What is it about Sylenth1 ?

[chk071]

The oscillators are actually pretty good, if extremely limited by modern standards, but the filters are very ordinary. Turn up the resonance and you lose something in the bottom end, like a ladder filter.

That's something I really dislike about Sylenth1's filter as well. I also think there are filters with a more pleasing character. The sound of the raw oscillators, and the supersaw I vastly prefer to Dune's, though. And I also think all of Dune 2's filters sound a bit harsh and cold.

[Grizzellda]

That's something I really dislike about Sylenth1's filter as well. I also think there are filters with a more pleasing character. The sound of the raw oscillators, and the supersaw I vastly prefer to Dune's, though. And I also think all of Dune 2's filters sound a bit harsh and cold.

Harsh & cold???



Nope.

[chk071]

Looks like me every time I read here that someone recommends it over Sylenth1 for EDM.

[Grizzellda]

Looks like me every time I read here that someone recommends it over Sylenth1 for EDM.

Well ya, you just really need a big punchy sound for EDM!

"give em what they want"...

[Examigan]

3. GUI - It's all over the place. You have an envelope up the top, two more down the bottom-left and a mod matrix that's labelled "Misc 1" and "Misc 2". It's a real shocker. It's not resizable, either, which is unacceptable in a $180 synth today. Skins might make that better but, from what I've seen, you can't move anything around, just play with the colours and style.

There are 8 skins under Menu/Skin (you can't move elements around, but most synths can't) and you can resize from Menu/Size.

[EnGee]

OK, I finally gave into curiosity and installed the demo. Here's what I think, 7 or 8 on from the first time I demo'd it -
1. SOUND - If anything, it sounds worse than I remember. Honestly, it's like stepping back in time. Going through the patch memory is like scrolling through the presets on some cut-price Ensoniq or Alesis synth from the 80s or 90s. How anyone could listen to the first 10 presets on this, or the first 100, and the same on DUNE and not buy DUNE beggars belief (I'm sure nobody does). The oscillators are actually pretty good, if extremely limited by modern standards, but the filters are very ordinary. Turn up the resonance and you lose something in the bottom end, like a ladder filter. Worse still, you only get the one, 2 or 4 pole, rather than the dozens that you'd get with anything else at this price, so you're stuck with it. The effects are serviceable, nothing more, and lack options.

2. USABILITY - Non-existent, it seems. I tried to use an init patch to test a few things but I couldn't get Osc 2 to make any sound and the filter wouldn't work. I worked it out after a few minutes but with all the redundant controls, it's hard to know where to look to fix things. e.g. Each osc has a volume knob, plus there is also a mixer so you have to check all over the place when it's not making sound. The way controls work is inconsistent. e.g. If I click on the waveform selector I get a drop-down but I have to click-drag on most other selectors But don't try and click or drag on the arrows because they don't do anything, except in some places, where they do. It's very confusing. I gave up very quickly. And can someone explain why there is a filter section with cutoff and resonance plus a filter control section that also has cutoff and resonance? I can't make head nor tail of it.

3. GUI - It's all over the place. You have an envelope up the top, two more down the bottom-left and a mod matrix that's labelled "Misc 1" and "Misc 2". It's a real shocker. It's not resizable, either, which is unacceptable in a $180 synth today. Skins might make that better but, from what I've seen, you can't move anything around, just play with the colours and style.

Overall, it's about how I remember it. I managed to get the mod matrix to fully open the filter but I had to add cutoff into it twice, just like the first time I tried it. If you only add it in once, it doesn't open the filter at all, which is just ridiculous. The oscillators are definitely it's strong point, although they only really shine with unison doing the supersaw thing. The filter is bog-standard, you can get better in a SynthEdit VSTi. If it was $50, I don't know that I'd buy it over Rob Papen's Go2 but it's more than three times as much, which is just ridiculous. Another few bucks and you could buy a real analogue synth that sounds great and is probably more versatile (IK's Uno).

There are three points I would like to comment on:

1. You might forget to "UP" the voices in Osc 2 in Part "A" maybe?

2. Every part has a filter, and there is a control over the two filters (like a macro).

3. It is resizable! Just drag the right bottom corner!

I don't know really if it is confusing! After I spent some time with Reaktor blocks and playing around, when I loaded Sylenth1, it looked so easy to figure out everything!

I like it! The sound is really good. It can't do everything, but for every day bread and butter sounds it is great for me. Anyway, the only two criticisms I have are:
First, no need for Part B to be on another tab especially now, that even HD screens can handle a bigger version of Sylenth1 I think. Second, it needs FM and PWM.

Will I buy it for $150? No, I won't. But there is a discount on it at least two times a year which brings the price to about $100 which I think it is OK price. My cap in general is $100 for a synth. I might stretch it a little (like once I did with Diva) but, it is rare. So, I can't say it is the best value for money, but in the end, if people use it, then this justifies the money paid

[Grizzellda]

Sylenth is cool. Sylenth has contributed, and made some sort of an impact.

Still though, this son-of-a-bitch called life, or progression...

well, it just keeps on rolling, that is the thing...

[Teksonik]

Looks like me every time I read here that someone recommends it over Sylenth1 for EDM.

Looks like me when someone recommends Spire for.....anything.

[fluffy_little_something]

@Bones

I like the sound of the 80's, which is also why I don't like many other plugins which have that spacey EDM sound that I hate.
The oscillators' waveforms in Sylenth1 are almost identical to the Minimoog's.

Usability is excellent. You don't have to click and drag hardly anything or anywhere, the mouse over and mouse wheel are your best friends, even with on-off switches.

Resizing is as easy as it gets, just grab the lower right corner and set it to any size you want, way better than just a few fixed sizes, which are often too big or too small.

The amp envelopes are part of the layers, thus they are at the top. The mod envelopes can be freely assigned, just like the LFO's, thus they are next to them further down. On my own init patch the first mod env is assigned to filter cutoff, the second to pitch.

Unlike you, I like the sound most with just 1 or 2 waves per oscillator, and set almost to mono.

The resonance behavior was similar on hardware synths if I am not mistaken. As you increase the resonance, the volume goes down, which affects above all the lower frequencies in the case of a LP filter.

I don't get your complaint about the envelopes. The default setting for the global cutoff is 12 o'clock, i.e. value 5.0.
With the same settings for cutoff modulation amount and keytracking, the env mod behavior is similar to that in, say, Diva. When you turn down the global cutoff slightly to the value of 4.5, the filter also closes completely.
While some people complain about that double cutoff system, I find it more flexible than the usual one. And in combination with two mod slots per filter env, you can go beyond what most synths can do, very snappy and punchy.
You want to be spoon-fed as you are unwilling to familiarize yourself with the way Sylenth1 works. So you expect everything to work like on every other synth. And when it doesn't, you think it's wrong.
Also, ask yourself whether your complaint has any musical relevance.

[pdxindy]

OK, I finally gave into curiosity and installed the demo. Here's what I think, 7 or 8 on from the first time I demo'd it -
1. SOUND - If anything, it sounds worse than I remember. Honestly, it's like stepping back in time.

2. USABILITY -

3. GUI -

Overall, it's about how I remember it. I managed to get the mod matrix to fully open the filter but I had to add cutoff into it twice, just like the first time I tried it. If you only add it in once, it doesn't open the filter at all, which is just ridiculous. The oscillators are definitely it's strong point, although they only really shine with unison doing the supersaw thing. The filter is bog-standard, you can get better in a SynthEdit VSTi. If it was $50, I don't know that I'd buy it over Rob Papen's Go2 but it's more than three times as much, which is just ridiculous. Another few bucks and you could buy a real analogue synth that sounds great and is probably more versatile (IK's Uno).

Besides missing a few technical details, that is a quick but solid review.

1. Same for me... it sounds worse than it used to... which of course means the floor of everything else has gone up a lot. Sylenth sounds like an old softsynth with sonic characteristics that are off putting.

2 & 3... Usability and GUI have both been lapped multiple times. Softsynth design in those areas has advanced greatly. Sylenth isn't terrible, but there is plenty better available today.

[pdxindy]

@Bones

You want to be spoon-fed as you are unwilling to familiarize yourself with the way Sylenth1 works.

No need to start making personal attacks just because his opinion differs from yours

[fluffy_little_something]

@Bones

You want to be spoon-fed as you are unwilling to familiarize yourself with the way Sylenth1 works.

No need to start making personal attacks just because his opinion differs from yours

It's no personal attack at all, just an observation that is obvious from his complaints. One can read between the lines how he is looking for reasons not to like it, making even false statements like on the missing resizing.

[fluffy_little_something]

Papen's Go2? Now that looks like one terrible GUI to me, poor contrast, looks gloomy like Synthmaster or Hive.

[pdxindy]

@Bones

You want to be spoon-fed as you are unwilling to familiarize yourself with the way Sylenth1 works.

No need to start making personal attacks just because his opinion differs from yours

It's no personal attack at all, just an observation that is obvious from his complaints. One can read between the lines how he is looking for reasons not to like it, making even false statements like on the missing resizing.

He can be a bit abrasive... it's obvious he ruffled your feathers. One thing about Bones though, I think if he had tried it and had a different experience, he would have said so. Even if he started out expecting a different conclusion. Of course we all assess through our own lens.

[fluffy_little_something]

Obviously as I can't understand most of his complaints, while he hasn't mentioned what I don't like about Sylenth1.
Still, with some of his remarks I was asking myself if he was being serious or just joking around, they seemed just too absurd to me...

Nor did he say anything about it being possible to recreate Diva patches in Sylenth1 without people being able to tell which is which (which Tek admitted when he said he thought the order in my audio was the other way round). If S1 sounds so bad and Diva so great, one should never be able to make them sound so close, and I was not modifying the Diva patches, that were made by known sound designers like Ingo Weidner, in order to make them sound any worse.