Finding my Ultimate Flagship Wavetable Synth

[pdxindy]

The problem with shoot-outs like this is that they weigh each attribute the same in the final score, but from where I stand, that's not realistic. Massive X has a lot of issues for me, but in some ways, it's the best sounding wavetable plugin I own. MPowerSynth, which I'm not sure has been even mentioned in this thread, blows away pretty much all other synths in its class... but if you want to start making patches from scratch, you'd better pack a lunch, because it's deep... and wide.

It's basically a long explanation of why his favorite wavetable synth is his favorite. Nothing wrong with that... but it's not really an attempt at examining the strengths and weaknesses of various wavetable synths.

[Teksonik]

It can't possibly be the "Ultimate Wavetable Flagship Shootout" when you've left out so many wavetable synths.
All you've done is waste your time and the time of your readers.

Nah... That's unfair. He's tried a lot. So it can be helpful for people to have an opinion about which is which. Categorising it was nice too.

Trying and failing has the same result as not trying at all.

It would be like making a list of the "Ultimate Guitars" and leaving out Gibson and Fender.

You're giving people incomplete information which can be worse than no info at all. Someone might decide to buy one of the WT synths he listed when one he failed to list would have been a better fit for their wants and needs.

So the thread title should be "Here's What I Think of the Wavetable Synths That I know Of ".

There's nothing "Ultimate" about it......

[BONES]

He's only pissed off because you didn't mention DUNE. In fact, after 4 pages, nobody has. I find that more than a little bit strange, but then I dont understand the fascination with wavetable synths anyway.

Try Pigments with its new MS20 filter and you’ll find it anything but “bland.”

For patches that use the fitler to advantage but that's not going to make its string pads sound any less bland.

Its cool! I focused on bandpass because my demo sound was using those filters. I use bandpass a lot in my productions.

That's interesting. Bandpass is definitely the least used filter type in my work. In fact, I can't think of any time I've ever used it. I love its inverse, though, we use notch filters fairly regularly.

[Teksonik]

He's only pissed off because you didn't mention DUNE.

No, I'm not "pissed off" at all.

I'm simply pointing out that several WT synths have been left out of the test rendering it misleading at best and useless at worst.

There are more synths that I use on a daily bases besides DUNE that were left out such as the aforementioned Icarus and Hive and Spire and.....so on.

But the thread title has been changed so it's more appropriate as now it simply becomes yet another "what's your favorite" thread.

[zzz00m]

(Higher is better. Priority elements gets higher numbers)

Sound quality of filters
(1 to 5)

1 - Vital - - - - - - - Clearly the least favorable of the bunch
2 - Surge - - - - - - Just slightly better then Vital
2 - Synthmaster - Crisp filter overdrive, but they sound thin
3 - Phase Plant - - Vanilla but decent. A step up from the previous
3 - Pigments - - - Well rounded filters, entering the top 3
4 - Serum - - - - - Very good filters, clearly better and more diverse then Pigments
5 - Massive X - - - Best in class zero latency filters


Overall sound quality (excluding fx section and filters)
(1 to 5)

1 - Vital - - - - - - - Its ok but falls slightly behind the best
1 - Surge - - - - - - Slightly better but the least favorable FM
2 - Synthmaster - Better FM then the previous two
3 - Phase Plant - - Decent but very limited options
3 - Pigments - - - It has some crispness with its osc modifiers
4 - Serum - - - - - The old industry standard, a true Virus Ti re-placer
5 - Massive X - - - Its the new standard, lots of options

Massive X may be a great sounding synth. But it's rather crippled by being a wavetable "rompler".

You are only able to use the factory wavetables...

[Sleepwalker]

It's basically a long explanation of why his favorite wavetable synth is his favorite. Nothing wrong with that... but it's not really an attempt at examining the strengths and weaknesses of various wavetable synths.

Wrong. I had no experience with these synths prior to the shootout other then the free Surge and Vital. They scored among the lowest for me in comparison. I went ahead and bought Serum and Massive X just now, AFTER the shootout. NOT before. Your assumptions are wrong.

That was the whole point of all this. To find a new buddy, or two.

It is most definitely not only an attempt but a deep dive into examining the strength and weaknesses of these synths. There is recorded sound examples tweaked meticulously to be in the same ranges, or as close I could get before the timeout of the demo versions. It would not be fair or make much sense to go deeper with the free ones then the expensive ones that timed out after 20 minutes. I had to keep it simple, pick a few important elements.

I personally do not need a gazillion wavetable mangling options, hence this was less of a focus, while the most important thing to me Workflow and Sound-quality got full attention.

I spent almost a whole week on this, 14 hours a day. If I was to shoot out all the futures of all the synths against each other it would take months, and at my age I simply do not have time to do that, and neither was it the point of this whole thing.

[DJDJ]

-The main one is how the wavetables don’t smoothly interpolate, but have steps in them. I want to be able to smoothly morph between each snapshot of the wavetable like I’m used to with other synths

There is a smooth/fade knob.

True, but it steps a bit or there’s dips in volume on the crossfades, depending on the wavetable. It’s honestly disappointing and sub par considering almost all modern wavetable synths can smoothly interpolate between frames of the wavetable. For all the features Icarus has, it’s a bit surprising that it doesn’t have this sorted out.

[revvy]

The level of 'miserable bastard' in some of the responses here is off the scale.

[BONES]

I had no experience with these synths prior to the shootout other then the free Surge and Vital. They scored among the lowest for me in comparison. I went ahead and bought Serum and Massive X just now, AFTER the shootout. NOT before.

That raises the question of why you restricted yourself to wavetable synths. What's so different about the sounds they make to warrant you singling them out for attention? I don't understand it at all.

[Markus Krause]

I am wondering why Icarus2 doesn't even get mentioned here... I seems I should spend less money into development and more money into advertising

Hey Markus, quick bit of feedback: I own Icarus and really wanted to love it and make it #1 wavetable synth when I got it. But there’s a few things that hold it back imho.

-The main one is how the wavetables don’t smoothly interpolate, but have steps in them. I want to be able to smoothly morph between each snapshot of the wavetable like I’m used to with other synths

This is already supported since Icarus 1.0.

- Set the FADE knob to 100% for a smooth interpolation.
- Set the FADE knob to 50% for an expressive interpolation.
- Set it to 0% for a steppy interpolation

[audiojunkie]

I am wondering why Icarus2 doesn't even get mentioned here... I seems I should spend less money into development and more money into advertising

Thanks for the heads-up! Actually I had not even herd about this one.

I will try to add it as soon as I have time to do so.

Another one that is missing is Hive 2.

[fmr]

I am wondering why Icarus2 doesn't even get mentioned here... I seems I should spend less money into development and more money into advertising

Thanks for the heads-up! Actually I had not even herd about this one.

I will try to add it as soon as I have time to do so.

Another one that is missing is Hive 2.

You're right, but a little late to the party

[zerocrossing]

I am wondering why Icarus2 doesn't even get mentioned here... I seems I should spend less money into development and more money into advertising

Thanks for the heads-up! Actually I had not even herd about this one.

I will try to add it as soon as I have time to do so.

Another one that is missing is Hive 2.

You're right, but a little late to the party

…and the new kid on the block, UAD’s Opal. Maybe the best sounding filters and distortion algorithms of anything that I’ve seen in software.

[Markus Krause]

-The main one is how the wavetables don’t smoothly interpolate, but have steps in them. I want to be able to smoothly morph between each snapshot of the wavetable like I’m used to with other synths

There is a smooth/fade knob.

True, but it steps a bit or there’s dips in volume on the crossfades, depending on the wavetable. It’s honestly disappointing and sub par considering almost all modern wavetable synths can smoothly interpolate between frames of the wavetable. For all the features Icarus has, it’s a bit surprising that it doesn’t have this sorted out.

You can enhance your 'rumbling' wavetable with these features:

Wavetable EDITOR->PHASE->Set to 0
or
Wavetable EDITOR->PHASE->Optimize

[audiojunkie]

I am wondering why Icarus2 doesn't even get mentioned here... I seems I should spend less money into development and more money into advertising

Thanks for the heads-up! Actually I had not even herd about this one.

I will try to add it as soon as I have time to do so.

Another one that is missing is Hive 2.

You're right, but a little late to the party

Yeah. I was earlier in the thread when I posted. I'm caught up now, and see that my post was pointless.