I dare to say that some synths relying on old outdated technologies, prone to alisaing and other artifacts, may still sound better at least to some people than newer, technically superior synths.wagtunes wrote:Better quality. Hmmm. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean better representation of a sawtooth wave? Does it mean which has a more accurate or realistic reverb? Does it mean which 24 LP filter is more accurate?egbert101 wrote:I actually learned recently that the ears can't always be trusted. Sometimes the oscilloscopes, analysers and tests are needed to really determine what is better quality.wagtunes wrote: Which sounds best? This is going to sound like a really stupid answer but it's exactly what I would do.
Listen to demos of them both and decide for yourself which you think sounds best.
If somebody asked me which I thought sounded better between Nexus 2 and Avenger I'd say Nexus 2. But I don't own it because it's basically a rompler and I have no interest in a rompler. I want something where I can make my own sounds and sell them if I want.
You may have a completely different opinion.
And that's something you have to decide for yourself.
I mean nobody can tell you what sounds better to YOUR ears.
A lot of people talk about better quality but isn't that still an objective thing? I mean Synth A may have a more accurate representation of a 24 LP filter but that doesn't necessarily mean that John Doe won't like the sound of Synth B better.
All I know is, and this is just my personal preference, I have never bought a synth based on scientific tests. If I like the way a synth sounds to my ears, I buy it. It's really that simple.
But I guess everybody is different.
Nexus 2 vs Avengers sound quality?
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- KVRAF
- 5664 posts since 7 Feb, 2013
You may think you can fly ... but you better not try
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- KVRian
- 1107 posts since 30 Jun, 2015
Yes subjectively is the only thing matter, its not important whats on papper. Music isnt "perfect", imperfect can create a feeling which something thats stiff and perfect which will sound cold instead. Ppl should stop looking at papper and start using their ears. We dont make music for bats or cats anywayegbert101 wrote:I don't know if you meant to say subjective. I mean, objectively speaking, you can test for aliasing, or look at the noise floors of oscillators, and look at the performance of filters, check differences in sample rates, and so on.wagtunes wrote: Better quality. Hmmm. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean better representation of a sawtooth wave? Does it mean which has a more accurate or realistic reverb? Does it mean which 24 LP filter is more accurate?
A lot of people talk about better quality but isn't that still an objective thing? I mean Synth A may have a more accurate representation of a 24 LP filter but that doesn't necessarily mean that John Doe won't like the sound of Synth B better.
All I know is, and this is just my personal preference, I have never bought a synth based on scientific tests. If I like the way a synth sounds to my ears, I buy it. It's really that simple.
But I guess everybody is different.
But our ears might pick up on imperfections and that might make music sound better subjectively, but objectively the opposite. Even our emotions can change the way we percieve things.
I mean, all this has resulted in the debate between analogue and digital for decades, even though objectively speaking, digital is far superior in terms of quality.
- KVRAF
- 22878 posts since 8 Oct, 2014
I'm glad you brought up digital vs analog.egbert101 wrote:I don't know if you meant to say subjective. I mean, objectively speaking, you can test for aliasing, or look at the noise floors of oscillators, and look at the performance of filters, check differences in sample rates, and so on.wagtunes wrote: Better quality. Hmmm. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean better representation of a sawtooth wave? Does it mean which has a more accurate or realistic reverb? Does it mean which 24 LP filter is more accurate?
A lot of people talk about better quality but isn't that still an objective thing? I mean Synth A may have a more accurate representation of a 24 LP filter but that doesn't necessarily mean that John Doe won't like the sound of Synth B better.
All I know is, and this is just my personal preference, I have never bought a synth based on scientific tests. If I like the way a synth sounds to my ears, I buy it. It's really that simple.
But I guess everybody is different.
But our ears might pick up on imperfections and that might make music sound better subjectively, but objectively the opposite. Even our emotions can change the way we percieve things.
I mean, all this has resulted in the debate between analogue and digital for decades, even though objectively speaking, digital is far superior in terms of quality.
I'll take the sound of my old 33 1/3 rpm records for hard rock recordings any day of the week over CDs. What I can do without, unfortunately, is the scratches and wear on the records that forces me to either have to replace them or live with them, not to mention the records that never played right (skipped) for no apparent reason at all.
For me, neither is utopia. But I miss that "not so crystal clear" sound of my old records on the CDs that I bought to replace them.
They're just not the same.
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- KVRAF
- 35671 posts since 11 Apr, 2010 from Germany
Nexus doesn't have a synth engine, does it? And Manuel from Vengeance-Sound wrote that the mostly used hardware synths for his Nexus sounds, stuff like Andromeda A6, Virus and JP-8k IIRC, and some sounds he did with Sylenth1. So, i'd say Nexus rather depends on the sound quality of the recorded material, i'm sure Nexus' sound engine is alright, so, there shouldn't be too much loss for the original sounds.
I would say the two products are pretty different anyway, and there's not much overlap, so, not really too useful to try and compare them.
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- KVRAF
- 10260 posts since 19 Feb, 2004 from Paris
Sure, it's like people copying a book, obtained legally of couse, and selling it under another title, because well ' they can read the files '. It's not stealing somebody elese work, and mind work, it's just innocent and harmless reading. Anyway, a Sound designer works can be stolen, hmmm no 'read', and used anywhere for somebody else profit, it's not as it were a real job, isn't it ?Urs wrote:Lol, that's utter bullshit. Document formats are not copyrighted. If you can figure out how they work, you can create your own and sell them. Just like anyone can create a software that reads those files.lavizh wrote:At least for my own needs, it comes down to two tings, sound quality and custom expansions. it's a major plus that the user can create custom expansions in Avenger, whereas for Nexus 2 it's not something ReFX wants to do. I emailed them and got a clear answer :
So it's super sad and it's a major turnoff for me.Hi,
No, creating your own .nxp files for personal and commercial sale is not permitted.
Regards,
XXX
As for the sound quality i think it was explained rather nicely above. Quality wise they are both good. For me both are nice but Avenger gets an extra plus for creating custom expansions.
It's as absurd as a certain sound designer forbidding presets he did for one synth to be loaded into another synth. It's simply not his call as long as those presets were obtained legally.
I think all Sound Designers present on KVR will 100% agree with you on that.
It's not stealing, it's just hmmmm well, probably something else ( just like reading the files of an U-he synthesizer, duplicating them and selling it .... -oh no wait, this is probably p.racy ...
Unfortunately, in France, something like 'intellectual property' do exist. That's the law
http://www.lelotusbleu.fr Synth Presets
77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there
77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there
- KVRAF
- 3386 posts since 25 Apr, 2011
Ah, but you could record the output of the vinyl and burn it onto a CD. That is the point of digital media, imho. Sure, old, analog media have their charms, but it is far from ideal. I guess it depends heavily on the type of music as well. I'd rather listen to "high end" 24 bit wavs of, let's say Autechre (Exai for instance) then on vinyl (i have both, so i was able to compare it). BUT, the artwork, the whole experience (sitting down, putting down the needle,,,etc...) is much richer with vinyl usually.wagtunes wrote:I'm glad you brought up digital vs analog.egbert101 wrote:I don't know if you meant to say subjective. I mean, objectively speaking, you can test for aliasing, or look at the noise floors of oscillators, and look at the performance of filters, check differences in sample rates, and so on.wagtunes wrote: Better quality. Hmmm. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean better representation of a sawtooth wave? Does it mean which has a more accurate or realistic reverb? Does it mean which 24 LP filter is more accurate?
A lot of people talk about better quality but isn't that still an objective thing? I mean Synth A may have a more accurate representation of a 24 LP filter but that doesn't necessarily mean that John Doe won't like the sound of Synth B better.
All I know is, and this is just my personal preference, I have never bought a synth based on scientific tests. If I like the way a synth sounds to my ears, I buy it. It's really that simple.
But I guess everybody is different.
But our ears might pick up on imperfections and that might make music sound better subjectively, but objectively the opposite. Even our emotions can change the way we percieve things.
I mean, all this has resulted in the debate between analogue and digital for decades, even though objectively speaking, digital is far superior in terms of quality.
I'll take the sound of my old 33 1/3 rpm records for hard rock recordings any day of the week over CDs. What I can do without, unfortunately, is the scratches and wear on the records that forces me to either have to replace them or live with them, not to mention the records that never played right (skipped) for no apparent reason at all.
For me, neither is utopia. But I miss that "not so crystal clear" sound of my old records on the CDs that I bought to replace them.
They're just not the same.
- u-he
- 30186 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
can you even read?Lotuzia wrote:Sure, it's like people copying a book, obtained legally of couse, and selling it under another title, because well ' they can read the files '. It's not stealing somebody elese work, and mind work, it's just innocent and harmless reading. Anyway, a Sound designer works can be stolen, hmmm no 'read', and used anywhere for somebody else profit, it's not as it were a real job, isn't it ?Urs wrote:Lol, that's utter bullshit. Document formats are not copyrighted. If you can figure out how they work, you can create your own and sell them. Just like anyone can create a software that reads those files.lavizh wrote:At least for my own needs, it comes down to two tings, sound quality and custom expansions. it's a major plus that the user can create custom expansions in Avenger, whereas for Nexus 2 it's not something ReFX wants to do. I emailed them and got a clear answer :
So it's super sad and it's a major turnoff for me.Hi,
No, creating your own .nxp files for personal and commercial sale is not permitted.
Regards,
XXX
As for the sound quality i think it was explained rather nicely above. Quality wise they are both good. For me both are nice but Avenger gets an extra plus for creating custom expansions.
It's as absurd as a certain sound designer forbidding presets he did for one synth to be loaded into another synth. It's simply not his call as long as those presets were obtained legally.
I think all Sound Designers present on KVR will 100% agree with you on that.
It's not stealing, it's just hmmmm well, probably something else ( just like reading the files of an U-he synthesizer, duplicating them and selling it .... -oh no wait, this is probably p.racy ...)
Unfortunately, in France, something like 'intellectual property' do exist. That's the law. As I see it, something might to be missing in the equation though. As it's not a stric mathematical item, and my english vocabulary is so poor, I'd simply call it 'ethics', or 'moral'. Ymmv.
What I said was: If you, Lotuzia, make a preset bank for DX-7 you can not stop me, the guy who bought that bank off your shop, from loading it into FM-8.
Don't embarrass yourself by reading things into my post that I have not written.
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- KVRAF
- 10260 posts since 19 Feb, 2004 from Paris
Well, if it's only precisely this, and can be read exclusively like this, then we can agree, except maybe ... if this sound designer ( but I really dont see who it could be, or if he/she exist, or if it's a virtual case) has especially specified it in the Eula ( Wich I would find for myself maybe useless and overly restrictive, and possibly prevent me from buying such a soundset, but well ... ) . I'm btw happy you seem to have given up your 'old' project of pimping presets form each and every synth to incorporate them into other synths so. (Remember this ?
)
http://www.lelotusbleu.fr Synth Presets
77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there
77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there
- KVRAF
- 25849 posts since 20 Jan, 2008 from a star near where you are
- KVRAF
- 3386 posts since 25 Apr, 2011
- u-he
- 30186 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
Don't need to do that. Have enough sound designersLotuzia wrote:Well, if it's only precisely this, and can be read exclusively like this, then we can agree, except maybe ... if this sound designer ( but I really dont see who it could be, or if he/she exist, or if it's a virtual case) has especially specified it in the Eula ( Wich I would find for myself maybe useless and overly restrictive, and possibly prevent me from buying such a soundset, but well ... ) . I'm btw happy you seem to have given up your 'old' project of pimping presets form each and every synth to incorporate them into other synths so. (Remember this ?)
About the license agreement... unfortunately I don't think you are right. There's been a court case about recreating one synthesizer sound in another synthesizer and the outcome was quite clear.
About the particular sound designer, I won't mention names, but it was quite an upsetting chapter in VST history, where in my observation greed and vanity won over legal reality. (it's actually where I had thought to apply that universal patch conversion tool, to help those people use the presets they paid for on their platform of choice)
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- KVRAF
- 5200 posts since 17 Aug, 2004
OMGLotuzia wrote:Well, if it's only precisely this, and can be read exclusively like this, then we can agree, except maybe ... if this sound designer ( but I really dont see who it could be, or if he/she exist, or if it's a virtual case) has especially specified it in the Eula ( Wich I would find for myself maybe useless and overly restrictive, and possibly prevent me from buying such a soundset, but well ... ) . I'm btw happy you seem to have given up your 'old' project of pimping presets form each and every synth to incorporate them into other synths so. (Remember this ?)
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- KVRAF
- 10260 posts since 19 Feb, 2004 from Paris
Courts, and laws, vary according to countries though. I know of many many sound designers,maybe not every one though, and I still can't figure who it can be. But well, I'll respect your 'no name' will, it probably is of few importance anyway.Urs wrote:Don't need to do that. Have enough sound designersLotuzia wrote:Well, if it's only precisely this, and can be read exclusively like this, then we can agree, except maybe ... if this sound designer ( but I really dont see who it could be, or if he/she exist, or if it's a virtual case) has especially specified it in the Eula ( Wich I would find for myself maybe useless and overly restrictive, and possibly prevent me from buying such a soundset, but well ... ) . I'm btw happy you seem to have given up your 'old' project of pimping presets form each and every synth to incorporate them into other synths so. (Remember this ?)
![]()
About the license agreement... unfortunately I don't think you are right. There's been a court case about recreating one synthesizer sound in another synthesizer and the outcome was quite clear.
About the particular sound designer, I won't mention names, but it was quite an upsetting chapter in VST history, where in my observation greed and vanity won over legal reality. (it's actually where I had thought to apply that universal patch conversion tool, to help those people use the presets they paid for on their platform of choice)
http://www.lelotusbleu.fr Synth Presets
77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there
77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there
- u-he
- 30186 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin

