VSTis as good as hardware? Similar to Access Virus Quality?

[oblagon]

1200 euros for NL2x is tooo much!I prefer Discovery (same sound about 99,5%)

Clavia would sue DiscoDSP and suppress Discovery if that was true. The similarity factor is in fact something like %30. Discovery sounds sort of like NL2. That's all.

Tested with both a real NL and Discovery with same patch (which discovery can load ), the sound WAY more than 30% alike

I owned NL2 and still have Discovery. 'Sounds sort of like NL' might be even stretching it. Square osc sounds completely different in NL,pwn modulation will give you completely different sound, FM is way more metalic and edgy in NL, filter and distortion sound different, 'dry' tone that NL has isn't there.

I'm not degrading the plugin. It's rather nice. But the hallmark of NL, tight oscS and filters, all kinds of edgy, metalic and shrill sounds aren't reproducible in Discovery.

Synth 1 is closer to NL than Discovery.

[djones]

I don't know what people like so much about Albino!
Albino definately lacks some beef and warmness when you compare it to Z3ta, Surge.
It just sounds a little too lame to me.

I have the Access Virus B, and I can't really say it sounds better than Z3ta, Surge, Absynth or Korg Legacy collection, maybe.

Maybe it's a little warmer/richer but I don't think this is noticable at all in a track.

[fgimian]

That's extremely surprising djones. Would you care to post some of your favourite sounds on the Virus ?

Also guys, please tell me what you think of these filters...

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?a ... f41ebd8ea0

How do they create huge pads on teh Virus, do they use Wavetables to do this ?

I will also be sure to retry z3ta properly

Cheers
Fots

[fgimian]

z3ta banks at http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=58059 sound incredible ! Just listening to the mp3. I think I better learn this synth.

It is obviously capable of greatness !

Fots

[Dj Mu7!L80R]

My vote is for...

1. Korg Legacy Digital Edition
2. Refx Vanguard
3. Rcg Audio Z3t4
4. Novation V-Station

Refx Vanguard sounds like a virus and I think this is a perfect emulation of a access virus c.

I don't like albino... I don't understand why so many people likes that synth. I prefer a DiscoDSP Discovery rather than albino

[djones]

Try the demo of Vemberaudio Surge if you can:

[fgimian]

will do I'm also currently enjoying z3ta. Oh also, did anyone check out that filter sample I posted above ?

Cheers
Fots

[Algorythm]

1200 euros for NL2x is tooo much!I prefer Discovery (same sound about 99,5%)

Clavia would sue DiscoDSP and suppress Discovery if that was true. The similarity factor is in fact something like %30. Discovery sounds sort of like NL2. That's all.

Tested with both a real NL and Discovery with same patch (which discovery can load ), the sound WAY more than 30% alike

I owned NL2 and still have Discovery. 'Sounds sort of like NL' might be even stretching it. Square osc sounds completely different in NL,pwn modulation will give you completely different sound, FM is way more metalic and edgy in NL, filter and distortion sound different, 'dry' tone that NL has isn't there.

I'm not degrading the plugin. It's rather nice. But the hallmark of NL, tight oscS and filters, all kinds of edgy, metalic and shrill sounds aren't reproducible in Discovery.

Synth 1 is closer to NL than Discovery.

Are you kidding me? Discovery is at least 95% close to NL2 (try to use the oversampling option and you will hear those "edgy, metallic and shrill" sounds!)The only thing that is different in some patches is the low end..NL2 has more of it, but certainly i won't pay 1200 euros for details like this. If it would cost around 600 euros i would reconsider because it has very good build quality!

[Algorythm]

I don't know what people like so much about Albino!

I have the Access Virus B, and I can't really say it sounds better than Z3ta, Surge, Absynth or Korg Legacy collection, maybe.

Maybe it's a little warmer/richer but I don't think this is noticable at all in a track.

Well, the Albino love is a mystery for me too..I believe though that Albino and Blue are two of the best organised synths in the market. You can make the most complex sounds with very little effort. Their routing is realy lovable!As for the sound..no i'm not excited so much especially with their filters (maybe Blue has a little better filter) but generally i can't understand why they are so special except the routings.

It's always a matter of taste too..I personally don't like Z3ta and Absynth filters for example.

[fgimian]

I actually must admit that I did like the z3ta filters but not the Albino or Blue ones lol I guess it is indeed upto taste.

However, running an osc in Multi, Free I got a similar sound to Synth1's detune ability, but not quite as good. The z3ta gave a lot more of a flanging effect than Synth1 at similar detune settings.

The reason I had originally thought that z3ta oscs were of a low quality, was because I had initialised a program to empty and it had set quality to draft which I hadn't noticed. Why on earth would a default program be set to Draft ? ... oh well, at draft quality, the quality is indeed ... crap

Sounds great in Normal and higher

Fots

[tony tony chopper]

I was out of manga so I was reading an old CM (94, december 05) in my bath, and found some 'emulating the Virus' article.

There's a signal/feature flow that goes like this:

MIDI/envs/LFOs/mod -> Osc/noise/unison/input ->

(serial modes)
Filt1 -> saturation -> Filt2

(parallel mode)
Filt1 -> saturation
Filt2

-> amp -> dist/phaser/chorus/EQ/ring mod -> delay/reverb -> out


So that would be the min requirement for a synth that you'd compare to a Virus I guess.
Sytrus does about everything in that chart. It's a pretty basic flow, although not every synth offers several filters processed in parallel or serially.

[Josmoker]

Why on earth would a default program be set to Draft ?

At the time it came out the synth was looked at as a cpu-hog. Nowadays it's not so bad anymore but if you use enough multi-oscs, fx etc. it still takes quite a lot.

The z3ta gave a lot more of a flanging effect than Synth1 at similar detune settings.

Are you 100% sure the detune setting was the same? At higher detune settings a flange effect will necessarily become noticeable methinks so maybe an apparent similar setting is in fact higher? z3ta is a synth where such things can easily happen...

Cheers, Jo

[fgimian]

I was out of manga so I was reading an old CM (94, december 05) in my bath, and found some 'emulating the Virus' article.

There's a signal/feature flow that goes like this:

MIDI/envs/LFOs/mod -> Osc/noise/unison/input ->

(serial modes)
Filt1 -> saturation/Filt2

(parallel mode)
Filt1 -> saturation
Filt2

-> amp -> dist/phaser/chorus/EQ/ring mod -> delay/reverb -> out


So that would be the min requirement for a synth that you'd compare to a Virus I guess.
Sytrus does about everything in that chart. It's a pretty basic flow, although not every synth offers several filters processed in parallel or serially.

Thanks a lot for the info, I think Zebra2 may also be capable of this too

Fots

[martian]

I actually must admit that I did like the z3ta filters but not the Albino or Blue ones lol I guess it is indeed upto taste.

same here, they are nothing particulay exciting like imposcar, but have a nice amount of reso and smoothness and go low enough to have balls, making them better than most imo (ie. i dont like blue, albino, vanguard). also you can use them in serial and route the distortion after filt 1 pre filt 2 to add more flavour. i think the surge filter (another great synth) is of quite similar sound to zetas for the record.

one thing i find can often fool my perception of filter sound is if the cutoff sounds steppy when moved via the gui, like i find with toxic, but internally theres far more resolution so when you modulate them from an env or lfo the cutoff is as smooth as anything.

[Robr]

As far as I am aware Sytrus is an fm synth and has no pwm available for its oscillators, that would rule it out straight away for me.

No 2 synths sound the same, I have used/own pretty much all the vstis mentioned in this thread including the Virus Powercore, Z3ta, Albino and Zero Vector(no pwm though) and imo the ones I have just mentioned can sound like the Virus in certain situations although none of them will be a direct replacement for one.

Zebra 2 does interest me though, I have the demo sitting on my drive, I think its gonna have to get a little test drive fairly soon.