Softube Modular

[Fernando Carvalho]

I couldn´t resist and bought it.

It sounds really good and the system has a lot of potential. As others have said, it needs a browser and good preset management badly.

[zerocrossing]

There is something slightly perverse to me about getting an emulation of a eurorack modular and then immediately starting to worry about presets.

Ya think?



There are decent hardware sounding synths like Diva that should do you fine with lots of preset banks. I actually thought Modular V sounded quite good too. This is more for people who want to dig in.

[deastman]

There is something slightly perverse to me about getting an emulation of a eurorack modular and then immediately starting to worry about presets.

Ya think?



There are decent hardware sounding synths like Diva that should do you fine with lots of preset banks. I actually thought Modular V sounded quite good too. This is more for people who want to dig in.

I mean, preset management is not an unreasonable request for a virtual synth. But if you're buying this one only to use presets, you're kind of missing the point. Like you said, there are plenty of other choices out there for preset users. This one is entirely about the patching experience. Again, not saying presets shouldn't be there, but focusing on that exclusively kind of makes the whole system redundant.

[wagtunes]

There is something slightly perverse to me about getting an emulation of a eurorack modular and then immediately starting to worry about presets.

Ya think?



There are decent hardware sounding synths like Diva that should do you fine with lots of preset banks. I actually thought Modular V sounded quite good too. This is more for people who want to dig in.

I mean, preset management is not an unreasonable request for a virtual synth. But if you're buying this one only to use presets, you're kind of missing the point. Like you said, there are plenty of other choices out there for preset users. This one is entirely about the patching experience. Again, not saying presets shouldn't be there, but focusing on that exclusively kind of makes the whole system redundant.

It's like buying a Corvette and just taking it to the corner store everyday.

[Mystic]

I mean, preset management is not an unreasonable request for a virtual synth. But if you're buying this one only to use presets, you're kind of missing the point. Like you said, there are plenty of other choices out there for preset users. This one is entirely about the patching experience. Again, not saying presets shouldn't be there, but focusing on that exclusively kind of makes the whole system redundant.

Not if you're doing it for the sound quality and/or flexibility that other sound designers will offer with preset packs they sell. Same could be said for any synth you get be it Serum, Omnisphere, etc. At the end of the day, the only thing I care about is the end result. If someone like PluginGuru started putting out patches for something like this, it would be worth buying just for the sounds he'd create with it alone. Some people like to tinker, I'd like to learn one day but right now it's not a priority nor is it productive for me. But if it produces high quality modular style sounds that I can't get elsewhere, then it doesn't miss the point at all.

[zerocrossing]

There is something slightly perverse to me about getting an emulation of a eurorack modular and then immediately starting to worry about presets.

Ya think?



There are decent hardware sounding synths like Diva that should do you fine with lots of preset banks. I actually thought Modular V sounded quite good too. This is more for people who want to dig in.

I mean, preset management is not an unreasonable request for a virtual synth. But if you're buying this one only to use presets, you're kind of missing the point. Like you said, there are plenty of other choices out there for preset users. This one is entirely about the patching experience. Again, not saying presets shouldn't be there, but focusing on that exclusively kind of makes the whole system redundant.

I'd agree, but in all honesty, a synth like this should come with a handful of templates and that's it. Presets are really only the handrails of the crippled sound designer. But, they just really never learned to walk, or are too lazy to... Or afraid. Again, I use presets all the time, but not on a synth like this. That's the equivalent of buying a Lego set where it comes assembled like the picture on the box. Everything is awesome!

Question; does it let you save snapshots like Reaktor? In other words, save your patch and then develop a set of presets for it. That would be useful for personal use.

[deastman]

I'd agree, but in all honesty, a synth like this should come with a handful of templates and that's it. Presets are really only the handrails of the crippled sound designer. But, they just really never learned to walk, or are too lazy to... Or afraid. Again, I use presets all the time, but not on a synth like this. That's the equivalent of buying a Lego set where it comes assembled like the picture on the box. Everything is awesome!

Question; does it let you save snapshots like Reaktor? In other words, save your patch and then develop a set of presets for it. That would be useful for personal use.

Great analogy. I need someone to build my Lego kits for me, because, frankly, who has time?!

I actually see a way out of this predicament, but who knows if Softube will ever go this way. What they need is a player-only version. It would only expose the mapped performance knobs, not the entire interface. It would load presets, and all the modules would be available to those patches. A sound designer would use the full version of Modular to create their patches, and publish them out as presets to be loaded into Player.

[ImNotDedYet]

I've tried on my iPad, both PCs, (win 7 & 10) IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari using the 64-bit Windows link on the website, the links posted previously and even URL encoded the parentheses in the URL. No dice. Ping and tracert both return, so this is odd that some are able to download with no issues and others can't.

[rod_zero]

Presets saving would be necessary for me because I would dedicate some sessions to making patches and others to use them.

Anyway, I think the idea is excelent but I will wait till more modules and manifacturers get onboard. I would like to see Make Noise and mutable instruments on it.

[wagtunes]

Okay, downloaded and installed but can't find any instructions on how to get a demo ilok code.

[morelia]

Great analogy. I need someone to build my Lego kits for me, because, frankly, who has time?!

There are plenty of analogies, but I think a closer one would be, if you want a guitar in your music then learn to play it (rather than use use loops or a plugin). I may be wrong but I imagine most people would disagree with that.

[wagtunes]

Never mind. I found it. Waiting for email.

[deastman]

I'm up and running now. I absolutely love this thing! I guess that shouldn't have come as a surprise, given that I've been staring at these same Doepfer modules since 1996. It just feels like home... very intuitive and easy to work with.

That said, I can see a ton of opportunities for user interface refinements. I hope they really listen to user feedback and continue to improve the basic application. Now, granted, I haven't read the manual, and there may be some things which are already implemented and I just haven't figured them out yet. I'll hold off until I actually RTFM.

Is it just me or is there really no quantizer module? I guess I'll have to use a sequencer as a quantizer, but it seems like a pretty basic utility module to omit.

[deastman]

Great analogy. I need someone to build my Lego kits for me, because, frankly, who has time?!

There are plenty of analogies, but I think a closer one would be, if you want a guitar in your music then learn to play it (rather than use use loops or a plugin). I may be wrong but I imagine most people would disagree with that.

I don't thing that one works. A guitar (mostly) only has one preset. A synth can be played, just like a guitar, but what we're talking about is the type of sound that comes out. Anyway, I really don't want to bog this thread down with some sort of anti-preset rant. I'm totally fine with presets, and use them all the time in my own music. The only point I'm trying to make is to really encourage people to roll up their sleeves and give patching a try!

[morelia]

I don't thing that one works. A guitar (mostly) only has one preset. A synth can be played, just like a guitar, but what we're talking about is the type of sound that comes out. Anyway, I really don't want to bog this thread down with some sort of anti-preset rant. I'm totally fine with presets, and use them all the time in my own music. The only point I'm trying to make is to really encourage people to roll up their sleeves and give patching a try!

Fair enough. I fully agree. Learning to play guitar or program is more for me. I get more enjoyment and sense of achievement out of that. I think I'd prefer some basic templates over presets, but honestly, without some starting point I'd be pretty lost.