KVR Audio

Sampleconstruct · Post by **Sampleconstruct** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 7:01 pm

fceramic wrote: I have no idea why MusicRadar could give Tremor a 10/10, it's nowhere near perfect or innovative.

The latter is a very wrong evaluation IMO...it's definitely imperfect but very innovative.

Resonator63 · Post by **Resonator63** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 7:06 pm

Another +1 for Microtonic.The Patternarium is fantastic

Microtonic is going to be 64bit soon as well.

phazedown · Post by **phazedown** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 4:22 pm

delete-me

musikmachine · Post by **musikmachine** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 4:30 pm

^Doesn't that require the full version of Live though?

phazedown · Post by **phazedown** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 4:36 pm

delete-me

BRoySound · Post by **BRoySound** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:11 am

µTonic is really flexible and easy to use.....Awesome Sound Quality.....on the other hand Tremor is also very easy to use....but there's something that will always lead you to distorted Drums.....maybe I was just tweaking a lot and always ending up doing a distorted type Drum but anyways it's really capable of doing some really Varied percs and shots.......but IMO the Best is Punch....it's not very easy.....but once you master it then it's really easy.....the designed Drums sound is truly perfect and satisfying every time.....and the inbuilt FX units are all Rounder Best...and slightly better than Tremor's IMO.....you don't have to create Multi and send it to any externals.....I would suggest you to try all the three mentioned above and then decide........and if you are looking for some really unique shots...then Zebra is the best choice....one instance for each shot or you can resample it....

B Roy

sqigls · Post by **sqigls** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 4:00 am

Microtonic is great if it's your first drum synth. Personally, since I bought Punch, I don't even touch MT anymore. I find that I generally need some extra processing after MicroTonic, wheras Punch is pretty fat as is. Microtonic sounds pretty tight and analog, it's simple, VERY light on CPU and cheap. Be aware that it is not for resale though.

Tremor is nice, but as it has been stated elsewhere here, it uses a bit of juice, and is probably a bit over the top if you just want a simple drum synth module.

If you're making minimal techno or similar, I would possibly go for Tremor, for the fact that you will get all sorts of harmonics and sounds that the others won't 'quite' do, and the CPU hit won't be such a concern... but if you just want to learn drum synthesis and get a few analog sounding sounds happening buy Microtonic.

...or get Punch if you want something that can do pretty much all of it. It does what it says on the tin, plus it has all the Papen FX and you can load samples into it.

marvotron · Post by **marvotron** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 2:08 pm

microtonic for me all the way.

especially with the extra scripts installed for generating random morphs and stuff like that.

I've tried Tremor and spent a long time with the demo but it just didn't have the sound I like and I dont like the way that the osc and noise section are routed together. For me this really limits the sound shaping capabilities. I'd happily sacrifice a slot on the master / channel fx section to have separate filters for the OSC and Noise sections.

I tried Punch as well and didnt really get on with that either, as far as I can remember I didnt like the workflow and the sound wasnt different enough to warrant the purchase.

BUT, they all have demos, so the obvious answer is try them all.

I do love microtonic though. had it for years and still love it. whenever im trying a new effect plugin then microtonic is the first instrument i pull up to test it with.

5Lives · Post by **5Lives** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 5:12 pm

I need to go back and try the demos of these some more, but my initial thoughts were:

- Microtonic is simple, but I could only get the same handful of sounds out of it. It all started to sound very similar. Not much flexibility, but that just may be due to my lack of skills.

- Tremor has the best UI of all of these (although the knobs are quite small and adding modulation to them isn't the best UI). The sequencer is pretty amazing. However, I didn't really enjoy the sound much. All sounds a bit distorted / industrial to me.

- I need to play with Punch more, but based on the demos, it seemed to have the sound I was looking for. And you can layer samples with the synth sounds. It seemed so promising - too bad the UI is horrendous. RP should hire some talented designers, because I think Punch would be much more popular if it had a better workflow and UI. I got so frustrated with this aspect that I didn't bother to explore the sound much.

Now - AAS Chromaphone is one of my new fave instruments (and FXpansion is offering a 50% discount on it for some reason until mid-April). Very flexible in terms of sounds it can produce - pretty great if you don't need a sequencer built-in. There are also rumors that Maschine will get a drum synth added to it.

Igro · Post by **Igro** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 6:02 pm

5Lives wrote:
Now - AAS Chromaphone is one of my new fave instrumentst

oh yeah, this is a peace of art! It's not a synthetic thing, but organic sounds are fantastic in this synth.

spirit · Post by **spirit** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:09 pm

I adore the way you can easily set different step lengths for each sound in Tremor - brilliant! Instant extended track variation

But that's all I like. You only need to watch some of their demo vids to see how insanely tedious it is to craft a decent sound. Bad design ergonomics imo. Good drum sounds should fall out of a drum synth, not require 30 educated knob twiddles.

Microtonic is deceptively deep. A little tweaking goes a long way in creating interesting sounds. The patternarium is also a fantastic resource. Have got loads of inspiration there.

Now if I could just work out how to get those different step lengths for each Microtonic track...

b7uzer · Post by **b7uzer** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:27 pm

sqigls wrote:Microtonic is great if it's your first drum synth. Personally, since I bought Punch, I don't even touch MT anymore. I find that I generally need some extra processing after MicroTonic, wheras Punch is pretty fat as is. Microtonic sounds pretty tight and analog, it's simple, VERY light on CPU and cheap. Be aware that it is not for resale though.

Tremor is nice, but as it has been stated elsewhere here, it uses a bit of juice, and is probably a bit over the top if you just want a simple drum synth module.

If you're making minimal techno or similar, I would possibly go for Tremor, for the fact that you will get all sorts of harmonics and sounds that the others won't 'quite' do, and the CPU hit won't be such a concern... but if you just want to learn drum synthesis and get a few analog sounding sounds happening buy Microtonic.

...or get Punch if you want something that can do pretty much all of it. It does what it says on the tin, plus it has all the Papen FX and you can load samples into it.

Agree, actually I have not touched microtonic ever since I bought Punch. Both are great, microtonic is more for "electronic" and unusual distorted sounds, while Punch allows to load samples, and a built-in sequencer is more versatile.

don't get me wrong, I like microtonic, but somehow punch is more "punchy" out of the box

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:06 pm

If cpu use were not considered, I would get Tremor over Microtonic.

If you are looking for a straight up drum synth, then Microtonic is easier to get your sort of standard drum synth sounds. Likely better if you are inexperienced too. Personally I find Microtonic a bit boring. It does not provide any particular sounds I do not already have elsewhere. Tremor however has some uniqueness. The modulation is excellent and its ability to set different lengths for each sound make it a far better sequencer than Microtonic. Being able to set a different modulation length than the track step length makes for easy creative sound changes. And while it is true that it tends towards the distorted sound, it need not be that.

I also like AAS Chromaphone. Gorgeous sound and very versatile. I think Chromaphone and Tremor would make a good combo. My complaint about Tremor is the cpu use. All 8 tracks are always in use. You cannot turn a track off and save its cpu so if you use the sequencer to drive another instrument, Tremor still uses cpu unnecessarily. I tried the Tremor demo quite a bit and because it was not hard to max out a core I was disinclined to purchase. I also basically use Geist for drums (along with some Live drum racks) and was disappointed that FXpansion did not create any Tremor-Geist integration. For example, some ability to auto sample a Tremor kit from Geist would have tipped the scales for me.

I do not want to use any single drum synth for drums. Microtonic always sounds like Microtonic. That is why I like sampling different synths into Geist.

C-note · Post by **C-note** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:10 pm

I thoroughly enjoy Tremor's creative options and Sound. I despise Tremor's lack of export options

AgiKvr · Post by **AgiKvr** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 11:42 pm

Also Synplant (uTonic "sister") can create VERY interesting and unusual(but usable!) drum sounds in a breeze and in an unconventional way.
I own uTonic and for me is GOLD!
And If you want change his "typical" sound and/or add extra punch....someone invented audio plug-ins.....

Microtonic or Tremor?