What is it about Sylenth1 ?

[vurt]

[fluffy_little_something]

I'm done with this ridiculous conversation.

Mr Wag_Toones,
Having read so many of your post here and enjoyed them...
there are some discussions that just feel like banging head on wall...
pointless and it hurts....
Exits stage door left...
BUT later >>
re_enters stage door right...


I have seen several pantomimes..
I hang around for this encore

Jancivil said it better than I ever could. Now that's a logical, rational brain in operation.

And I know all about banging my head against a wall.

Why I keep doing it is beyond me.

What makes it hard is that it is impossible to distinguish between poorly formed thoughts and deliberate trolling. And of course, the one can easily become the other as people talk themselves into a corner.

And the thing is, I've been doing this dance with him for years. If I say the sky is blue, he'll say it's pink because he knows it'll piss me off.

I can't wait until I put my 2019 New Year's resolution into effect.

I say what I think, regardless of what you think. It just so happens that we hardly agree on anything

Why don't you invite developers to join this discussion. Would be interesting to know whether or not Urs or Richard thinks that some synths sound better than others...

[wagtunes]

I'm done with this ridiculous conversation.

Mr Wag_Toones,
Having read so many of your post here and enjoyed them...
there are some discussions that just feel like banging head on wall...
pointless and it hurts....
Exits stage door left...
BUT later >>
re_enters stage door right...


I have seen several pantomimes..
I hang around for this encore

Jancivil said it better than I ever could. Now that's a logical, rational brain in operation.

And I know all about banging my head against a wall.

Why I keep doing it is beyond me.

What makes it hard is that it is impossible to distinguish between poorly formed thoughts and deliberate trolling. And of course, the one can easily become the other as people talk themselves into a corner.

And the thing is, I've been doing this dance with him for years. If I say the sky is blue, he'll say it's pink because he knows it'll piss me off.

I can't wait until I put my 2019 New Year's resolution into effect.

I say what I think, regardless of what you think. It just so happens that we hardly agree on anything

Why don't you invite developers to join this discussion. Would be interesting to know whether or not Urs or Richard thinks that some synths sound better than others...

I think some synths sound better than others.

BUT IT'S JUST MY OPINION FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. IT IS NOT A PROVABLE FACT!!!!!

ARE YOU REALLY THIS DENSE?

[tony10000]

This is a pretty combative thread. Agreed, Sylenth 1 is an older synth but I still find it very usable and it certainly has a distinctive sound. Its UI has influenced many more recent synths such as Hive, Dune, Ana, Synthmaster One, etc. It is pretty easy to get decent sounds out of it and the ability to copy and paste settings is a big plus. The effects and arp section are simple and workable. I agree that the price is steep compared to similar synths. However, I bought it during a Black Friday sale and the price was not horrible. The fact that you can "rent to own" has given it a new lease on life. For a little over $20 USD a month, a producer can get it and Serum and cover most sonic bases pretty easily. You may love it or hate it, but the fact that Sylenth 1 is still relevant is a testimony to its sound, feature set, and design.

[wagtunes]

You know what? Let's do that. Let's ask Urs and Richard which sounds better.

Zebra 2 or Dune 2

They'll either

1. Diplomatically skirt the issue

2. Say THEIR synth sounds better

3. Not say anything

You brought them up so come on, let's do it. Let's ask them to pick between Dune 2 and Zebra 2.

This should be interesting.

[fluffy_little_something]

I think some synths sound better than others.

BUT IT'S JUST MY OPINION FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. IT IS NOT A PROVABLE FACT!!!!!

ARE YOU REALLY THIS DENSE?

I think it is more than an opinion, in my view it is a measurable fact.
But neither I nor you can tell for sure. Synth developers can tell, though.
Of course not Urs vs Richard But they are both honest people as far as I can tell...

[herodotus]

I think some synths sound better than others.

BUT IT'S JUST MY OPINION FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. IT IS NOT A PROVABLE FACT!!!!!

ARE YOU REALLY THIS DENSE?

I think it is more than an opinion, in my view it is a measurable fact.
But neither I nor you can tell for sure. Synth developers can tell, though.
Of course not Urs vs Richard But they are both honest people as far as I can tell...

If it is a measurable fact, how do you measure it?

[BONES]

Lol, I didn't have to read it anywhere to know that I agree with chk071. In fact I'll take it even further: I think DUNE is an extremely overrated synth; it's one of the most difficult to get to sit in the mix.

Really? I have an album's worth of new songs that say otherwise. A couple of months ago we had a real gap between the songs that were sounding amazing and those that still felt like they needed more work. After a few frustrating hours, I loaded 'em up one by one to try and work out what was making some songs sound great and others not. The only common thread I could find was that all the good sounding songs were using DUNE prominently and the not-so-good songs either didn't have DUNE at all or it was only doing something minor.

It tends to overpower everything else I try to put with it; all of the Synapse synths are the same. Go ahead and attack me over my opinion, tell me that I don't know what I'm doing, etc etc etc. I could use a good laugh this morning.

Clearly you don't know what you're doing if you can't sit something in a mix. EQ the clashing frequencies away or reduce the number of unison voices in the oscillators or close the filter a bit more and/or reduce the resonance. Turn off the on-board effects (which are mostly way overdone in DUNE presets). Those are simple things you can do relatively easily. Don't get me wrong, I only use DUNE because I didn't have to pay for it. I hate it's workflow, it can be really hard work, but the reason I use it at all is because it sounds better than pretty much anything else I have heard, over a very broad range of timbres. And I can say with total confidence that without it, our next album wouldn't sound nearly as good as it is going to sound.

[BONES]

Dune's filters are anything but harsh and cold (if you know what you're doing). That would be Spire you're thinking about being harsh and cold.....

I wasn't going to say anything but all the talk about Spire got me interested enough to download the demo last night and I have absolutely no idea what all the hype is. The presets are awful and the synth itself seems very limited for something they want $189 for. Yes, it's got lots of options but it's still just one form of synthesis at the end of the day, where DUNE offers three. Spire has a nice, clean GUI design but that's probably the most impressive thing about it. Again, something like discoDSP's Discovery or ReFX's Vanguard are probably about as good for well less than half the price. z3ta+ is/was way better sounding and I picked that up for $20 from Cakewalk (never use it, though, too much hard work).

It is actually a legend synth IMO. It is there with the Virus and Massive, as a choice capable of serious results.

Massive!?! Massive!?! Honestly? That thing has some OK presets but it is sheer, blind luck if you can make any of your own that sound half-decent. I got it in Komplete and I was excited about it at first because I'd heard some amazing demos, but I very quickly discovered that the filter is terrible, like absolutely bloody awful, and the GUI is over-crowded and hard to work with, despite it's clever tricks for adding modulation.

If I was prone to paranoia, I'd be starting to feel like you guys are deliberately saying nice things about horrible synths just to fire me up.

As far as Dune goes though... the base sound is what some would describe as soft and some would describe as weak. It somehow lacks the raw power some other synths may have... it can make some cool 303-ish acid sequences

Are you f**king kidding me!?! That's your big test - making it sound like the worst synthesizer I have owned in my entire life? That's your credibility shot to shreds.

but overall it's not my first choice synth of choice for VA and wavetable stuff

What sort of mindset is that? Who listens to something they're working on and says "what this piece needs is some wavetable stuff".

[Russell Grand]

Lol, I didn't have to read it anywhere to know that I agree with chk071. In fact I'll take it even further: I think DUNE is an extremely overrated synth; it's one of the most difficult to get to sit in the mix.

Really? I have an album's worth of new songs that say otherwise. A couple of months ago we had a real gap between the songs that were sounding amazing and those that still felt like they needed more work. After a few frustrating hours, I loaded 'em up one by one to try and work out what was making some songs sound great and others not. The only common thread I could find was that all the good sounding songs were using DUNE prominently and the not-so-good songs either didn't have DUNE at all or it was only doing something minor.

It tends to overpower everything else I try to put with it; all of the Synapse synths are the same. Go ahead and attack me over my opinion, tell me that I don't know what I'm doing, etc etc etc. I could use a good laugh this morning.

Clearly you don't know what you're doing if you can't sit something in a mix. EQ the clashing frequencies away or reduce the number of unison voices in the oscillators or close the filter a bit more and/or reduce the resonance. Turn off the on-board effects (which are mostly way overdone in DUNE presets). Those are simple things you can do relatively easily. Don't get me wrong, I only use DUNE because I didn't have to pay for it. I hate it's workflow, it can be really hard work, but the reason I use it at all is because it sounds better than pretty much anything else I have heard, over a very broad range of timbres. And I can say with total confidence that without it, our next album wouldn't sound nearly as good as it is going to sound.

Your reply didn't disappoint, BONES.

Keep enjoying DUNE, my friend.

[jancivil]

I'm using the chicken to measure it

[Examigan]

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.

Good to know but I couldn't see anything called "Menu" on the GUI anywhere. I've uninstalled it now so it doesn't matter, it's just another example of the poor GUI, I suppose.

It's in the section that's in the middle of the display, Menu/Size:

[chk071]

Dune's filters are anything but harsh and cold (if you know what you're doing). That would be Spire you're thinking about being harsh and cold.....

Spire has a nice, clean GUI design but that's probably the most impressive thing about it. Again, something like discoDSP's Discovery or ReFX's Vanguard are probably about as good for well less than half the price. z3ta+ is/was way better sounding and I picked that up for $20 from Cakewalk (never use it, though, too much hard work).

Too many "experts" in this thread.

[v1o]

Bones never fails to disappoint. Spire is overrated but not as much as Ana 2.

[stvrsz]

Spire is not suitable for the type of music that Bones makes you mean. Have you ever heard Novakiller or used any of his synths? It is not a surprise he does not like Spire at all. Dune, Massive, and Thorn are much more suitable to Industrial music. I like Bones. I like Novakill. I like industrial music. I also like Spire. There is MUCH more to Spire than the factory presets in banks 1-4 specifically. I will admit that it has aged a bit especially with the likes of Thorn, Rapid, and Serum. If I was to make an industrial album however, I would NOT look to Spire as the first choice for a plug.