Phase Plant... Thoughts?

[] Peter:H []

Currently the OneSynthChallenge December is going on featuring PP.
I did a track for the OSC with PP which went extremely well. The overall sound is pretty good, workflow is good. Result is here if you're interested: https://soundcloud.com/p-e-t-e-r-h/line ... achine-mix. It's only made with PP as synth accompanied by some external FX. Even used some of PPs presets. When using the presets the main work was to strip them down to be usable in terms of CPU consumption. Sure presets are great, I really loved the BDR and Snare... but for an OSC you need some 20+ instances and it got my Core i7, 4Ghz, 32GB to begin to stutter... There's sometimes extremely long CPU-Meter tails going on forever...

So, while working on the OSC track, I tried to make up my mind - is it worth to buy it?
I decided not. Though there are some extremely unique points like the audio rate modulation, there's other things I missed, like good filters comparable to those in Icarus2 or there's no MSEGs, a true NoteRandom-Modulation. I'm pretty sure some of these will come with update... At the same time the competition on my Harddisc like Avenger (many FX, many Engines, FX per Note), Rapid, Fathom, MSoundFactory (intro offer was 99Euro!) is to strong ... and before I give control to my GAS I promised myself to get the dust of these beasts a few more times ...

I don't want to say PP is bad, actually it is great. It just didn't made it to the "I must have this urgently" level, which is a completely subjective decision.

] Peter:H [

[FarleyCZ]

I think the dilema about phase plant is this: If you buy the cheaper editions, you're missing on some effects. (Especially on a good EQ.) But the Ultimate bundle offering is not worth it for the price if you're interested in PhasePlant only. 500 Eur (300 on BF) is a lot. So for me PP is a question of: "Do I want to pay Netflix money for a single synth every moth?" If this was just a subscription then I'd say no, but the reward program makes it interesting. If they repeat the sale, I can buy the utlimate bundle for 100 Eur on black friday of 2021.

But still. Is it worth the commitment? The workflow and gui are awesome. Audiorate modulation is even better. But is it realy THAT big of a game changer I'd need to sign up for another subscription for it? I literally can't decide.

What I really miss is "PhasePlant only Ultimate" offering. Cheaper version of ultimate bundle where all the effects are available, but just in PhasePlant. No Multipass, no VST counterparts. That I would subscribe towards in a heartbeat.

[mxbf]

I do want this but I think 100 is my top price for it. I think it's a bit cheap in design and sound quality compared to UHE and Avenger but I still think it's interesting with the FM modulation possibilities.

[vertibration]

I had it under subscription but ultimately cancelled it. I find Serum to handle a lot of what Phaseplant can do. I think its great, and hope to see some good updates

[FarleyCZ]

I really like how it's essentially a combination of Serum and Zebra, my favorite synths. But both of them have small little tweaks I've became accustomed to. Pre-routed keytracks, vibratos, voice-syncs. The comb filter on Zebra is something completely else. So at the end I would pay the subscription, but end up in the old synths a lot of times. But the extensive FM capabilities are really nice.

[functionform]

Admiralbumblebee has a great review on it that summarizes just about everything I thought on it.

[mxbf]

I'll probably end up buying it if it goes down to 100 bucks for the whole thing. It's just too overpriced for the sound quality. Diva is 180 dollars and that's expensive to me for a VST but it feels worth it because the quality of the code and sound is literally mindblowing just on its own.

Phase Plant doesn't really wow you with the sound, it's a fun and creative tool but I think they're trying to pass it off as higher quality than it actually is.

[highkoo]

Its a sound design playground, not a VA...

Ive been loving it for a while now.
I think its the greatest, but it does definitely benefit from spending more on the Snapins...
And over time I am more and more eager to see a couple particular developments that were brought up in the other big thread.

[highkoo]

What I really miss is "PhasePlant only Ultimate" offering. Cheaper version of ultimate bundle where all the effects are available, but just in PhasePlant. No Multipass, no VST counterparts. That I would subscribe towards in a heartbeat.

They should definitely bring this back when the next update drops.

[FarleyCZ]

Alright, I've spent two days with it. Here is list of all the gripes for which I won't inorporate phaseplant to my productions for now:

- No next-prev arrows on wavetable selection (I've heard this is planned for the next update)
- Insufficient curves editting in LFO.
- Inability to save LFO shapes.
- No rise parameter on LFO (setting up an envelope just because of that is tideous and takes you out of the flow)
- No step sequencer (that's a biggie for me, in Serum, you hold shift and you can draw steps in LFO section, Zebra has it as an LFO setting)
- No slope setting in any of the filters, you have to pull out (paid) EQ snapin to be able to control that.
- No pre-routed keytracking filter option. (Setting up the mod source takes you out of the flow.)
- I could really use some multiband compression there.
- Oscillator wrapping and possible resampling is missing.
- Some nice saturated filter models would be nice.
- Haven't find a way to save a custom init template.

I figured out that eventhough the audiorate modulation can create amazing stuff, it's not the only thing in the world that can do a nice texture. My needs for growly basslines are still covered by Serum pretty nicely. Though limited, it has some FM capabilities and there are still things due to which I'd be returning to Serum despite owning Phaseplant. (oscilator re-sample, flexible LFOs, overall nice blend between complex and straight-forward approach) For non-bass content I do have other synths that are more suitable and as much experimental, if not more. (Zebra, Falcon...)

BUT! I have to admit it's hell of a sexy synth with the hottest GUI around and when these small gripes get resolved, I'll gladly jump on the bandwagon with the subscription/reward thing.

[Tj Shredder]

On the plus is audio rate modulations (like in Bitwig)
On the minus are only simple very basic oscillators and filters and no MPE (unlike in Bitwig)
As Bitwig is my DAW there is no point to get it...
For a 90% discount on the complete pack I would think about it, as I made a nice piece with Phase Plant for the OSC... I can easily wait for that some years...

[Smapti]

Regarding the fact that the oscillators and filters are relatively simple - I was a Phase Plant skeptic for the same reason and wasn't planning on getting it, but when the discounted bundle price appeared I figured I'd try it out. Now I'm a convert, for one big reason: ALL of the snapin parameters can be polyphonically modulated. This means you can easily slap a polyphonic pitch-tracking comb filter on your patch, or set high Q values on the Slice EQ and randomly modulate the frequencies per voice (which gives WILD effects), etc -- and this is very easy to do since the workflow is excellent. Even Falcon (which I love -- no criticism intended) can't do that since not all effects are available at the keygroup level.

[Tj Shredder]

That is why the Grid is great as well, everything inside would be polyphonic... And it has oscillators that can be bent and crushed and create expression already without the need of filters. That way they are much closer to the behavior of real instruments which would have at best some resonances...
But I bet, Kilohearts will enhance the existing objects in the future, overall it is a capable synth, but has strong competition... Especially if you consider the price they ask for...

[anomandaris1]

It has no competition, actually, it is the best FM/PM synth at the moment. I think it also become popular among dubstep/dnb people for the wavetables + effect chains options.
"The Grid" is locked inside Bitwig, it makes no sense to compare it to vsti, plus this DAW is not exactly cheap, too (especially, if you want to upgrade every year).

[TIMT]

It has no competition, actually, it is the best FM/PM synth at the moment. I think it also become popular among dubstep/dnb people for the wavetables + effect chains options.
"The Grid" is locked inside Bitwig, it makes no sense to compare it to vsti, plus this DAW is not exactly cheap, too (especially, if you want to upgrade every year).

You must live in a bubble and considering the "audiorate"stuff in PhasePlant is not oversampled i fail to see how its the best FM/PM synth out at the moment.i can think of 3,4 synths that came out the past 2 years that better Phaseplant in those departments and none of em are Serum.its popular amongst Dubstep and Brostep producers because it allows them to churn out those same overused comb filter/odd harmonic wavetable based patches
.
Those genres are not exactly benchmarks of quality anymore so makes sense nobody would really give a shit about the piss-poor quality of its sound engine,modulation,filters and FX(everything really)its an ok synth if you are missing a wavetable synth with VA capabilities(i do really like its implementation of free running oscillators) with some faux audiorate modulation(its not audiorate its table based like it has been on most VSTI's besides modular solutions) but its not exactly a step up sonically or even marginally from what is already available