The Most Overrated and Underrated VST/AU (Effects And Instruments)

[Halonmusic]

Overrated: Serum
Underrated: Full Bucket's collection.

Slightly Trigged But being respectful of your view, Why Serum?

I've seen that mentioned a few times in this thread, genuinely curious why people seem to view that as overrated because honestly to me nobody's made a wavetable synth that can do the same things It Can IMO. The closest is Rapid and Icarus.

Pigments has a lot of promise too. i've been getting into that one since i got it on sale.


EDIT: I should clarify more, when I say no other synth Im talking mostly about that Wavetable Editor and the Easy Flexible GUI.
VITAL, honestly, the upcoming Plugin by Matt Tyhel, Might be my New Fav however so let's see how this ages.


ANOTHER EDIT: FBS absolutely makes some underated gems. Best Freeware dev in the Game.

Heh. no its just that it sounds too sterile and digital to me. And when i think wavetable, i think ppg stuff. but sure its a flixible synth and all, it just doesnt do it for me.

I actually can understand this argument. Serum is absolutely unapologetically Digital.


I’ve found some success playing around with a filter called “German LP” that sounds really good, if you still own Serum playing around with some of those filters with some analogue waves and some modulation can get it to sound less digital....ish?
but of course Serum just at heart is a very Sertile Program. Never claimed nor intended to be anything less. I don’t think I could ever get it to sound like Diva Or even Massive X No matter how much tweaking

I should try the German filter

[Spencer Maddox]

I should try the German filter

Of course
Again, don’t get your hopes TOO high, getting analogue sounds out of Serum is a lot like forcing a square peg in a round hole but definitely check it out when you get a chance.
It’s in the “Misc” For some reason.
Not in the normal filter section.
As to date that’s the most analogue sounding filter that delivers the warmest results to my ears.

To be fair I’m not looking for analog when I’m using Serum because...well it’s serum so if there’s any filter that’s even warmer anyone can fee free to correct me.
There’s an insanely high amount of filters for that plugin. I’m not accustomed to all of em.

[jdanzig]

Sorry to go off topic, but what filter would the implied 'German' one be? IG I always think of ladder filters and cems and ssms especially.

[Spencer Maddox]

Sorry to go off topic, but what filter would the implied 'German' one be? IG I always think of ladder filters and cems and ssms especially.

Not off topic. But I’m not sure if I can give a helpful answer.
German LP is a “zero delay feedback” LPF...
That’s all that’s official stated.
I honestly don’t know if it’s modeled off of anything...
It’s kinda of it’s own unique Filter alongside the French LP. I don’t know if Duda ever revealed what the Filter was inspired by of anything.
A German engineered analogue filter?

[ariston]

Sorry to go off topic, but what filter would the implied 'German' one be? IG I always think of ladder filters and cems and ssms especially.

Not off topic. But I’m not sure if I can give a helpful answer.
German LP is a “zero delay feedback” LPF...
That’s all that’s official stated.
I honestly don’t know if it’s modeled off of anything...
It’s kinda of it’s own unique Filter alongside the French LP. I don’t know if Duda ever revealed what the Filter was inspired by of anything.
A German engineered analogue filter?

Those filters were coded by Ohmforce, AFAIK. Explains why they're so lovely and chunky!

[poonna]

Wavetable + German = Probably a Waldorf or PPG filter?

[anoise]

Overrated: Serum
Underrated: Rapid

[SamDi]

if A few more features that Serum has get added to Pigments? It’s honestly going to get really close. It already does things Serum can’t like Granular, decent analogue emulation, and a better (and visual) sampler.

I feel that Pigments has much more features. Serum has an oscillator editor and some more oscillator effects. Some more filter modes (whereby the standard filters sound bad to me). Some more LFOs. What else did I miss?

Pigments has a second filter, an arpeggiator (these two are most pain, missing in Serum), now a sample oscillator, a much more sophisticated effects section. I would say it is much more feature loaded.

The only ableton stock plugin I truly don’t like is the reverb. Ugh that reverb just sounds bad to me. Even if It’s not on “Eco” mode.

The reverb is the weakest part of Ableton. It‘s not, that it sounds bad. When you have a reference reverb and tweak Ableton‘s reverb long enough you can bring the result‘s pretty close. But there are reverbs, where you turn 3 knobs and it sounds more or less like the idea in your head after 1 or 2 minutes. And there is Ableton‘s reverb where you can spend half an hour and are not satisfied. BTW Ableton‘s reverb in Eco mode can fit very well as an effect reverb for aggressive sounds.

Wavetable, while it not replacing Serum it Pigments or Rapid any time soon, it’s a good plugin. It’s very fast, it’s effective, it works, and it’s stable. And some of its unison noise engines are really unique.

Yes Wavetable is bomb. The sound competes with the best in the market hands down. And the features are in an sophisticated way reduced to what you really need. Unfortunately I don‘t really often work with it, because I am pampered with all these super synths, which steal my time, noodling around with them, instead of focussing on one and being productive

[Buckster]

Underrated - IMO Massive X ok it does have some limitations but to me it just sounds fantastic - feels like playing some new high end new hardware synth

[Halonmusic]

I should try the German filter

Of course
Again, don’t get your hopes TOO high, getting analogue sounds out of Serum is a lot like forcing a square peg in a round hole but definitely check it out when you get a chance.
It’s in the “Misc” For some reason.
Not in the normal filter section.
As to date that’s the most analogue sounding filter that delivers the warmest results to my ears.

To be fair I’m not looking for analog when I’m using Serum because...well it’s serum so if there’s any filter that’s even warmer anyone can fee free to correct me.
There’s an insanely high amount of filters for that plugin. I’m not accustomed to all of em.

Oh its in 'Misc' ? I wonder if its modelled after the ppg filter

[Calenberger]

Underrated - IMO Massive X ok it does have some limitations but to me it just sounds fantastic - feels like playing some new high end new hardware synth

+1

[hlecram]

Overrated: serum
Underrated: image line harmless

I know, pretty different synths but purely based on the fact how rarely harmless gets any mention... maybe it shows some of its age now but underrated nonetheless

[EnGee]

What I noticed that wavetable synthesis is overrated while FM, PD, PM and Additive are underrated. Subtractive is in the middle.

[Chapelle]

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[bermudagold]

What I noticed that wavetable synthesis is overrated while FM, PD, PM and Additive are underrated. Subtractive is in the middle.

i think if this trend turns out to be accurate, it is less about synthesis method or architecture, and more about the dominant sounds that are the easiest for those types to produce; what genres those sounds are associated with, their overuse, and their ear fatigue.
I think the zipper rip and growl sounds of wavetable have become cliche, passe, and played out.
I think due to their dominance in film scoring, and the rise/popularity of flume types, granular may reach that saturation soon as well. Different granular engines sound marginally different, but granular has a signature sonic fingerprint that is almost as recognizable as the iFFT fingerprint of additive IMO.
I think subtractive sounds have been used for so long across so may genres, that the risk of this happening to them is much lower, as they are seen as classic to most. This is largely subjective in the eyes of the beholder, as I offered in another thread, one mans "classic" is another mans "dated"