Softube Modular... worth it?

[zerocrossing]

I demoed it early and I liked the sound but there wasn’t much available for it. Now I see there are some interesting 3rd party modules and I filled my cart with about $280 worth of stuff. I burned my demo time but the demos sound good. It’s very expensive and I already have Reaktor. Do you think it’s worth it?

[Ah_Dziz]

Nah. It sounds pretty good ,but nowhere near good enough for the cpu use (on my system at least). It also consistently gives me timing errors with clocking. If you demo it with all the fun modules and your system isn't boinked by it then I would say go for it. I've only really "used it" like twice, by which I mean made a song featuring it. Otherwise I've sampled it a few times while patching it up live, and I enjoy using it for an fx processor.
I will also add that it aliases far more than I would expect for the amount of juice it uses.
When you add the less than fun interface to all that I can't give it a ringing endorsement.
JJ

[Arashi]

Softube Modular sounds fabulous. The problem is the workflow. The UI is very clunky and frustrating to use. Modules must be dragged, one-by-one, to make space for new ones. You have to keep opening an overlay that blocks the whole UI to insert new modules. Existing cables can only dragged from the receiving end, so you have to completely remove a cable and create a new one if you want to connect it to a different source. The list goes on.

Cherry Audio's Voltage Modular got a lot of the workflow stuff right (but unfortunately sounds dull and generic). If they just copied Cherry's UI — not the look of it (which is kinda tacky and dated, IMO), but the way it works — it would be a lot more fun to use Softube Modular.

And yeah, the CPU usage is also quite high, but that seems to correspond directly to sound quality. I think they could at least improve the initial loading time though, as that's another thing that deters me from wanting to play with it more often.

[zerocrossing]

Nah. It sounds pretty good ,but nowhere near good enough for the cpu use (on my system at least). It also consistently gives me timing errors with clocking. If you demo it with all the fun modules and your system isn't boinked by it then I would say go for it. I've only really "used it" like twice, by which I mean made a song featuring it. Otherwise I've sampled it a few times while patching it up live, and I enjoy using it for an fx processor.
I will also add that it aliases far more than I would expect for the amount of juice it uses.
When you add the less than fun interface to all that I can't give it a ringing endorsement.
JJ

Huh, I don’t remember noticing any aliasing back when I had the demo. I wish they’d just let me reset my demo time, but as soon as I logged in I didn’t see a download link.

[zerocrossing]

Softube Modular sounds fabulous. The problem is the workflow. The UI is very clunky and frustrating to use. Modules must be dragged, one-by-one, to make space for new ones. You have to keep opening an overlay that blocks the whole UI to insert new modules. Existing cables can only dragged from the receiving end, so you have to completely remove a cable and create a new one if you want to connect it to a different source. The list goes on.

Cherry Audio's Voltage Modular got a lot of the workflow stuff right (but unfortunately sounds dull and generic). If they just copied Cherry's UI — not the look of it (which is kinda tacky and dated, IMO), but the way it works — it would be a lot more fun to use Softube Modular.

And yeah, the CPU usage is also quite high, but that seems to correspond directly to sound quality. I think they could at least improve the initial loading time though, as that's another thing that deters me from wanting to play with it more often.

Yeah, I do remember not liking the interface that much, but I have a different idea for using it than I did before. Before I was looking at it do be something like Blocks, but found Blocks to be a better workflow. My idea for Softube Modular would be to just build a bunch of fixed or semi modular setups for me to make patches on. I may have to lose my Dominion 1 due to space constraints and I’m hoping to be able to make a Dominion 1 equivalent, or at least in the neighborhood. Add some wave folding, Mutable modules, etc. Once the synth was built I’d probably not do a lot of changes every time I used it.

[Ah_Dziz]

Nah. It sounds pretty good ,but nowhere near good enough for the cpu use (on my system at least). It also consistently gives me timing errors with clocking. If you demo it with all the fun modules and your system isn't boinked by it then I would say go for it. I've only really "used it" like twice, by which I mean made a song featuring it. Otherwise I've sampled it a few times while patching it up live, and I enjoy using it for an fx processor.
I will also add that it aliases far more than I would expect for the amount of juice it uses.
When you add the less than fun interface to all that I can't give it a ringing endorsement.
JJ

Huh, I don’t remember noticing any aliasing back when I had the demo. I wish they’d just let me reset my demo time, but as soon as I logged in I didn’t see a download link.

One of my favorite tricks to do with modular stuff is to use bandpass filtered noise as a modulator for fm. This is something I first did with my nord modular and made some amazing pads and keys and then some regenerative percussion sequences with. This same move in STM just turns into aliased almost white noise at the higher end of the spectrum and doesn't have a very useful range at all. I've tried attenuating the noise, the filter output the fm input and anything else that would have an effect on the sound and nothing helped. There are many other similar audio rate modulations with complex waveforms or live audio input that turn into the same noise quite fast. On top of that the clocking has been flakey for me since release and I tested the latest version and still have problems (resets don't happen at the proper time, it seems that the master clock reset can't stay properly synced so things retrigger out of time after being run through the click divider). If you stick with pretty standard Subtractive setups and add a few bells and whistles like filter fm and a bit of feedback then it sounds great, but at a huge cpu cost. Again this is just my experience, but I've done a good bit of hardware and software synthesis in modular and non modular setups so I feel I can be objective. I did buy the thing and quite a few add on modules too.

So if you want to have very nice sounding, but not especially complex patches that sound very analog then this can do it, but so can many other synths. For the kind of off the wall stuff that I would turn to modular synthesis for I find it lacking in sound quality, ease of use , and performance (to be fair there are few vsts that can handle the types of modulation I want).

Depending on your use case and how well STM gets along with your cpu then it can be worth it. I'd demo up and see for yourself.

Good Luck
JJ

[Ah_Dziz]

The very short version is that Reaktor Blocks can do what I want when I need to get silly and when it can't then I hook up my G2. I would try and blackmail a new demo out of softube (they stand to lose nothing by resetting your demo) if I were you and if they won't then I would stick with what you have.

PS I have nothing against ST and own/ use lots of their stuff, I just think they missed the mark with this and a few of their other products.

[WasteLand]

aliasing?? it is oversampled as hell.. indeed Softube Modular sounds excellent, not because of CPU limitations, my patches aren't that big, it is my workflow, or what is better, that make drones, that a very rich in sound, evolving strangely..
the vermona module i use more for triggering not in the way it is meant to, or meant to, because it is a modular.

Reaktor by the way, in my experience, is as CPU hungry as Softube Modular.

i started with soft modulars with Softube Modular, and have all the modules (accept bass/lead, that are also available as modules).

still when i work with it, i am overwhelmed by my own patches, i listen to them first, haha. then build other ones...

yes the workflow can be improved, spaghetti cables. and only one side you can drag.

but what you can achieve with it...

i own quite a lot of Block packs for Reaktor, i use them too. other way of working. still me like it.
and don't forget the free Blocks version of a complete Buchla system for Reaktor.

and yes, i also have Voltage Modular, i use it quite often, not thát CPU hungry, but can be become quickly CPU hungry by the way, if you use some modules that are very demanding. the look i like, i am used to it.
the sound of VM is different than that of Reaktor or Softube Modular. not in a negative way, a different character. still you can achieve rich sounds.

but Softube Modular, and Reaktor, have that real, real rich sound.

if you ask me personal, yes it is worth it, quite worth it.

for me it stays a very special soft modular, and this time i don't miss any modules in it, because with what i have, it is already endless.

but Reaktor with Blocks is also excellent.

the loading time of Softube Modular is improved in a big way. still not fast, but even Reaktor takes it's time to initialize.

it is expensive, yes. worth it? yes, if you get things out of it, that work for your music, enrich your music, as always. a quite standard response.

[zerocrossing]

Nah. It sounds pretty good ,but nowhere near good enough for the cpu use (on my system at least). It also consistently gives me timing errors with clocking. If you demo it with all the fun modules and your system isn't boinked by it then I would say go for it. I've only really "used it" like twice, by which I mean made a song featuring it. Otherwise I've sampled it a few times while patching it up live, and I enjoy using it for an fx processor.
I will also add that it aliases far more than I would expect for the amount of juice it uses.
When you add the less than fun interface to all that I can't give it a ringing endorsement.
JJ

Huh, I don’t remember noticing any aliasing back when I had the demo. I wish they’d just let me reset my demo time, but as soon as I logged in I didn’t see a download link.

One of my favorite tricks to do with modular stuff is to use bandpass filtered noise as a modulator for fm. This is something I first did with my nord modular and made some amazing pads and keys and then some regenerative percussion sequences with. This same move in STM just turns into aliased almost white noise at the higher end of the spectrum and doesn't have a very useful range at all. I've tried attenuating the noise, the filter output the fm input and anything else that would have an effect on the sound and nothing helped. There are many other similar audio rate modulations with complex waveforms or live audio input that turn into the same noise quite fast. On top of that the clocking has been flakey for me since release and I tested the latest version and still have problems (resets don't happen at the proper time, it seems that the master clock reset can't stay properly synced so things retrigger out of time after being run through the click divider). If you stick with pretty standard Subtractive setups and add a few bells and whistles like filter fm and a bit of feedback then it sounds great, but at a huge cpu cost. Again this is just my experience, but I've done a good bit of hardware and software synthesis in modular and non modular setups so I feel I can be objective. I did buy the thing and quite a few add on modules too.

So if you want to have very nice sounding, but not especially complex patches that sound very analog then this can do it, but so can many other synths. For the kind of off the wall stuff that I would turn to modular synthesis for I find it lacking in sound quality, ease of use , and performance (to be fair there are few vsts that can handle the types of modulation I want).

Depending on your use case and how well STM gets along with your cpu then it can be worth it. I'd demo up and see for yourself.

Good Luck
JJ

Thanks for all that. Yeah, I am aware of the limits of software. It’s funny when I wander into software v hardware threads and hear the “there’s no difference in a mix” arguments. They always are people who are only interested in making the sounds they heard on 80s pop hits, so of course they’re happy with RePro, Legend, etc. My issue was that I couldn’t demo it because my demo expired in 2016 and that was before they had any additional modules for sale. I contacted support but they didn’t respond... until this morning. They reset my demo period, so I’ll give it a spin. Thanks for all your insights.

[Ah_Dziz]

Glad they helped out.

[Ou_Tis]

I just learned that Modular can be used to play non-MPE Softube synths with MPE controllers... but do I have to load multiple instances of the synth inside Modular to do that? If so is it any more cpu efficient than just using multiple instances of the standalone plugins in multichannel mode? And if I'd have to load multiple instances, would I also have to manually connect the cords for each instance? Or could I do it for one instance and then load multiple copies of that?

[Rastkovic]

I just learned that Modular can be used to play non-MPE Softube synths with MPE controllers... but do I have to load multiple instances of the synth inside Modular to do that?

No, that is not possible. It's not a wrapper. You can build a MPE patch inside Softube Modular, with the modules from the Model synth line.

A MPE patch in Softube Modular looks like this....

viewtopic.php?p=8545907

[Scotty]

I am using an Es-9 with Es-5 and ESx -8 CV expanders (Expert Sleepers) with VCV rack. Does Softtube Modular have hooks into the Expert Sleepers interfaces? I like the sound I am getting out of their VST synths.

[whyterabbyt]

Does Softtube Modular have hooks into the Expert Sleepers interfaces?

Softube Modular doesnt have hooks into anything that isnt by Softube.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Honeslty, and I know it's a total pipe dream, but I'd MUCH RATHER Softube just built their modules for VCV Rack. Or perhaps even tried to license a Softube Modular version of VCV.

All the work for a killer Eurorack modular experience has been done by the VCV crew. The browsing is pretty damn good, the navigation is great, polyphony is dream in VCV, cables look good and have lots of options...Softube Modular, at present, competes on sound quality but nothing else. A Softube+VCV hybrid would be killer.