GHOST (beta) - New 6 osc wavetable FM synth

[EPtMe001]

I seriously can't believe I only heard about this synth a week ago - Yeah, not happy with the price as I would have definitely jump on it if I knew the BETA even existed, but whatevs.

Regardless of what some here may say/think about marketing plans or lack thereof. This was definitely a missed opportunity for the developer to grow its paid user base.

Yes, it is a great synth from the short time I have had with the demo & I actually enjoyed playing with FM for a change, but it's way off for my budget at $300 (AUD), so will give it a miss at that price.

Ghost will stay on my radar for now and I do wish the developer success!

[kmonkey]

EPtMe001 You probably by accident wrote/quoted someone else's or your text and presented it as mine. Not cool. Please fix.

[kmonkey]

It is the fantastic point we reached. Instead of cheering for the top-quality products we get to trial and eventually purchase if we think are worth it - we complain about missing marketing strategies, reward points, and whatever the bullshit superpower you think is missing.

For a product that no one is forcing you into. But hey you don't have that amount of money so you do what you do best - you complain.

As if a one-guy company hasn't had enough of investing in R&D to actually make a top-quality product you rather piss on the one-man beautiful effort for the missing nuggets which literally were invented to make a fool of you by milking even more money. Priceless. Just a day ago a person complained that audio companies should build hype before release.

I would support you wholeheartedly if the product was bad. But this one isn't. You can hear and see quality from the top down. From the sound to the interface.

[OzoneJunkie]

The 15 minute demo limit killed it for me. I was playing around with recreating a patch I made in Vital, and ran out of time. Reloading the project as expected had a blank preset in Ghost. Yeah, sorry... nice synth, but it's stuff like this that makes me not want to even explore it anymore.

[EPtMe001]

EPtMe001 You probably by accident wrote/quoted someone else's or your text and presented it as mine. Not cool. Please fix.

I think I fixed whatever you were complaining about, however, to your below comment - Honestly, it sounds like you have way too money & time on your hands - No ones is knocking the actual product, it is good. However, products releases tend to follow a logical strategy... I get it, you're a fanboy with very little to no knowledge of how the Sales industry actually works.

From a marketing perspective, Ghost failed its first commercial field test and a critical one at that - With the major points emphasized, what I mean is, the majority of it's potential paid user base knew nothing about Ghost, but I bet the crackheads did. And once they dominate its user base the strategy will have to be adjusted, because a few coins in your pocket is better than none... Just sayin!

[Gamma-UT]

I agree that plugin vendors shouldn't sell themselves short, but Ghost is suffering from some less-than-optimal decisions when it comes to marketing and sales (and a couple of implementation choices). The product sounds good but for something like this where you're working out whether wavetables+FM over six operators rather than just making do with a couple (as in Serum) makes sense, a hard 15-minute limit per use with no way to carry over work from one to the next is not going to help sell more copies.

There's also no manual, which doesn't help when combined with the time limit as the user winds up spending a lot of time futzing about trying to work how to do modulations etc. The visual feedback is good but there are some elements where I'm completely stumped: for example, I have no idea what the STE selector in the randomiser window actually does (OK I worked out it's "stereo" but doing...what?) or why the Steps knob is grey (and whether there's some other mode that changes that).

And then MIDI control. Why are new developers continually assuming everyone is happy with host-parameter automation and the bare minimum of MIDI CCs, like mod and pitch wheel? Opsix, for example, makes routing in MIDI controllers really easy and at the kind of level you want in an FM synth if you're not entirely focused on one-finger, LFO-heavy patches. And the problem here is that at the price level, it's a tough sell vs things like Opsix, Synthmaster3 or Icarus. They don't do exactly what Ghost does, but they do overlap significantly.

...and another thing. The website looks like it was thrown together in a few hours, which doesn't help with confidence when being asked to fork over $199. If I just stumbled over the website, I'm not sure I'd be able to work out it was a wavetable+FM synth, and also whether it would be around for while after purchase. This is one of those situations where a lower intro price helps build exposure because you get people online who have used it pointing out how to deal with the synth. At this price, it's more of a leap of faith and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking "I'll wait for a sale or see if it lasts the course at all" rather than "shut up and take my money".

[flametop]

I was put off by the fact the website says (c) 2021. Makes it look like its abandoned.

[p1afff]

Don’t be too hard, this is a single dev project, and probably too for sales and marketing…So the web site is .. what it is. But also, we’re all used to big companies massive marketing content. Not everybody can do that, especially for what seems to be a first product, if I’m not wrong
For the 15 mn demo time, kill current instance and renew it
Yes, lack of manual is not great
Yes a launch price is generally a win for both sides, it’s a stupid strategy that works

[Gamma-UT]

Don’t be too hard, this is a single dev project, and probably too for sales and marketing…So the web site is .. what it is. But also, we’re all used to big companies massive marketing content. Not everybody can do that, especially for what seems to be a first product, if I’m not wrong
For the 15 mn demo time, kill current instance and renew it
Yes, lack of manual is not great
Yes a launch price is generally a win for both sides, it’s a stupid strategy that works

I didn't mean it in the context "how very dare you inflict this website on us", more than the dev is possibly discouraging more business than they think. It doesn't have to be slick, but I think they'd do themselves more favours if there was a bit more description than "much FM synthesis" and about how ear-bleeding the distortion can be.

And that (c)2021 thing isn't helping either. To be honest, I think recruiting just one or two resellers might help as it overcomes the issue of people thinking they might just be Paypal-ing into the void.

The point about the 15-minute timeout is that it takes time to build the kind of patch that might set Ghost apart from Serum etc. Doing a two-osc wavetable FM patch is quick and easy but that's what the other synths can do. Constructing something workable and interesting that involves four interacting operators, each possibly with a custom wavetable, that's not a quick process. You've only got to have it shut down on you a couple of times to think "sod this". Again, it's the dev that loses here not anyone else.

[kmonkey]

So there's that. A typical Twilight Zone episode of the KVR armchair product experts who coincidentally never owned or ran a company. Priceless.

[Gamma-UT]

So there's that. A typical Twilight Zone episode of the KVR armchair product experts who coincidentally never owned or ran a company. Priceless.

Big, if true.

[M1st]

This is a genuine question, what this synth can do that Phase Plant can't? I'm thinking synthesis only.

[Alexander137]

This is a genuine question, what this synth can do that Phase Plant can't? I'm thinking synthesis only.

The point is not what he can do, but what is more convenient. In Phase Plant it is quite inconvenient to do FM synthesis with a large number of operators. For this you need an FM matrix.

[M1st]

Well, this was the only point of my question so it still stands.

[p1afff]

There is no synth champion of the world, each of the good ones has their interest, would be in workflow, UI, sound, effects, sub engines, modulation management, MIDI compatibility etc