9 year old Sylenth1 just keeps kickin

[wagtunes]

If the price is so much of an issue for you, would you buy TAL's U-NO-LX, which is a whole lot less flexible than S1, yet costs 60 dollars?

All my TAL plugins were free. I wasn't aware that the U-NO was now a paid plug. When I got it, it cost nothing. Had it not, no, I would not have purchased it. It is not worth $60 IMO.

** EDIT ** I just checked. You better look at my list again. I do not have the LX. I have the TAL-U-No-62

[fluffy_little_something]

If the price is so much of an issue for you, would you buy TAL's U-NO-LX, which is a whole lot less flexible than S1, yet costs 60 dollars?

All my TAL plugins were free. I wasn't aware that the U-NO was now a paid plug. When I got it, it cost nothing. Had it not, no, I would not have purchased it. It is not worth $60 IMO.

** EDIT ** I just checked. You better look at my list again. I do not have the LX. I have the TAL-U-No-62

Why would I look at your list?! I never said you had it. It was a simple question...

[2ZrgE]

If the price is so much of an issue for you, would you buy TAL's U-NO-LX, which is a whole lot less flexible than S1, yet costs 60 dollars?

All my TAL plugins were free. I wasn't aware that the U-NO was now a paid plug. When I got it, it cost nothing. Had it not, no, I would not have purchased it. It is not worth $60 IMO.

** EDIT ** I just checked. You better look at my list again. I do not have the LX. I have the TAL-U-No-62

This really great emulation of one of the best sounding synths ever made is not worth 60 bucks? Around 60 bucks is the amount of money I spent the last time dining out in a restaurant, and that was a one-time-nice-evening-fun. With the Uno I'll having fun the next couple of years.

Problem with Sylenth is not it's price, but the fact that the developers haven't done anything substantial to improve their product over the years, and that's a real shame. Not the tiniest thing I can remember besides some bug fixing. Why can't they do what U-he can?

They even aren't willing to add some new presets to their long promised update.

What ever they say in their forum, for me they leave the impression that they really don't care at all about their target group (and their customers).

[fluffy_little_something]

When you say some bugfixes, does that mean there still are bugs in it? I have not encountered any so far. Well, maybe one, but I am not sure if it S1's or my DAW's fault.

Why would they add new presets when there are already hundreds included, not to mention all the sound sets out there?

U-he is a real company, whereas LD seems more like a one-man show, not even dedicated to their product anymore. When you don't have employees who depend on you, there is no need to improve your product if you don't feel like it or have another source of income.

[wagtunes]

If the price is so much of an issue for you, would you buy TAL's U-NO-LX, which is a whole lot less flexible than S1, yet costs 60 dollars?

All my TAL plugins were free. I wasn't aware that the U-NO was now a paid plug. When I got it, it cost nothing. Had it not, no, I would not have purchased it. It is not worth $60 IMO.

** EDIT ** I just checked. You better look at my list again. I do not have the LX. I have the TAL-U-No-62

Why would I look at your list?! I never said you had it. It was a simple question...

Then why would you ask me about a plugin that I don't even own? I have the 62 (free) not the LX (not free). No, I don't think the LX is worth $60.

Look, let me put this into a picture that maybe you can understand.

Everything in this world has a price and a value we attach to that price. If we believe that the value that we get from the price that we pay is worth the money, we pay it. If we don't think so, we don't pay it.

How do we arrive at these conclusions? Usually by the competition if there is competition. In some cases, there is not and you're pretty much forced to pay what the company is asking for or you do without it. Clear enough? I think we can all agree with this so far.

Okay, so what do we have?

We have Sylenth1 which is a 9 year old plugin that costs (US dollars) $158. That's a fact. Unless there is some kind of sale, that's what you will have to pay for Sylenth1 unless you download a cracked version, which I will not do, or it's on sale.

Okay, what are my other options that can fill the role of Sylenth1? This doesn't mean that the other synth has to sound exactly the same. Obviously it won't. All synths sound different. I think we can agree on that much. I'm talking about synths that can make similar sounds with a fair amount of ease and fill the same role.

Here is the list of synths that I have that I feel CAN fill the same role as Sylenth1 and the prices I paid for them. Yes, some of these I got on sale. I addition, a brief comment on the synth itself. I don't want to go into crazy detail on all these or I'll be here all day. This list is in alphabetical order.

Analog Noise Attack (Sonic Academy) $80 - Fine sounding synth. Appears to be similar in features to Sylenth1 but a little more to it.

Blue II (Rob Papen) $107 - Yes, got it on sale. Regularly it's only $21 more than Sylenth1. Blows it away in every category. Sound and flexibility. They aren't even close.

Electra 2 (Tone 2) $199 - Yes, $41 more than Sylenth1. Sound and functionality put this synth in another class. Again, not even close.

MPowerSynth (Melda Production) $88 - Yes, another one I got for half off. Regularly, only $18 more than Sylenth1. Again, sound and flexibility blow it out of the water.

Rayblaster 2 (Tone 2) $189 - Similar to Electra 2. Very unique sound. Only $31 more than Sylenth and blows it away in every area.

Synthmaster (KV331 Audio) $60 - I don't remember what the regular sale price was but even at half off this is only $120 synth. It's $38 less than Sylenth1 at worst and you can't even compare the two in sound and flexibility.

Zebra 2 (U-He) $199 - $41 more than Sylenth1 and I paid full price. Worth every penny. Might be the most flexible synth I own outside of my modulars which I didn't even list because it wouldn't be fair. And THEY all cost me under $100 each and they blow away everything else that I own.

With this collection and what I paid for synths that are leagues ahead of Sylenth1 in features and sound, and what I paid for them, why on Earth would I pay $158 for a substandard synth?

Why is this SO hard to understand?

By TODAY'S standards, Sylenth1 is NOT a $158 synth. You can dress it up anyway you want. It is not worth that kind of money.

Based on what I own, what I paid for it and what it can do, Sylenth1 is a $99 synth at best. Heck, one person here who is arguing with me over this even ADMITTED that the synth is overpriced.

So what in God's name are we arguing about?

Sylenth1 is NOT WORTH $158. PERIOD.

[Harry_HH]

... Why can't they do what U-he can? ?..

Obviously they can do something even better. I guess all developers have their strengths and weaknesses.

[fluffy_little_something]

It's quite obvious why I asked. You keep saying S1 is not flexible enough for the price, which in my view also applies to the U-NO-LX (of which I happened to think because I saw a thread on it)...

What I don't quite get is why you spend so much time in this thread saying how overpriced S1 is when you have already spend 10k on your gear and have zillions of other synths... It's not that anyone is trying to force you to buy S1 and you have to defend yourself for not doing so

[chk071]

Sylenth1 is NOT WORTH $158 IN MY HUMBLE OPINION. PERIOD.

FTFY.

[Nightpolymath]

Sylenth1 is NOT WORTH $158 IN MY HUMBLE OPINION. PERIOD.

FTFY.

Does he have anything to be humble about?

[wagtunes]

Sylenth1 is NOT WORTH $158 IN MY HUMBLE OPINION. PERIOD.

FTFY.

Fine. You spend $158 on Sylenth1 and I'll spend my money on synths that do more and cost less or about the same.

But I can assure you, if a synth costs more than Sylenth1 it better do a whole lot more than Synlenth1. And all mine do.


THAT'S my criteria. THAT'S what works for ME.

YMMV.

[chk071]

Fair enough. I wouldn't buy Sylenth1 for its features, but for the sound. And I bet that's valid for most people buying it.

Btw, we're running in circles here, as we're discussing very subjective stuff.

[fluffy_little_something]

Flexibility is not the only aspect. Some GUI's for instance just don't make me want to use a synth. SynthMaster for instance, no matter how flexible and affordable it is, I just didn't like its GUI, which was enough for me not to get it.

[Harry_HH]

Fair enough. I wouldn't buy Sylenth1 for its features, but for the sound. And I bet that's valid for most people buying it.

Exactly. But some people prefer good sounds, some like to keep them busy by fiddling their mandolins. Let the all flowers grow!

[wagtunes]

Flexibility is not the only aspect. Some GUI's for instance just don't make me want to use a synth. SynthMaster for instance, no matter how flexible and affordable it is, I just didn't like its GUI, which was enough for me not to get it.

And you know what? That is a fair evaluation. I absolutely detest the GUIs of most of the Arturia V collection. The SEM is fine, but most of the others you need a magnifying glass to read. Had I not gotten the collection for a song, I probably would not have purchased it. But again, for the money I paid and what I was getting, it was worth it. But barely.

Same with the Korg Legacy collection which i got dirt cheap. The MS 20 alone was worth it. But the GUIs on some of those synths are horrible. Again, the price was low enough to justify the purchase.

If Sylenth1 was on sale for half off, like a lot of other synth developers seem to do, I'd have to today. That synth is absolutely worth $80 if all I ever use are the presets. It would fit into an upcoming top 40 project I'm working on as the sounds are just right.

But I'm not paying $158 for those sounds. It's worth it to me time wise to just take the time to program one of my other synths to get those sounds.

One day LD is going to realize that it's pricing itself out of the market (unless it just doesn't care) and lower its prices.

[chk071]

[
If Sylenth1 was on sale for half off, like a lot of other synth developers seem to do, I'd have to today. That synth is absolutely worth $80 if all I ever use are the presets.

Tbh, i totally agree with you there that that would be a fair price. I bought it used for about the same price. I think, generally synth plugins are overpriced, and they should be rather 99 than 169€. On the other hand, if you were Lennard, and you'd know that people are pretty stoked on Sylenth1, wouldn't you take the same? If you were Apple, and you'd know people also want a bit of luxury, and something "Special" when they buy their product, wouldn't you take the price they do too? I must admit i think Lennard is not really a very good business man. I mean, if i'd see that my product is being pirated much, i'd surely take countermeasures quickly. And maybe lower the price too, if i see that sales are fading for what reason ever. Instead, he doesn't change the price, pisses off a lot of Mac users, even power users like very famous producers, and doesn't do a 64-bit AU version for 5 or 6 years now. Not very bright on the business side the guys. But then, they got to know.