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

[himalaya]

I know that Cypher is quite powerful but somehow it never "clicked" with me like several other synths (e.g. Strobe, Saurus, Element, TAL U-NO-LX, Oxium etc.) did.

Personally, I think the patches I ported to Cypher from my Andromeda are the best I've heard Cypher sound. However, creating those patches was so tedious that I never recreated them after they got lost. I mostly just use Strobe these days.

I got Cypher to mimic my Korg Mini 700 quite nicely. I much prefer these simple analog sounds to 'power' poly synths, even though Cypher can imitate an Oberheim OBXa poly synth/pad sound too.

[Ingonator]

No probs Ingo. 'Taste' is one thing and that is unquestionable.

However, very often a new synth comes out and people say it has a 'unique' feature, whereas the same feature has been implemented in other synths for many years.

Anytime someone asks how a certain synth compares to synth X, Y or Z this will lead to the same kind of discussion, no matter what you answer.

To be honset i really start to hate those comparisons as they don't really lead to a result in most cases. Either a synth works for you or it doesn't and the reasons for this are not always simple.
Also just judging a synth just based in audio demos is the worst you could do IMO. For soundsets there is usually no other option (except if you offer a few free presets) but for most synths there is a demo version available like for this one.

Anyway a highly complex synth like e.g. Cypher is not the best choice for all of us. Anyway i like how e.g. the Tone2 could create quite complex sounds with an easy to use GUI.
Same is true for Element. As already mentioned it's all about the right combination of sound, GUI and features.

Anyway if the price would have been 200$ i am quite sure i would have passed this based on the synths i already got. Now i have paid 75$ which is more than OK for me.


Ingo

[himalaya]

No probs Ingo. 'Taste' is one thing and that is unquestionable.

However, very often a new synth comes out and people say it has a 'unique' feature, whereas the same feature has been implemented in other synths for many years.

Anytime someone asks how a certain synth compares to synth X, Y or Z this will lead to the same kind of discussion, no matter what you answer.

You brought on the comparison and my answer was meant to provide you with correct info. That's all.

[ariston]

I also noticed the FM and phasemod features of Element alias quite badly. What I really liked most in Element were the oscillators (raw sound), filter and envelopes. Indeed I'd have bought the synth on the strength of those alone if it weren't for those knobs.

I honestly can't believe some of you guys aren't moaning about the knobs. Do you have WRISTS of STEEL or something?

All of this +1 and more.

Has everyone gone deaf and blind in 2013? This is a run-of-the-mill VA without one single thing that makes it stand out. It is not a bad synth by any means, the mod targets are plentiful, there are surprisingly many ways to manipulate the simple waveforms, and I do acknowledge that it has a certain character to it. But comparing the sound quality to Synth Squad, Diva, Oxium, LuSH... you have got to be kidding me. Like I already said, if you keep to the middle ground, it's all good. Anything with fast modulation and played in the higher registers just sounds awful to my ears.

Element is comparable to Kilohearts One, which is also good - and you can push it into extreme territory.

Okay, you can go ahead and call me a whiner now. But let's see if many people will mention this synth one year from now.

[Ingonator]

No probs Ingo. 'Taste' is one thing and that is unquestionable.

However, very often a new synth comes out and people say it has a 'unique' feature, whereas the same feature has been implemented in other synths for many years.

Anytime someone asks how a certain synth compares to synth X, Y or Z this will lead to the same kind of discussion, no matter what you answer.

You brought on the comparison and my answer was meant to provide you with correct info. That's all.

And it's also OK that you provided this.

I just don't see why people always respond in such a aggressive way to my posts.

I did not mentioned that i do a detailed comparison of those synths i mentioned. I just picked out a few things that i thought are important.

You got a more detailed knowledge about Cypher which is OK and maybe i really missed something but your reply sound like i did this intentionally.

I gave a more detailed answer in the PM i just sent to you.

Anyway after all that a synth could not be jusged by making a list of features and posting audio demos. At the end it's the combination of everything which foe MY (!!) taste is done quite well.

This also doesn't 'mean that this will be my favorite synth of all times, it just means it complement my other synths quite well. In terms of VA synths e.g. Saurus, ElectraX and Oxium are still some of my favorites and other people have other opinions. There is nothing like a "right or wrong" when it comes to synths. Even Diva does not offer everything that is possible in terms of features (in some aspects Element surpasses it judged on the current features not based on planned updates) but it's strength does seem to be it's sound quality and on emulating the sound of the included models. Element does not seem to be an emulation so it's difficult to compare it to something else.

If it comes to "analog" sound even some hardware analog synths perform better (or just different...) than others which is based on many thinggs like e.g. oscillators (e.g. DCO vs. VCO), filters (lots of different options there) and envelopes (shapes and analog based vs digital based). Example is e.g. an Oberheim Matrix 1000 compared to an SEM or OB-X or a Jupiter 8 compared to a MKS-50.


Ingo

[himalaya]

And it's also OK that you provided this.

I just don't see why people always respond in such a aggressive way to my posts.


Ingo

What aggressive way? Please read my original post again.

[Ingonator]

*edited*

[raikard233]

First you have toregister your account which it look you already did.
I had posted this at page 30 of this thread:

Thanks for the tip Ingo, i'll give it a shot.
Anyway still remain a PITA such system.

[Ingonator]

First you have toregister your account which it look you already did.
I had posted this at page 30 of this thread:

Thanks for the tip Ingo, i'll give it a shot.
Anyway still remain a PITA such system.

Always nice to hear i could be helpful.

Yes the system is not easy but it could be worse based on my experiences with some C/R systems. Of course serial or keyfile protection is hard to beat in terms of convenience.


Ingo

[Kriminal]

I also noticed the FM and phasemod features of Element alias quite badly. What I really liked most in Element were the oscillators (raw sound), filter and envelopes. Indeed I'd have bought the synth on the strength of those alone if it weren't for those knobs.

I honestly can't believe some of you guys aren't moaning about the knobs. Do you have WRISTS of STEEL or something?

I did. Too quirky for my taste.

[izonin]

Of course there are also people which seem to comment about my posts in almost every thread like e.g. Kriminal and pdxindy but that's another story.

I had the same thing going with hakey Publicly expressing my homosexual love for him was a very effective solution. One's got to improvise

[Ingonator]

I just have reinstalled EnergyXT (have not used it for ages...) with the latest version 2.6 as i wanted to test the certain plugin for a Beta test.

Now i also checked if Element does work with it but like in the test with the Orion 8.5 demo it recognizes the WaveShell 9.2 VST but not the Element plugin.

I hesitate to try the Waves2Shell.exe tool that someone here proposed (seems to be a free 3rd party tool) as in my main hosts (Ableton Live 8 and Reaper 4) Element works without problems.

Both EnergyXT and Orion are not mentioned in the officially supported hosts, same as Reaper 4 where Element seems to work:

http://www.wavesupport.net/Objects/Imag ... V9_pc.html

http://www.wavesupport.net/Objects/Imag ... 9_mac.html


Ingo

[pdxindy]

Nice article on Element that echoes my sentiments

Does The World Need Another Subtractive Synth VI?

http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-pa ... th-vi.html

What a nauseating review! It is only because it is Waves that it gets so much immediate attention and people comparing to an industry changing product.

[X2]

given waves pedigree and industry standard reputation for the ssl type fx, Im guessing the Synths will start getting better and better as time progresses, a bit like not putting all their eggs in one basket and release a not full blown offering of their talents to test the water of the market. Sounds like its working as well by some of the comments, and I bet the next synth blows the others out of the water, rather like flapping their wings for the first time and the Waves forage into synthesis offering is just starting to take off, its looking quite promising too although I have to say not for me as I have too many already, bought CRX4, Octopus, Diversion, Groove machine, Directwave, RMIV just in the sales this part alone due to the end of the world sales as well as all the others I have, Zeta2, Wuzikstation 7, so on and on and on.... so ill think I might sit this one out for now as I am now really short on money for some silly reason

(A real surprise for me is the Synthblitz Deepone for sound quality and features for a DX7 emulation, for 30 euro with key file, worth getting just for the price alone, cant wonder why anyone else hasn't mentioned this one before as well)

[pdxindy]

I miss a lot of features.

could you give examples?

The LFO's are really basic. There is no LFO delay or phase control. No option for the LFO to be global or per voice. No sample/hold.

No Osc phase control. Only 4 waveforms. No control over sub waveform or sub octave. Only 1 noise type.

No unison spread, pan, or detune option. No mono last/high note priority option.