How come nobody ever talks about Absynth anymore?

[4damind]

There still seems to be a lot of interest in Absynth when these old threads are awakened
I think Absynth is currently rather insignificant and even the "Komplete" owners will tend to ignore this "addition".

I only use Absynth for a few transition effects. Mostly also presets, because programming is too time-consuming for me. For pads, basses etc. I'm already done in Dune/Spire etc. while in Absynth I'm still looking how to change the envelope

[ghettosynth]

IMHO Absynth is much more "outdated" than FM8 and Massive. regarding their sounds FM8 and Massive are not dated, only their GUI. You can use FM8 and Massive in any music style. The same can't be told about Absynth. Absynth's factory library is kinda "special".
Anyway, since users can pick a synth with good sound with good GUI and visualizations, I don't think someone would choose Absynth in the current market... For example Arturia Synclavier is good sound with good gui, it's rather an obvious choice. This was just an example, I could say PhasePlant or any other good looking software...
Of course one advantage of these old softwares like Absynth, is the low cpu usage, but in the case of Absynth, only this is not enough

All of the NI synths suffer from not receiving serious attention during a critical time in DSP development. It affects each of them in different ways. Massive received more attention than either FM8 or Absynth. I remember around 2010 or so that I thought that the Daft filter was at least usable and I was happy when it made it into Kontakt, version 4 IIRC. Even then though you could hear that it wasn't quite there. I turned to Reaktor at that point which at least allowed for ridiculous oversampling at the cost of really high CPU consumption.

Ace was the first synth that got things right enough that I could start shelving the real analog, IMHO and I picked that up shortly thereafter.

FM8 also suffers from having a crappy filter, IMHO, it's not better than Absynth's filters, but it matters less because it plays a much less significant role in the majority of sounds because FM synthesis.

All of these filters sound ok when used statically and clinically, i.e., low resonance, not over-driven, and little to no modulation.

I still use all three of these synths and I do think that Absynth is great for layered sample manipulation. I like the complex envelopes and think that it has a fast workflow for those kinds of sounds, but there's no doubt that it would be a better synth with better filters. Even Massive's filters would improve it, even the oversampled core filters from R5 would improve it, the filters are just that bad. It's pretty clear to me that over the last decade or so that NI has been resting on its laurels with respect to maintenance of their synth products. With a synth like Absynth it's just not a big deal to add new filter models because you have the menu from which you can choose them.

[SLiC]

It still sounds good but I never use it as I cant see it on a 4K monitor. NI have some of the worst GUIs for high resolution monitors (and people with old eyes!)

[EvilDragon]

...except their more recently released plugins.

[ghettosynth]

...except their more recently released plugins.

Yes, of course. Phasis is great, it's clear that they've leveraged their newer filter IP there. Obviously, most the Reaktor stuff is fantastic. I do find it interesting that the Stephen Schmidt designs, e.g., Kontour/Spark, chose to use primary filters. Obviously, Massive X is all about the new.

[Elektronisch]

...except their more recently released plugins.

Actually thats not true, because the only one that has a modern size is massive x. Their new plugins like Crush pack, reaktor super 8 are tiny on 1440p screen.

[omiroad]

A few of their things are, just yesterday I was thinking about how Guitar Rig's also been left in the dust by all it's competition (sorry for getting a bit off the topic of Absynth).

I only have Guitar Rig, what is a better alternative for it these days? (something that doesn't use iLok)

[chk071]

...except their more recently released plugins.

Actually thats not true, because the only one that has a modern size is massive x. Their new plugins like Crush pack, reaktor super 8 are tiny on 1440p screen.

You're aware that you can change the size, when you click on that "down" arrow in the upper left to open the menu?

[EvilDragon]

Yes, there are scaling options in Dirt/Mod Pack...

[ghettosynth]

A few of their things are, just yesterday I was thinking about how Guitar Rig's also been left in the dust by all it's competition (sorry for getting a bit off the topic of Absynth).

I only have Guitar Rig, what is a better alternative for it these days? (something that doesn't use iLok)

It depends on what you mean by alternative. I think that there are quite a few better choices for guitar amp/distortion models. I think that Guitar Rig is another weird NI product. I wonder if, under the hood, it's running Reaktor models? I ask that because many people really wanted to see, e.g., Reflector released as a standalone VST.

[an-electric-heart]

A few of their things are, just yesterday I was thinking about how Guitar Rig's also been left in the dust by all it's competition (sorry for getting a bit off the topic of Absynth).

I only have Guitar Rig, what is a better alternative for it these days? (something that doesn't use iLok)

It depends on what you mean by alternative. I think that there are quite a few better choices for guitar amp/distortion models. I think that Guitar Rig is another weird NI product. I wonder if, under the hood, it's running Reaktor models? I ask that because many people really wanted to see, e.g., Reflector released as a standalone VST.

That's a good point actually. I use Reflector a lot, and yes, I too would rather not have to fire up Guitar Rig to use it.

[ghettosynth]

A few of their things are, just yesterday I was thinking about how Guitar Rig's also been left in the dust by all it's competition (sorry for getting a bit off the topic of Absynth).

I only have Guitar Rig, what is a better alternative for it these days? (something that doesn't use iLok)

It depends on what you mean by alternative. I think that there are quite a few better choices for guitar amp/distortion models. I think that Guitar Rig is another weird NI product. I wonder if, under the hood, it's running Reaktor models? I ask that because many people really wanted to see, e.g., Reflector released as a standalone VST.

That's a good point actually. I use Reflector a lot, and yes, I too would rather not have fire up Guitar Rig to use it.

Of course, saying that, I realize in the same moment that Reaktor isn't good at convolution, so almost certainly not. But why then, has it been such a challenge for them to release standalone VSTs?

I think that there's some weird things going on inside NI with respect to how they manage development.

[an-electric-heart]

A few of their things are, just yesterday I was thinking about how Guitar Rig's also been left in the dust by all it's competition (sorry for getting a bit off the topic of Absynth).

I only have Guitar Rig, what is a better alternative for it these days? (something that doesn't use iLok)

Likewise, I use Guitar Rig exclusively for my guitar sounds... and it's fine, but it hasn't been touched or improved on for many years now... and I'm starting to think it never will. I was thinking about picking up Amplitube in that last crossgrade promotion, say what you want about I.K, but at least Amplitube gets attention from it's developer.

[omiroad]

A few of their things are, just yesterday I was thinking about how Guitar Rig's also been left in the dust by all it's competition (sorry for getting a bit off the topic of Absynth).

I only have Guitar Rig, what is a better alternative for it these days? (something that doesn't use iLok)

It depends on what you mean by alternative. I think that there are quite a few better choices for guitar amp/distortion models.

What are some better choices?

[monomaker]

Absynth could do with a big upgrade, it's great for soundscapes, but there are lot of choices for that.

It's rare I use any NI synths in the past few years; I think the GUI's are often outdated, there's no microtuning, they often feel slow to load and they seem to go wrong for me more than the alternatives. I haven't updated Komplete in a while, because nothing they're offering appeals to me. I don't think they currently make many "best in class" products, I'm not sure they're even capable of that now.