Non-emulation VA synth recommendations.

[Korg Supporter]

I am with you on this. I think ANA 2 sounds as good as anything else out there, DUNE included, and I much prefer working with it. The GUI is streets ahead of any of the other ubersynths I've tried. It's got a great preset browser, good effects and it feels thoroughly polished as a product - no rough edges at all. It feels like it combines all the good things about Hive and DUNE without making you put up with all the annoying stuff, like the stupid central window.

The guys who coded ANA 2 have serious credentials, so it's no surprise that they came up with a real winner...

What I like,is that you can tweak things so easily at so many points of the chain and everything is laid out logically and it's all easily assessable...

The routing and modulation options are extensive and it all adds up to be a very versatile and enjoyable synth that is a pleasure to work with ..

They should have called it "Chameleon" because it's a serious workhorse that covers a whole heap of ground and after having used it for quite some time now,it's the one I would take to the proverbial desert island

I don't think ANA 2 can use oscillators as modulation sources outside of FM, so the lack of ring modulation and filter FM is disappointing.

[_morton_]

The guys who coded ANA 2 have serious credentials...

What are they? I couldn't find any info about the ppl behind the company.

[BONES]

They should have called it "Chameleon" because it's a serious workhorse that covers a whole heap of ground and after having used it for quite some time now,it's the one I would take to the proverbial desert island

I don't actually use it all that much, it is far more complex than I need. e.g. It does great basslines but so does TRK-01 and TRK-01 only has about one-tenth of the number of parameters to deal with.

I don't think ANA 2 can use oscillators as modulation sources outside of FM, so the lack of ring modulation and filter FM is disappointing.

You know, I've never understood the value of Ring Mod, outside making horrible, atonal sounds. It's one of those features I would never think to use. Ditto for filter FM, I can't imagine what it might be for, even after watching some videos, and I don't know if I have any instruments that can do it.

[gentleclockdivider]

The guys who coded ANA 2 have serious credentials, so it's no surprise that they came up with a real winner...

Names ?

[gentleclockdivider]

[quote=BONES post_id=8501173
You know, I've never understood the value of Ring Mod, outside making horrible, atonal sounds. It's one of those features I would never think to use. Ditto for filter FM, I can't imagine what it might be for, even after watching some videos, and I don't know if I have any instruments that can do it.
[/quote]
Choose square+saw , detune a bit and ringmod both .
Ringmod is also usefull when doing windowed sync , the synced slave phase is restarted by the master sync .
Ringmod can provide the windowing function .

Filter fm , modulate the filter by an osc , modulate the filter fm amount by an envelope .
As a veteran , you’re missing out on all the good stuf

[digitalboytn]

The guys who coded ANA 2 have serious credentials, so it's no surprise that they came up with a real winner...

Names ?

The main developers were Charles Gondre and Ivan Cohen who both have PHD's from IRCAM in Paris ....

IIRC,Charles Gondre coded the main framework and Ivan Cohen coded the filters...

Ali Barker who now works at Roli,did some other DSP coding and Elon Musk programmed all the presets

BTW...I never said that DUNE 3 sounds bad...

It sounds great...

It's just that beautiful Anna has stolen my heart away

[Biome_Digital]

wavetable,

As we both know a Wavetable doesn't have to be swept to be useful. We can load a single waveform and that opens up a ton of possibilities right there.

For example the Mu3eum waves that have been around for years that are single cycles from Arp, Jupiter, Moogs, Oberheims etc are very useful when doing VA style patches.

Exactly, I have some single cycle wavetables made from some analogue synths (Moog/Doepfer) that can be used as a VA oscillator. It works best in a certain range of the keyboard. Probably not as good a a VA, but useful for different waveforms.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I think the one synth that could pretty much replace most of my VA's is ANA 2. It has a nice variety of oscillator sounds and filters. It can sound Moogish, Rolandish, Korgish, Oberheimish. It also has one of the best arps/sequencers out there. The latest update (in beta) has multisampling as well. I don't like how they implemented the sample start/end/loop, as moving one of them often moves others, but it's still cool. Would have preferred some kind of sample timestretch to the multi-sampling, given that it's a synth, but I'd mostly use it for types of noises to layer in to the VA/wavetable oscs anyways.

[Korg Supporter]

You know, I've never understood the value of Ring Mod, outside making horrible, atonal sounds. It's one of those features I would never think to use. Ditto for filter FM, I can't imagine what it might be for, even after watching some videos, and I don't know if I have any instruments that can do it.

Horrible? It depends on the implementation. The Nova/Supernova engine has the best ring modulation I ever heard from a hardware synth. It justs sounds musical and has the right harmonic distribution. The ring modulation in Spire and Flowtones can get close. Some plugins or Pedals like Randy's Revenge have beautiful, musical, and pleasing ring mod tones. If you have Opsix or Sytrus, you can see all the sorts of soft tones Ring Mod can achieve that FM can't. I also think frequency shifting filters should be implemented more in synths just like in Hive and Predator have them.

[chk071]

Horrible? It depends on the implementation. The Nova/Supernova engine has the best ring modulation I ever heard from a hardware synth. It justs sounds musical and has the right harmonic distribution. The ring modulation in Spire and Flowtones can get close.

This is the second time I read that Spire is supposed to have ring modulation. Can you elaborate? If it has ring modulation, then I can't find it...

[Korg Supporter]

Horrible? It depends on the implementation. The Nova/Supernova engine has the best ring modulation I ever heard from a hardware synth. It justs sounds musical and has the right harmonic distribution. The ring modulation in Spire and Flowtones can get close.

This is the second time I read that Spire is supposed to have ring modulation. Can you elaborate? If it has ring modulation, then I can't find it...

Officially there isn't. However, you can use oscillators as modulation sources. In the mod matrix, use one oscillator to modulate another's mix level. At this stage, it's just amplitude modulation. Then in the next slot, use the modulated oscillator to target the modulator's mix level. Then you have xmod ring modulation! Make sure the modulator's mix knob has the yellow light on, or it will sound horrible. The carrier can be either at the yellow light (near zero level) or audible.

[chk071]

Thanks, that's great.

[Korg Supporter]

Choose square+saw , detune a bit and ringmod both .
Ringmod is also usefull when doing windowed sync , the synced slave phase is restarted by the master sync .
Ringmod can provide the windowing function .

Filter fm , modulate the filter by an osc , modulate the filter fm amount by an envelope .
As a veteran , you’re missing out on all the good stuf

Which synth are you talking about?

[Echoes in the Attic]

Nine Inch Nails With Teeth uses great Ring mod duophonic sounds on the Odyssey.
For example the lead synth in Hand that Feeds


Or the main synth line in Right Where it Belongs:


These both use the same (or very similar) patch. GForce Oddity has a version of it called Bite The Hand Duo.

[rezoneight]

I'm with chk071 on Spire. To me still one of the best and it's pretty old at this point. 2nd would be DUNE3 only because I just prefer Spire overall but DUNE kicks ass. 3rd would be tone2 Saurus which just rocks. Great synth.