Absynth 6

[waxtrax]

Never forget the Waves subscription-only fiasco

[ksandvik]

Subscriptions from NI, same boat, even with Absynth I would abandon future NI purchases.

[mothra]

Funny, I already abandoned NI when they abandoned Absynth.

[machinesworking]

Don't mind admitting Absynth - great sounds - has always intimidated me programming-wise. I've always stuck to tweaking the macros.

I had a look today for a simple online tutorial that walks through the architecture in a friendly way, but didn't have much luck - anyone have any good starting points?

In some ways it's not much different than most synths. It (mostly) has a wave of some type that you set up with a filter or two, multi point envelopes and multiple modulation sources and effects, like a sort of distortion, delays for days etc. In practice just like Zebra or any number of complex synths for the most part it's doing subtractive synthesis, you can set up filters and delays to do other types of synthesis in a way, but the basic idea isn't that drastically different.

What sets it apart to me is how weird the "oscillators" are, how slick the delays are, and how complex you can get with the envelopes. I've definitely made a whole song based around a rhythmic Absynth patch. For the most part pads are filler, but Absynth pads force you to pay attention.

It and Zebra 2 were my goto synths for complex patch creation for well over a decade, they compliment each other well, kind of Yin/Yang. Throw in Kontakt and a few hardware analogs I own and I pretty much ignored the rest of my plugin library except as simple sounds and window dressing.

I'm in the camp where I'm not going to complain much about the upgrade price, I plan to pretty much immediately upgrade and toss it in with Falcon and Zebra 3 as source material for most of what I do.

[dune_rave]

I will read the news about Absynth6 but I'm not really interested. FM9 would be more interetsing to me. But that also doesn't matter, because I obtained Halion just because of FM Lab, and also have opsix and OPS7.

[BBFG#]

Considering all the current competition, it has to bring something to the table that no one else does. I'm interested, if only for nostalgic reasons of when NI was ahead of the curve and not the tail end of it. And I still have earned trust issues with them that I'm not sure I want to take the chance anymore...
Although I do have a lot of things still in my account just sitting there now.

And like the previous comments have posted, I have HALion7, Blue3, Pigments, Biotek3, F.'em, OPS7 and others that more than cover my territory of Granular & FM at this point.

[dayjob]

Absynth still sounds really good. Quality synth engine in there. It sits in a mix well and has character. The patch mutator is brilliant. I have many soft synths and will jump on this absynth update immediately so long as the upgrade fee isn’t unreasonable

[Echoes in the Attic]

I wonder if they will allow multiple global effects this time. Sometimes wanted to use the delay and reverb at the same time. Not really a big deal with all the external effects plugins we all have now though.

[bmanic]

horribly broken Absynth 5 in Rosetta I'll be happy enough to use it in whatever shape it's in.

Absynth 5 has been working here perfectly in Rosetta since day 1. I use it all the time still to this day. It's one of my favorite synths.

I'm pretty confident in Brian Clevinger though, I think he cares about the legacy and what is improved is worth the upgrade price.

Unfortunately I don't have the same confidence at all. The UI / usability of Plasmonic is pretty much the worst I have ever encountered.. and I really do mean _ever_. The way the mouse is handled and sliders is just completely abysmal. At least last time I checked a few years ago. Even tried sending a polite email to explain why his implementation causes RSI but to no avail.

This is one area where I hope Native Instruments team puts their foot down and completely bitch slaps the dude if he even hints towards doing the same to Absynth 6.

[EvilDragon]

Don't worry, it's not going to use the widgets from Plasmonic.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Don't worry, it's not going to use the widgets from Plasmonic.

Don't tell me it's still going to use the triple diamonds though...

And how about a little mousewheel action. Massive was calibrated perfectly for trackpad and mousewheel. Then of course Massive X removed trackpad/mouse scroll. Because you know, the Massive X motto was "Let's see how much useful stuff we can get rid of".

[idoru97214]

I wish I was better at bashing NI. Then maybe I'd feel accepted.

I use MX all the time. I use Kontakt all the time. I bet I'll use Absynth 6 all the time.

Sorry

[Echoes in the Attic]

I wish I was better at bashing NI. Then maybe I'd feel accepted.

I use MX all the time. I use Kontakt all the time. I bet I'll use Absynth 6 all the time.

Sorry

You should be sorry. How else can we make them come to their senses about such obvious silly little problems other than making fun of their product decisions. I would guess that people’s general discontent about absynth being abandoned played a big part in it coming back. And I know that complaints about massive x not having automatable parameters outside of the macros led to that getting added soon.

Don’t feel the need to be accepted. Just do your part and make fun of their issues for the good of the wider community. Thank you in advance for your support.

Oh but of course we need to give them praise when they make a good move and fix poor prior decisions! So absynth 6 should be celebrated whatever they do to it, just for keeping this extremely important piece of synth history alive!

[Shabdahbriah]

I wish I was better at bashing NI. Then maybe I'd feel accepted.

I use MX all the time. I use Kontakt all the time. I bet I'll use Absynth 6 all the time.

Sorry

You needn't feel 'rejected' for not conforming to a perceived norm, either.

[machinesworking]

horribly broken Absynth 5 in Rosetta I'll be happy enough to use it in whatever shape it's in.

Absynth 5 has been working here perfectly in Rosetta since day 1. I use it all the time still to this day. It's one of my favorite synths.

I'm pretty confident in Brian Clevinger though, I think he cares about the legacy and what is improved is worth the upgrade price.

Unfortunately I don't have the same confidence at all. The UI / usability of Plasmonic is pretty much the worst I have ever encountered.. and I really do mean _ever_. The way the mouse is handled and sliders is just completely abysmal. At least last time I checked a few years ago. Even tried sending a polite email to explain why his implementation causes RSI but to no avail.

This is one area where I hope Native Instruments team puts their foot down and completely bitch slaps the dude if he even hints towards doing the same to Absynth 6.

The internet, have you had your argument today?

Plasmonic works great with a touch screen, Brian was obviously thinking about that. I don't share your discomfort with it at all, but that's probably because I use a touch screen with it. Having a slow and fast section makes much more sense with a touch screen. It also works pretty well with a mouse wheel.
One thing though, the decision to reverse effectively the slow and fast sections depending on whether horizontal or vertical slows pretty much everyone down at first, not the best choice.

I don't share your confidence with Absynth 5 in Rosetta, I've had all kinds of GUI issues with it, and at some point in the not too distant future Rosetta is officially gone, and along with it, Absynth 5. Plus like someone mentioned anything is better than the 2-3 diamond "sliders" in Absynth 5.

I'm guessing it will make more sense than either the faders in Plasmonic or the diamonds in Absynth 5, only a couple days to go.