Non-emulation VA synth recommendations.

[zerocrossing]

"When sync is enabled, DUNE 3 automatically generates
a virtual master oscillator needed to perform the synchronisation. The frequency of this oscillator is adjusted by the frequency knob (FREQ), relative to the given pitch. The sync frequency can be modulated using the modulation matrix".

No , because the (virtual) MASTER SYNC oscillator can NOT be chosen as a modsource to modulate the frequency of the sync slave osc .
First version of dune was able to do it , dune 2 and 3 are not .

I see what you’re saying now, I thought you were saying that both oscillator and sync frequency could not be modulated. I’m not really sure what you’re going on about, though. Prophet 5? You’ve got to lose an oscillator just to get a second LFO. Dune’s got 3 oscillators (not including potential sync oscillators) available as sources in the mod matrix. Two of those oscillators can have a basic FM mode. Let me check my notes… oh yeah, that’s a lot more flexible than a Prophet 5.

[Stefken]

I m pretty fond of predator 3, which has a rewritten engine now, that is VA.
Powerfull synth and plenty of inspiring presets that come with it.

(It s actually the code from RP BIT, which you are assessing, which has been injected into Predator, but Predator is a far more capable synth than BIT).

[pdxindy]

Bazille is my favorite VA synth... which also happens to do FM as well...

[Halonmusic]

Bazille (mentioned above)
Charlatan
The blooo
Kern

[zzz00m]

Bazille is my favorite VA synth... which also happens to do FM as well...

Say what?

u-he says "Bazille is a large polyphonic modular system with digital (PD, FM based) oscillators". https://u-he.com/products/bazille/

It's great sounding synth, but I wouldn't exactly call it a VA synth just because it has analog filters...

"Although the filters are traditional analogue models, the oscillators are unashamedly digital: They combine the two technologies that made digital synthesis affordable (and analogue synths suddenly unfashionable) in the 1980s – FM (frequency modulation, more correctly ‘phase modulation’) and PD (phase distortion). "

[Korg Supporter]

Bazille (mentioned above)
Charlatan
The blooo
Kern

Charlatan and Blooo are so underrated!

[gentleclockdivider]

I like ANA 2 a lot and it's in my top 10 working lineup. I like Spire too and it's worked its way into my top 5 but back to the subject of this thread if I want to do VA I'm reaching for DUNE 3 each and every time.

Wow Tek, for someone who pooh-poohed Spire for quite a while thats pretty impressive

Some people are capable of changing their opinions.

I never really liked Spire when I demoed it but after buying it in a hard to resist sale, over time I've come to like it a lot.

It's got a very aggressive sound that compliments DUNE 3, Hive2, Predator 3, etc very well. Spire may not be the first synth I reach for but when I'm looking for an aggressive digital sound it's one of the first synths I reach for......

It’s not just about hardsync , ffs .
Why don’t you just do the following in dune 3 .
Select an osc ,set it to sync .
Now frequency modulate (FM)that synced oscillator by the same oscillator that provides the sync .
Like this

Or like this in talmod , osc 1 is both synced to osc 3 , and also being frequency modulated by osc 3 , it just give great results

Post the clip or a screenshot of your routing .
Spoiler : you can’t because it’s impossible in dune 3 and that is my point.
It’s a great sounding synth but it doesn’t allow certain routings .
Over and out .

[WatchTheGuitar]

While searching for a plugin on my machine I stumbled across my copy of Xils Labs Oxium.
It’s a kind of forgotten VA synth, doesn’t even show in their list of products (I had to find it on their site by directly googling the name). It’s quite a nice sounding synth with an interesting arp and morphing style oscillators, shame it was never built on.

[gentleclockdivider]

"When sync is enabled, DUNE 3 automatically generates
a virtual master oscillator needed to perform the synchronisation. The frequency of this oscillator is adjusted by the frequency knob (FREQ), relative to the given pitch. The sync frequency can be modulated using the modulation matrix".

No , because the (virtual) MASTER SYNC oscillator can NOT be chosen as a modsource to modulate the frequency of the sync slave osc .
First version of dune was able to do it , dune 2 and 3 are not .

I see what you’re saying now, I thought you were saying that both oscillator and sync frequency could not be modulated. I’m not really sure what you’re going on about, though. Prophet 5? You’ve got to lose an oscillator just to get a second LFO. Dune’s got 3 oscillators (not including potential sync oscillators) available as sources in the mod matrix. Two of those oscillators can have a basic FM mode. Let me check my notes… oh yeah, that’s a lot more flexible than a Prophet 5.

So now you' re summing up what's missing in the prophet 5 etc ..
I just gave an example about a certain routing but some are just to slow to comprehend basic stuff

[Sinisterbr]

While searching for a plugin on my machine I stumbled across my copy of Xils Labs Oxium.
It’s a kind of forgotten VA synth, doesn’t even show in their list of products (I had to find it on their site by directly googling the name). It’s quite a nice sounding synth with an interesting arp and morphing style oscillators, shame it was never built on.

I completely agree, a very underrated and rarely remembered synth. And just recently I found out it sounds even better at 192k

[zzz00m]

It appears that the OP left this thread 4 pages ago...

[pdxindy]

Bazille is my favorite VA synth... which also happens to do FM as well...

It's great sounding synth, but I wouldn't exactly call it a VA synth just because it has analog filters...

"Although the filters are traditional analogue models, the oscillators are unashamedly digital: They combine the two technologies that made digital synthesis affordable (and analogue synths suddenly unfashionable) in the 1980s – FM (frequency modulation, more correctly ‘phase modulation’) and PD (phase distortion). "

Hey... if synths like Ana 2 and Dune 3 which are based on wavetables, samples and supersaws (all digital synth creations and not analog) are in the discussion, may as well have Bazille in there too

One could argue that Bazille is closer to classic analog hardware than either of those.

If we defined virtual analog as digital synthesis that could be done in analog, many of the suggestions in the thread don't fit. ACE would be close to an actual VA synth!

[Halonmusic]

Bazille (mentioned above)
Charlatan
The blooo
Kern

Charlatan and Blooo are so underrated!

they are indeed

[chk071]

Bazille is my favorite VA synth... which also happens to do FM as well...

It's great sounding synth, but I wouldn't exactly call it a VA synth just because it has analog filters...

"Although the filters are traditional analogue models, the oscillators are unashamedly digital: They combine the two technologies that made digital synthesis affordable (and analogue synths suddenly unfashionable) in the 1980s – FM (frequency modulation, more correctly ‘phase modulation’) and PD (phase distortion). "

Hey... if synths like Ana 2 and Dune 3 which are based on wavetables, samples and supersaws (all digital synth creations and not analog) are in the discussion, may as well have Bazille in there too

One could argue that Bazille is closer to classic analog hardware than either of those.

If we defined virtual analog as digital synthesis that could be done in analog, many of the suggestions in the thread don't fit. ACE would be close to an actual VA synth!

The OP didn't really specify what he's after precisely, so, your guess is as good as anyone's here.

[zzz00m]

Bazille is my favorite VA synth... which also happens to do FM as well...

It's great sounding synth, but I wouldn't exactly call it a VA synth just because it has analog filters...

"Although the filters are traditional analogue models, the oscillators are unashamedly digital: They combine the two technologies that made digital synthesis affordable (and analogue synths suddenly unfashionable) in the 1980s – FM (frequency modulation, more correctly ‘phase modulation’) and PD (phase distortion). "

Hey... if synths like Ana 2 and Dune 3 which are based on wavetables, samples and supersaws (all digital synth creations and not analog) are in the discussion, may as well have Bazille in there too

One could argue that Bazille is closer to classic analog hardware than either of those.

If we defined virtual analog as digital synthesis that could be done in analog, many of the suggestions in the thread don't fit. ACE would be close to an actual VA synth!

That's an interesting perspective! But I personally draw the line for VA as at least making an attempt at subtractive synthesis by generating a basic analog waveform that is obviously digitally generated/modeled in a soft synth, such as saw, square, sine, etc.

A grey area for me might be the use of single cycle wave samples, or wavetables, in the oscillator stage to generate the sound. To me that's a bit more like "sampling".

Clearly, there are many synths now that employ multiple engines or synthesis modes, so that muddies up the definitions a bit. Those are really "hybrid" synths.