SERUM VS VITAL

[PebbleInAStream]

There's something about both Serum and Vital I don't get. Both are obviously very well featured Synths.
They are not Synths that inspire new and unusual sounds that my ears want to hear.

You know it's funny because I've always loved Serum, though by the time I had the spare change to buy it I had already moved on to the later and greater and I never did buy it... Vital is supposed to be more powerful, yet I never quite clicked with it. I've always wondered why that was, maybe just because Serum was my first synth love.

[teilo]

There's something about both Serum and Vital I don't get. Both are obviously very well featured Synths.
They are not Synths that inspire new and unusual sounds that my ears want to hear.

That's a very personal thing, though. They have inspired many other people. But it's all good. De gustibus non disputandum est.

[_al_]

Vital is supposed to be more powerful, yet I never quite clicked with it. I've always wondered why that was, maybe just because Serum was my first synth love.

Exactly the same here. (Though I went Zebra then Serum)

For me, I think the problem with Vital is that the gui seems too... how to put it... knocked together, quickly and cheaply.
I mean yeah, everything is nicely laid out, but it all just feels a bit tacky, if that's the right word.

(Though I also think that with Valhalla, but still use those)

I used Vital one time in a track, and truly I was blown away by the quality of the speech synthesis, but still... something about it made me feel that it was going to be abandonware at some point soon. (Not following this thread, so maybe it already is lol)

Then at some point, an update made it go all glitchy and flickery, meaning I had to reset gui size to 100% to fix it in every instance. I gave up at that point

[aMUSEd]

Is Vital still being developed?

[Igro]

No.

[chk071]

Is Vital still being developed?

According to the dev: Yes. According to always disappointed forum users: No.

[liquidsound]

He may be waiting for Serum 2 to see what to do with Vital...

[Psuper]

Vital has replaced pretty much every synth I own, and I own a *lot* of synths.

[Hanz Meyzer]

When it comes to specs, isn't Vital simply in any regard more powerful than Serum, but has a even better GUI and higher quality? AFAIK it even can do audio rate modulation. Why then use Serum, other than being used to it or used it in the past?

[exmatproton]

When it comes to specs, isn't Vital simply in any regard more powerful than Serum, but has a even better GUI and higher quality? AFAIK it even can do audio rate modulation. Why then use Serum, other than being used to it or used it in the past?

+1

[Trensharo]

Not sure how anyone can have a "LOT" of synths and replace them all with Vital.

Vital isn't an FM Synth, or a Virtual Analog Synth, or a Granular or Spectral Synth. I think MASSIVE is the only Wavetable Synth that is actually a Virtual Analog Synth as a design intention. Its sound is clearly in that bucket.

Vital is a super clean Wavetable Synth - like Serum - and it sounds good while doing so... but no one is replacing Diva or Sylenth1 with Vital. That doesn't even make any sense. That statement is propaganda. I don't even believe such things when I read them.

Exactly the same here. (Though I went Zebra then Serum)

For me, I think the problem with Vital is that the gui seems too... how to put it... knocked together, quickly and cheaply.
I mean yeah, everything is nicely laid out, but it all just feels a bit tacky, if that's the right word.

(Though I also think that with Valhalla, but still use those)

I used Vital one time in a track, and truly I was blown away by the quality of the speech synthesis, but still... something about it made me feel that it was going to be abandonware at some point soon. (Not following this thread, so maybe it already is lol)

Then at some point, an update made it go all glitchy and flickery, meaning I had to reset gui size to 100% to fix it in every instance. I gave up at that point

It's the UI framework they use. It's the same issue I have with Tracktion Waveform. They have that cheap F/OSS look that I can't jive with.

It just comes across as the easiest, laziest way to design a mediocre UI. At least everything is sized and scales cleanly, though. Lots of prettier synths fail massively at that...

I think if you're going to do scalable vector GUIs, then you have to use a flatter, more sparse User Interface, because everything has to scale cleanly.

[Dirtgrain]

Serum filters are coded by Andy of Cytomic, IIRC. I imagine they are better than Vital's, but I have not compared. Not that this matters to everyone--nor does audio rate modulation.

[idontpost]

Serum was the first synth I ever bought. Feels like home, but lately I prefer discovering other instruments, but I have high expectation for Serum 2 and its nice to know it will be a free update.

[Ronny Pries]

Vital sounds too clean

Vital's Ladder @audiorate

Maybe I can even agree that it does these things astonishingly well/clean for being 'just' a Wavetable synth without a fancy interface.

[zvenx]

Serum filters are coded by Andy of Cytomic, IIRC. I imagine they are better than Vital's, but I have not compared. Not that this matters to everyone--nor does audio rate modulation.

I believe only some were and Andy has gone to great length to mention that these are very very old filter algorithms of his.

That said...Vital has outstanding bugs that haven;t been fixed.. Vital had bugs that were eventually fixed a year or more later even though I brought them to his attention with repro and video etc..

Steve (before he seems locked in a cave to finish off serum 2) use to fix bugs a day after being reported many times.

Serum 2 is being developed... lord knows if there will be another vital update at any point.

(and yes I paid for Vital).

For me it is a no brainer.. Serum is in my Prime Time Template, Vital has not even being used in any of my new projects for over a year. And in those that I used them for it was only because of Sound Author's fantastic presets...

rsp