ANA 2 or Serum

[cron]

Alright that Serum became a signature vst for EDM and highly acclaimed.

But!!

1. ANA 1 & 2 bundle costs less than single Serum
2. Rapid costs almost the same
3. Avenger

All of above are much more advanced and capable to do many stuff that Serum can't do and they are either less in price or the same.

IMO, Serum is a very over estimated vst, don't get me wrong, it sounds good, but compared to its price, it's not the go-to vst, if it will be $100 then okay.

I sort of agree here. I grabbed it at the intro price ($129?)

There are some severe limitations in the way it handles wavetables (no 'proper' interpolation between frames) and only having one filter (thus lack of parallel/split filtering - you can do serial using the filter in the FX section) is an annoyance. I rarely get good results from the wavetable import either. Lots of phase drift even on 'easy' material, while the so-called FFT import seems to just split the audio into chunks of (x) samples with no additional processing/overlap etc.

It's also one of my favourite synths of all time. They really nailed the workflow so getting from sound in your head to sound in Serum is faster than any other synth I know. I can't speak for ANA 2 as I've never used it, but if you demo Serum, concentrate on the workflow as much as the sound. Despite its foibles, it's an absolute joy to use.

[Apratim]

I would say serum if compared both of them

Reasons being the huge amount of filter shapes
Insane wavetable editor function
And the clarity of audio

But sadly I a currently using sytrus(after imageline removed the bug of the GUI in reaper) and God do I love it don't know why but I am loving it

[Examigan]

I don't have Serum, but I do have ANA2 and I really like it.

[phreaque]

I would say serum if compared both of them

Reasons being the huge amount of filter shapes
Insane wavetable editor function
And the clarity of audio

But sadly I a currently using sytrus(after imageline removed the bug of the GUI in reaper) and God do I love it don't know why but I am loving it

True, wanted to mention Sytrus but thought it would annoy some people here.. For me I used it to create organic sounds, basses can't be replicated using other synth btw. So it's really unique, and btw, there's a trick to make it possible to simulate wavetable in Sytrus.

[mholloway]

There are some severe limitations in the way it handles wavetables (no 'proper' interpolation between frames) and only having one filter (thus lack of parallel/split filtering - you can do serial using the filter in the FX section) is an annoyance. I rarely get good results from the wavetable import either. Lots of phase drift even on 'easy' material, while the so-called FFT import seems to just split the audio into chunks of (x) samples with no additional processing/overlap etc.

I actually think Serum's biggest weakness of all isn't any of the above, but rather the simple fact that all four sound generators (2 oscs, sub osc, noise) have their amplitude controlled by Envelope 1 no matter what, and it can't be changed.

You can do deep sound design in it, for sure (just look at Simon Stockhausen's patches on Patchpool, yikes!) but the ability to de-couple Env1 from the amp of EVERYTHING would be hugely useful. It's really quite surprising it has this limitation. There's two oscs and 3 envelopes, but I can't have the other 2 envs split up to control amp on the second osc? huh?

And yeah, for those who want to chime in and say "but you can map Env 2 or 3 to the Level of Osc 2..." yes, I KNOW, but it doesn't matter, because their output will STILL get shaped by the shape of Envelope 1, which will be problematic if you have long releases (you'd have to match the release on Env 1) or want totally separate (amp-mod based) destinations for the Envs (simply not possible, everything goes through Env1 !!)

So yeah, not ideal. I still absolutely love it. One filter is actually plenty for me, synths with more than one start to make me feel lost And besides, that one filter has BP, Notch, etc, so you can do a lot of the things you'd be doing with a two filter setup anyway...

-M

[cron]

There are some severe limitations in the way it handles wavetables (no 'proper' interpolation between frames) and only having one filter (thus lack of parallel/split filtering - you can do serial using the filter in the FX section) is an annoyance. I rarely get good results from the wavetable import either. Lots of phase drift even on 'easy' material, while the so-called FFT import seems to just split the audio into chunks of (x) samples with no additional processing/overlap etc.

I actually think Serum's biggest weakness of all isn't any of the above, but rather the simple fact that all four sound generators (2 oscs, sub osc, noise) have their amplitude controlled by Envelope 1 no matter what, and it can't be changed.

My word, I'd never even noticed this. I suppose I never try to do complex evolving sounds with Serum due to the wavetable interpolation shortcomings, so it's not something I'd stumbled across.

I think it's things like this that give it the reputation of being an 'EDM' synth. You probably aren't going to run into most of these limitations in that particular use case so you can drop your sick hair-metal growls unhindered.

[chk071]

I must admit i have no idea about Serum really. What exactly do you mean that Serum doesn't "properly interpolate between frames"? Does it differ to, say, the Waldorf synths in terms of how the frames or wave morph into each other?

[cron]

I must admit i have no idea about Serum really. What exactly do you mean that Serum doesn't "properly interpolate between frames"? Does it differ to, say, the Waldorf synths in terms of how the frames or wave morph into each other?

There are no 'in-between' frames in Serum's wavetables. Just 256 hard steps. The wavetable editor expects you to build your smoothing 'into' the wavetable, which limits the number of timbres you can pack into one table because you need to leave space for the smoothing. You can have maybe 3 or so frames of the timbres you want, then you need to use the remaining 253 frames to generate the 'inbetween' interpolations. If your table is too complex or there's not enough smoothing, you get stepping artifacts when you modulate the wavetable position slowly, and noisy artifacts when you modulate it quickly. I do find it quite amusing that Xfer have a spectral analysis graph on their site and talk about how clean the oscs are when static, because those pristine graphs and ultra-low noise floor go to shit as soon as you start modulating the wavetable position, and modulating the wavetable position is kind of the point of wavetable synthesis.

Asked in the forums and Steve has no plans to implement smoothing at the oscillator level. It's a flawed synth for sure, but the workflow is just wonderful and it's still one of my all-time favourites. It's just something to be aware of if you're more into the 'ambient journey' end of wavetable synthesis rather than the 'dubstep growl' end. I appreciate that I'm coming across as slating it, but it really is a fantastic synth despite its quirks. It's just not going to be your only wavetable synth.

[chk071]

Wow, that's a big disadvantage indeed, i had no idea about that. What's the point in having so many frames then anyway, when you have to build your own transitions? For morphing sounds, you will waste a lot of those. Thanks for explaining. I was under the impression more or less every wavetable synth has the kind of morphing the Waldorf synths have. It's IMO an absolutely essential feature.

[pdxindy]

I must admit i have no idea about Serum really. What exactly do you mean that Serum doesn't "properly interpolate between frames"? Does it differ to, say, the Waldorf synths in terms of how the frames or wave morph into each other?

There is no fade between waves... just hard transitions.

[Distorted Horizon]

This has been mentioned earlier but Synthmaster.. Synthmaster.. Synthmaster..

Synthmaster..

And/or Synthmaster One.

SM One being wavetable synth and SM has wavetable oscillator as an option. Only downside is that you don't get visual feedback from the wavetable, if you scan through the wavetable with LFO. Wiggle with hand/automate and you see it but internal modulators don't give that.

Anyways, IMO you should grab one of these or both. SM can be a bit overwhelming until you get familiar with it, and SM One is fast n easy to use. Plus they're pretty cheap. Some summersale or similar plus coupon and you get them for almost free, considering what they deliver.

[Distorted Horizon]

[pdxindy]

Asked in the forums and Steve has no plans to implement smoothing at the oscillator level. It's a flawed synth for sure, but the workflow is just wonderful and it's still one of my all-time favourites. It's just something to be aware of if you're more into the 'ambient journey' end of wavetable synthesis rather than the 'dubstep growl' end. I appreciate that I'm coming across as slating it, but it really is a fantastic synth despite its quirks. It's just not going to be your only wavetable synth.

The workflow is not so much to my liking. For such a simple synth, there is just too much tabbing.

A few other things... Serum doesn't support breath controller, or expression pedal and no MPE support.

[kokotte]

rapid and icarus have some really good wt transition, fade between waves, serum, with 32 waves plus xfade is nice too. rapid is really smooth, ana2 is really hard, but you can import more than 256 waves, 1024 if i remember and it can become smoother. Mux have some nice wt capacity too.

[hamayame]

This has been mentioned earlier but Synthmaster.. Synthmaster.. Synthmaster..

Synthmaster..

And/or Synthmaster One.

SM One being wavetable synth and SM has wavetable oscillator as an option. Only downside is that you don't get visual feedback from the wavetable, if you scan through the wavetable with LFO. Wiggle with hand/automate and you see it but internal modulators don't give that.

Anyways, IMO you should grab one of these or both. SM can be a bit overwhelming until you get familiar with it, and SM One is fast n easy to use. Plus they're pretty cheap. Some summersale or similar plus coupon and you get them for almost free, considering what they deliver.

For Trance.. I would say Synthmaster 2.9 is good for pad and effects, Synthmaster One good for main mono lead. I can say this because I use this two synth for almost all of my track, it's what they really good at IMO. For supersaws, this two can't get the right vibes of a supersaw Trance would sound.