Oh boy, another VA synth. This time from Waves!

[Wormhelmet]

On a side note, what's up with all the Jordan Rudess haters? I personally have neither like nor dislike for the guy, but have never met him. He does make some fun little apps for iOS and seems to be a synth enthusiast.

Does he truly just say things because people pay him to, or is he one of those "I never met a synth I didn't like" kind of guys?

KVR is funny sometimes on people that have been fortunate and met success.

[DJMaytag]

But is it $99 (or $200) better than Synth 1? I am always looking for low CPU hit plugin synths. For anyone trying the demo, what is the biggest CPU hit on the patches provided?

I've got all this running on something I'm working on right now:

Element (x2)
Nerve (x2)
ABL2 (x3)
TAL U-NO-LX
Steinberg Prologue
Steinberg Retrologue
Roomwork SE (x2)
Ohmboyz
Supertap
Using EQ's and some form of compression on most channels.
Using a maximizer/limiter and an RTA on the output

Real time peak is just under 25% with all this going.

[cryophonik]

On a side note, what's up with all the Jordan Rudess haters?

I don't think anybody hates him, but it's hard not to poke fun at a guy who endorses seemingly everything under the sun, and makes a caricature of himself doing so.

[Wormhelmet]

But is it $99 (or $200) better than Synth 1? I am always looking for low CPU hit plugin synths. For anyone trying the demo, what is the biggest CPU hit on the patches provided?

I've got all this running on something I'm working on right now:

Element (x2)
Nerve (x2)
ABL2 (x3)
TAL U-NO-LX
Steinberg Prologue
Steinberg Retrologue
Roomwork SE (x2)
Ohmboyz
Supertap
Using EQ's and some form of compression on most channels.
Using a maximizer/limiter and an RTA on the output

Real time peak is just under 25% with all this going.

Thanks for that. Very conservative if you have a modest system, but what are your PC specs? I like my dual core netbook for portability and run Ableton on it just fine, but tend to use Synth 1 in many instances and Poise for the ultra low CPU hits. Disco DSP Discovery is another low hitter as is imposcar.

Many synthedit vst's hit low too. Just got a powerful laptop two days ago, but will be used for Geist and any other big hit synths.

One of the reasons I just bought Venom at its low price point - to take the processing off the computer. Also use my ipad 2 for same reasons, but an integrated vst is so much easier.

I plan on using the interface capability of Venom to also run my ipad through into my focusrite so I don't have to unplug stuff all the time even with only two ins on the focusrite.

This could be a good contender for my netbook.

[Johnny!]

To me it's not important that it doesn't sound analog (very few come close) , but it's just that there's really nothing new to be found here.
Nothing that sticks out for me to go and buy it ...not the sound and not the specs.

I agree. I've also listened to all the demos, and I know it sounds good - but it's 2013 already, noone will release anything not sounding good. It's not the argument here - the point is that it's just another good sounding but very basic VA attempt. Simple synths are all good, I'm also a fan of well thought plugins that dont require me to browse through dozens of pages (eg Razor). But I think that at the core of all the negativity here lies the fact that we would expect a little more effort from a dev like Waves. I bet I could find many similar ensembles in the NI Reaktor user library (only if browsing it wouldnt be sucha pita).


Finally, about the low cpu usage - well thats probably because there's not much going on under the synth's hood, isnt it?

[DJMaytag]

Thanks for that. Very conservative if you have a modest system, but what are your PC specs?

I have an older 13" MacBook Pro (early 2011) with modest specs (2.3 GHz i5, 4Gb RAM, OS X 10.8.2), running Cubase Artist 7.

I went through and defeated every channel plugin and every instrument, and Cubase itself uses up about 5% of the CPU load doing nothing. This is also with Safari open with 7 tabs, a bunch of PDF's open in Preview, and iTunes open. I'm not as savvy with turning off background services in MacOS as I was in Windoze XP, so I'm sure I could free up some CPU power if I really dug into the OS more.

EDIT: for clarity (added quote) and the following:

Finally, about the low cpu usage - well thats probably because there's not much going on under the synth's hood, isnt it?

That's a good thing, IMHO. I think many would prefer to get a similar sound with less of a sound engine (read: less CPU hit) with this versus something that's uber complex.

Personally, I like the possibilities with the routings it's got. The "Sine Mod" on OSC1 is pretty interesting and the FM on OSC2 and the filter is always welcome in my book. The "Phase Mod" control on OSC2 is something I need to explore. Messing with it on a patch I'm using in a track gives some presence to upper register sounds without sounding harsh or brittle. I *love* the 3rd freely assignable envelope (this shows my analogue synth nerd factor, as there was rarely an extra envelope not dedicated to a specific function.)

[Impulslogik]

This is a sad thread. If you want to read about the experiences with the synth you'll have to read through over ten pages for two first hands on experiences.

Shame on you, KVR.

Ähm...did you read the thread title. There is nothing about "What are your experiences with the new va-synth Element from Waves"! The thread title by itself tends to be negative. So the posts tend to be negative as well or free in opinions at least. So what are you expecting?

[Impulslogik]

For all you critics (I'm one of them) and for all who do not want to get through the account and licensing process for the demo!!! I found that video on youtube:



Quite interesting i am a bit lured...but 99 bucks is too expensive.

[deastman]

On a side note, what's up with all the Jordan Rudess haters?

I don't think anybody hates him, but it's hard not to poke fun at a guy who endorses seemingly everything under the sun, and makes a caricature of himself doing so.

Exactly. By endorsing virtually every new product, he's saying that virtually every new product is great. This, in and of itself, diminishes the value of his endorsement (and of his opinion and credibility).

[Aiynzahev]

On a side note, what's up with all the Jordan Rudess haters?

I don't think anybody hates him, but it's hard not to poke fun at a guy who endorses seemingly everything under the sun, and makes a caricature of himself doing so.

Exactly. By endorsing virtually every new product, he's saying that virtually every new product is great. This, in and of itself, diminishes the value of his endorsement (and of his opinion and credibility).

To be fair though whatever I've seen him endorse is "great" for someone.

[billcarroll]

For all you critics (I'm one of them) and for all who do not want to get through the account and licensing process for the demo!!! I found that video on youtube:



Quite interesting i am a bit lured...but 99 bucks is too expensive.

Great video. Thanks for posting.

FYI, http://www.jrrshop.com has Element for $84.15 (extra discount applied when added to cart). And at that price I had to buy it

[Ingonator]

For all you critics (I'm one of them) and for all who do not want to get through the account and licensing process for the demo!!! I found that video on youtube:



Quite interesting i am a bit lured...but 99 bucks is too expensive.

Now that video made me really interested in trying it.
Already got a bunch of great VA polysynth plugins so it would be interesting how this sounds compared to them.

Like others also mentioned i like those one page synths. My favorites in that respect are e.g. TAL U-NO-LX and Saurus (OK not totally 1 page as it got tabs for the mod matrix...).


UPDATE:
Just installed the demo. Once you have been registered the installation procedure seems to be straightforward. I moved the license to an USB stick so'll try to use it with my notebook too.

Just played a bit with it but it looks/sounds quite promising. With even slight addition of the built in EQ the low end could be huge. It's also nice that you could save presets with the demo.


Ingo

[DJMaytag]

FYI, http://www.jrrshop.com has Element for $84.15 (extra discount applied when added to cart). And at that price I had to buy it

Wish I had known about this. I could have saved $15 on Element plus $30 on the L3-16 that I'd like to buy later this month while it's on sale. Is JRRShop continuing this discount very long?

[robotmonkey]

This is a sad thread. If you want to read about the experiences with the synth you'll have to read through over ten pages for two first hands on experiences.

Shame on you, KVR.

Ähm...did you read the thread title. There is nothing about "What are your experiences with the new va-synth Element from Waves"! The thread title by itself tends to be negative. So the posts tend to be negative as well or free in opinions at least. So what are you expecting?

There's nothing inherently negative in the thread title. You could also interpret it as me jumping from joy because Waves finally released another VA synth. It's all the negativity in this thread that makes the title feel negative.

[Impulslogik]

This is a sad thread. If you want to read about the experiences with the synth you'll have to read through over ten pages for two first hands on experiences.

Shame on you, KVR.

Ähm...did you read the thread title. There is nothing about "What are your experiences with the new va-synth Element from Waves"! The thread title by itself tends to be negative. So the posts tend to be negative as well or free in opinions at least. So what are you expecting?

There's nothing inherently negative in the thread title. You could also interpret it as me jumping from joy because Waves finally released another VA synth. It's all the negativity in this thread that makes the title feel negative.

okay...convinced...

edit:
but when i translate oh boy into german language it tends to be negative like (Au Backe! or Au weia!). I'm lost in translation...

Never mind!