Sonic Academy ANA 2

[recursive one]

I ended up with having both Ana and Spire, and use them both a lot. If I had to pick one that probably would be Spire but that's because I have had it for much longer, made a lot of sounds for it can pretend I know it reasonably well, but Ana also sounds nice and can do things Spire can't (e g it has a wavetable engine and wt import, and more advanced arp). Even where they overlap, it's kinda different flavors of the same thing.

Both go on sale with huge discounts every so often, if you wait long enough you can have both for the regular price of one.

[tehlord]

that sounds biased, ngl.

Spire is dense in a great way for EDM. It's instant modern EDM sound.

ANA2 has no sound, it's as bland as i.e. alchemy for simple subtractive sounds

I said 'in my opinion'.

But otherwise sure, sure.

[Ploki]

Obviously - anything sound related is subjective anyway.

Maybe I shouldnt say loaded words as bland, maybe clean/without imposing character is a better more neutral descriptor.

Which can also be a good thing?

[BONES]

I've been eyeing up Spire and ANA2 for a while, wondering which one to pick. Both look appealing, but ANA2 seems to have an overall nicer interface and plenty of nice filters and seems to be more endowed in the wavetable department too.

Of course, the fact it's about $100 cheaper doesn't hurt, either.

it depends whether you need a synth that does more or sounds better.

I think ANA is the best sounding synth I own. It's not the kind of instrument where I worry too much about the filters, that's not what it's about. That Beautiful Dread Lead or whatever it is that loads by default is so gorgeous, I've made a point of trying to use it every one of the 80's covers I've done. If I've done 50, it's probably in 45 of them. It's so rich and creamy, I want to pour it all over my pudding (make of that what you will).

ANA2 has no sound, it's as bland as

If you honestly believe that, then all I can say is [REMOVED AND WARNED]. Seriously, it's one thing to say you prefer Spire but if you can't acknowledge that ANA-2 sounds great in it's own right, then what I said above is 100% on the money.

Both go on sale with huge discounts every so often, if you wait long enough you can have both for the regular price of one.

ANA-2 is always on sale, you don't have to wait to get it for way less than it's worth.

[Ploki]

If you honestly believe that, then all I can say is [REMOVED AND WARNED]. Seriously, it's one thing to say you prefer Spire but if you can't acknowledge that ANA-2 sounds great in it's own right, then what I said above is 100% on the money.

I redacted my previous statement - i dont think it sounds bad, it just sounds like a utility synth, like alchemy or pigments - not imposing its own character.
You can more easily tell its Serum or Spire and they have a certain sound, ANA2 imo doesn't, which doesn't make it bad. Having a specific character can be worse if the character doesnt fit.

[recursive one]

I've been eyeing up Spire and ANA2 for a while, wondering which one to pick. Both look appealing, but ANA2 seems to have an overall nicer interface and plenty of nice filters and seems to be more endowed in the wavetable department too.

ANA-2 is always on sale, you don't have to wait to get it for way less than it's worth.

Just checked, it's 140 pounds on the SA site. I bought it for 45 pounds or so few months ago, I think it probably will go back to that price at some point.

[tehlord]

Obviously - anything sound related is subjective anyway.

Maybe I shouldnt say loaded words as bland, maybe clean/without imposing character is a better more neutral descriptor.

Which can also be a good thing?

All good.

At least you're not Bones

But honestly, I work for various companies but to me ANA2 is geniunely standout as an all round bread and butter synth. Lots of other synths do particular things 'better', but ANA2 does everything well (with the possible exception of the chorus which I don't like). And (as subjective as it is) I also genuinely don't like the sound of Spire, whether it fits into the EDM remit or not. I can use it for certain styles (trance in particular) but I have to bypass all the onboard FX, EQ and particulary the X-Comp.

[Ploki]

I can absolutely agree with that.

it's like serum with Dimension + Ott, and its on every damn preset

[tehlord]

I redacted my previous statement - i dont think it sounds bad, it just sounds like a utility synth, like alchemy or pigments - not imposing its own character.

I think with ANA2 you have to dial in the filter drive to find the sweet spot for character, and I would also agree that it doesn't have the ultimate fizz of something like Diva or Repro, but it's also not as single focussed as those. For the vast majority of real world uses it has the balls to create an 'analogue' style tone that will fit into a mix.

[crickey13]

You can more easily tell its Serum or Spire and they have a certain sound, ANA2 imo doesn't, which doesn't make it bad. Having a specific character can be worse if the character doesnt fit.

Having no distinct character is arguably a desirable feature, especially given that wavetable synthesis in and of itself is a kind of a shortcut and an attempt to emulate different synthesis methods without necessarily synthesizing everything from scratch.

If I want character, digital or analog, I will turn to dedicated emulations of the gear of the past.

Unless we're dealing with a sparse arrangement, I think I prefer sonic chameleons and thinner synths, as they're more useful in more situations. As long as ANA's filters sound pleasing enough, I don't think I care.

Spire is obviously about being beeeeg and ballsy in the EDM sort of way, that being said, the more I produce the more I prefer 'thinner' sounds, easier to mix later on.

I wonder whether ANA2 or Spire is more optimized in terms of CPU usage, maybe somebody can elaborate. Spire used to be CPU intensive from what I've read, but it seems to have changed recently. Not sure about ANA2, but I don't recall reading about it being a CPU hog.

I think with ANA2 you have to dial in the filter drive to find the sweet spot for character, and I would also agree that it doesn't have the ultimate fizz of something like Diva or Repro, but it's also not as single focussed as those. For the vast majority of real world uses it has the balls to create an 'analogue' style tone that will fit into a mix.

Sounds like my kind of thing.

[Ploki]

I think with ANA2 you have to dial in the filter drive to find the sweet spot for character, and I would also agree that it doesn't have the ultimate fizz of something like Diva or Repro, but it's also not as single focussed as those. For the vast majority of real world uses it has the balls to create an 'analogue' style tone that will fit into a mix.

Absolutely

If i were more interested in sample layering i'd probably pick it up, but i didn't care for it that much and for WT/OSC stuff i prefer workflow (and sound) of hive, which i already have, so i passed on it
I also totally adore Hive's dirty mode.

Having no distinct character is arguably a desirable feature, especially given that wavetable synthesis in and of itself is a kind of a shortcut and an attempt to emulate different synthesis methods without necessarily synthesizing everything from scratch.

If I want character, digital or analog, I will turn to dedicated emulations of the gear of the past.

Unless we're dealing with a sparse arrangement, I think I prefer sonic chameleons and thinner synths, as they're more useful in more situations. As long as ANA's filters sound pleasing enough, I don't think I care.

Spire is obviously about being beeeeg and ballsy in the EDM sort of way, that being said, the more I produce the more I prefer 'thinner' sounds, easier to mix later on.

I wonder whether ANA2 or Spire is more optimized in terms of CPU usage, maybe somebody can elaborate. Spire used to be CPU intensive from what I've read, but it seems to have changed recently. Not sure about ANA2, but I don't recall reading about it being a CPU hog.

I criticised filters as being "underwhelming" but i would certainly say they're pleasing enough.

re: CPU
test: Logic, trackstack (being a trackstack means every track is switch to "live" mode - so the audio buffersize in settings, in my case 64)

I opened it on my M1 and got roughly the same track count as spire with the default ANA2 preset.
16-note chord, 37 instances without crackles or dropouts.
With spire i got 40 on the same test, so i'd say its on par with Spire.

With Hive i get much more
edit: 56 with similar settings as ANA2 default preset (OSC1 2 unison , OSC2 1 voice, delay, reverb, phaser, one filter)

[crickey13]

Yeah, I will probably get ANA2. Not right away, but sooner than later, gonna be a nice companion to other subtractive/wavetable stuff.

[chk071]

I can relate to what ploki wrote. I demo'd ANA 2 a while ago, and, it didn't sound very characterful to me. It also has that kind of "soft" and clean vibe that a lot of soft synths have these days (most prominently Dune). Not very much into that. I like synths which ooze with character. I also like music which oozes with character, and video games which ooze with character.

Unfortunately, there's way too little character these days everywhere.

[strovoknights]

Hey! Lets buy Anacreon 2.5!
Anacreon has big character!

[recursive one]

I can relate to what ploki wrote. I demo'd ANA 2 a while ago, and, it didn't sound very characterful to me. It also has that kind of "soft" and clean vibe that a lot of soft synths have these days (most prominently Dune). Not very much into that. I like synths which ooze with character. I also like music which oozes with character, and video games which ooze with character.

Unfortunately, there's way too little character these days everywhere.

I totally agree about Dune, but Ana can sound pretty far away from "clean and soft", it can be quite dirty in a good way.

I think it's more similar to Spire than Dune (and can even remind me of Virus TI sometimes).