Spire Synthesizer

[recursive one]

Also, osc cross-modulation should run at audio rate to sound good which may require quite a some CPU.

Of course it runs at audio rate, it's one oscillator modulating the other. It doesn't kill your CPU at all because your oscillators are already running at audio rate.

If a synth (digital) can use an oscillator as a modulation source this doesn't necessarily mean the modulation actually performs at audio rate. This was actually discussed a couple of pages back in this exact thread.

It's the modulation accuracy what taxes the CPU (try different accuracy options in Dune3, iirc you have it).

As for the rest of you post, you asked me why I need wavetable synths and I answered that question. You may have different thoughts on wavetables, that's fine, whatever works for you. Yes, you can approximate the sound of certain wavetables using 2-osc FM or sync, likely because these have been made with FM or sync. There is no specific sound inherent to all wavetables because they may be prepared in very different ways and have very different sonic qualities.

Odd enough, spire character wise is a lot more similar to bazille than hive!

Actually yes, and I like the Bazille's sound very much too.

But making a meaningful patch in Spire for me is 500 times easier than in Bazille

I just grabbed it before sale runs out, and two packs. Been a while since i bought a synth anyway.

Thanks chk071 and recursive one for insight

[BONES]

Yes, you can approximate the sound of certain wavetables using 2-osc FM or sync.

You've got it back to front, wavetables were developed to approximate things like FM and Hard Sync, not the other way around.

[recursive one]

Yes, you can approximate the sound of certain wavetables using 2-osc FM or sync.

You've got it back to front, wavetables were developed to approximate things like FM and Hard Sync, not the other way around.

And synthesizers were developed to approximate things like pianos, flutes and strings.

[Sindikhate]

I got Spire a few days ago. Have they changed anything in the engine or the effects as I always remember it brighter and more aggressive? And if that is the case in which version the changes happened? I wonder if there are previous versions to download from their website.

[zvenx]

I am not aware of any engine sound change and I have had it from almost day 1.
rsp

[e-crooner]

I got Spire a few days ago. Have they changed anything in the engine or the effects as I always remember it brighter and more aggressive? And if that is the case in which version the changes happened? I wonder if there are previous versions to download from their website.

Maybe your hearing has deteriorated

[briefcasemanx]

Yes, you can approximate the sound of certain wavetables using 2-osc FM or sync.

You've got it back to front, wavetables were developed to approximate things like FM and Hard Sync, not the other way around.

Why would someone develop wavetables to approximate stuff that already existed?

[HcDoom]

I got Spire a few days ago. Have they changed anything in the engine or the effects as I always remember it brighter and more aggressive? And if that is the case in which version the changes happened? I wonder if there are previous versions to download from their website.

This is how rumor's start!

No, nothing changed, everything is the same as before. Great synth!

[Sindikhate]

You are probably right, I was checking some banks that have been altered a lot by a friend. Dayuuumm

[Ploki]

Yes, you can approximate the sound of certain wavetables using 2-osc FM or sync.

You've got it back to front, wavetables were developed to approximate things like FM and Hard Sync, not the other way around.

Why would someone develop wavetables to approximate stuff that already existed?

efficiency?
GM/Hardsync at audio rate is much more CPU consuming than looping a few cycles of a waveform.
Wavetable synthesis is not really synthesis per se anyway, it's a snapshot of a sound that was synthesised in some other manner in the first place.

[e-crooner]

Where do you draw the line? Afaik, Hive and Sylenth1 also use such snapshots, waveform samples basically, 3 and 2 per octave, respectively.

[Ploki]

Where do you draw the line? Afaik, Hive and Sylenth1 also use such snapshots, waveform samples basically, 3 and 2 per octave, respectively.

Hive is different, because it has a scripting mode, which generates wavetables based on code, technically "buffers" other synthesis methods. (Well the WT part, VA mode is normal).

Where do you draw the line? If you want to modulate such FM Hard-sync sounds on the fly, wavetables aren't feasible or practical.
That's i guess why Bazille to me sounds so much like Spire in "character" - but takes much more CPU and is much more hard to program.

Where you draw the line is simply a design choice. You can make a compressor with 100 knobs or 1 knob, and underlying code can be identical.
Melda is in the 100 knob side, and doesn't even draw the line, that's why its so easy to make it sound so incredibly bad.

[e-crooner]

What I said about Hive and Sylenth1 referred to the normal VA mode, i.e. before WT were added to Hive.

[Ploki]

so, why WTs?
Efficiency. Why limited as in typical VAs? To create favourability toward a certain sound type/workflow.

[BONES]

Why would someone develop wavetables to approximate stuff that already existed?

So they could do it digitally. e.g. A wavetable with different pulse widths for a pulse wave oscillator. You'll find there are plenty of softsynths that still do this because it saves on CPU cycles over trying to generate it all in realtime.