Is the Sylenth 1 still good?

[fluffy_little_something]

Isn't it complement?

Yes you're right, my bad..........

I guess it was Quincy Jones that said that a good pad is a simple pad. And I share that view. Many sounds today are much too complex.

Simple Pads are so 1980's. Simple things amuse simple minds...........

Music is not supposed to amuse me, but to touch me. That is also why modern music basically doesn't play any role in my life, most of it is just irritating crap, and that is not least due to modern synth sounds, which are cold, soulless, exaggerated, tasteless, and exchangeable today.

[chk071]

I'm comparing it to another high end VST. And I contend that if you slipped in Dune 2 in to the mix in place of Sylenth1 for the same song, nobody who just casually listens to music would be able to tell the difference and their enjoyment of the song would be exactly the same.

True, but again, does it matter? If it's not up to your standards of quality, or you feel like you could do better with other plugins, it surely will have an impact on the quality of the track. That holds true in both ways, if you want to do an ambient track with complex textures, and a lot of movement, Dune 2 will be a much better bet than Sylenth1, which is far more limited, and doesn't allow the amount of layering, or usage of wavetables anyway. But for those trancy supersaw plucks, Sylenth1 will, IMO, be the better deal. Also for more "analog" sounds IMO.

[fluffy_little_something]

Where or when do you live? I haven't seen people with boomboxes walking down the street in decades

Nor does it matter whether or not they have any idea of which synths are out there. All that matters is which sound they prefer. If they all sounded the same, it would indeed be irrelevant. But they don't really sound all the same.

And for me as a synth player other aspects such as GUI, workflow, etc. also play a big role.

I didn't say they sound the same. I said the kid couldn't tell the difference nor would he care. All he cares about is the song.

Do you deny that?

The sound as such is also part of the song. Else artists might as well spare themselves the effort and simply record the same songs with a single acoustic guitar.

I have always listened very closely to the way instruments sounded, especially synths. Songs by early Kool and the Gang, the whole Quincy Jones stable, Marvin Gaye, Ivan Lins etc. have played a huge role in shaping my taste of synth sounds. When I hear the synths in Summer Madness it is magic, compared to that everything today is just utter crap.

So if you took a song of today made with Sylenth1 and replaced it with Dune 2 or similar synth, a person listening to that song would be able to tell the difference and would not like the Dune 2 version as much because it's inferior.

Is that what you're suggesting? Because if so, I challenge you on that. I don't think many people, if any at all, would know the difference or care.

Depends on who that person is. Maybe most people today would even prefer the Dune version, who knows.
Also, when you try to make them as close as possible, most people would not hear the differences anyway I suppose. Or some would hear them, but not agree on whether they are good or bad.
For instance I think Diva sounds very different from Sylenth. So I assume that most people who like Diva's sound - and judging from this board there are a lot of them - would not be happy with Sylenth as a substitute.
It also depends on age. People like me who grew up 40 to 30 years ago will have a different taste of synth sounds than young people today. And production was also different.

[Teksonik]

. That is also why modern music basically doesn't play any role in my life, most of it is just irritating crap, and that is not least due to modern synth sounds, which are cold, soulless, exaggerated, tasteless, and exchangeable today.

Well then get your Betamax and Walkman out and please do live firmly in the past.

and that is not least due to modern synth sounds, which are cold, soulless, exaggerated, tasteless, and exchangeable today.

Bullshit....but that's your opinion and you are entitled to it just as you are entitled to be completely wrong....

The synths I own today simply blow away anything I owned in the 80's, 90's, or 2000's up until I discovered computer based synths. Software blows them away in ever facet..........

[goldenanalog]

Maybe I'm just deaf and stupid.

LOL!

That actually made my day - Yeah effing right, wagtunes!

What you may not get sometimes perhaps, like many others here - is that it's really just like this:

I LOVE the taste of avacados, and no one here on God's semi-green earth is going to change my mind. But there are also people on this planet who think that avacados absolutely suck, and would throw up if they were ever forced to eat one.

(2) different people, the *exact* same thing, completely different outcomes.

Opinions, including heated debates on the sonics of audio software, are highly susceptible to personal tastes - I think that it plays into our judgement of things far more then we sometimes realize - of all the analog versus digital wars fought here - have they ever actually changed anybody's mind?

[fluffy_little_something]

. That is also why modern music basically doesn't play any role in my life, most of it is just irritating crap, and that is not least due to modern synth sounds, which are cold, soulless, exaggerated, tasteless, and exchangeable today.

Well then get your Betamax and Walkman out and please do live firmly in the past.

and that is not least due to modern synth sounds, which are cold, soulless, exaggerated, tasteless, and exchangeable today.

Bullshit....but that's your opinion and you are entitled to it just as you are entitled to be completely wrong....

The synths I own today simply blow away anything I owned in the 80's, 90's, or 2000's up until I discovered computer based synths. Software blows them away in ever facet..........

Synths maybe, but not synth sounds (i.e. the way they came across on the finished record), nor their usage. I love a certain synth sound from the past, and Sylenth makes it easy for me to get that sound.

And what do you mean by blow away in the first place? In which sense?

[Teksonik]

I love a certain synth sound from the past, and Sylenth makes it easy for me to get that sound.?

And you can't get that exact sound from any other VSTi ? Because as we all know Sylenth 1 is geared towards emulating ancient synth sounds..........(sarcasm)..........

And what do you mean by blow away in the first place? In which sense?

In every sense.......sort of the exact opposite of your "utter crap" comment.

[Teksonik]

Ok I'm going to go lift weights now. I'll leave the geeky pointless arguments to those with nothing better to do...............

[wagtunes]

@Fluffy

As somebody who also grew up quite some time ago (started writing music in 1979) I can honestly say that synths today in general sound much better than a lot of the stuff back then and well into the 90s. I owned a good chunk of all that stuff so I am speaking from experience.

I never said Sylenth1 sounds bad. In fact, I think it sounds great. I just don't think it's irreplaceable. There are many great sounding synths out there that do similar sounds. No, Diva is not one of them. Diva cannot do Sylenth1 sounds. Not if it stood on its head and whistled Dixie. And if Sylenth1 was the only choice for those sounds, I would own it. But it's not.

Do the other similar sounding synths sound "exactly" like Sylenth1? No, but does it matter? A lot of today's music is very similar sounding. I would love to have a synth list of all the top songs on the charts. I bet the results would shock the hell out of a lot of people.

Point is, there are very few synths that are so unmistakable in their sound that you simply can't use anything else. And the reason for that is the simple fact that when a particular synth is heavily used, the competition is going to come out with something similar to try to capture their own segment of the market. They'll do that with a similar sound of course but also with a different GUI, work flow, FX and most of all architecture. Dune 2, architecturally, blows Sylenth1 out of the water. But so what? In the end, it's what it sounds like.

But...for some people, that architecture matters. That you can program each individual voice of the 8 matters. Does that make Dune 2 sound that much different (notice I didn't say better) than Sylenth1? Depends on the patch. Sylenth1 has no wavetables so right there that's something it would have a difficult time reproducing.

Right now I'm doing a library for Spectral. No way would I put it up against Sylenth1 as far as supersaw sounds. It just can't cut it. But it can do other things Sylenth1 can't do. it's why I don't own just one synth.

The problem with Sylenth1, and the reason I don't own it, is because what it does isn't so unusual. Because of the sound of today's music in general (supersaw dominance) there are plenty of synths that can fill the role and I have at least one of them.

It's the same thing with Wavetable synths. How many do you really need? How many VA synths do you really need?

Truthfully, I think the majority of us (myself included) own too many synths that are redundant. I can name at least 10 off the top of my head that I probably didn't need, namely Blue 2 and A.N.A. They sound fine but they really don't give me anything that I can't get from other synths.

Same with Diva, Monark, Mini V and so on. How many Mini Moog synths do you need?

But this stuff is so cheap and we have so much disposable income that we go, what the heck, and just buy another one. I can't afford that luxury anymore so i have to be very particular about what synths I get from now on.

Sylenth1 just isn't anything new.

In fact, it's about the oldest kid on the block.

[fluffy_little_something]

I love a certain synth sound from the past, and Sylenth makes it easy for me to get that sound.?

And you can't get that exact sound from any other VSTi ? Because as we all know Sylenth 1 is geared towards emulating ancient synth sounds..........(sarcasm)..........

And what do you mean by blow away in the first place? In which sense?

In every sense.......sort of the exact opposite of your "utter crap" comment.

I might get them out of other synths as well, sure. Although not as easily and not with as little CPU power.

Something like Dune2 is of course more versatile, but when I only use the VA part and only one or two layers anyway, Sylenth is the better choice in my view.

[pdxindy]

At least it still evokes emotions, some love it, some hate it

Just like with any synth.

I don't love or hate Sylenth... I came close to buying it a few times... had the demo installed for years. There are a few sounds it makes that are just gorgeous, but then others I didn't particularly like and it is so feature limited that I knew it would be a playground too small to satisfy me.

Frankly, whether or not Sylenth sounds good depends a lot on the programmer's skills.
What it does, it does well, and for the things it doesn't do, get something else

There's just not that much it does well.

I don't like how the drive/distortion sounds in Sylenth. It has an unpleasant character to it. Can't escape it.

[pdxindy]

I have always loved this Sylenth track, actually it was what got me interested in it in the first place. Without that short track I would not even have demoed it.

Pretty tune... I also like it... However, when I listen to it to judge the synths sounds, they sound kinda meh... like a 10 year old low cpu synth. The quality of new synths today has raised the bar considerably.

[mutantdog]

I'm not sure general opinion is worth all that much, I've watched a lot of these CM & FM producer videos and come to realise that, with a few notable exceptions, a lot of the professional producer/DJ types actually aren't that deep into synthesis or sound design. They may know how to craft a dancefloor hit but they appear far less familiar with the technical principles of the instruments they use, an accessible and simple synth with loads of genre-orientated presets is obviously gonna be a winner. I doubt many of them tend to spend a lot of time on gear forums like this either, or have much interest in trying out loads of new plugins, learning new instruments, general GAS etc. Probably many of them are unaware of the shear amount of options out there.

I get that Sylenth has its own sound, not quite the same as Hive, Spire, Dune etc. I also understand why many people here rate it so highly in light of all the other options. There is a lot to be said for the inspiration that comes from the instrument itself, i have many synths that i could probably get rid of because i have Zebra2, but they all inspire me in their own way. Getting to know each synth in detail is often the most fun part for me, the choice of instruments i use in a track is based largely on what i feel like using at the time, and i get bored of using the same one or two repeatedly.


edit: was kinda responding some earlier posts but can't be arsed to find and quote them, not that it really matters much anyway.

[pdxindy]

What you may not get sometimes perhaps, like many others here - is that it's really just like this:

I LOVE the taste of avacados, and no one here on God's semi-green earth is going to change my mind. But there are also people on this planet who think that avacados absolutely suck, and would throw up if they were ever forced to eat one.

If only it were that... It's I love avocados (even though I secretly don't) because some famous person said they love avocados.

[chk071]

What you may not get sometimes perhaps, like many others here - is that it's really just like this:

I LOVE the taste of avacados, and no one here on God's semi-green earth is going to change my mind. But there are also people on this planet who think that avacados absolutely suck, and would throw up if they were ever forced to eat one.

If only it were that... It's I love avocados (even though I secretly don't) because some famous person said they love avocados.

Well, that doesn't hold true for all the other famous persons who said they love avocados too.