What Can Hive/Sylenth/Diva Do Uniquely?

[ghostwhistler]

I'm sure this question has been asked to death and beyond, but the Native Instrument sale is still on and Hive seems a good deal. However I have DIva and Repro. I know they are specifically analog oriented, but there seems a lot of cross over. Is it really worth getting Hive as well? It's hard to tell just from the demo because there's so much depth!
I've been trying Sylenth which i find very user friendly albeit the trial version locks out some of the features. I like it's sounds. It's much more expensive (not on sale and the VAT on top is pretty steep), but it has a rent to own feature I'm very tempted by.#So is it just indulgent to get everything, or do they offer significant differences worth purchasing. I generally want to be making synth based analog oriented music so I don't really need loads and loads of tech doing the same thing, especially with both Diva and Repro.
Thanks

[chk071]

No offense, but... you can really figure that out yourself, especially as you are not specifying what exactly you mean with "unique". Those synths are really not that hard and feature packed.

One thing Hive does uniquely is that it has a scripting language to create wavetables. But, apart from that, those synths share a lot of features. But, again, nobody can say which feature is important to you, so, further demoing of the synths is what you should do.

[BONES]

One thing I can tell you for sure, don't waste your money on Sylenth 1. It's ancient and not worth anything like what they are asking for it any more. It's had its day and you can do much better for your money. If you want something for trance, buy JP6K for 25 euros instead.

I bought Hive a while ago and I can't say it impresses me that much. You might want to spend your money on something like ANA 2, which is 40% off at the moment. I think it has way less overlap with what you've got than Hive. Or have a look at Vital, they have a good version for just $25.

[chk071]

One thing I can tell you for sure, don't waste your money on Sylenth 1. It's ancient and not worth anything like what they are asking for it any more. It's had its day and you can do much better for your money. If you want something for trance, buy JP6K for 25 euros instead.

TBH, as much as I like JP6K's sound, Sylenth1 is much better suited for Trance music, because it lets you spread unison voices in the stereo panorama, and offers up to 4 oscillators with 8x unison each. JP6K does what it says on the box, not much more.

[recursive one]

Hive has wavetables and per-oscillator unison, which neither Diva nor Repro can do (Diva can do supersaw but in Hive you can apply unison to any waveform).

Also I think it sounds different enough from these, it doesn't try to emulate analog like Diva and Repro. I find it sounding more similar to mid-00's VA synths (I find a lot of sonic similarity with my Virus TI actually).

Sylenth is old but still very relevant in many genres like trance/psy because it has that classic sound. But I'd say Hive it better deal becuase it can do everything Sylenth can and a lot more because of the wavetables.

[PieBerger]

Hive has wavetables and a tonne more modulation possibilities compared to Diva, RePro and Sylenth1. Unless you prefer the sound of Sylenth1, Hive wins hands down in terms of additional features, while not compromising on the simple and efficient workflow. ANA2 is another good option as Bones suggested. I have both and I prefer ANA2 for bass, but Hive for pretty much everything else. I like it's sound and it's way more fun and useable; ANA2 is a bit of a click fest and too fiddly/clunky (to me) for programming entire track's worth of patches. YMMV.

[XorXisT]

If in doubt, always keep your money in your pocket. Works great for me .

But keep in mind that Hive 2 has 3 synth engines, with their own unison laws, filter types and envelope behavior, plus everything else already said.

Well worth the full price, if you ask me.

Half price? No-brainer really.

And then there's update 2.1 incoming...

[EdSfer]

I don't see a lot of overlap between Hive and Diva/Repro, except that they're all (great) subtractive synths for the most part. I won't speak about Sylenth1 which I don't have and for which I don't have any interest.

As stated above, Hive has wavetables (which in itself, is already a huge difference) + real modulation matrix, function generators, shape sequencer, unison per osc, 2 filters etc. It's a modern synth vs analog emulations.

So, Diva vs Repro would be a legitimate question, Hive vs Ana2 as well, but Hive vs Diva/Repro, 2 different worlds.

[BONES]

More like two different streets in the same suburb. You only need to go through the presets to hear that - 80% or more of them will have something similar in each of the others. Things like a mod matrix might change the workflow but, in the end, they have zero effect on the output.

TBH, as much as I like JP6K's sound, Sylenth1 is much better suited for Trance music, because it lets you spread unison voices in the stereo panorama

So does JP6K. It's hidden in the "MORE" page. And for the price of Sylenth 1 you can buy five licenses for JP6K and have enough left over for a Big Mac.

I think it sounds different enough from these, it doesn't try to emulate analog like Diva and Repro. I find it sounding more similar to mid-00's VA synths

And what does "VA" stand for? What you're actually saying is it doesn't try to emulate analogue but it does sound like other synths that try to emulate analogue. Where is the sense in that?

[recursive one]

I think it sounds different enough from these, it doesn't try to emulate analog like Diva and Repro. I find it sounding more similar to mid-00's VA synths

And what does "VA" stand for? What you're actually saying is it doesn't try to emulate analogue but it does sound like other synths that try to emulate analogue. Where is the sense in that?

What's up with your fixation on the first part of the word analogue?

I think you are confusing VAs with "analog emulations"

Technically VA does mean "virtual analog", but it's just an umbrella term describing a synth having an oscillator with saw/pulse/sine waveforms, a filter and an envelope. A VA synth doesn't have to actually sound like any existing analog synth.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I think it sounds different enough from these, it doesn't try to emulate analog like Diva and Repro. I find it sounding more similar to mid-00's VA synths

And what does "VA" stand for? What you're actually saying is it doesn't try to emulate analogue but it does sound like other synths that try to emulate analogue. Where is the sense in that?

I don't see what's so hard to understand about what he said. He said it sounds more like the virtual analogs of the mid-00's (which have their own character, not so vintage) as opposed to synths that are trying to accurately model vintage analog s from the 70's. You gotta really be looking for an argument to have a problem with this simple statement.

As for the original question, a big difference in these is having the dual filters, which opens up many different sounds. And while I own and still appreciate Sylenth1 (no it will never be "outdated" or anything like that), I would not recommend it at full price over other synths that can do similar things like Hive. In particular I'd look at ANA2.

[EdSfer]

You only need to go through the presets to hear that - 80% or more of them will have something similar in each of the others. Things like a mod matrix might change the workflow but, in the end, they have zero effect on the output.

I disagree with that. I think that roughly 2 out of 3 presets from Hive 2 were made before 1.2, thus from a time when Hive was a simple VA, so yeah there was a lot more overlap then. But once there are wavetables involved, and even more since Hive 2.0, one could approximate most of Diva's sounds with Hive, but that doesn't work the other way around. You will have a hard time mimicking a complex wavetable scan with Diva. Same for sequences you can achieve in Hive with the shape seq. Let alone a complex wavetable scan sequenced by the shape seq

[Echoes in the Attic]

I think it sounds different enough from these, it doesn't try to emulate analog like Diva and Repro. I find it sounding more similar to mid-00's VA synths

And what does "VA" stand for? What you're actually saying is it doesn't try to emulate analogue but it does sound like other synths that try to emulate analogue. Where is the sense in that?

I don't see what's so hard to understand about what he said. He said it sounds more like the virtual analogs of the mid-00's (which have their own character, not so vintage) as opposed to more recent synths that are trying to accurately model vintage analog s from the 70's. You gotta really be looking for an argument to have a problem with this simple statement.

As for the original question, a big difference in these is having the dual filters, which opens up many different sounds. And while I own and still appreciate Sylenth1 (no it will never be "outdated" or anything like that), I would not recommend it at full price over other synths that can do similar things like Hive. In particular I'd look at ANA2.

[chk071]

TBH, as much as I like JP6K's sound, Sylenth1 is much better suited for Trance music, because it lets you spread unison voices in the stereo panorama

So does JP6K. It's hidden in the "MORE" page. And for the price of Sylenth 1 you can buy five licenses for JP6K and have enough left over for a Big Mac.

I stand corrected then. I demo'd JP6K, and thought I checked everything out. Guess that was not the case.

[BBFG#]

This is KVR, so...
Indulgence be damned!
The synths you're considering you'll most likely own- eventually.

As far as "overlap", they all seem to make their own vin diagram within our own personal perception.

I just caved in and bought Hive 2. Just couldn't resist the price. And to my senses, its character seems to be more between Zebra and ACE. With it leaning more to the Zebra side. But it feels as if it has more of the ACE punch to me.
I didn't really need it. I'm pretty much covered with a small handful of plugins I primarily and secondarily use.
But the price, the compatibility, the company attitude and the fact that it still does have its own character made it irresistible.
Note: I do also own DIVA & Brazille, but not Repro since my wife owns Arturia Collection and so I can't justify it at the time being.

Things I personally like about the u-he line that I can add to the usual praise found everywhere are that it is a true cross platform for three OSs. And that it has a much more customizable way to organize presets. i.e. I don't have to load every preset I don't use just to have the presets I do.
There have been other good plugins I've sold just because the bloat became too time consuming that way.
I don't know how Sylenth handles that, but fortunately for me, I never clicked with it to consider it pass the demo.
EMWV.