KVR Audio

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 1:31 pm

overhishead wrote:does Sytrus have a resizeable GUI? and if not, why?

No, unfortunately it doesn't.

As to why, you'll have to ask the designer. Shame, because I would have gotten it if I could just read the darn controls.

cron · Post by **cron** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 1:49 pm

Too long to read through the whole thread, but just dropping by the say Harmor is a beast and dropping a few of my own tips in.

The most important one for me is that the Generic and High Precision quality modes seem to be significantly different beasts, rather than one simply being a higher quality version of the other. The Generic algorithm has plenty of tricks up its sleeve, so don't ignore it. One of my favourite tricks with the generic algo is to resynthesize anything, then set the frequency scaling very close to (but not quite) zero. You can get some absolutely ripping bass sounds like this, especially with a touch of modulation on the freq scale knob. The high precision algo doesn't seem to behave in anywhere near the same way when I try this trick.

Another is to take stock of just how many of the modules can have their behaviour shaped. Take the Prism module for example. You can use the Prism module in multiply mode to do octave whammies on individual harmonics in resynthesized audio by drawing its shaper flat with one or two (or as many as you like) peaks/troughs. IIRC you can't quite reach an octave up, but an octave down is trivial. Playing with the Prism shape to bend everything almost to zero can get you into a place where chords become a symphony of differently synced click patterns with a harmonic component. If you play the shaper right and work with the Prism in multiply mode, knob turned to the left (or vice versa depending on which 'direction' you draw the shape).

It's just an endlessly deep synth. Outstanding. Got it in a one-off when Eric from JRR Shop (IIRC) offered a few licenses cheap for the next 3 buyers. So pleased I stumbled across that thread!

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:01 pm

Do you think Harmor should be the first synth to show to the people who are new to production?

Because, well, this is what I saw today.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:14 pm

DJ Warmonger wrote:Do you think Harmor should be the first synth to show to the people who are new to production?

Because, well, this is what I saw today.

Absolutely not. If you're new to sound design this is one of the LAST synths you should touch.

Of course that's just my opinion, so don't shoot the messenger.

Apostate · Post by **Apostate** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:20 pm

wagtunes wrote:
DJ Warmonger wrote:Do you think Harmor should be the first synth to show to the people who are new to production?

Because, well, this is what I saw today.
Absolutely not. If you're new to sound design this is one of the LAST synths you should touch.

Of course that's just my opinion, so don't shoot the messenger.

Agreed. But, as we know, it's also one of the most deliriously inspiring synths, once you get past the learning curve.

Wait, I should mention that I'm not past the learning curve, and I've had it for over six months lol! I learn something new every time I open it, and its power unfolds...

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:32 pm

The problem with people diving into complex synths for their first one is that more often than not, they get discouraged and they probably never attempt sound design with anything else because they think all synths are PITAS. And I'm not talking about the bread either.

My first synth was a Moog 2 OSC thing and that was enough. Two LFOs, a filter and a VCA and I had all I could handle. That was 36 years ago.

A great beginner synth is Charlatan. It sounds great, you can do a lot with it and it's easy as all hell. And not only that, it's free.

Get some sounds out of that or something comparable first and then work your way up to more complex synths.

It took me almost a full 8 hours to finally wrap my head around Wavemapper 2. I'm still not sure how to go about creating user roots and loading them because the demo version doesn't let you save banks. So I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy this thing and then hope I can figure it out. The docs don't help much. And as CM said in it's review, the preset system is convoluted as hell heck. But I think that's because of the map editor architecture. You're essentially loading little programs into one big multi program so your preset system is essentially 2 levels deep. At least that's how it appears. Without being able to create and save my own sounds, I'm guessing at this point.

Anyway, start with something simple and then work your way up to the complex stuff.

kokotte · Post by **kokotte** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 5:58 am

i'm agree with you Wagtunes

D N A · Post by **D N A** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 7:37 am

wagtunes wrote:The problem with people diving into complex synths for their first one is that more often than not, they get discouraged and they probably never attempt sound design with anything else because they think all synths are PITAS. And I'm not talking about the bread either.

My first synth was a Moog 2 OSC thing and that was enough. Two LFOs, a filter and a VCA and I had all I could handle. That was 36 years ago.

A great beginner synth is Charlatan. It sounds great, you can do a lot with it and it's easy as all hell. And not only that, it's free.

Totally agree

I started with ... Novation V-Station. 3 osc, VCA, VCF, LFO, some other basic stuff. Was more than enough to learn synthesis.

basslinemaster · Post by **basslinemaster** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 7:48 am

wagtunes wrote:
overhishead wrote:does Sytrus have a resizeable GUI? and if not, why?
No, unfortunately it doesn't.

As to why, you'll have to ask the designer. Shame, because I would have gotten it if I could just read the darn controls.

If you use FL Studio, you can double the size of Sytrus, and all other native plugins.

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 9:49 am

wagtunes wrote:The problem with people diving into complex synths for their first one is that more often than not, they get discouraged and they probably never attempt sound design with anything else because they think all synths are PITAS. And I'm not talking about the bread either.

My first synth was a Moog 2 OSC thing and that was enough. Two LFOs, a filter and a VCA and I had all I could handle. That was 36 years ago.

...

Simple +1. A very simple substractive synth is the best to start learning synthesis. Then a more complex analog/Va synth to widen synth culture. Then a WaveTable synth. Then an Fm synth and/or an additive synthesizer. Not forgetting samplers/romplers that you can learn directly after having completed the VA or WT synths stage.

After that one should be able to adapt in a flash to any type of synthesizer.

It's important to start with a simple synth, because every knob/slider you move will change the sound in a way so that you can make the relation at once between your action, and the way it affects the sound. On more complex synthesizer, the results might be much more subtle, and therefore difficult to trace for the user, and could even result in nothing happening, or beeing heard ( like in full/semi/modular systems for example), wich might generate a bit of despair for rookies.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 4:39 pm

Harmor is the one PC synth I'd really like to have on the Mac

minx · Post by **minx** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 5:37 pm

pdxindy wrote:Harmor is the one PC synth I'd really like to have on the Mac

They have the Mac vst in alpha at the minute works okay too

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 7:28 pm

minx wrote:
pdxindy wrote:Harmor is the one PC synth I'd really like to have on the Mac
They have the Mac vst in alpha at the minute works okay too

yeah... as soon as it is final and shipping, I'll be getting it

xx JPRacer xx · Post by **xx JPRacer xx** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 10:06 am

overhishead wrote:does Sytrus have a resizeable GUI? and if not, why?

No. Probably because it's a very old synth, when 1024*768 was the norm.

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 10:23 am

I checked and they impressed me

. Harmor has fantastic possibilities for engineering freak like me and is also very different from others synths I have. Definitelly something to look forward to.

If only the GUI was more streamlined... currently it looks very squashed and ImageLine routing is cumbersome.

Harmor = best additive resynthesizer?