Is it just me or Serum/Vital sounds without life?
-
- Banned
- 1646 posts since 4 Aug, 2017
-
- KVRAF
- 7882 posts since 24 May, 2002 from Tutukaka, New Zealand
I've been using Vital for a few weeks now and TBH I'm rapidly going off it. I still quite like some of the sounds it can make, and actually it's the obvious digital nature that attracts me, compared to the majority of my gear being analogue. But lots of what I've been doing with it is at least 50% FX, quite a lot more than half I think. Almost every sound I've used, when I take off all the FX then it sounds pretty lifeless and dull, even with a shitload of modulation/automation. It was the FX that initially grabbed me - I still like its formant filters, and though it's quite in-yer-face I even like its noisy chorus (that often sounds more like an added noise oscillator) and the drive can be quite musical for a digital synth distortion. But without any of those FX, it's really nothing special IMO. Fortunately I like the character of the FX but I will tire of them soon.
In a track I'm doing now, Vital is making a great high end snappy sound, almost like a blown bottle sound - but when I took off the chorus and the unison, I was surprised by how useless the little tiny plinky sound was underneath. It just disappeared from the track. Mind you, I find most sw synths weak without unison, so Vital is not alone in that. Still, the upside is that he coded great FX into it, which makes it useful. Shame about the underlying synth though...
I want to like it more, but the actual synthesis leaves me cold.
In a track I'm doing now, Vital is making a great high end snappy sound, almost like a blown bottle sound - but when I took off the chorus and the unison, I was surprised by how useless the little tiny plinky sound was underneath. It just disappeared from the track. Mind you, I find most sw synths weak without unison, so Vital is not alone in that. Still, the upside is that he coded great FX into it, which makes it useful. Shame about the underlying synth though...
I want to like it more, but the actual synthesis leaves me cold.-
- KVRAF
- 7882 posts since 24 May, 2002 from Tutukaka, New Zealand
And as for those presets tony 10000 posted...meh. Nothing special IMO. I can think of any number of synths that can do those kind of sounds better 
. It's wavetables - love 'em or hate 'em with nothing inbetween. Unfortunately I hate 'em.
. It's wavetables - love 'em or hate 'em with nothing inbetween. Unfortunately I hate 'em.-
- KVRer
- 1 posts since 13 Feb, 2023
Vital has two thing that make it almost lovely. 1. Unison is very orchestral - something you cannot get from Omnisphere or Serum. Vitals unison works out of the box immediately giving rare good vibe shot. 2. Filters are extremely responsive to a live midi-knob. Cutoff sweet area of Analog 12db is exactly at right location knobwise. Do you have any favourite among standalone synths considering the filter knob exciting the addiction?
