KVR Audio

fgimian · Post by **fgimian** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:48 pm

Urs wrote:
soundpalace wrote:oh wait, what's this ... an oscillator loader in Zebra2 ? :D:D:D:D:D I spoke too soon !!
Yes, just not so much for loading .wav files or anything... but as a mean to quickly surf through an upcomming library of waveforms and osc settings...

soundpalace wrote:Graphic bug gone, works in Cubase, seems to have way lower CPU overhead ....
Well, many algorithms have been optimized for SSE/SSE2 recently. Expensive filters are 40% faster, and almost as much faster are oscillators and reverb. Plus, many modules go in standby (no cpu consumption) if they actually have nothing to do (delays getting silence etc.)

Enjoy,

Urs

Awesome ! I'll continue playing with this synth tomorrow and report any bugs. The only thing I have noticed after playing with it for about 1 hour is that some presets cause some crazy CPU spiking while changing from my current preset. I'll see if I can give you more details about replicating this.

Beautiful synth ! I'll retry VAZ tomorrow just to be sure that it's the one I tried last time that had the bad oscs, I'll try post an example to show you what I'm talking about

Fots

fgimian · Post by **fgimian** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:53 pm

Just tested VAZ 2010, no offense guys, but I truly believe these oscs are of a very low quality. Maybe they sound fat in the low end but they don't appear to be well anti-aliased and thus every note exhibits artefacts.

Try loading up VAZ and listening carefully to different notes just playing the default sawtooth, then load up Zebra2 (default setting is sawtooth too), adjust the volumes to be similar (Zebra is softer) and then do a comparison, Zebra has completely clear oscs, not a single sign of aliasing, I've even analysed them using a spectrum analyser and they are literally perfect !

nayways, time for bed, I'll definitely continue playing around with all these synths tomorrow

Please keep the suggestions / thoughts going.

Fots

olepro · Post by **olepro** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:09 pm

soundpalace wrote:Just tested VAZ 2010, no offense guys, but I truly believe these oscs are of a very low quality. Maybe they sound fat in the low end but they don't appear to be well anti-aliased and thus every note exhibits artefacts.

Try loading up VAZ and listening carefully to different notes just playing the default sawtooth, then load up Zebra2 (default setting is sawtooth too), adjust the volumes to be similar (Zebra is softer) and then do a comparison, Zebra has completely clear oscs, not a single sign of aliasing, I've even analysed them using a spectrum analyser and they are literally perfect !

nayways, time for bed, I'll definitely continue playing around with all these synths tomorrow

Please keep the suggestions / thoughts going.

Fots

What makes Vaz so good is the filters, the incredible fast envelopes and it's randomness.
If you have a synth bas with a fast filter envelope every note sounds different.
I agree with you that the oscillators could be more clean.
By the way have you seen the 2x oversampling in the options menu?
That makes things better but allso use more cpu.

Algorythm · Post by **Algorythm** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:11 pm

olepro wrote:
soundpalace wrote:Just tested VAZ 2010, no offense guys, but I truly believe these oscs are of a very low quality. Maybe they sound fat in the low end but they don't appear to be well anti-aliased and thus every note exhibits artefacts.

Try loading up VAZ and listening carefully to different notes just playing the default sawtooth, then load up Zebra2 (default setting is sawtooth too), adjust the volumes to be similar (Zebra is softer) and then do a comparison, Zebra has completely clear oscs, not a single sign of aliasing, I've even analysed them using a spectrum analyser and they are literally perfect !

nayways, time for bed, I'll definitely continue playing around with all these synths tomorrow

Please keep the suggestions / thoughts going.

Fots

What makes Vaz so good is the filters, the incredible fast envelopes and it's randomness.
If you have a synth bas with a fast filter envelope every note sounds different.
I agree with you that the oscillators could be more clean.
By the way have you seen the 2x oversampling in the options menu?
That makes things better but allso use more cpu.

Nice info! I didn't know that there was an oversampling feature!

smart · Post by **smart** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:45 pm

Minimonsta & Fabfilter Twin are a nice pair for this stuff

epsy · Post by **epsy** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:48 pm

the ONLY synth i've heard that is exactly the same in soft or physical form is the v-station/k-station. Can anybody comment from experience on discovery/nord or z3ta/virus? I know the arturia stuff is decent, but it bites off more than it can chew trying to emulate an arp2600 and moog modular.

Algorythm · Post by **Algorythm** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:00 pm

epsy wrote:the ONLY synth i've heard that is exactly the same in soft or physical form is the v-station/k-station. Can anybody comment from experience on discovery/nord or z3ta/virus? I know the arturia stuff is decent, but it bites off more than it can chew trying to emulate an arp2600 and moog modular.

I have tested both Nord Lead 2 and Discovery, and the only difference i found was at the low end..(NL2 had more low frequencies in some presets).I couldn't hear any other differences...

fgimian · Post by **fgimian** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:07 am

Hmm, I've tried a few more thouroughly tonight...
- Zebra2
- ZeroVector
- FabFitler
- Discovery

Also just watching http://www.sonicstate.com/news/shownews.cfm?newsid=1960

The features of the virus are significantly more detailed than any VSTi I've ever seen which would probably take 10 CPUs to do what this does...

I mean ... 18 voices per voice, and thus, upto like 200 voices with a whole bunch of effects and about 1 million things on top of that...

check out...
http://www.access-music.de/events/11-20 ... sktop.php4

on the audio player, if click on Presets, check out the first one... any idea if such a huge pad can be made with anything else ? I've only ever heard sampled sounds that sound like this.

So far, closest I think I've seen is probably the Zebra2

Fots

projectdan · Post by **projectdan** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:34 am

soundpalace wrote: clicking on Presets, check out the first one... any idea if such a huge pad can be made with anything else ? I've only ever heard sampled sounds that sound like this.

Fots

If you mean the overture preset I honestly think loads of VSTs can do pads like that, just program it. VAZ Modular and Tera 3 are way more capable than a virus, but if you love the exact Virus sound so much then only a virus will do, there arent any emulations.

fgimian · Post by **fgimian** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:50 am

projectdan wrote:
soundpalace wrote: clicking on Presets, check out the first one... any idea if such a huge pad can be made with anything else ? I've only ever heard sampled sounds that sound like this.

Fots
If you mean the overture preset I honestly think loads of VSTs can do pads like that, just program it. VAZ Modular and Tera 3 are way more capable than a virus, but if you love the exact Virus sound so much then only a virus will do, there arent any emulations.

I will give those ones another shot. It's not that I love the specific sound, it's more the sound shaping abilities. I mean ... hypersaw is AWESOME ! lol

i'll definitely try again, I really can't afford the virus

Fots

Algorythm · Post by **Algorythm** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:53 am

projectdan wrote:
soundpalace wrote: clicking on Presets, check out the first one... any idea if such a huge pad can be made with anything else ? I've only ever heard sampled sounds that sound like this.

Fots
If you mean the overture preset I honestly think loads of VSTs can do pads like that, just program it. VAZ Modular and Tera 3 are way more capable than a virus, but if you love the exact Virus sound so much then only a virus will do, there arent any emulations.

Yeap, i've written again here that most of the people, like a synth for it's features and they don't care about the sound so much. If you want 40 oscs per voice and 120 voices blah blah..you can program them in a powerful pc (That costs less than a virus TI) inside MAX/MSP or in any other modular enviroment, but at the end it's the sound that counts not the features!!!

fgimian · Post by **fgimian** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:57 am

very true Algorythm

Ildon · Post by **Ildon** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:03 pm

I've been listening to the Virus demos and you know... I remember being so impressed by this. This isn't anything I can't get in Albino 3 or Wasp XT, though. In fact, I like Wasp XT and Albino 3 more.

The Virus synths have great filters, but again... you can get this quality in software pretty easily.

Thing about the Virus is it really does have a lot of character to its sound, and it's a type of character I can really appreciate.

Still not worth the money when there're so many great VSTs out there for 1/10 the price if you ask me. :X

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:07 pm

"such a huge pad can be made with anything else ? I've only ever heard sampled sounds that sound like this"

most of those sounds are sample based. see "wavetable osc".

i think those demos sound terrible personally. sounds like a shitty version of a d-50 with too much effects processing on top.

Josmoker · Post by **Josmoker** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:10 pm

The features of the virus are significantly more detailed than any VSTi I've ever seen which would probably take 10 CPUs to do what this does...

I mean ... 18 voices per voice, and thus, upto like 200 voices with a whole bunch of effects and about 1 million things on top of that...

Funnily enough, if i'm not mistaken you can get 48 oscs per voice with z3ta, for example, plus countless other things. Still, 99% of the time you won't use all the bells and whistles, even for complex sounds...

I also think your sound example you've posted sounds perfectly well - even though this type of trance isn't exactly my favorite.

Cheers, Jo

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