Comparing 30 VSTi Supersaws (MYR one)

[Uncle E]

A clean filter and tone controls would make for a nice practical addition for programming other sounds too.

Which of your packs (for any instrument) would you say gets closest to these sounds?

[Aiynzahev]

I don't have a synthesizer like that, so let's ask Master Aiyn Zahev to demo it a bit. I was curious about it

https://soundcloud.com/aiyn-zahev/helio ... for-corona

https://www.aiynzahev-sounds.com/collec ... for-corona

Gotta say that really does capture some of the old classic trance sounds really well, especially some of the arp parts. Wish there were some more examples.

He's a great sound designer. I didn't think his Diva recreations of classic jp8000 sounds was that close, I wonder if this would get closer.

That’s an old demo, it doesn’t show many of the presets very well. I’ll put together a new this weekend as there’s been an update and a little uptick in interest in corona on my website too.

[_leras]

Unfortunately the Diva ones aren't that close to the actual jp.

I love Diva and I love Sami's presets based on the JP sounds but it's like he says, as soon you start using the filter you notice the differences, that's not to say they are bad, but they're not quite the same

Three things:
1.Diva is not trying to be a JP emulation, and is an excellent synth in its own right
2. Supersaws have definitely evolved since the 90s, Virus, Sylenth, Massive and Serum etc etc have all been used widely
3. A roland jp8000 vst would clearly be very well received.

Side point: The quirks of the JP synth led to many great sounds, and the character of this synth hasn't really carried forward to VSTs. Many VSTs seem to mainly avoid 'character', other than when emulating.

[_leras]

That’s an old demo, it doesn’t show many of the presets very well. I’ll put together a new this weekend as there’s been an update and a little uptick in interest in corona on my website too.

Your jp8000 presets we're really great, spot on recreations. No surprise really as you make great presets and demos. Many thanks due as I usually turn first to your demos if I want to get an idea of how a synth sounds.

I do wonder how they would come out on other synths if you were recreating those specific sounds, and which might catch the character best.

I'm always quite surprised by the differences if I try to create the same sounds on different synths, at just how differently they come out.

For me at least, where the synth gui/workflow takes me definitely has some bearing on the final outcome due to not wanting to spend hours, but the general sound of a VST can be seemingly similar, yet really quite different, even for something simple like a pluck, or chime.

[Aiynzahev]

That’s an old demo, it doesn’t show many of the presets very well. I’ll put together a new this weekend as there’s been an update and a little uptick in interest in corona on my website too.

Your jp8000 presets we're really great, spot on recreations. No surprise really as you make great presets and demos. Many thanks due as I usually turn first to your demos if I want to get an idea of how a synth sounds.

I do wonder how they would come out on other synths if you were recreating those specific sounds, and which might catch the character best.

I'm always quite surprised by the differences if I try to create the same sounds on different synths, at just how differently they come out.

For me at least, where the synth gui/workflow takes me definitely has some bearing on the final outcome due to not wanting to spend hours, but the general sound of a VST can be seemingly similar, yet really quite different, even for something simple like a pluck, or chime.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time experimenting with that myself. IMO there’s some synths that don’t replicate easily. The usual suspects, Nords, Novation Nova, Virus and the JP don’t have equivalents, with maybe the Adam Szabo viper being an exception but I haven’t tested it out much. Even the Nord from generation to generation have differences.

Funny enough some analog synths are better emulated in VSTs. Repro is super close to the Sequential Prophet 5 I had, for example.

I don’t really worry about it, but being that I do a lot of trance presets I mess with supersaws, plucks etc a lot.

[Aiynzahev]

A clean filter and tone controls would make for a nice practical addition for programming other sounds too.

Which of your packs (for any instrument) would you say gets closest to these sounds?

Closest is probably the Diva trance classics vol.1 & 2 because of the digital oscillator is virtually identical. Take off the effects and do some EQ and it will be closer. Remove a bit of low mids and boost the high end.
https://www.aiynzahev-sounds.com/produc ... assics-set

[psycho45039]

I did a bank on the JP, all the trance classics I could come up with at the time. Later I recreated these with Diva.

Thank you. If these are some of the default presets, what author name would we find them under? If they're available separately, where can we get them?

the classic ones in the
https://www.aiynzahev-sounds.com/collections/diva section, I think

These are the JP sounds



Unfortunately the Diva ones aren't that close to the actual jp.

Finally something that sounds like a JP 8000/8080.

[Uncle E]

Closest is probably the Diva trance classics vol.1 & 2 because of the digital oscillator is virtually identical. Take off the effects and do some EQ and it will be closer. Remove a bit of low mids and boost the high end.
https://www.aiynzahev-sounds.com/produc ... assics-set

Thanks!

[vitocorleone123]

Spire has the most lovely saws. But I chose Hive 2 over it for a reason (and has almost as lovely of saws).

[LFO8]

personally I like the

one https://acidraintechnology.com/products/chainsaw

Oeh.. sounds nice!

[_leras]

These are the JP sounds



Unfortunately the Diva ones aren't that close to the actual jp.

Finally something that sounds like a JP 8000/8080.

Yes. A JP8080.

Sami of aiynzahev sounds did a great job recreating these!

That Synaesthesia sound is one of my all time favourites synth sounds. Just magic!

[bluesawsq]

Great effort. Thanks to MYR for doing the video.

Would have been even better with another spectrum analyzer view zoomed into about 2 kHz range. And using Dual Mono routing with left and right channels assigned to different colors.
Then we would have actually seen how the detune and stereo spread works in each synth. 'HIGH RES' mode is needed in Span to see the separate voices clearly.
It's much easier to identify and characterize the differences between synths that way. And easier to find comparable settings.
(Of course we can watch the video with our own spectrum analyzer settings, but it would have been cleaner and more educational if MYR had already shown the zoomed in spectrum views in the original video.)

Without detailed analysis the differences in supersaw sounds can seem like some magic or secret sauce added by synth developers. But mostly it's just some differences in detuning distribution, volume blend, stereo spreading, and in some cases slight pitch modulation added to each voice. Aliasing and other digital artifacts do affect the sound also, but in many cases those are less significant.

In some examples where MYR explains he is hearing some bad "phasing" or "artifacts", I think the reason is the synth is using linear detune distribution and equal volume on every voice. That is causing quite obvious beating on the fundamental frequency.

Pigments has also a 'Super' mode, selected by clicking the UNISON header, emulating the JP-8000 (+ stereo spread). MYR was only showing the basic unison mode which has linear detune distribution.

[LFO8]

I’ve spent quite a bit of time experimenting with that myself. IMO there’s some synths that don’t replicate easily. The usual suspects, Nords, Novation Nova, Virus and the JP don’t have equivalents, with maybe the Adam Szabo viper being an exception but I haven’t tested it out much.

Yes, perhaps that is due to what Urs alluded to with each synth most likely having different unison detune laws. With synths that don’t offer any kind of control over how unison is handled, one can struggle to get close (what I particularly hate about Alchemy and absolutely love about Vital).

Or maybe I am out of my depth here, but apart from the filters, the above is likely to cause a significant change in sound character.

[xbitz]

it's kind of sad that there's still no official Virus plugin for mac since Catalina, anyway I'm really curious to see a video about it ... tried to make something similar to the Spire because I was interested in it

at least Bitwig can open my .flp files, h5 to https://auraplugins.com/downloads/access-virus-editor/

[chk071]

Well, yeah, we might eventually have to add a more neutral filter model to Diva. They colour a lot more than what a JP8000 would need. A JP-style simple Treble/Bass EQ might help as well.

(Hive's filters don't distort unless resonance is cranked up, as this is what IMHO sounds best for supersaw)

A clean filter and tone controls would make for a nice practical addition for programming other sounds too.

I totally agree. In Spire, for example, for pad sounds, I avoid the filters which are driven by the oscillator level (Perfecto, Scorpio, Shaper etc.). Distortion can really suck for pad sounds.