KVR Audio

Igro · Post by **Igro** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:30 pm

If NI Razor had an option to have ALL of its effects in a user defined order and some extended modulation, then it would be sort of analogy (not entirely, of course)

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:45 pm

synaesthesia wrote:Absynth scares people off a bit because it's GUI is quite unusual and a bit intimidating.

As well as the lovely, atmospheric ambient stuff, I really like Absynth for creating drifty analogue sounds.

'Scary' is not a word I would use to describe it all. Doesn't even seem intimidating at this point. But it just doesn't seem very interesting either.
But give me some more time with it.

psychoxkps · Post by **psychoxkps** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 10:22 pm

I hope spectrasonics....

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 3:02 am

Taoist wrote:Alchemy is the most Absynth like synth that Ive heard. Very very similar. I to this day have not found another electric piano preset that is as beautiful as Absynth's "number 59" preset.

You mean number 57?

djshire · Post by **djshire** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 3:27 am

Absynth is a wonderful synth. I still need to make that demo for that preset pack I won back round Christmas.....

monk_volcano · Post by **monk_volcano** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 3:55 am

Wait is this kvraudio??? Only one person has mentioned zebra.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 4:02 am

monk_volcano wrote:Wait is this kvraudio??? Only one person has mentioned zebra.

Now two...

spirit · Post by **spirit** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 4:11 am

I always found Absynth was a dog to program, then after I got Reaktor I found many ensembles were just as good or better than Absynth for what I wanted. Then there was NI's expensive upgrades year after year, so I just gave up. Loads of other synths cover Absynth's territory very well now: basically any reasonably complex synth with multi-point envelopes will replicate its abilities.

Sampleconstruct · Post by **Sampleconstruct** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 4:31 am

With the big difference that Absynth has a granular engine and a (very basic) sample player which most other "synths" don't have. So the only comparison would be Alchemy really.

spirit · Post by **spirit** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 5:25 am

Wot!? Reaktor can cover everything it does using about 2% of its available library, and Omni could have Absynth for a morning tea snack. And they're just two I own - and I have very few synths these days. I'd also sooner go for a few Hollow Sun Kontakt instruments before bothering with NI's faded star.

Sampleconstruct · Post by **Sampleconstruct** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 5:42 am

Can Omni import user samples?

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 6:07 am

Sampleconstruct wrote:Can Omni import user samples?

Heheh, absolutely not!
Another thing I can't get past with Omnisphere is the sound design and its Persing connection to past Rolands which kind of makes it the same with a thousand more bells and whistles (and a burning piano of course). It still somehow has 'that Persing sound'.

And Reaktor needs the SkannerXT module I believe?
Like I've said before, NI has a solid sound but still has a very sterile quality to me.

Alchemy is the preferred one here.

Sampleconstruct · Post by **Sampleconstruct** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 6:19 am

The good thing today is that we all have so much to choose from, although I would love to see more hybrid synths like Alchemy. Combine the granular engine of Padshop Pro with the resynthesis algos of Metasynth, the sample player of Kontakt and the modulation concept of Alchemy, then add the Zebra modular approach for VA and include the spectral tools from GRM, sprinkle the Valhalla reverb and delay algos over all of that and woaaa - that would be my dream machine.

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 6:58 am

Sampleconstruct wrote:The good thing today is that we all have so much to choose from, although I would love to see more hybrid synths like Alchemy. Combine the granular engine of Padshop Pro with the resynthesis algos of Metasynth, the sample player of Kontakt and the modulation concept of Alchemy, then add the Zebra modular approach for VA and include the spectral tools from GRM, sprinkle the Valhalla reverb and delay algos over all of that and woaaa - that would be my dream machine.

I have to +1 on that.
I'm even open to allow whatever Spectra has to offer into the mix too.

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Sun Jul 21, 2013 3:42 pm

Absynth was my first software synth. I remember hearing it at a NI demo booth at MacWorld... not even sure the version or the date, but I remember thinking, "Holy crap, this thing is almost a Synclavier!" Of course, it wasn't (isn't) but what I meant was the "spirit" of an experimental synth that could deal with samples was there. I bought it at once and I'm one of those guys who's "never looked back."

One thing it isn't though, is a "bread and butter" synth. Can you make your basic synth sounds with it? Yeah, you can, and actually pretty well, but it would be like driving a formula race car down to the Kwik-e-mart for a 40. Sure, you could do it, but there are much better choices for that task. (1960 Plymouth Fury

) So yeah, if I'm looking to make a big Jupiter pad, I'll go for Diva or some other tool made for the task. If I want to turn an audio sample into a big ambient pad that I can modulate into an entire piece of music, Absynth's still one of my go to instruments for this task.

I'll also agree that NI stuff can sound pretty "cold" and "steril" compared too many other instruments on the market. That's their character though, and I like it. Especially when juxtaposed against one of my hardware analogs or guitar. Nothing brings out the warmth of analog synths and tube amps like the coldness of synths like the NI offerings. I'll also bring up that over the years they have actually started to sound a bit warmer than they did in the beginning.

As for the UI... I've always liked it for the most part, though some parts are a bit confusing and there are still aspects of it that seem very clumsy. Ditto for FM8. They could both use a bit of UX design love. As I'm thinking about it, I think if I were king, I'd take the entire NI product line and come up with a UI/UX design strategy and implement it over the entire catalog. Massive seems to be the only instrument they have that seems to have it's UX act together.

Alternatives to Absynth?