KVR Audio

Tannaliini · Post by **Tannaliini** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 7:32 am

Oh, and if you're not in hurry, maybe wait for BF

gondii · Post by **gondii** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 8:07 am

Tannaliini wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 7:32 am Oh, and if you're not in hurry, maybe wait for BF

Which one is that?

Dencheg · Post by **Dencheg** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 9:00 am

gondii wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 8:07 am
Tannaliini wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 7:32 am Oh, and if you're not in hurry, maybe wait for BF
Which one is that?

Black Friday sales

gondii · Post by **gondii** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 9:04 am

OH haha, yes makes sense.

e@rs · Post by **e@rs** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:09 am

+1 for Spire or DUNE.

LazyBaba · Post by **LazyBaba** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:32 am

Hi, thank you for all the suggestions.
Maybe I could wait for Black Friday. Any idea if some of these suggested VSTis don’t usually get discount prices?

audiot · Post by **audiot** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 12:07 pm

audiot wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 7:24 am
claudedefaren wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 9:17 pm I do know that the non-wavetable oscillators in Hive 2 are still very CPU heavy and near-Serum levels, even though u-he chopped off random high frequency content on every note it plays (non-wavetable oscs only) to try and reduce the CPU hit.

The wavetable oscs only use 1% more CPU on my system. U-he marketing plays up the "light on CPU" bit but they seem to be aware that it isn't. I felt a little deceived when I got it to be honest, but I don't care cause it's an amazing synth and my favorite.
Even if you play polyphonic with all voices and all fx enabled, Hive never exceeds a certain amount of processing power (and this is something around 10% on my i7-4470K from 2013). Would you be more happy if u-he said: "We've found a good compromise between sound quality, features and CPU usage"?

BTW: My recommendaton to the OP would be Zebra ... tons of features, very CPU-friendly and it can sound warm

I have to correct myself! I did a test in a current project and Hive can go above the 10% CPU usage i've mentioned, BUT only if you have 3 or more hands

. In real life usage, Hive isnt one of the synths where you constantly have to keep an eye on your CPU meter.

gondii · Post by **gondii** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 12:08 pm

Don't count on the u-he synths being discounted (Hive, Diva and Zebra were mentioned here). Rapid and Phase Plant probably yes, Dune I would guess a maybe. Ana2 is on a kind of permanent discount, I doubt it will go lower than the 50 gbp it's being sold for right now.

Dencheg · Post by **Dencheg** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:14 pm

Btw, can't go wrong with Ana 2. Actually, the best bang for the buck. A lot of stuff is done right. And it's already discounted.

claudedefaren · Post by **claudedefaren** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:42 pm

claudedefaren · Post by **claudedefaren** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:46 pm

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:53 pm

claudedefaren wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 9:17 pm I do know that the non-wavetable oscillators in Hive 2 are still very CPU heavy and near-Serum levels, even though u-he chopped off random high frequency content on every note it plays (non-wavetable oscs only) to try and reduce the CPU hit.

That's the same principle that Sylenth uses and even Dune afaik. It's a very standard technique and it's called "mip mapping". In all tests we did, Hive performed pretty much the same for CPU as Sylenth for anything oscillator unison of 4 or higher. However, Hive's oscillators use 1.5x as many "mip maps", which equals a higher frequency range. That's for non-wavetable oscs, of course.

(Hive always processes oscillators in 4x, 8x, 12x or 16x unison, regardless of settings, which makes it very fast in general, but slightly more CPU "intensive" at no unison, which we think is neglectable).

In my observation Serum becomes relatively expensive on CPU when you combine unison with wavetable sweeps. That's where Hive uses considerably less CPU, but still more than Sylenth, simply also because Sylenth doesn't do wavetable sweeps.

That's why I still think Hive is light on CPU, for what it does.

claudedefaren · Post by **claudedefaren** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 3:10 pm

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 3:26 pm

As a compliment to Serum... Diva would be a good match. Diva has big sweet spots and easily and effortlessly sounds warm and inviting.

Zebra would be another one to look at. Zebra is relatively easy on the CPU and has a softer and smoother sound than Serum.

Icarus would be another option. It is also a wavetable synth like Serum, but different enough in sonic character to not be redundant. It is light on CPU and has a more musical character than Serum. Pretty similar in synth architecture though. Does have two filters which adds a lot

I think Diva most readily offers the types of sounds that Serum doesn't (or doesn't easily lend itself to without working at it).

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 3:32 pm

claudedefaren wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 3:10 pmMaybe Sylenth used to when you made Hive, I didn't use Sylenth back then, but it doesn't do that now.

You're right. They changed it. I stand corrected. Who would have thought...

Serum & what else?