I WANT to love it...

[syntonica]

Falcon. It's such a great thing but programming it was very frustrating for me. i've been synthesizing for a while. i understand how it works, it's just not how my mind works. Yes, i read the manual, and referenced it every time i opened Falcon.

With anything, if you have to keep the manual at hand all the time, that's probably not a very good thing. I tried the demo wayyyyy back when they offered a demo and found it to be simple enough on the macro level, but every oscillator, filter, effect, etc. that I dropped in, it was a new rabbit hole to go down. I forget the exact reason why I nixed the idea of buying it, but I don't regret it. The overall sound is good, but not to my taste.

[the_eraser]

Pigments.
There's something really wrong with Arturia GUIs, for me.

[synaesthesia]

Another vote for Falcon.

People whose opinion I trust keep telling me it's great but, I find it impossibly unintuitive to use.

I think this often depends how your brain is wired. For example, I really struggle with modular stuff, my brain just freezes trying to use it!

[sQeetz]

For example, I really struggle with modular stuff, my brain just freezes trying to use it!

Same! It's not that I don't understand what I's supposed to be done... I like fiddling with Softube's Modular and such, but when it comes to actually put a tune together and trying to find the right sound, I can't imagine myself thinking "that's a job for Modular!"
And I have all the modules, because I couldn't stand having all the greyed out stuff in there.

[rj0]

For example, I really struggle with modular stuff, my brain just freezes trying to use it!

Same! It's not that I don't understand what I's supposed to be done... I like fiddling with Softube's Modular and such, but when it comes to actually put a tune together and trying to find the right sound, I can't imagine myself thinking "that's a job for Modular!"
And I have all the modules, because I couldn't stand having all the greyed out stuff in there.

Grayed out options on products almost always turn me off to the extent that I won't even use it, demo it, buy it.

It makes one feel like I'm buying half a product with continuous advertising. Why bother? Uninstall it, and write it off as a mistake.

[Ben H]

Respiro (not to be confused with Repro)

It's not a bad VST or anything. I've just come to realize that its sounds just don't fit the style of music that I like/make.

I think I prefer real wind instrument sounds, rather than wind-esque.

[BKSchatzki]

I'm surprised to see so many here saying the same things I've been saying to myself.

I actually think the Arturia VA synths sound great, but they are a mixed bag, to be sure. The problem I had with them was that it was so much easier for me to just browse Analog Lab. I realized that "those" sounds that I associate with those synths are already included there, and I just didn't want to tweak those synths on a screen. If I had the hardware? Yeah, all day. But clicking around a CS-80 on a screen just didn't do it for me. But I totally see where some people click with them perfectly.

Pigments has a milder version of the problem I have with Massive X: lack of visual hierarchy. My eyes can't tell where to look, but naturally, the more I use it, the easier it gets. I like the sound of Pigments a lot. It's really easy to drop into a production; I don't go to it for the "huge" stuff. Massive X crushes it in this area IMO.

Serum and Vital are by far the most enjoyable to program for me, just because their UI's are comfortable to work with. But I can almost smell the Lysol when I hear them. They're immaculate, and sometimes that's not what I want. Usually, I can add some "analogification" in the effects chain, but not always.

Honestly, I don't want to gripe too much about the stuff. I feel lucky that I got the opportunity to try them, and I'm happy that others aren't experiencing the same problems as me.

However, I will say that UJAM did not work out for me at all. Great sounds, and a couple of standout instruments, like Iron 2, Vice, and Drums. But I had a really hard time "working" them most of the time. In retrospect, that makes sense; they're designed around snap inspiration and mix-ready sounds, but none of the UJAM plugins ever became "workhorses" for me. I wanted more control. But I still maintain they sound fab.

[oneshotdeal]

Respiro (not to be confused with Repro)

It's not a bad VST or anything. I've just come to realize that its sounds just don't fit the style of music that I like/make.

I think I prefer real wind instrument sounds, rather than wind-esque.

Are you selling it to me then?

[HOTF]

For me Omnisphere. This thing is a beast but it has some many pages making patches on it is a headache.

[mxbf]

1. Zebra
just don't see a use for it. doesn't sound good to my ears most of the time. it's powerful with synthesis and CPU effective which makes it appealing. but idk, i pretty much just have no use for it and almost never use it.

2. Falcon
agree on most other points. biggest issue is that the IRCAM stretching algorithm is unstable and has crashed multiple times, and i can't be arsed to even bother fixing the problem. in theory i could use it a LOT more, because the sound is very, very high quality in my opinion. I wish I used Falcon more, honestly.

3. Reaktor Blocks and Reaktor in general
I got the toybox and made some patches, they're phenomenal stuff. But IDK, i just can't really be that arsed with it. its clunky in my opinion.

4. Max4Live
Bitwig blows most of what I've done with Max4Live out of the water. MAX/MSP is cool, but its not as good as Supercollider when you want to just make anything you can imagine and get really avant-garde. Jitter is cool, I guess. I want to do more with it but I feel like most of the things I come up with can be done in Bitwig without having to learn a bunch of new technical things. 90% of the basic advanced stuff you can do in Bitwig, and if you want to really get creative then MAXMSP is good. But again, might as well go to Supercollider at that point imo... maybe I'm wrong.

5. Wavetable (Massive X, Serum)
I feel like I should like wavetable way more than I do. It's endless possibilities, so much you can do. But for whatever reason I often find it not that great in the end result, musically for me. Maybe I'm not using the techniques well, which is highly likely. I just tend to find that basic sampling, subtractive, or FM all produce superior musical sounds for me. I understand this is probably unintelligent.

[mxbf]

I own a few Unfiltered Audio fx plugins and I love them, so I had high hopes for Lion. But for some reason I haven’t been able to get great sounds out of it. Everything sounds thin and cold, and not in a good way. I guess I’ll try again some day, maybe it was just user error. But for now it’s collecting dust while I’m having fun with Pigments, Massive X and Reaktor (Toybox) Blocks.

lion is pretty crap if you have other stuff. but their effects are among my favorites I own.

[mxbf]

FM8. I like it a fair amount because the presets are good... but I find programming it a little finnicky so I can't love it. That isn't FM8's fault, it a great synth, I just don't think it works the way I like to work (if you know what I mean).

ableton operator made fm8 pretty much completely obsolete, for me.

[Ben H]

Respiro (not to be confused with Repro)

It's not a bad VST or anything. I've just come to realize that its sounds just don't fit the style of music that I like/make.

I think I prefer real wind instrument sounds, rather than wind-esque.

Are you selling it to me then?

I'm not ready to let it go just yet, but I'll let you know if I decide to.

[BONES]

But clicking around a CS-80 on a screen just didn't do it for me.

Didn't do what? Didn't get you the timbre you were after? Surely that's what they are for, isn't it?

However, I will say that UJAM did not work out for me at all. Great sounds, and a couple of standout instruments, like Iron 2, Vice, and Drums. But I had a really hard time "working" them most of the time. In retrospect, that makes sense; they're designed around snap inspiration and mix-ready sounds, but none of the UJAM plugins ever became "workhorses" for me. I wanted more control. But I still maintain they sound fab.

I'm the opposite. I just want things to sound good; if someone else can do the work for me and all I have to do is throw it in, all the better.

[BKSchatzki]

But clicking around a CS-80 on a screen just didn't do it for me.

Didn't do what? Didn't get you the timbre you were after? Surely that's what they are for, isn't it?

However, I will say that UJAM did not work out for me at all. Great sounds, and a couple of standout instruments, like Iron 2, Vice, and Drums. But I had a really hard time "working" them most of the time. In retrospect, that makes sense; they're designed around snap inspiration and mix-ready sounds, but none of the UJAM plugins ever became "workhorses" for me. I wanted more control. But I still maintain they sound fab.

I'm the opposite. I just want things to sound good; if someone else can do the work for me and all I have to do is throw it in, all the better.

I just came to the realization that I didn’t enjoy skeuomorphic interfaces that much. Give me a hardware CS-80 and I’ll go to town; however, I have tremendous respect for what Arturia does. My philosophy about my process just coalesced around a different point. Sounds are lovely, but I have almost everything I need from Arturia in Analog Lab, and the most important controls for me are laid out in the same way for any given sound. Clicks better with me. Sometimes it’s limiting, sure, but my value judgment is that I lose more down the rabbit hole of tweaking a skeuomorphic interface than I do not having all that control. To each their own.

As for UJAM, I think I’ll always be a fan of their mission, and I really dig the core philosophy of it all. It’s great that you’re using Iron to its fullest. But I had to take a big step back and evaluate what made music making meaningful to me. Had to admit that it just wasn’t ticking my boxes anymore. Definitely no shade thrown at anyone who works differently; we’ve all got what works best for us.

I acknowledge there’s an irony, going from saying that Arturia gave me too much control, then saying UJAM gave me too little. But I come from a more formal classical background originally. Although I can hold my own, deep sound design for me is not a priority, but fine-tuned composition is. That’s why I found the V Collection too involved, and a lot of UJAM’s solutions a little limiting. Still, that’s just me.