfied with the result. Perhaps developers should include two banks with their instrument: one that they feel can be used musically as is; and the other to show off the capabilities and tone of their instrument without necessarily being musically useful. Best of both worlds there.
And they should all include a clearly labelled patch which consists of a basic sine wave oscillator with no filters, effects, envelopes or anything else, for those of us who like to figure synths out from the ground up...

Most synths have an "init," innit..

spritex · Post by **spritex** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 8:51 am

jjensson33 wrote: 1) Zebra2 and Rapture - big and warm, but lifeless and boring

I wouldn't call Zebra lifeless.
IMO, it's one of the most organic sounding synths I tried.

SARcazm · Post by **SARcazm** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:31 am

OK. Gone thru the whole thread and compiled a list of synths, with 5 or more negatives. First page is now updated with a summary of those synths.

Hope this is useful for those in the market

kv331 · Post by **kv331** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:24 am

Paulie Phonick wrote: As for my three: Wusikstation, SynthMaster, Atmosphere

Why do you think SynthMaster is overrated? BTW, have you used it at all? It has a free version too!

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