New wavetable synth - Sektor by Initial Audio

[Distorted Horizon]

As interesting this seems.. Hard to justify it since I already have more than enough wavetable synths..

But downloading the demo only takes 5 minutes so guess I'll give it a spin

How this is different from the current ones available (ie Serum, Icarus, KV331..)?

[dune_rave]

Ok, demoed it, It's like Sylenth1 with wavetables + better gui.
Its wavetables are quite musical to me.

[ATS]

I demoed it, sounded more like a toy to me compared some other big name synths.

[dune_rave]

I also have some criticism:
- when installing demo i had to select only one folder, and later In my plugins list I saw 2 Sektor and didn't know which one is 32bit and 64bit. Of course It can be my fault...
-In many presets I liked there's a sample loaded that creates the main sound..

[Megawattt]

I demoed it, sounded more like a toy to me compared some other big name synths.

Greetings ATS.

With respect i have to defend Initial Audio, to say that Sektor is more like a toy is harsh, why do you think it sounds like a toy ? in my humble opinion the sounds that Sektor provide are of professional high quality and are very musical and usable, it is a product with a different character to the "big name" synths which rightfully gives it a place in the marketplace by adding a different flavour to the musical pallette, i am not a fanboy but i can easily see Sektor in the mix of my own productions and i have to humbly say that it will cause some sonic damage (By the way i produce Dub music which as you know is the heaviest music genre on this planet)

[recursive one]

Actually I sort of like it but not enough to buy right away. Nice unison, it sounds thick and smooth by default, probably by setting the unison parameters individually per voise it is possible to make even sweeter tones. The FM sounds very good, perfect for the "psytrance FM" sounds I'm obsessed with. Not sure about the filter, seems to be a very basic digital sounding one, however it is possible to make some nice sweeps keeping the resonance at moderate amounts. The FX are so-so, the phaser and the chorus are ok, the distortion sounds very weak.

The included WT selection is nice (I guess, I know where the "Sector TI" wavetables come from, they sound very familiar to me )

Where is the oscillator finetuning? I can only detune the unison voices but what if I want to slightly detune the second osc against the first one?

The synth needs a limiter as it clips easily, even some of the factory presets do.

The sequencer doesn't seem to have velocity and glide, pretty useless to me. I wish more devs realized that a sequencer/arp in a synth is not supposed to be a crippled replacement for a DAW piano roll, but rather it must be a sound-design/performance tool on its own.

I wish the synth had some wavefrom bending tools, perhaps like those in Serum, better disotrtions, more filter types, maybe some analogue-modelled ones, then I probably would buy it even at the full price, as for now I can't imagine what it may do better than Serum, Spire and Viper. i don't have a MPE controller, the MPE compatibility seems to be the main selling point of this synth.

[Megawattt]

Actually I sort of like it but not enough to buy right away. Nice unison, it sounds thick and smooth by default, probably by setting the unison parameters individually per voise it is possible to make even sweeter tones. The FM sounds very good, perfect for the "psytrance FM" sounds I'm obsessed with. Not sure about the filter, seems to be a very basic digital sounding one, however it is possible to make some nice sweeps keeping the resonance at moderate amounts. The FX are so-so, the phaser and the chorus are ok, the distortion sounds very weak.

The included WT selection is nice (I guess, I know where the "Sector TI" wavetables come from, they sound very familiar to me )

Where is the oscillator finetuning? I can only detune the unison voices but what if I want to slightly detune the second osc against the first one?

The synth needs a limiter as it clips easily, even some of the factory presets do.

The sequencer doesn't seem to have velocity and glide, pretty useless to me. I wish more devs realized that a sequencer/arp in a synth is not supposed to be a crippled replacement for a DAW piano roll, but rather it must be a sound-design/performance tool on its own.

I wish the synth had some wavefrom bending tools, perhaps like those in Serum, better disotrtions, more filter types, maybe some analogue-modelled ones, then I probably would buy it even at the full price, as for now I can't imagine what it may do better than Serum, Spire and Viper. i don't have a MPE controller, the MPE compatibility seems to be the main selling point of this synth.

Hi recursive one.

I like your constructive review, it has enlightened me (And maybe some other readers of this thread) i can tell that your expertise in synth programming is way deeper than mine and i am in this music thing for the listening and learning as well as making tunes, when someone says that a product is a toy (Which i think was an extreme judgment) without any constructive reasoning and i have Sektor playing some sweet sounds i cannot believe that person's comment but your technical comments (And some other technical comments on this thread) is bringing to my attention the shortfalls of Sektor and i am learning something

[Tj Shredder]

I wish the synth had some wavefrom bending tools, perhaps like those in Serum, better disotrtions, more filter types, maybe some analogue-modelled ones, then I probably would buy it even at the full price, as for now I can't imagine what it may do better than Serum, Spire and Viper. i don't have a MPE controller, the MPE compatibility seems to be the main selling point of this synth.

Would you then recommend it to me, as I do have a LinnStrument but I don't have Serum, Spire and also no Viper...?
What I do have is Thorn (no MPE), Halion (a beast, MPE possible but complicated) and all the Apple synths (MPE but don't work in Bitwig)

[Distorted Horizon]

when someone says that a product is a toy..

Only "toy" I know is the end user.

https://soundcloud.com/distortedhorizon ... zon-catnip

Lol.. Some of the sounds in this song are from a Casio toy"keyboard"

[recursive one]

I wish the synth had some wavefrom bending tools, perhaps like those in Serum, better disotrtions, more filter types, maybe some analogue-modelled ones, then I probably would buy it even at the full price, as for now I can't imagine what it may do better than Serum, Spire and Viper. i don't have a MPE controller, the MPE compatibility seems to be the main selling point of this synth.

Would you then recommend it to me, as I do have a LinnStrument but I don't have Serum, Spire and also no Viper...?
What I do have is Thorn (no MPE), Halion (a beast, MPE possible but complicated) and all the Apple synths (MPE but don't work in Bitwig)

I'm not familiar with Halion or the Apple synths, Thorn has very different sound and features (and you said it has no MPE). So I think you may at least demo Sektor. It has an "expression" page where you can draw custom curves for velocity, aftertouch and keytrack, the manual says that more parameters are available in MPE mode which I obviously couldn't test myself.

The demo is almost 4 GB though and it comes with a lot of sampled content, not sure why they didn't make it a separate download.

[recursive one]

Hi recursive one.

I like your constructive review, it has enlightened me (And maybe some other readers of this thread) i can tell that your expertise in synth programming is way deeper than mine and i am in this music thing for the listening and learning as well as making tunes, when someone says that a product is a toy (Which i think was an extreme judgment) without any constructive reasoning and i have Sektor playing some sweet sounds i cannot believe that person's comment but your technical comments (And some other technical comments on this thread) is bringing to my attention the shortfalls of Sektor and i am learning something

I'm not an exeprt sound designer and I've only had few short demo sessions with Sektor where I was mostly testing the features which I use most often when making sounds for my tracks. So I may be missing something important, like these MPE features.

Anyway, it definitely doesn't feels like a toy, the core sound quality is here, the sound character mainly depends on what wavetables you put into it but the factory content seems good and I've read in the thread that you may put your own WTs into it. It also has the necessary minimum of features with some extras. The obvious competitors are Serum and Parawave Rapid, both have more features and I would say Rapid sounds nicer in general (better filters, better effects, esp the distortions), but for someone on a budget looking for their first wavetable synth Sektor at the current price is definitely worth a look.

[bite_me]

Sektor has the biggest unison section - main point for me to buy it for (shut up silly talking) 49 Bucks.

One issue for me: Can´t switch the compressor from analog to digital mode (Win7prox64, latest Bitwig)

[fdco]

I wish the synth had some wavefrom bending tools, perhaps like those in Serum, better disotrtions, more filter types, maybe some analogue-modelled ones, then I probably would buy it even at the full price, as for now I can't imagine what it may do better than Serum, Spire and Viper. i don't have a MPE controller, the MPE compatibility seems to be the main selling point of this synth.

Would you then recommend it to me, as I do have a LinnStrument but I don't have Serum, Spire and also no Viper...?
What I do have is Thorn (no MPE), Halion (a beast, MPE possible but complicated) and all the Apple synths (MPE but don't work in Bitwig)

It's not working correctly with the LinnStrument. My understanding is that the pitch bend range in MPE mode in Sektor is a fixed 48 semitones.
Modifying the pitch wheel value doesn't do anything.
The LinnStrument works with a 24 semitones max pitch bend range so when sliding all the intervals are wrong.
I contacted their support and they answered me that they have never heard about the LinnStrument and so they cannot test.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I wish the synth had some wavefrom bending tools, perhaps like those in Serum, better disotrtions, more filter types, maybe some analogue-modelled ones, then I probably would buy it even at the full price, as for now I can't imagine what it may do better than Serum, Spire and Viper. i don't have a MPE controller, the MPE compatibility seems to be the main selling point of this synth.

Would you then recommend it to me, as I do have a LinnStrument but I don't have Serum, Spire and also no Viper...?
What I do have is Thorn (no MPE), Halion (a beast, MPE possible but complicated) and all the Apple synths (MPE but don't work in Bitwig)

It's not working correctly with the LinnStrument. My understanding is that the pitch bend range in MPE mode in Sektor is a fixed 48 semitones.
Modifying the pitch wheel value doesn't do anything.
The LinnStrument works with a 24 semitones max pitch bend range so when sliding all the intervals are wrong.
I contacted their support and they answered me that they have never heard about the LinnStrument and so they cannot test.

This can't be true. 48 note pitch bend range is the official midi specification for mpe bend range. Roger Linn was involved in the MPE midi specification. The linnstrument must have a way to set the pitch bend to +/-48 notes, or at least have a full MPE mode that would have that range. Perhaps it only has 24 note range in a non-MPE mode or something. I'd ask Roger Linn about that because I'm sure his MPE instrument would not be MPE non-compliant.

[fdco]

I wish the synth had some wavefrom bending tools, perhaps like those in Serum, better disotrtions, more filter types, maybe some analogue-modelled ones, then I probably would buy it even at the full price, as for now I can't imagine what it may do better than Serum, Spire and Viper. i don't have a MPE controller, the MPE compatibility seems to be the main selling point of this synth.

Would you then recommend it to me, as I do have a LinnStrument but I don't have Serum, Spire and also no Viper...?
What I do have is Thorn (no MPE), Halion (a beast, MPE possible but complicated) and all the Apple synths (MPE but don't work in Bitwig)

It's not working correctly with the LinnStrument. My understanding is that the pitch bend range in MPE mode in Sektor is a fixed 48 semitones.
Modifying the pitch wheel value doesn't do anything.
The LinnStrument works with a 24 semitones max pitch bend range so when sliding all the intervals are wrong.
I contacted their support and they answered me that they have never heard about the LinnStrument and so they cannot test.

This can't be true. 48 note pitch bend range is the official midi specification for mpe bend range. Roger Linn was involved in the MPE midi specification. The linnstrument must have a way to set the pitch bend to +/-48 notes, or at least have a full MPE mode that would have that range. Perhaps it only has 24 note range in a non-MPE mode or something. I'd ask Roger Linn about that because I'm sure his MPE instrument would not be MPE non-compliant.

Well, my LinnStrument 128 does +/- 2, +/-3, +/-12, +/-24