KVR Audio

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 3:47 pm

Okay, I admit. I'm a little bumfuzzled. But first some background.

Programming synths for over 36 years. Ran into Ohmforce a couple years back and quite honestly, disregarded all their stuff upon seeing those stupid GUIs. So I never bothered to even test out any of their synths or plugins.

Today, at another forum, I ran into a thread where members were discussing old plugins that they still use. One member brought up the Ohmforce Echoboy, which I also ran into and dismissed for the same reason.

Well, for whatever reason, I went back to their website and saw that two of the synths they make are Minimonsta and Oddity, two synths that I've heard talked about a lot here and with quite some praise.

And that's when Symptom caught my eye again.

Long story short, I listened to some of the demos and even watched one YouTube video where they made a patch from scratch taking two samples. One was a bass loop and the other was a person singing Ohmforce. The resulting patch was king of a funky Clavinet sound.

I never.

The synth is obviously incredibly flexible. There isn't anything that I can imagine it not being able to do, especially with the morphing feature.

So here's the $64,000 question.

Why isn't this a more than suitable replacement for Alchemy? I mean take a look at that nightmare of a thread. You'd think some of these people lost a loved one. I just don't see the synth as being irreplaceable. I think Symptom, just upon initial inspection, is a perfect replacement.

So what am I missing, all you Ohmforce and Alchemy owners? What is it that Alchemy can do that Symptom can't even being to reach?

I'm willing to listen.

In the meantime, I'm seriously considering getting this thing.

Nightpolymath · Post by **Nightpolymath** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:18 pm

Perhaps the answer is in your post - the "stupid GUI"?

spaceman · Post by **spaceman** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:24 pm

Don't they have normal gui alternatives for all their plugs?

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:27 pm

spaceman wrote:Don't they have normal gui alternatives for all their plugs?

Yes, they do and just discovered that today.

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:33 pm

spaceman wrote:Don't they have normal gui alternatives for all their plugs?

Yes. It's the one that looks like a rusty bit of hardware.

wagtunes wrote:So what am I missing, all you Ohmforce and Alchemy owners? What is it that Alchemy can do that Symptom can't even being to reach?

Symptohm is a granular sample manipulator wired up to a filter bank taken from QuadFromage. It doesn't do additive and so it doesn't do additive resynthesis. There is no way to do spectral editing within the synth other than using filters. The granular sound engine in Symptohm I think is very good but it can be difficult to control and the results more unpredictable IMO than with Alchemy.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:38 pm

Gamma-UT wrote:
spaceman wrote:Don't they have normal gui alternatives for all their plugs?
Yes. It's the one that looks like a rusty bit of hardware.

wagtunes wrote:So what am I missing, all you Ohmforce and Alchemy owners? What is it that Alchemy can do that Symptom can't even being to reach?
Symptohm is a granular sample manipulator wired up to a filter bank taken from QuadFromage. It doesn't do additive and so it doesn't do additive resynthesis. There is no way to do spectral editing within the synth other than using filters. The granular sound engine in Symptohm I think is very good but it can be difficult to control and the results more unpredictable IMO than with Alchemy.

Okay, so it's missing additive resynthesis.

Anything else?

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:47 pm

wagtunes wrote:Anything else?

Fix the thread title, it's called SymptOHM

Can Sympthohm load SFZ files?

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:51 pm

Numanoid wrote:
wagtunes wrote:Anything else?
Fix the thread title, it's called SymptOHM

Can Sympthohm load SFZ files?

Thanks. Um, not sure. Haven't gone through all the specs assuming there is a manual to download before I purchase it.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:54 pm

wagtunes wrote:Haven't gone through all the specs

How can you then tell if it can replace Alchemy or not?

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 5:04 pm

Numanoid wrote: Can Sympthohm load SFZ files?

Nope. It loads up to two samples that you can crossfade between. It's not set up for multi-sampling.

robotmonkey · Post by **robotmonkey** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 5:05 pm

Ohmforce effects plugins have completely nice GUI's. I think they call them "classic skins". The plugins themselves are excellent and they have been in my VST folder as long as I can remember. Use them pretty much all the time.

I haven't tried Symptohm though. If I remember correctly it did not have a "classic skin".

edit: They have a free player version of the synth so anyone can download and check it out.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 5:08 pm

Numanoid wrote:
wagtunes wrote:Haven't gone through all the specs
How can you then tell if it can replace Alchemy or not?

I am simply going by the demos I've watched and listened to. And no, I can't tell, thus the reason for the question in this very thread.

From what I've heard, seems to me that this synth can produce just about any sound imaginable.

But if it's a matter of features, workflow or whatever (aside from sound itself) then yeah, I have no clue.

All I know is that from what I've heard, I don't think I'm going to miss not having Alchemy.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 5:09 pm

Gamma-UT wrote:
Numanoid wrote: Can Sympthohm load SFZ files?
Nope. It loads up to two samples that you can crossfade between. It's not set up for multi-sampling.

The granular functions are also very limited compared to Alchemy, plus no real morphing (just cross fade). The patch morphing using the keyswitches is quite nice but lacks the expressive control and non linearity of Alchemy's morph grid. Not to mention the differences in terms of modulation, as well as the aforementioned lack of additive or spectral functionality.

robotmonkey · Post by **robotmonkey** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 5:11 pm

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 5:16 pm

wagtunes wrote:
Well, for whatever reason, I went back to their website and saw that two of the synths they make are Minimonsta and Oddity

Not quite....

Ohmforce Symptohm Puzzlement