Vanguard2 by Refx out 25th of November!

[Teksonik]

Back in the Vanguard days, trolls were still new and real world forum behaviour was little understood, some folk bullied Mike and he didn't know how to handle it then.

To be fair, Mike did his share of bullying both on and off the forums in private.

I was a beta tester for ReFx back in the PlastiCZ days and I can honestly say Mike was one of the most abrasive people I've come in contact with on the internet. His reputation was well earned in my opinion.

His definition of being "bullied" was anyone with a negative opinion. Yea KVR and the internet can be brutal but developers like U-he have survived since day one here without generating controversy. They haven't run away because not everyone is giving them rainbows and cotton candy. Mike left so he could control and censor his own forums and by some reports it got ugly over there with draconian moderation.

But again my experience with ReFx support yesterday was pleasantly surprising so I'm willing to give the company another chance and did by purchasing the Vanguard upgrade. However it should be noted that I did not interact with Mike but with another employee who was polite and professional as it should be.

The response was lightening fast, very polite, and the outcome was positive even though I had little hope that it would be based on my past interactions with ReFx.

So if they can keep up that level of positive and pleasant interaction and service to their customers then I'll be more than happy to do business with them again in the future.

[Teksonik]

Lack of a demo is a big hindrance though and I am not sure if looking back with rose tinted glasses means i would be as impressed now I have spire, Pigments, serum etc as I was back then.

Exactly my thoughts.

I know I always say "try the demo" because in most situations it's the right answer but in this case I have to recommend even more trying a demo if there is ever one available.

Vanguard 2's character is such that I could easily see someone loving it and someone else hating it just as much.

I like the character and I think it nicely fills a niche between say Spire and Hive 2/Dune 3. Since you're a big fan of Spire, I think you would like V2 as well but again I can't give a buy recommendation to anyone unless they have a chance to demo.

The fact that Vanguard has rejoined a market that is now saturated with similar plugins could make it redundant for people with a lot of other options in their folder.

[chk071]

Thanks. And, I fully agree. Character is great, but, not demo'ing, you never know if you do like the character.

Otherwise, the synth really ticks most boxes for me. Not sure about the unison though (I guess that's the "Fat" parameter?). I also usually prefer to have unison on oscillator level, like in Sylenth1 and Spire. But, I surely could live with global unison as well.

[dermage]

Weren't Tone2 Gladiator and Warlock the successors to Vanguard?
I definitely can feel similar things when using Gladiator, although the GUI is a bit off (tiny knobs even on full screen etc.)
Also Warlock is great, which has a simple interface but powerful and wide sound.

[rubez]

So for the uninitiated what was special about Vanguard 1?

[db3]

Weren't Tone2 Gladiator and Warlock the successors to Vanguard?
Also Warlock is great, which has a simple interface but powerful and wide sound.

Yeah, Vanguard and Warlock clearly share Tone2 DNA. If you like the sound of one, you'll probably like the other.

[andymcbain]

So for the uninitiated what was special about Vanguard 1?

For me it had a distinctive aggressive digital sound that was all over the sort of EBM / Industrial Dance stuff I was listening to at the time. The main lead sound here is one of the presets -



Ended up using it in one of my tracks too... hadn't heard anything else quite like it back then.

I hadn't realised a re-release was on the cards so it's come as a surprise to me. If there was a demo available I'd be tempted

[dermage]

So for the uninitiated what was special about Vanguard 1?

Was one of my first synths in use which did that huge in your face Sawtooth sound. Very clean and aggressive. Easy interface for a beginner, prepared for instant success in genres like Trance, Techno etc.

[Korg Supporter]

Weren't Tone2 Gladiator and Warlock the successors to Vanguard?

Markus considered Icarus to be the closest to Vanguard.

[Samiver]

So for the uninitiated what was special about Vanguard 1?

For me it seemed innovative and was perfect for the techno I liked. Pretty sure it was the only synth at my friend's studio that had a trance gate and he had a fair few hardware and software kit.

I was just a dj back then and just used to mess around with his synths and keyboards but vanguard and the nord lead stood out for me and I loved them both.

[Synthman2000]

If I do decide to get it I am going to miss the "faux LCD" display. A small thing but you know, I think people want all the authentic touches not just the V2. Surprised it does not ship with at least original and new skins to swap and the original reverb algo.

Surely part of the appeal if you want to go vintage, you want the vintage reverb of the original.

[commodore]

Vanguard 2 is awesome. I'd say spire is closest in use/sound of all the plugins I have. I really like Vanguard because of it's simplicity though. I love that everything is on one screen. No major menu diving. It makes it super easy to tweak sounds. Some of the sounds/presets are just amazing. It has such a nice character to it.

I think the best feature though is just having all the preset banks ready to go. Having the sound browser set up like nexus is really nice too. Preview sounds are built automatically when importing banks. That's crazy cool.

I wouldn't mind seeing a few more features built in though. Different reverb types or different distortion types. A built in EQ would be handy too as things get very loud in the low end sometimes.

[chk071]

[Cyforce]

Weren't Tone2 Gladiator and Warlock the successors to Vanguard?
I definitely can feel similar things when using Gladiator, although the GUI is a bit off (tiny knobs even on full screen etc.)
Also Warlock is great, which has a simple interface but powerful and wide sound.

That`s a good point. When you think about it, Gladiator is actually like a Vanguard on steroids. The amount of possibilities with the Oscs & filters. And in a modern guise (sound-wise)

After a few hours in the morning with Vanguard, even if it doesn't fit sound-wise in 2022 - still, to be fair, if you see it as an extremely CPU-friendly preset player instead of a synthesizer - it makes sense.
I never got above ~7% CPU (on an old intel i5 resp.) but with pigments 30-70% sometimes.

The new distortion effect is nice, but an EQ would have made more sense somewhere, and would have given more opportunity for sound sculpting.

[fisherKing]

Weren't Tone2 Gladiator and Warlock the successors to Vanguard?
I definitely can feel similar things when using Gladiator, although the GUI is a bit off (tiny knobs even on full screen etc.)
Also Warlock is great, which has a simple interface but powerful and wide sound.

That`s a good point. When you think about it, Gladiator is actually like a Vanguard on steroids. The amount of possibilities with the Oscs & filters. And in a modern guise (sound-wise)

After a few hours in the morning with Vanguard, even if it doesn't fit sound-wise in 2022 - still, to be fair, if you see it as an extremely CPU-friendly preset player instead of a synthesizer - it makes sense.
I never got above ~7% CPU (on an old intel i5 resp.) but with pigments 30-70% sometimes.

The new distortion effect is nice, but an EQ would have made more sense somewhere, and would have given more opportunity for sound sculpting.

every DAW i've ever encounted has EQ... and reverb, delay. etc. not sure why it would 'make more sense' to have it in the plugin...