KVR Audio

Elektronisch · Post by **Elektronisch** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 3:57 pm

Hive is great, definatly worth to have it. It doesnt take much of CPU on a modern computer, futhermore it has a sound of its own. When you play it does feel like you play an instrument. The sound just feels "real", lush. It may not be like sylenth1, but its because its just better. More like Sylenth on steroids or Sylenth version of today.

Trancit · Post by **Trancit** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:07 pm

Suloo wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:Hive uses more CPU than Sylenth as well, despite U-he's claims to the contrary...

any proove?

I noticed here the same... even with simple unison sounds, Hive use quite a lot more the CPU than Sylenth on my side...
As well, I have to agree soundwise... Hive doesn´t sound as good as Sylenth and it needs a lot of tweaking to let it sound good, while this is where Sylenth excels... nearly regardless what you do, it sounds good from the first moment...

Third, I don´t find Hive more flexible... there are some features more, ok... but it is nevertheless "just" 2 Oscillator synth against Sylenth 4 full featured ones...
Hive´s Subs doesn´t offer (for me) enough flexibilties and to be honest, when I open the GUI I feel like I am on a heavy trip of best drugs available... I can´t stand this, sorry

Trancit · Post by **Trancit** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:10 pm

themachinelt wrote:... It may not be like sylenth1, but its because its just better. More like Sylenth on steroids or Sylenth version of today.

Tastes are so different...

For me, Hive is another failed attempt to reach a very genius instrument... genius in terms of how everything is working/programmed/invented under the hood...

fluffy_little_something · Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:11 pm

I don't agree. Of course it has many features Sylenth is missing, but soundwise it is really a matter of taste, not quality. And I definitely prefer Sylenth, and I am not the only one. I didn't find Hive more lush at all, in fact it sounded weaker and fuzzier to me, more like Ultra Analog. It did not have the fine shimmer that Sylenth has.

They have a rather different sound character, despite those ridiculous threads on Hive being a Sylenth killer etc. If you prefer one's sound, you will not be so happy with the other, and vice versa.

fluffy_little_something · Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:15 pm

Trancit wrote:
Suloo wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:Hive uses more CPU than Sylenth as well, despite U-he's claims to the contrary...

any proove?
I noticed here the same... even with simple unison sounds, Hive use quite a lot more the CPU than Sylenth on my side...
As well, I have to agree soundwise... Hive doesn´t sound as good as Sylenth and it needs a lot of tweaking to let it sound good, while this is where Sylenth excels... nearly regardless what you do, it sounds good from the first moment...

Third, I don´t find Hive more flexible... there are some features more, ok... but it is nevertheless "just" 2 Oscillator synth against Sylenth 4 full featured ones...
Hive´s Subs doesn´t offer (for me) enough flexibilties and to be honest, when I open the GUI I feel like I am on a heavy trip of best drugs available... I can´t stand this, sorry

Yes, Hive looks very modern, a bit gloomy, reminded me of some apocalyptic video games

And labels were small and hard to read (like on all U-he synths), given the huge GUI... Sylenth looks friendly

Although Hive is also a more basic, subtractive synth, it is almost a bit too complex for what it does. I simply did not enjoy using it, while in Sylenth I am still making a whole lot of patches, which is a sign that I am comfortable with it.

Moarphine · Post by **Moarphine** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:18 pm

Hey Shon,

Here is a list of commercial sound banks, I usually review what the pro sound designers can get from a synth.

https://www.u-he.com/PatchLib/commercial.html

And here is the demo video from the first one (don't know how to embed).

I recently demoed Spire, Lush 101, Bassline, Lush and Sylenth up against Hive. I preferred the Sound of Spire over them all, but was appalled at all the bugs and decided I'd rather let it mature. My favorite Synth is Poizone of all things so instantly fell in love with Lush 101, which I see as its older, hungrier brother. Hive is in this awkward grey area. It doesn't have an analogue sound to my ears, but I disagree about it sounding 'cold' or 'metallic'. Serum sounds noticeably bright and metallic to me, the FX in Sylenth1 sound metallic and grating to me. Hive sounds default, neither here nor there, but you can always add a little saturation or turn on the 'dirty' setting. But,

Always important to remember that 'in the mix' does it even matter? Once you've EQ'd it, compressed it, added whatever effect you need, lowered the volume, have it panned off center etc etc, who the hell will tell? Hive never suited my work style, something about the gui turned me off, so I never programmed for it. Nothing to do with its sound!

shonoob · Post by **shonoob** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 6:10 pm

holy cow, so many responses!! Thanks guys, i am about to head out but will read shortly

fluffy_little_something · Mon Dec 14, 2015 6:29 pm

Since you already bought it, maybe you should simply go and play around with it instead of listening to other people's biased opinions

Jax Pok · Post by **Jax Pok** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 6:55 pm

Urs said Hive uses about the same or less CPU for the same presets.

Hive has twice the voices of Sylenth when unison is set to 16 and it uses analog emulated set of filters. So it's bound to use more CPU when everything is on.

For Supersaws I prefair DIVA.

fluffy_little_something · Mon Dec 14, 2015 7:04 pm

It was not when comparing "unison" patches with unequal wave count.
Certainly not in my case as I never use more than 3 or 4 waves per osc.

kurodo · Post by **kurodo** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 7:21 pm

fluffy_little_something wrote:
I simply did not enjoy using it, while in Sylenth I am still making a whole lot of patches, which is a sign that I am comfortable with it.

Likewise those who enjoy the Hive experience will most likely say the same about Hive.
Both Sylenth and Hive offer good sound design potential.

I wish Hive had taken Sylenth to a new level, at the very least offering additional Waveforms on the very first release but hey it wasn't so long ago a 64bit Sylenth seemed beyond reach.
Fair to say at that point Hive was the fastest route to a Sylenth alternative.

As things stand both Synths are outstanding although personally speaking I prefer Sylenth, having four unique parts gives it a the slight edge imo.
I think Lennard created a true masterpiece which was well ahead of its time.

Cyoon · Post by **Cyoon** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 7:35 pm

juging by the development pace it think its much more to be expected by u-he then Lennard, considering the last years of silence about sylenth development.

shonoob · Post by **shonoob** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 11:14 pm

fluffy_little_something wrote:Since you already bought it, maybe you should simply go and play around with it instead of listening to other people's biased opinions

And I intend to, lol this thread was really quite quick and random. I thought it wouldn't hurt to throw this thread out there before I got around to finally using it myself

shonoob · Post by **shonoob** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 11:18 pm

Moarphine wrote: I recently demoed Spire, Lush 101, Bassline, Lush and Sylenth up against Hive. I preferred the Sound of Spire over them all, but was appalled at all the bugs and decided I'd rather let it mature. My favorite Synth is Poizone of all things so instantly fell in love with Lush 101, which I see as its older, hungrier brother. Hive is in this awkward grey area. It doesn't have an analogue sound to my ears, but I disagree about it sounding 'cold' or 'metallic'. Serum sounds noticeably bright and metallic to me, the FX in Sylenth1 sound metallic and grating to me. Hive sounds default, neither here nor there, but you can always add a little saturation or turn on the 'dirty' setting. But,

Always important to remember that 'in the mix' does it even matter? Once you've EQ'd it, compressed it, added whatever effect you need, lowered the volume, have it panned off center etc etc, who the hell will tell? Hive never suited my work style, something about the gui turned me off, so I never programmed for it. Nothing to do with its sound!

Thanks for the patches, I'll check them out!! I find it interesting that you put Hive in a grey area between the other synths, I will have to see what you mean by that. I agree with you when you say Serum sounds bright and metallic, I felt the same at first, but after learning how to tweak it I found that it is capable of amazing warm sounds too.

Thanks again mate! I hope you are enjoying LuSH-101!

garryknight · Post by **garryknight** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 12:06 am

I'm another person who owns both Sylenth1 and Hive and I like both of them. No, they don't sound the same but they're both great for making EDM. As an example of Hive's capabilities as a trance synth, have a listen to Aiyn Zahev Sounds' Elevation patches, especially the plucks and pads.

And both are extremely easy to program, but Hive has a slight upper hand here in the form of the drop-down presets at the top-left of each section (the downward-pointing arrows). They give you presets for the oscillators, the filters, LFOs, amp and mod envelopes, and even the modulation matrices.

So you can choose, say, Digitana for Osc 1, Hard Glass for Osc 2, HP Float for Filter 1, Random Roller for LFO 1, Plucked String for Amp 1, and Vibrato via MW in mod matrix 1, and you've quickly and easily got a new sound that might have taken an hour or so to create from scratch.

And when you count up the items in each drop-down list and multiply them all together, you'll see that there are a huge number of sounds you can get just by using these presets, even if you haven't yet learnt how to program oscillators, LFOs, envelopes, etc, by hand. Even the effects and sequencer have presets.

Anyone here use Hive?