- “MOD REMAP” – these are very similar to modulation mappers in Zebra with the important exception that you get one for every single individual modulation assignment in the matrix which means you can use the same modulation source to do a lot of very different stuff. Also, you edit them in the same way that you edit the LFO envelopes which I find very intuitive and convenient.
- “TRANSPOSE SNAP” – this kinda almost makes up for Vital’s lack of an arpeggiator. It basically makes the oscillator snap to particular intervals when you modulate the pitch, or if you select “Global Snap” it will snap the oscillator to a set of particular pitches closest to whichever note was played (like a MIDI scale snap function). The latter is less interesting to me personally, but with “Global Snap” turned off it becomes super easy to do SID type arpeggios.
- The LFO grid – one of the things I like most about the LFO envelope editor the ability to choose an arbitrary number of grid lines for either of the horizontal or vertical axis. So for example, it’s easy to make seven evenly spaced envelope points in the same span as six or five. This is also useful in the waveform editor.
- The Random modulators – I especially like the Perlin type randomization for subtle pitch warbling. For some reason it sounds a bit more natural than the usual random glide LFO. Not quite sure what the deal is with the Lorenz Attractor though, but it seems interesting.
- The Unison Stack modes – It’s really neat that with just one oscillator you can add an octave into the unison, or a fifth, or both, or an entire major triad etc...
- There’s recently been some talk about visualizing modulations and I personally think that Vital does this in a manner that’s fairly elegant and unobtrusive yet still useful and informatively. I don’t think animating the wavetables is entirely necessary but I do find it nice to have an oscilloscope in the corner which always seems to sync neatly to the note being played.
- Filters – Regardless of what you may think of the sound, it’s nice that rather than having separate low-pass and high-pass filters, you can morph between them with either a band-pass or a notch in the middle position. Also there are a bunch of other interesting filter shapes such as a couple of different formant filters and a bunch of combs and phasers, each with unique controls.
I know the title of this thread might annoy some people, and just as a little preemptive disclosure I’d like to make it clear that these are just my personal opinions. I don’t think Vital is perfect nor do I think Zebra needs to be anything like it (which is obviously completely not up to me). I’m not making any demands and I don’t think anyone has to agree with me or even listen to me. I’m just sharing my personal observations in case they might inspire a respectful and friendly discussion.
