Synapse Audio OBSESSION is now available!

[zerocrossing]

Synapse Audio's synths have a certain sound, just like the synths from most other developers have a certain sound.

I've never been entirely convinced by the idea that everything made by one company has a "certain sound". Would be very interested to see any real evidence that supports this theory.

I think it happens. If you listen to the Arturia emulations, they all have a bit of a boxy sound to them that can be heard despite character differences in all of them. Even OB-Xa V has it.

Another thing that happens is preset style. You can hear Howard Scarr all over every single U-He synth, though his stuff is great and pretty wide ranging. Listen to Tone2 plugins though. I swear it’s as if they try to replicate the same set of presets over and over again. I don’t think I could pick any one of their synths out in a blind test, but when you dig into them you can start discerning differences, though it’s still clear they’re made by the same company.

[Richard_Synapse]

Synapse Audio's synths have a certain sound, just like the synths from most other developers have a certain sound.

I've never been entirely convinced by the idea that everything made by one company has a "certain sound". Would be very interested to see any real evidence that supports this theory.

There is not going to be any.

In the vintage-analog world, many synths used Curtis or SSM chips, which do have a certain sound. They have been used by dozens of manufacturers though:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEM_and_S ... nthesizers

In software, you could argue that some components have a certain sound, and this colors the overall synthesizer to some degree. But this is not a convincing argument when it comes to emulations, since emulations are designed to sound like particular hardware.

An argument can be made that it is the sound designers who craft specific, recognizable trademark sounds. That argument is a lot more convincing (think D50 here as the classic example).

Richard

[AnX]

An argument can be made that it is the sound designers who craft specific, recognizable trademark sounds. That argument is a lot more convincing

this


especially when certain preset makers make the same sounds or same type of sounds for every synth they work on

the devs are partly to blame here, they pick the factory sounds, more diversity might solve the problem of users claiming companies have a "certain sound"

[BONES]

You never occured to me as an emulation fan, anyway.

I am the furthest thing from it but if it's a good synth I won't care. What I like about them is that they are generally simple synths that sound great, so I can get what I need from them quickly and easily.

I have demoed it and besides from hearing a rather trivial but fine sounding VA, it is made with the same restrictions as the one it tries to be. Boring to me (but so is DIVA), but to each, his own.

The difference between you and I is that I don't look at the world through the lens of my own self-interest. I can appreciate that something is good, even though it is not necessarily useful to me, personally. Diva is another example - I think it is a brilliant synth but it doesn't interest me at all.

I don’t need every synth to be a synthesis playground. Sometimes a simple synth with great character is plenty. Anything more would distract from the composition.

I don't need any of my synths to be a "synthesis playground". I need them to be straightforward and relatively simple so I don't get bogged down dealing with irrelevant minutiae because the sounds I prefer to use are invariably simple sounds. As I said above, that is the draw of emulations - relatively simple synths with a great sound. They work or they don't so you don't spend hours desperately trying to make something happen that just doesn't want to.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Synapse Audio's synths have a certain sound, just like the synths from most other developers have a certain sound.

I've never been entirely convinced by the idea that everything made by one company has a "certain sound". Would be very interested to see any real evidence that supports this theory.

I think it happens. If you listen to the Arturia emulations, they all have a bit of a boxy sound to them that can be heard despite character differences in all of them. Even OB-Xa V has it.

Another thing that happens is preset style. You can hear Howard Scarr all over every single U-He synth, though his stuff is great and pretty wide ranging. Listen to Tone2 plugins though. I swear it’s as if they try to replicate the same set of presets over and over again. I don’t think I could pick any one of their synths out in a blind test, but when you dig into them you can start discerning differences, though it’s still clear they’re made by the same company.

I totally agree, even though I know it's impossible to prove. I do believe that companies have a certain sound, or at least there are commonalities to their synths, even when modeling totally different hardware.

[IncarnateX]

Basically, I keep it simple. My subjective opinion is but one offered in the abyss of opinions, and if anyone wants to discuss something objective, it would be questions of concrete features, cpu performance or whatever verifiable as such. Unless we are having a troll-fest, of course, then wide sweeping genalizations from your own point of view surely is one way to go. However, I am not going to discuss objectively how things sound to me or how I should percieve them according to someone's own bias. I have no reason to take that seriously, I do what I want, anyway.

[chk071]

Synapse Audio's synths have a certain sound, just like the synths from most other developers have a certain sound.

I've never been entirely convinced by the idea that everything made by one company has a "certain sound". Would be very interested to see any real evidence that supports this theory.

I think it happens. If you listen to the Arturia emulations, they all have a bit of a boxy sound to them that can be heard despite character differences in all of them. Even OB-Xa V has it.

Another thing that happens is preset style. You can hear Howard Scarr all over every single U-He synth, though his stuff is great and pretty wide ranging. Listen to Tone2 plugins though. I swear it’s as if they try to replicate the same set of presets over and over again. I don’t think I could pick any one of their synths out in a blind test, but when you dig into them you can start discerning differences, though it’s still clear they’re made by the same company.

I totally agree, even though I know it's impossible to prove.

It is. Just like it is impossible to prove stuff like "snappy" envelopes to some. Even though a lot of people talk about it. "But.. but... MY synth is snappy!". Well...

[chk071]

You constantly claim the Moog filter sucks because the loss of bass with the resonance doesn't suit you.

Obviously I've not complained about it enough for you to understand because it has nothing to do with my needs, it's about what resonance in a filter is supposed to do and how a ladder filter's behaviour limits the versatility of the instrument that uses it. It's a purely objective assessment.

Tell me one synth which doesn't have technical properties which limit it in any way. I can't think of any. They all do, at least if you want to do stuff which goes beyond the capabilities, or "sweet spot" of the synth.

[Stefken]

In software, you could argue that some components have a certain sound, and this colors the overall synthesizer to some degree. But this is not a convincing argument when it comes to emulations, since emulations are designed to sound like particular hardware.

Regardless of the fact that your synths would sound similar or not.
Based on what you've written here, this is hardly an argument as you are trying to prove a statement with what needs to be proven.

Man X : Synapse Audio's synths all sound alike.
You: That's impossible as they are designed to sound like a specific synth.

That's hardly an argument.

[SLiC]

Legacy sounds absolutely nothing like Obsession (unless we are just saying that all subtractive analogue synthesisers essentially sound the same?)

[Stefken]

You mean Legend?

[Richard_Synapse]

Regardless of the fact that your synths would sound similar or not.
Based on what you've written here, this is hardly an argument as you are trying to prove a statement with what needs to be proven.

Man X : Synapse Audio's synths all sound alike.
You: That's impossible as they are designed to sound like a specific synth.

That's hardly an argument.

Sure it is. You can check the comparison files for Obsession vs the hardware:
https://www.synapse-audio.com/obcomparisons.zip

For The Legend there's even more files out there, we also did a blind test on GS back then which nobody passed by listening. So it does sound a whole lot like the original hardware

FWIW there's another reason why the idea of a brand-specific sound is nonsense, and that's because of third-party components. In Obsession specifically, the reverb was coded by Mirko Ruta which works/sounds unlike any of ours.

Richard

[aMUSEd]

In Obsession specifically, the reverb was coded by Mirko Ruta which works/sounds unlike any of ours.

Richard

I thought you had said Dune 3 had the same reverb? (At least the Shimmer hall)

[Arashi]

I think it happens. If you listen to the Arturia emulations, they all have a bit of a boxy sound to them that can be heard despite character differences in all of them. Even OB-Xa V has it.

I've heard people say that, but I don't really hear it. Maybe I don't know what I'm listening for, or perhaps it's just because I can't hear anything over 13 kHz and have no idea what I'm missing.

Another thing that happens is preset style. You can hear Howard Scarr all over every single U-He synth, though his stuff is great and pretty wide ranging.

This I believe. Howard Scarr in particular is responsible for a large chunk of my favorite presets across several different synths — all u-he synths, but I think his presets sound quite different from ones made by other people for the same synth (and also have so much variety that I'm not sure there's a "Howard Scarr sound" either). I guess there could still be a "u-he sound" that's baked into all their synths, but if there is, it seems to be pretty insignificant.

[chk071]

FWIW there's another reason why the idea of a brand-specific sound is nonsense, and that's because of third-party components. In Obsession specifically, the reverb was coded by Mirko Ruta which works/sounds unlike any of ours.

And I noticed that right when I tried it. I took a look at the manual then, and saw that it's from Mirko Ruta. It sounds very different from the one in Dune 3, that's why I was wondering.

Anyway, it's hard to put in words really. I just notice a resemblance whenever I play with a Synapse synth. I don't say they all sound the same, I just say that I notice a certain character that they share. Oscillator sound, the envelopes (especially), and the resonance behavior. What I also noticed though of course is how you improve the filters with every new synth, which I find quite remarkable, because, I don't see this kind of progress in other soft synths.

Anyway, I hope I didn't come over as being overly negative. I just say that I notice that it's a Synapse synth when I play with it. As I mentioned to AnX, I probably wouldn't spot it in a blind test, but, I see many issues with those anyway. The primary one being that the person who creates those tests of course tries to make the sound as close as possible (instead of trying to dial in the same parameter values, and see if it's close), chooses which sounds he wants to recreate (could be sounds which aren't even very relevant to the sound character of the original synth), or does sounds which don't really separate the wheat from the chaff (extreme sounds with a lot of resonance, audio rate modulation, short decay times with a lot of resonance, filter FM etc.).

Anyway, let's rather get back to the synth, I don't really see continuing this discussion will do the plugin or the people interested in it any justice.