Spire VS z3ta

[Robmobius]

I have a Virus TI2 as well as Z3ta 2 and Spire.

Personally, I think Z3ta has more of a thud in the low end when compared to Spire. But I prefer Spire's sound overall. I think it sounds less harsh or something.

But the Virus is it's own thing. Largo can sound quite similar when it comes to the wavetable side of things imo.

[4damind]

I tried it a bit more... but the Virus is still different. Anyway, Spire and Massive are more in the same ballpark then Z3TA.

Zeta-Massive-Spire-Virus V2

[Robmobius]

I tried it a bit more... but the Virus is still different. Anyway, Spire and Massive are more in the same ballpark then Z3TA.

Zeta-Massive-Spire-Virus V2

Good test... I kinda' dislike the Massive sound for some reason.

[BBFG#]

It's not easy to match them... my first attempt:
(Z3TA with 2x oversampling and highest precision)

always 2 bars: Z3TA, Massive, Spire, Virus C
Z3TA-Massive-Spire-Virus C

I suddenly like Massive better than I use to!
And not much different than Z3ta there.
Spire sounds like a fart though.

The NAMM shows I've gone to in the past, I visit the Virus booth everytime and leave disappointed. Mainly because they give patch banks filled with hundreds of noises and no real useable sounds (unless you're a DJ at a nightclub.) Even Z3ta when I first opened it up from Cakewalk was filled with that kind of loud, clipping noises you either love or hate from the beginning. Fortunately, finding some cheap libraries from 3rd parties saved the Z3ta and even showed what it can be for those of us that believe a turntable is not an instrument.

Downloading Spire and Helix a couple of weeks back to give a better run through, they did have a better set of sounds to start with (along with the dj in your face noises) but having both Spire and Helix and Z3ta to do my comparisons with (not looking for anything Virus in particular). I found Helix to be better to my ears than Spire. Spire was just flat and boring to me. But neither one of them impressed me enough to want. I prefer to stick with Z3ta+2 for those type of sounds. To each their own, but just economically, Spire is the worst of the three. I might see Spire a litte differently if it was priced accordingly. It's MSRP shouldn't be any higher than $69-$79 for what it is IMO.

I think you'd be better off with two instances of Firebird Free than Spire. Or wait for a Z3ta sale and get some 3rd Party sounds from Xenos or DSF and throw out the crap Cakewalk gives you. JMO.
And I'll start looking for Massive sounds more suited to my personal tastes after this thread.

But really, without bringing every synth in exsistence into debate (another in the long list of KVRland). Between Spire and Z3ta, Z3ta+2 is clearly the best for my setup. That it's not as simple as Spire only means I have less of a chance of hitting its limits of character as quickly.

[chk071]

Almost sounds as if there was some glide on the Spire sequence. The Virus seems to have the most pronounce on the filter envelope, while Spire has the least, maybe has to with filter slope?

Btw, is it just me, or is zeta a little bit out of tune? You let your comp warm up for 5 minutes before making the comparison?

[Robmobius]

In fairness, you'd have to do a range of tests. Some synths are better at certain things.

If you want 'big' bass Diversion is an absolute monster.

[BBFG#]

Almost sounds as if there was some glide on the Spire sequence. The Virus seems to have the most pronounce on the filter envelope, while Spire has the least, maybe has to with filter slope?

Btw, is it just me, or is zeta a little bit out of tune? You let your comp warm up for 5 minutes before making the comparison?

Many of the sounds are pushed too high in volume. Some of the detunings are those things they do for 'that market'. Xenos gives you four banks for around $20.00 and they really show it off as a solid all around synth instead of the noise maker Cakewalk thought should be its new market.

[pinkpanther]

In fairness, you'd have to do a range of tests. Some synths are better at certain things.

If you want 'big' bass Diversion is an absolute monster.

As big as the pathetic GUI and CPU hit. And Diversion is another synth using low quality filters.

I see Spire and Diversion very positively reviewed at your blog. A bit suspicious...

[musikmachine]

Those Xenos demos are very nice!

[yessongs]

got Z3ta and it is bad ass but why would anyone want to spend more for something so close in sound to it.

I guess I should talk I want minimonsta and arturias v collection so its all about style I guess but if Z3ta is less expensive and has a larger library of presets then it would appear to me that it is the first one to buy and if you want to add Spire later on when you're rich that is something to maybe do. It also depends on if your a sonar user or not since Z3ta is part of that product and cheaper to go to v2 if your a sonar user. That lower cost then makes getting Z3ta a no brainer. The larger library means your going to find something you can use no matter what and just surf for a few hours and save the best sounds in a favorites folder.

Personally I would take the cost difference and after getting Z3ta use it to get something else so a fair comparison is Z3ta + something else vs Spire.

If I were thinking of getting spire I might rather snag AAS modeling collectionwith its 7 synths the VS1 is just something I am dying to add to my collection after listening to demos and it also offers ultra analog and if your an x3 producer owner/user the modeling collection is only $300 instead of like $169 more or so because it is on sale now in the cakewalk store.

My purchase of X3 is paying off bigtime. First they added the addictive drums ( I needed a drum vsti) and melodyne ( lusting for this as well) now this AAS alliance is saving me some serious $$$.

PLUS I got Z3ta for less as well. IF your not using sonar then your spending a lot more on your software and getting less bang for your buck. The FX in Sonar producer are worth the cost of the DAW plus your getting Rapture full version and Dimension pro and a lot of other synths that you might find useful. They are just much better at developing the value adds and that is much importante for guys starting out who need to watch their $$$ better. You can finance Sonar producer through ZZounds if you need to over 4 payments and to me that is what everyone should do just to be able to save the $$ they save me. Next year when they have x4 come out they will probably save me another $100 or so on something else I want to buy. It pays to use sonar peeps, in fact its like they are paying me to use their software.

[ftech]

I see Spire and Diversion very positively reviewed at your blog. A bit suspicious...

Because showing up in every thread that mentions Spire just to slander it isn't???????

[Tronam]

It's hard to believe that Massive is nearly 7 years old now. I distinctly remember the cool reception it got from the audio community back then. While most everyone universally praised its user interface, the sound was typically described as digital, cold, abrasive, and generally unpleasant. z3ta+ had a similar reaction when it was released back in 2002(!). There's been an explosive rise in popularity of unapologetically digital synths like Sylenth1, Massive, FM8, z3ta+, Ableton Operator and numerous other wavetable/FM instruments over the past few years and I wonder if part of that is due to a whole new influx of millennial electronic music producers who couldn't care less about analog nostalgia. They may not have even heard an analog synthesizer in their life. New instruments like Diversion seems to fit perfectly into that mold and I fully expect to see more of them on the horizon. Spire sounds more like a hybrid that wants to be the best of both worlds.

[djanthonyw]

It's not easy to match them... my first attempt:
(Z3TA with 2x oversampling and highest precision)

always 2 bars: Z3TA, Massive, Spire, Virus C
Z3TA-Massive-Spire-Virus C

Thanks for the audio demos!

[Elektronisch]

Personally, I think Z3ta has more of a thud in the low end when compared to Spire. But I prefer Spire's sound overall. I think it sounds less harsh or something.

Are you sure? what speakers are you using? in my usage of z3ta during past 7 years i have never noticed it has enough of low end even comparing to some other synths. Its one of the thin type synthesizer, unless you add EQ ofcourse

[Elektronisch]

It's not easy to match them... my first attempt:
(Z3TA with 2x oversampling and highest precision)

always 2 bars: Z3TA, Massive, Spire, Virus C
Z3TA-Massive-Spire-Virus C

Thanks for the audio demos!

It doesnt reveal much

when doing such tests its hard to say the similarity because you exclude some of the important modulation features like LFO, mod envelopes, ect.

And unison wich shows up alot and even the synth wich may sound similar at first, in the end can sound very different and show how frequencies are affected on the run