24 Synth Supersaw Comparison

[chk071]

@Funkybot and e-crooner: Do you actually use supersaw sounds in your music, or do you listen to music heavily incorporating such sounds?

Just asking, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but, I personally rarely post in threads like "Check this Minimoog Funk Bass comparison", simply because I'm not into that kind of music, and, obviously, therefor, I have no idea what sounds good and what not. Which would explain why you simply don't hear a difference.

And, if you excuse me for saying this, but, I'm always a bit flabbergasted about how often people comment on this sort of thing, without caring one bit about such sounds.

[e-crooner]

No, that annoying sound doesn't enter my DAW
My hearing only knows how to tell apart subtle sounds, not a sound mess.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

@Funkybot and e-crooner: Do you actually use supersaw sounds in your music, or do you listen to music heavily incorporating such sounds?

Just asking, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but, I personally rarely post in threads like "Check this Minimoog Funk Bass comparison", simply because I'm not into that kind of music, and, obviously, therefor, I have no idea what sounds good and what not. Which would explain why you simply don't hear a difference.

And, if you excuse me for saying this, but, I'm always a bit flabbergasted about how often people comment on this sort of thing, without caring one bit about such sounds.

I think you entirely missed my point. I've got no beef with supersaw sounds. I was interested enough to listen. I enjoy d*cking around with the occasional supersaw patch even if I'm not making whatever techno sub-genre still uses them.

I'm telling you that I can't compare the Medium Detuned Chords A to Medium Detuned Chords B when there's Maximum Detuned A, Minimum B single notes playing before I ever here Minimum B chords. My ears are constantly resetting because the clips are changing. E-crooner is fine with the order, but it doesn't work for me. By the time the fully detuned comes around and sounds like total sh*t on most synths, and is then immediately followed by the minimum detuned single notes hit for the next synth, it's like you've just hit the reset button on my ears. It makes comparing the sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle differences more difficult than it should be. You don't A/B something by comparing it on 4 different audio sources. You listen to the same source and compare.

So my issue is how you ordered them. If you had spliced them where, for example, all the medium detuned were right next to each other, it would've been easier to compare. Example:

Single Notes A
Single Notes B
Single Notes C
Single Notes D
etc.

Then...

Medium Detuned Chords A
Medium Detuned Chords B
Medium Detuned Chords C
Medium Detuned Chords D
etc.

Then...

Fully Detuned Chords A
Fully Detuned Chords B
Fully Detuned Chords C
Fully Detuned Chords D
etc.

That way we'd all be listening to the different synths playing the same clip right next to each other. It would've made for easier comparison.

I could load all the files into my DAW and do that myself, but I'm just offering an opinion on how to improve the methodology for more meaningful comparisons.

[HTT]

I liked this comparison. Thanks for doing it.

I did the blind and then the YouTube version. I liked Diva and Jp6k supersaws the best. Next tier was Serum, original Massive, Spire, and Pigments 3. Next tier was ANA 2, Rapid, PhasePlant, and Zebra 2. And so on…

It seemed the supersynths (Avenger, Dune 3, and Omnisphere) were compressed. I wonder how Falcon would have fared.

[AnX]

@Funkybot and e-crooner: Do you actually use supersaw sounds in your music, or do you listen to music heavily incorporating such sounds?

I don't

I prefer old school unison or a little chorus to thicken the sound myself

I did listen to the test, but they all sounded awful to me, but the sounds are dry and out of context , I would never use a raw sound like that in my music.

[Tj Shredder]

The result is: all can do it. Of course the sounds are different, especially the extreme settings are meaningless. The settings in between probably can be tweaked closer to each other. And thats the point, the differences are a matter of taste and you would always tweak it to your own taste and you can do that in any of them.
And on top, this is expected. They all simply cook with water. How to make a supersaw is known since the last Millennium… Nothing fancy about it…

[LeVzi]

I dunno why there is hate for supersaws, they have their place in certain genres just like other sounds have their place in other genres.

I'm going to take a listen to the blind test now

They are all passable, some are thinner than others. But you could use pretty much all of them. Too close really to make one stand out over the others. The ones lacking low end are out imo.

One sounded like a fking organ completely detuned lol wtf was that ?

Good test, but a few other synths could get added that do pretty decent SS's.

[xbitz]

OK. I freaking love supersaws. The best results I've ever obtained are with :

1/ Avenger
2/ Rapid
3/ Thorn
4/ MPowerSynth (my best supersaw ever)
5/ Navira
6/ Electra2

My personal view is : f*ck blindtests, f*ck easy programming, f*ck fast tweaking. I make supersaws every single week for EDM production and these are the synths I work with.
You don't agree ? OK, cool. Find your own way and make your own best supersaws. I don't care, mine are perfect to me.

EDIT : in no way I mean the OP made cheap programming here. I mean I have my way of working, and this just doesn't reflect what I think I'm able to obtain with these synths. There are tweakings you just can't hear here. People may be misleaded into thinking this is the best you can get from them. This is my point : just, NO.

I always pick Harmor at the end
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9waiQonCGp4
and just after Avenger, Harmor is the most tweakable one

[gaggle of hermits]

The ones lacking low end are out imo.

why? less eq in the mix needed for those as far as i'm concerned.

[LeVzi]

The ones lacking low end are out imo.

why? less eq in the mix needed for those as far as i'm concerned.

For the purpose of the test, I am talking about.

[Biome_Digital]

They sound all the same to me, except for the max setting, where most are too detuned to sound right. The Toneboosters sounds fine even with max detune

Here's what's throwing this off for me. I'm not comparing apples vs apples. I'm tasting apples, bananas, strawberries, watermelon in that order. Then I'm getting a different apple, a different bannana, a different strawberry, and a different watermelon, and that's being repeated 24 times in total.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0bdLdTJdKI

I've provided the individual wav files so you can load them up and compare for yourself.

[Biome_Digital]

@Funkybot and e-crooner: Do you actually use supersaw sounds in your music, or do you listen to music heavily incorporating such sounds?

Just asking, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but, I personally rarely post in threads like "Check this Minimoog Funk Bass comparison", simply because I'm not into that kind of music, and, obviously, therefor, I have no idea what sounds good and what not. Which would explain why you simply don't hear a difference.

And, if you excuse me for saying this, but, I'm always a bit flabbergasted about how often people comment on this sort of thing, without caring one bit about such sounds.

I think you entirely missed my point. I've got no beef with supersaw sounds. I was interested enough to listen. I enjoy d*cking around with the occasional supersaw patch even if I'm not making whatever techno sub-genre still uses them.

I'm telling you that I can't compare the Medium Detuned Chords A to Medium Detuned Chords B when there's Maximum Detuned A, Minimum B single notes playing before I ever here Minimum B chords. My ears are constantly resetting because the clips are changing. E-crooner is fine with the order, but it doesn't work for me. By the time the fully detuned comes around and sounds like total sh*t on most synths, and is then immediately followed by the minimum detuned single notes hit for the next synth, it's like you've just hit the reset button on my ears. It makes comparing the sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle differences more difficult than it should be. You don't A/B something by comparing it on 4 different audio sources. You listen to the same source and compare.

So my issue is how you ordered them. If you had spliced them where, for example, all the medium detuned were right next to each other, it would've been easier to compare. Example:

Single Notes A
Single Notes B
Single Notes C
Single Notes D
etc.

Then...

Medium Detuned Chords A
Medium Detuned Chords B
Medium Detuned Chords C
Medium Detuned Chords D
etc.

Then...

Fully Detuned Chords A
Fully Detuned Chords B
Fully Detuned Chords C
Fully Detuned Chords D
etc.

That way we'd all be listening to the different synths playing the same clip right next to each other. It would've made for easier comparison.

I could load all the files into my DAW and do that myself, but I'm just offering an opinion on how to improve the methodology for more meaningful comparisons.

I think you didn't read the page. Just get the individual wav files and do EXACTLY what you want. That's why I provided them too.

[Biome_Digital]

I liked this comparison. Thanks for doing it.

I did the blind and then the YouTube version. I liked Diva and Jp6k supersaws the best. Next tier was Serum, original Massive, Spire, and Pigments 3. Next tier was ANA 2, Rapid, PhasePlant, and Zebra 2. And so on…

It seemed the supersynths (Avenger, Dune 3, and Omnisphere) were compressed. I wonder how Falcon would have fared.

Thank you. I added no compression and outputs on synths were fairly low so no clipping.

[Biome_Digital]

The result is: all can do it. Of course the sounds are different, especially the extreme settings are meaningless. The settings in between probably can be tweaked closer to each other. And thats the point, the differences are a matter of taste and you would always tweak it to your own taste and you can do that in any of them.
And on top, this is expected. They all simply cook with water. How to make a supersaw is known since the last Millennium… Nothing fancy about it…

Pretty much yes. Although, the extreme settings are to demonstrate how detuned each synth goes. I think that's useful to know, especially if you are a gabber or hardstyle producer.

But remember, this is not a "best supersaw test". It's looking at and comparing the ability of each synth. Of course there are 20 different ways I could have approached it, or 20 different synths I could have used.

[Biome_Digital]

I dunno why there is hate for supersaws, they have their place in certain genres just like other sounds have their place in other genres.

I'm going to take a listen to the blind test now

They are all passable, some are thinner than others. But you could use pretty much all of them. Too close really to make one stand out over the others. The ones lacking low end are out imo.

One sounded like a fking organ completely detuned lol wtf was that ?

Good test, but a few other synths could get added that do pretty decent SS's.

Thanks for listening. I found that the main "big name" synths here were all excellent. However, there are a couple of synths that really didn't sound as good, especially played higher up.