The vst synths lame test.

[briefcasemanx]

"1 - a sawtooth with a unison of 7 tuned to taste"

Oh hell no. I'm beyond tired of the same damn sound getting used everywhere. What an incredibly boring sound.

[mholloway]

This isn't a VST synth test, it's a Unison supersaw test...

[Jac459]

This isn't a VST synth test, it's a Unison supersaw test...

That's why the title of the post is "lame synth test" .
But too be honest, there is also the modulation thing. Which is not a given on all synths.

Anyway, glad we agree.

[Jac459]

"1 - a sawtooth with a unison of 7 tuned to taste"

Oh hell no. I'm beyond tired of the same damn sound getting used everywhere. What an incredibly boring sound.

True.
But the fact that it is a sound we are very used to was part of the reason of the choice.

[Jac459]

OP: why are you only testing lame vsts? What about the good ones?

I think it's his test that he calls lame, not the synths.
Because it's pretty subjective in many ways, and his knowledge of each product can only be uneven.

Exactly.
Is the English incorrect? Should I correct the title?
I am not Native english...

[Jac459]

OP: why are you only testing lame vsts? What about the good ones?

I meant to say my test is lame. Certainly not the synths.
I corrected the title, sorry for the confusion I am not a Native English speaker

[Jac459]

Now try it with Spire and Tone2 synths if you can buy them

Done (number 11).
Updated the first post.

[kraster]

Interesting test.

I tried it out on a few synths here. Bazille, Msoundfactory and Dune 3. I chose FM/PM for all.

Bazille was the heaviest on CPU. 81% on singlethreaded and 32% when I engaged the multithreaded option. (Ableton 11 on M1 running on Rosetta)

It also sounded the best by a long shot to my ears.

The others sounded fine though. Dune 3 sounded very clean but a little sterile... a totally different flavour to Bazille. Where Dune shines is in the CPU usage.

I had the CPU setting at its highest setting for audio rate modulation and it was 3% on the CPU meter in Ableton. Just for the hell of it I duplicated the first voice across all 8 slots and used a different filter type on each voice. I ended up with 17%.

Msoundfactory had probably the purest sound and the amount of options are mind boggling.

I had the FM at 32X Oversampling and the Oversampling algorithm set to extreme. Very clean and present and hitting about 14% on the CPU meter.

Usability wise Dune 3 was the easiest to set up, with Bazille second and Msoundfactory fell behind due to a lot more clicking. But in its defence, that's largely down to the amount of options you have.

Very different results and all would have their uses.

But as I said before Bazille really stood out to me. It just has that mojo with very little effort.

[Jac459]

surprised you had such a bad experience with Synthmaster 2
that's been my favourite synth for a long time, never have any problems with it and i find it very easy to make crazy noisy patches with it
really looking forward to Synthmaster 3

Well it seems the problem is either me or my system.

I actually like synthmaster2, it has awesome presets and there is an iPad version so you can doodle sounds on the go.
I generally do a bit of tweaking of the sounds but I do struggle.
The logic of the synth doesn't go well with me. I don't find easily the features and when I do, it doesn't work exactly as I expect. And then I have bugs.

But for the usability I will absolutely agree it is only a question of taste. The fact that there are so many good presets is the proof of that.

[Jac459]

Interesting test.

I tried it out on a few synths here. Bazille, Msoundfactory and Dune 3. I chose FM/PM for all.
.......
.......
But as I said before Bazille really stood out to me. It just has that mojo with very little effort.

Great! I don't have Bazille because I forbid myself to buy any more modular before I properly use complex-1, the equivalent of Bazille in Reason Rack Extension world (so I'll probably never have it lol).
But with the sales of U-He now I guess a lot will be interested.

If you want to put in "CPU, usability, final result" format, I can add your feedback on the first post, up to you.

[Jac459]

can you test SQ8L? thanks

Ok, I see it is free, I'll do.

[Korg Supporter]

Now try it with Spire and Tone2 synths if you can buy them

Done (number 11).
Updated the first post.

You can do FM, PM, and AM in Spire. You just have to use oscillators as mod sources in the matrix. The PM can get a bit clicky. The filter FM, however, is really nice and can be almost Prophet-like.

Edit: Just to add, there is also an FM oscillator mode. But it's only within the oscillator.

[kraster]

Interesting test.

I tried it out on a few synths here. Bazille, Msoundfactory and Dune 3. I chose FM/PM for all.
.......
.......
But as I said before Bazille really stood out to me. It just has that mojo with very little effort.

Great! I don't have Bazille because I forbid myself to buy any more modular before I properly use complex-1, the equivalent of Bazille in Reason Rack Extension world (so I'll probably never have it lol).
But with the sales of U-He now I guess a lot will be interested.

If you want to put in "CPU, usability, final result" format, I can add your feedback on the first post, up to you.

Sure, why not!

Bazille, Msoundfactory, Dune 3.

Ableton Live 11 Rosetta, Mac M1

Bazille:

Cpu: 81% singlethreaded, 34% multithreaded. Heaviest of the three I tested by far.

Usability: Fine. The only slightly fiddly part was adjusting the pitch offsets in the stack for unison. The rest is just patching.

Results: Superb! Tons of character, exceptionally musical. Worth the CPU hit!

Msoundfactory:

CPU: 14% with FM oversampling at 32X and OS algo set to extreme.

Usability: It's Melda! The least straightforward to set up. Lots of clicking and opening windows but not difficult.

Results: Very good. Smooth and present and CPU hit wasn't too bad. Could be reduced by lowering the oversampling. Tons of options.

Dune 3:

CPU: By far the most efficient. Using the maximum CPU setting (audio rate). Barely touched 3%. I duplicated the voice across all 8 slots using a different filter for each voice and it was only touching 14%.

Usability: Easiest of the three. Unison is a breeze and the rest is done in the mod matrix.

Results: Clean but a little sterile to my ears. But with how easy it is to use and how performant it is it's the easiest synth to tweak until you land on something better.

[Gam456]

You can also try Rapid, Viper, Omnisphere

[k2006]

if you are interested try the free Charlatan v3,low cpu good sounding synth.viewtopic.php?t=602708