KVR Audio

mikek1357 · Post by **mikek1357** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 9:13 am

Hi,

Black Friday is coming up, joy joy!

I already own Synthmaster 2.9 and Synthmaster one, but am looking for an expansion. I want to produce EDM, Trance music and sometimes trailer music effects like braams, drones and the lot.

The list:

Spire, sounds great, worried a bit about CPU usage (have an i5 6700k and 16GB of RAM)

Sylenth1, sounds great as well, should be ok on CPU, but is it still great for EDM, especially Trance and not surpassed by other synths?

ANA2, very cheap with the BF sale. What's the sound like compared to say Sylenth1 and Spire?

Viper, no experience with this one, what's CPU usage like?

Thanks for any advice.

aMake · Post by **aMake** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 9:24 am

Hi.

Imho ANA2 surpasses Sylenth1 and is at least equal to Spire. Spire sounds great, but I find ANA2 more fun to program. Viper I haven't tried enough to say anything about. I use mainly Serum, ANA2 and Dune 2 but considering you already have the Synthmasters, ANA2 would be enough. Again, this is my opinion and the subject is very... subjective

//Matt

izonin · Post by **izonin** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 9:56 am

I love Viper and Spire! These are, in my opinion, the synths that have the sound of the high end VA hardware.

Sylenth1 was my favourite a decade ago, but is now only used as a "filler" synth. It is very well coded and is low on CPU.

Stefken · Post by **Stefken** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:37 pm

I would go for Spire.
Sylenth sounds dated for me. Viper is more limited in scope and a one man project which limits support. ANA has a great sequencer but does not have that trance sound for me.

AnX · Post by **AnX** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:39 pm

Dune 3

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:52 pm

Stefken wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:37 pm I would go for Spire.

Me too. Definitely sounds the best of the bunch for me. Perfect for Trance and EDM. As has been said, slight deficits in the sound programming, at least I always feel a bit limited in it, and the GUI, while looking good, is a bit all over the place, but, for bread and butter VA and unison sounds, it's my go-to synth. Sylenth1 doesn't sound as good to me, nor do the other synths listed.

Check out the gazillions of EDM Soundsets for it too, gives an indication how popular it is for the respective genres, for a reason IMO.

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:59 pm

I've tried the Spire demo three times and each time came away totally unimpressed by its sound and wondering why it's popular at all.

Moral of the story? Don't listen to what anyone else says. Demo all the synths in question and find the one you like best.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:04 pm

True, that's always the best decision.

izonin · Post by **izonin** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:09 pm

Teksonik wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:59 pm I've tried the Spire demo three times and each time came away totally unimpressed by its sound and wondering why it's popular at all.

It's a trance maschine... I believe that a synth like the Virus/Viper or Spire would be a perfect choice for the OP. They just ooze Trance.

Examigan · Post by **Examigan** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:23 pm

izonin wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:09 pm
Teksonik wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:59 pm I've tried the Spire demo three times and each time came away totally unimpressed by its sound and wondering why it's popular at all.
It's a trance maschine... I believe that a synth like the Virus/Viper or Spire would be a perfect choice for the OP. They just ooze Trance.

Spire can (among other things) create some nice pads, and isn’t just for EDM.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:25 pm

Sure, it can do Ambient/Chillout/whatever equally well.

EDM has pads as well though.

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:31 pm

izonin wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:09 pm It's a trance maschine.

So are Hive and VPS Avenger and Dune and.....so on and so forth.

We can see here how personal opinion can vary so wildly that one person could love Spire and the next person could not like it at all and that holds true for all synths.

Demo,Demo,Demo then choose what's best for you.

izonin · Post by **izonin** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:32 pm

Examigan wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:23 pm
izonin wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:09 pm
Teksonik wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:59 pm I've tried the Spire demo three times and each time came away totally unimpressed by its sound and wondering why it's popular at all.
It's a trance maschine... I believe that a synth like the Virus/Viper or Spire would be a perfect choice for the OP. They just ooze Trance.
Spire can (among other things) create some nice pads, and isn’t just for EDM.

Of course, but the OP wants trance, so we give him the best options for trance.

Historically, most trance hits were created with the Virus, so it's vst clones are the obvious choice here.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:35 pm

Teksonik wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:31 pm
izonin wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:09 pm It's a trance maschine.
So are Hive and VPS Avenger and Dune and.....so on and so forth.

We can see here how personal opinion can vary so wildly that one person could love Spire and the next person could not like it at all and that holds true for all synths.

Demo,Demo,Demo then choose what's best for you.

Just wondering, but.. do you listen to, or produce Trance music?

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:36 pm

Slightly off topic but is anyone able to download the Ana 2 demo ? Not able to download here. Stuck with no download speed.

Ana 1 was a pretty unpleasant sounding synth to me but I'd like to try the new version to see if my opinion has changed. I don't need any more synths but I am a sucker for a sale and well.....G.A.S.

The good old, what synth? Spire vs Sylenth1 vs ANA2 vs Viper