Does any other VST sound as good as Sylenth?

[BONES]

i own z3ta and it's a klunky POS compared to sylenth. it sounds great, as does rapture, but both of those are NOT easy and immediately programmed. sylenth1 is, and this is where it is worth the hype.

That's an interesting comment in light of your earlier post about not using Part B. Because I think that whole A/B thing is stupid, considering how enormous the UI is anyway.
As you might be aware, this is one of my pet peeves but, because I really do like the sound of z3ta+, I've thought about ways around it. If you go through most of its presets, they only use a fraction of the available options. That got me to thinking that you could quite easily create a few template-style presets that would make it a lot easier to work with. OTOH, Sylenth1 is what it is, and there is nothing you can do to improve the A/B thing, except to ignore it like you do.

it's got bugs that have been in it forever that really piss me off too.

Seriously? I was actually thinking of buying it after all this time. But then I thought about the money I recently flushed down the toilet with V-Station. Its been on my HDD for a couple of months now and I haven't so much as played with it once. I installed it and almost immediately forgot all about it.

[grymmjack]

i own z3ta and it's a klunky POS compared to sylenth. it sounds great, as does rapture, but both of those are NOT easy and immediately programmed. sylenth1 is, and this is where it is worth the hype.

That's an interesting comment in light of your earlier post about not using Part B. Because I think that whole A/B thing is stupid, considering how enormous the UI is anyway.
As you might be aware, this is one of my pet peeves but, because I really do like the sound of z3ta+, I've thought about ways around it. If you go through most of its presets, they only use a fraction of the available options. That got me to thinking that you could quite easily create a few template-style presets that would make it a lot easier to work with. OTOH, Sylenth1 is what it is, and there is nothing you can do to improve the A/B thing, except to ignore it like you do.

it's got bugs that have been in it forever that really piss me off too.

Seriously? I was actually thinking of buying it after all this time. But then I thought about the money I recently flushed down the toilet with V-Station. Its been on my HDD for a couple of months now and I haven't so much as played with it once. I installed it and almost immediately forgot all about it.

BONES yes it's a perfect point to make - i'm a novice synth programmer and i'm ok being that way. for example, i didn't realize about part B could have a different middle part because i never needed it so far. my demands are simple and served easily i guess? despite the fact that i'm not as sophisticated in terms of knowledge there does exist a simple truth about z3ta - because it is so multipaged, multitabbed, it is much harder to work with. i know you understand because you've said the same thing - multitabs/pages are a total waste of time to help visualize what something is diong.

z3ta is a huge synth, and yes i agree that templates might help in programming, but even still the structure of the synth - particularly the modulation matrix i cannot figure out to save my soul. i've read the manual, disected the presets, and i get the general idea, but why is it that in mod matrix i have to use something esoteric and confusing called LIN B+ to have any effect on it? the other mod matrix's i've used are in synths like thor in reason, the toxic line, and in old wusikstation, which actually made an impact without having a clue. this is partly my point again - some synths are needlessly more complex when a bit more time spent on UI design part would have made this particular issue a non-issue. i understand the lineage of z3ta, square/triangle -> pentagon -> z3ta, and so i'm fairly sure though i wasn't around to witness it, that the reason z3ta is so f**king hard to program is because it was designed by committe of really smart people who had great intentions but didn't succeed on some level - this is why z3ta was later replaced by rapture which succeeds in adding significantly more complexity, with just as many hidden things, but ALSO adds in to the mix even worse usability on the controls shedding the sliders for simple numeric readouts - which are great IF YOU CAN TARGET them.

the bugs i'm referring to bones, are regarding midi import on the arp. teksonik and myself campaigned for a fix not long ago and were basically ignored. i dont fault cakewalk for it - i mean rapture is there, and i'm sure rene has got to get tired of us whining but it's one of the best parts of z3ta and it is buggy so it's really frustrating.

i also own v-station, and it's surprising you haven't used it much but is it because you roll your own synths (would make it hard to justify using it too for me if i did the same - which btw, i tried your new killerz last night and was impressed by the new UI design (glare be damned) and the amount of attention you paid to rapid simple programming to get a good sound) - which is back to the point again.

v-station has many pages as well, but the most important parameters, more frequently accessed are on the same page - the oscillators, etc. i quite love the sound of v-station and would recommend ya keep trying it. the filter is f**king killer with some kind of drive on the resonance that i dont fully understand but when i twist it it sounds great, and you know a lot about those so might want to pay particular attention to that -- but otherwise knowing what you know v-station without any FX on sounds good but it's again the whole package of the sound - the same is true of z3ta though, without effects on (including the waveshaper!) it sounds kinda meh.

just my opinion though.

[grymmjack]

As you might be aware, this is one of my pet peeves but, because I really do like the sound of z3ta+, I've thought about ways around it. If you go through most of its presets, they only use a fraction of the available options. That got me to thinking that you could quite easily create a few template-style presets that would make it a lot easier to work with.

also, bones, i've considered ways around - and you know what's sad - the entire thing could be done in a FLSTUDIO dashboard probably - it might take up the whole f'ing screen, but I could probably design an easier to understand (in terms of signal flow now i'm talking) UI for z3ta using only dashboard - i know you're not a flstudio lover and honor that but dashboard is like the coolest f**king thing around. you can literally create 'wrappers' for VSTi's, midi outboard gear, whatever you want - and it is simple and quick to do.

i've considered making even just a single page for the oscs, filters, and envs in a dashboard and that alone would make it so much easier to trace what was going on. i'm sorry but the mod matrix is awesomely complex beyond necessity - i understand what LIN B means Linear Bipolar, which is different than Exponential Bipolar and so on, but what i dont understand is why i am required to supply these curve parameters on some mod matrix rows and not on others.

this is i guess why i like synths that are simpler where it counts like sylenth, wasp, hydra, toxic, etc.

plus i'm a damned guitarist! it's all KVRs fault for turning me into a wannabe synth type person who has no idea how to even play the keyboard just only by ear and now am getting sucked deeper and deeper with no exit.

[grymmjack]

NEKRO.MACHINE: where i live i searched to a lot of stores that brings magazines from europe but i couldnt find it anywhere to buy it( i am gonna check that again thow). But dont worry i always make my research before i buy something.

ps: its late i am drunk if you dont make a point of it then my greek to english brain dont work as intended so i am gonna double check my post tommorow

@va; i concur with nekro that zebra cm is a great sounding synth and when i tried it (long after i had forgotten when i played with the zebra demo - i wasn't ready not even close for a modular at the time) i thought "finally i understand what people are saying".

zebra cm is def the best sounding synth in the offering no doubt.

if you want, PM me and i can arrange to buy you a copy in the states and ship it to you if you pay for s/h. but i recall others saying there is an online vendor who could do this too though i don't recall the URL exactly.

[grymmjack]

actually bones i just realized after looking again, i was not wrong - the middle part of sylenth1 (the part with the arp, effects, etc) is GLOBAL not per "part a" and "part b" -- so whoever said this was true is wrong.

[BONES]

I've actually suggested on several threads that it would be a great idea to offer a cut-down version of z3ta+, with just a couple of everything, all on a single page UI. If they did that, I would pay the same as they charge for the full version now, without hesitation. To me it just makes good, commercial sense to leverage all the hard work to meet the needs of different segments of the markets. The big hardware companies do it to death and its great because you don't have to start again from scratch every time you buy the latest iteration of their products. But, for some reason, software companies are too pig-headed to see the potential.
With the V-Station, I used to own a K-Station, so I know exactly what it can do, I just haven't needed any of that lately.

[kyodeejay]

IMO the beauty of a Synth is the ability of fast&easy tweak (that doesn't kill your creativity), good sound (that pleases you, i'm a trancer), supported (one company working for one synth), with minimal copy protection and minimal CPU usage.

And Sylenth1 here is the king. There are others (sytrus, zt3a+, poizone, massive, zebra2....), they're good, but they haven't all the requisites that I'm looking for in a synth.

[Locus M]

Perhaps my question should be 'does any VST sound better than Sylenth?'..

If you have any thoughts on this I would be grateful

Paul,
Prevalence

My question is: Does an answer to your question mean anything to issues beyond the question in itself?

I Love Sylenth 1, but it can not reproduce every sound I prefer, so it could never be my "one and only synth".

Lots of my darlings are quite non redundant once you get into them. If they sound alike, it is usually because of "standard presets" and not the engines in themselves. They can have very different soundshaping possibilities and therefore sound different to a degree, where you can not capture these characteristics in terms of graded "sound quality". Generally S1 has a fine sound quality but that does not mean I love all of its presets or that I can produce any sound with it.

Zt3a+ have also a very fine quality for some sounds I prefer, but so does
my moog modular and Messiah, ect.

S1 is sure wonderful, but I would feel very poor and restricted, if I was forced to use that one only. I think I would prefer the moog modular if that was the case: Certainly not because of its sound quality , but its shaping possibilities.

[exode_sound]

I think that Thor in Reason 4 can sound fantastic, if you can be bothered with learning how to program it! Just check out my latest free ReFill (Voltage Controlled Vol.3) and listen to some of the patches in there!

[hakey]

Deleted post.

Blank post with no opinion, fact, or reference point.

And so your point is...?

If you must know, I was having another cheap dig at Bones' expense (oh it's so easy to do), but I had second thoughts about it. No point flogging a dead horse as they say.

I would have deleted the whole post, but it seems that you can't.

[Dean Aka Nekro]

You missing the point i didnt payed the presets i tend to program my synths.
I mentioned the presets because for x amount of money you take this. Downloading presets takes personal efort and they are not in a bundled product.
But if i find some presets that works on a project then i have a starting point for tweaking. The most sounds that comes with sylenth1 are not in my style, they sound too trance for me.

But a lot of people dont care about synthesis. They need presets. It was a reference point. (and dont tell me that they dont, look at the next rompler with moog,jupiter,moon and sun samples...).
As grymmjack said its not a beast of modulation but certainly suit my workflow for programming sounds on it.

NEKRO.MACHINE: where i live i searched to a lot of stores that brings magazines from europe but i couldnt find it anywhere to buy it( i am gonna check that again thow). But dont worry i always make my research before i buy something.

ps: its late i am drunk if you dont make a point of it then my greek to english brain dont work as intended so i am gonna double check my post tommorow

Hey im only messing around vicious_angel not taking the piss at all friend and i hope you manage to get a copy

Take care

Dean/Nekro

[grymmjack]

I think that Thor in Reason 4 can sound fantastic, if you can be bothered with learning how to program it! Just check out my latest free ReFill (Voltage Controlled Vol.3) and listen to some of the patches in there!

where can we find that?

[Dean Aka Nekro]

grymmjack i too can relate as im a guitarist and KVR has dragged me into the world of synthesis like a venus fly trap! so i know what you mean man (the main job is sticking mic's in front of and around things basically) curiosity is killing this twat

[exode_sound]

I think that Thor in Reason 4 can sound fantastic, if you can be bothered with learning how to program it! Just check out my latest free ReFill (Voltage Controlled Vol.3) and listen to some of the patches in there!

where can we find that?

You can find all my free refills at Propellerheads or Combinator HQ (Free registration required)

[Yorrrrrr]

So....any other VSTi synth, in 2013, that sounds 'similar' (not 'as good', as we've seen 'good' is pretty subjective) as Sylenth1? My GOD, just recently I bought this synth and the quality of its sound is breathtaking, in my ears.