Splice rent to own Serum plan, what do you think?

[Ingonator]

I have synths for different roles anyway; Blocks for modular, Monark for bass, Oddity 2 for pads and Serum would be ideal for plucks and stabs, it does do PPG style bells and glassy leads really well as well.

Funny you mention the PPG together with Serum. To me Serum did not sound like a PPG at all which is also due to the filters in Serum and also as the oscillators in Serum are super clean compared to both a real PPG wave and also Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V which is the best emulation so far. PPG 3.V is one of my favourite softysnths that i used since around 5 years or more and that even includes an emulation of the aliasing (!!) of the real thing (+ the filter too which is quite important).

I do not think there are many other softsynths that replace the PPG (the PPG 3.V plugin to be precise), also not Icarus or even the other Waldorf plugins like Largo or Nave (FWIW i was able to load PPG wavetables in Icarus by Resynthesis of wavetable sweeps from the PPG 3.V plugin). Funny that if people talk about certain wavetable synths that they think it sounds like the PPG Wave did. That's almost like telling a Virus C sounds similar to a Minimoog Model D, just because the Virus C has (DSP based) Moog style filters.

[chk071]

Mmmh... first question already. Why do i have to state my Paypal, even though i only want to try Serum? Do i have to give them auto-billing-access to my Paypal like on other sites? I wouldn't want that at all.

I think cause you're essentially subscribing but the first 3 days are free and you can cancel if you change your mind so it's a gratis period. I cancelled on the 2nd day, no issue but yeah that's how Splice works re billing but you can cancel and resume any time.

Thanks dude. I'll deposit my Paypal data then.

[pdxindy]

You might have already noticed, Splice gives you three days completely free. The only catch is they ask for your credit card up front, so if you're still on the fence there's that.

There is no way I am going to give out my credit card to try a demo.

[pdxindy]

I can't understand what you could have against this. Pay $189 at once or pay $189 in 19 monthly payments...

If you want Serum, than this is a good method to get it.

currently... but I am against this sort of service because it is a step towards subscription models. and once it becomes common, nothing stopping the adding of interest to the payments.

[Apostate]

I have synths for different roles anyway; Blocks for modular, Monark for bass, Oddity 2 for pads and Serum would be ideal for plucks and stabs, it does do PPG style bells and glassy leads really well as well.

Funny you mention the PPG together with Serum. To me Serum did not sound like a PPG at all which is also due to the filters in Serum and also as the oscillators in Serum are super clean compared to both a real PPG wave and also Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V which is the best emulation so far. PPG 3.V is one of my favourite softysnths that i used since around 5 years or more and that even includes an emulation of the aliasing (!!) of the real thing (+ the filter too which is quite important).

The Waldorf PPG Wave 3 is one of the most bizarrely overlooked synthesizers going imo. It became a great passion of mine after talking to Ingo about it and checking out his soundset stuff for it. Like all the Waldorf, there's a bit of a learning curve, but once mastered the rewards are great and continuous.

Funny, I've been deep into Serum on this third free day...then I opened up Electra and...well, kind of forgot about it until I got this notification. Electra is the balls, terrific synth for what I do.

You might have already noticed, Splice gives you three days completely free. The only catch is they ask for your credit card up front, so if you're still on the fence there's that.

There is no way I am going to give out my credit card to try a demo.

Third day and not a dime taken off my credit card.

[Ingonator]

This was posted at the Icarus thread a few hours ago:

Serum has an exquisite wavetable editor and it actually has 2 filters, the 2nd one is located in the FX section (and is not polyphonic/per voice).

So much about the ongoing attemps of certain Serum users to "hijack" the Icarus thread, not to talk about the usual Tone2 haters postimng there...

[pdxindy]

This was posted at the Icarus thread a few hours ago:

Serum has an exquisite wavetable editor and it actually has 2 filters, the 2nd one is located in the FX section (and is not polyphonic/per voice).

So much about the ongoing attemps of certain Serum users to "hijack" the Icarus thread, not to talk about the usual Tone2 haters postimng there...

so because some other people behave badly, that is your rationale for behaving badly yourself??

[chk071]

I can't understand what you could have against this. Pay $189 at once or pay $189 in 19 monthly payments...

If you want Serum, than this is a good method to get it.

currently... but I am against this sort of service because it is a step towards subscription models. and once it becomes common, nothing stopping the adding of interest to the payments.

I was hesitant to use the Paypal auto-bill option, so aborted the Serum 3 days free trial thing, and Jonathan from Splice sent me an email according to that, asking if i had any trouble, because, obviously, they saw that i aborted it. I told him per email that i am hesitant, because i don't like the idea of giving them the option to auto-bill my Paypal, and asked if there perhaps was another way. I already registered to some site once, and some accounts were hacked, and it was possible to do purchases from the accounts, because of the auto-bill thing. I'll post here when he replied, and let you know. Maybe, if enough people show their hesitation, they might give people another option. Seriously, i won't give an auto-bill option just to demo Serum for 3 days.

[musikmachine]

I have synths for different roles anyway; Blocks for modular, Monark for bass, Oddity 2 for pads and Serum would be ideal for plucks and stabs, it does do PPG style bells and glassy leads really well as well.

Funny you mention the PPG together with Serum. To me Serum did not sound like a PPG at all which is also due to the filters in Serum and also as the oscillators in Serum are super clean compared to both a real PPG wave and also Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V which is the best emulation so far. PPG 3.V is one of my favourite softysnths that i used since around 5 years or more and that even includes an emulation of the aliasing (!!) of the real thing (+ the filter too which is quite important).

I do not think there are many other softsynths that replace the PPG (the PPG 3.V plugin to be precise), also not Icarus or even the other Waldorf plugins like Largo or Nave (FWIW i was able to load PPG wavetables in Icarus by Resynthesis of wavetable sweeps from the PPG 3.V plugin). Funny that if people talk about certain wavetable synths that they think it sounds like the PPG Wave did. That's almost like telling a Virus C sounds similar to a Minimoog Model D, just because the Virus C has (DSP based) Moog style filters.

Ok it's been a while since i've played with a Waldorf synth but the bell timbres i've heard reminded of that PPG sound, not saying that because their both wavetable synths but i know you're far more experienced with Waldorf synths.

I'm not saying it's a replacement anyway, just that it reminded me of that sound but would be interesting to load some Waldorf wavetables in. Bear in mind improvements have been made since you demoed but if you don't like it c'est la vie, it's all good!

I've also read Serum can sound a bit more gritty in draft mode, yet to try it but as mentioned i don't click with a lot of synths and Serum did.

I've wanted to get into wavetable synths for a while so for me this is a great entry. YMMV.

[EnGee]

I agree that Splice payment should be more friendly. I also prefer paying manually not automatic payment. I'm doing that with my internet provider and electricity bills ... etc.
Anyway, I used my PayPal not my debit card (I don't have credit card).

[musikmachine]

You might have already noticed, Splice gives you three days completely free. The only catch is they ask for your credit card up front, so if you're still on the fence there's that.

There is no way I am going to give out my credit card to try a demo.

Just to clarify your subscribing but the 3 days is a window to cancel rather than being charged straight away and being tied in for 19 months, makes sense to me but Steve Duda should really update the demo! Also used PP here but been a Splice user for a while...

[musikmachine]

I have synths for different roles anyway; Blocks for modular, Monark for bass, Oddity 2 for pads and Serum would be ideal for plucks and stabs, it does do PPG style bells and glassy leads really well as well.

Just running through these videos

Sounds like you are on a winning path, you're checking out the pertinent vids, plus you have a super good idea of what you want, go for it!

I like to be thorough!

Foe TheoM this is about the best example i've found so far showing a softer more emotional side to Serum: http://www.loopmasters.com/genres/10-Ch ... um-Presets

[pdxindy]

You might have already noticed, Splice gives you three days completely free. The only catch is they ask for your credit card up front, so if you're still on the fence there's that.

There is no way I am going to give out my credit card to try a demo.

Just to clarify your subscribing but the 3 days is a window to cancel rather than being charged straight away and being tied in for 19 months, makes sense to me but Steve Duda should really update the demo! Also used PP here but been a Splice user for a while...

oh gee... 3 days to demo something... how generous. That is not a positive!

Like I said, and speaking only for myself... there is no chance I am giving out my credit card just to try a software demo. I expect to be able to download and try a demo easily, with no need to install anything (besides the demo) and no need to give out credit card information.

[musikmachine]

It's not a demo though that's the point, you're subscribing with 3 days to cancel. It's the full version with no limitations.

It needs to be longer than three days though IMO cause of the long term commitment and the actual demo version needs updating as it's 2 years old, these things made it more difficult for me to assess the synth than it needed to be but i guess it's cause of piracy.

Not trying to convince you of anything, just saying you're renting to buy from the get-go with 3 days to change your mind but there's a separate demo there if you want to try it with not strings.

[Apostate]

Actually the three days were long enough...for me to consider not buying it again.

I spent the weekend and today, about eight hours each day, making Serum and its programming a priority. The thing I noticed most is how often certain other synths, when opened, dragged my attention away from Serum. I won't list them unless asked, but it hit me today that, if it's that easy for me to be distracted (SOUND had a lot to do with the distraction), do I really want this synth?

With Serum it definitely takes an effort to get anything like that gutpunching, present with-you-in-the-room sound that at least half a dozen (of the top of my head) synths have right out of the box. It's the filters: despite some seemingly exotic and myriad, with admittedly excellent modulation options, none of them really do that. They're all relatively flat.

Now, that last factor might not be what you want, but it's very necessary in my music, so it's a big strike against.

On the other hand, the effects (though not exactly top shelf, had to use Ohmicide and Valhalla for many of my patches) can be fascinating to modulate, with a wealth of interesting options. Plus, it's more than possible to get some generally really good sounds out of the synth through conscientious programming.

So I'm still on the fence, and have a few more hours.