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Spire

Synth (Analogue / Subtractive) Plugin by Reveal Sound
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Spire has an average user rating of 4.43 from 14 reviews

Rate & Review Spire

User Reviews by KVR Members for Spire

Spire

Reviewed By Leaf Watoru [all]
January 22nd, 2024
Version reviewed: 1.5.16 on Windows

This is one of the VST plugins that inspires me right from the start.
When I hear how it sounds, I just want to start making music. Even the init preset sounds nice, but when I tried various beautifully crafted presets, I couldn't believe I got that sound! I regret I didn't try it earlier in favor of native Linux VST plugins.
Even the process of selecting presets or creating my own is really pleasing.

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Spire

Reviewed By mcligge2 [all]
May 21st, 2022
Version reviewed: 1.5 on Windows

Really great synth with lovely sounding oscillators, great detune, nice GUI and many different filters.

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Spire

Reviewed By soundof [all]
March 6th, 2022
Version reviewed: 1.5 on Windows

Probably the synth I use the most, so versatile, with amazing sounding presets, spoilt for choice.

If you are into any electronic type of music production and beyond, this is the one.
Listen to the pro presets, and you will be amazed at the quality and what is possible!
Cannot recommend it enough.

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Spire

Reviewed By Trader One [all]
January 5th, 2022
Version reviewed: 1.5.10 on Windows

Good synth, nice GUI, good sound, easy to work with. Its famous synth for dance music from the past. I don't think its good buy today because for same money we can get better synth. Synth is just a basic one It needs to be modernised to stay competitive adding missing stuff like layers, sample oscillator and better ARP (16 steps only, no step gate).

There are lot of presets and sound packs for Spire. Buy Spire only if you are interested in these presets, otherwise let it die, authors are doing just tiny bugfixes over years. Don't give them your money, they are just sound pack resellers now.

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Spire

Reviewed By donnyv [all]
October 29th, 2021
Version reviewed: 1.5.10 on Windows

This are so many presets! And most sound amazing. Usually you only find a handful of good sounds. But not with Spire.

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Spire

Reviewed By MrJubbly [all]
April 5th, 2021
Version reviewed: 1.5.8 on Windows

Fantastic synth and a really great company and customer service.

Spire, as many have already attested here, has a superb audio quality and is really efficient and resource friendly within users projects, allowing many instances of Spire to perform simultaneously with no drawbacks, even on older hardware.

Spire also now has one of the best preset menu user interfaces around and in my opinion is practically a perfect plugin at this point.

I must say that in my own personal experience, Reveal Sound's customer service has been excellent, and even very recently reinstated support for very old Intel CPUs which I am currently using in my device, which has allowed me to continue to use their product updates.

Overall, a fantastic product and company, that I will fully recommend to everybody, both now and in the future.

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Spire

Reviewed By pthelo [all]
October 31st, 2020
Version reviewed: 1.5.4 on Mac

Spire is a top notch synth with more sonic flexibility than most! The only reasons I gave Spire 4 stars instead of 5 is that parts of the GUI are not as intuitive or user friendly as I would like, and I wish that the ENV1 and ENV2 ADSR graphics reflected parameter changes. Other than that, it's an amazing synth and if you're in the market for a new one, it's worth checking out.

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Spire

Reviewed By musiclover91 [all]
March 5th, 2019
Version reviewed: 1 on Windows

Great Plugin but couldn't get it to work with FL studio 20.

Cant use it for everything, mainly only for leads and plucks because the sounds are so hard core but its what the market likes now, so highly recommended.

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Spire

Reviewed By street spirit [all]
February 22nd, 2017
Version reviewed: 1.19 on Windows

Finally after updating my PC from old amd core duo to quad core i5, I have the best VST synth i ever used.

Sounds excellent, but were it shines is the GUI. Cool skins, so easy to tweak, and just sexy as hell on my Dell high res screen.

Also good feeling when you saved a little, 20% and are 100% content with you purchase.

Get a kick out of the "Lets get ready to rock" message on init preset Lol.

If they add some neat like 3d wave table scan latest rage, Spire would be GOAT.

I want to give it 10, but will be reserved and say 9, just because it needs a few more customize sizes, say 130 or 140.

150 is a little big even on my 24 inch.

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Spire

Reviewed By ssl4000 [all]
October 27th, 2016
Version reviewed: 1.1.9 on Windows

I love this synthesizer, I really do... It has such a modern, "bombastic" sound, so punchy, so clear. That is exactly what modern producers need and use.

Oscillators are amazing, it is very hard to reproduce certain presets in other synthesizers to sound exactly the same, I find Spire always a touch bit better sounding than competing synths, just a little bit better.

Detune and unison section is nice, it sounds very sylenth-like, I find that not too many plugins can make that gritty and clear at the same time, low end saw bass, Spire (and Sylenth) does that perfectly.

Filters. They are good, plenty to choose from. I'm not a filter phreak, but they sound very good to my ear. I especially like "acido".

Effects section is quality as well. Shaper can sound really really mean, and reverb is an effect that could be justified as a standalone plugin, it's that good.

Other things I'm in love with are envelopes (they sound so snappy! I love it) and X-Comp module, which makes your sounds so clicky and modern sounding, helps them to stand out in the mix. It sounds especially good with envelopes set to short decay. I love this compressor.

Presets are top notch, they are "hit-ready" I would say, not like in other synths which may be packed with presets but only 1/5 of them is usable. Here you will find sounds which fit track perfectly and hence this synth is used by so many producers. It has great 3rd party soundbank support as well.

CPU usage... It used to suck, but now all is changed. I recently did a comparison with Dune and Hive. Hive, the so called "CPU efficient" synth was the most hoggy of all 3 and Dune was the most efficient. Spire was in the middle. It was quite surprising as I thought Hive will use the least amount of CPU processing power (as it is marketed) but well... Maybe it is just mine PC that does something in a different way. Spire's CPU usage is fine then.

In practice I didn't find any disadvantages, so I'm giving it a fair 10/10, as it is my fav synth and I can't quite find any other plugin with such features, such remarkable sound and overhelming amount of 3rd party presets.

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Spire

Reviewed By Dafunque [all]
September 10th, 2014
Version reviewed: 10.9.4 on Mac

The perfect synth, i haven't found it it yet.

Spire comes pretty darn close though.

I love its user-friendliness and the effect section, which has everything your need, and i mean everything.

I find the layout clear and the knobs big enough and easy to adjust.

Reveal-Sound has added a Matrix section in which one can hook up any LFO / Env / Osc / Arp etc etc to almost any other function of the Spire.

That makes it very versatile, but the way they set it up also makes it easy to get an overview of what is controlling what.

And then the most important thing: the sound.

I know i'm not allowed, so i won't, but i would almost leave it at WOW!.

The sound is simply great. Very deep to very sharp, very analog, but digital if you want it to be.

Once again, versatile. It can sound small or huge and both are easy to make yourself.

It four oscillators allow you to morph easily from one sound to the other. If one uses all 9 available voices x4 oscillators (36 voices!!!!) and turn the "Wide" knob to maximum on all oscillators... the word "wide" doesn't do justice to the amount of width you get.

There is loads more to be said about Spire, most of it good.

If i have one complaint, it would be that the LFO's apparently alway retrigger with every keystroke.

But if that's all that's wrong with it, then I can sure as hell live with it.

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Spire

Reviewed By SPA_Audio [all]
May 3rd, 2014
Version reviewed: 7 on Windows

This Synth is so powerful clear and bright. Its amazing !! A must have and a new antagonist to Nexus2.

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Spire

Reviewed By FarleyCZ [all]
October 24th, 2013
Version reviewed: 7 on Windows

Spire is interesting. Out of the nowhere, in few days, hype like crazy. It reminds me of what happened with Dune few years back. Anyway, is it worth the hype? ...well ...yes.

Features: 8/10

This is the clever bit. It doesn't seem like, but under the hood, there is quite a lot of features. It starts with cute little oscilators being able to generate it's waveform by morphing, by FM, or by AM synthesis. Then it goes into unisono stage, which aside from classic parameters allows you to control even iregularity of detuning and way how voices are scaled from each other. Filters are cool. Few models to choose from. It ends up with badass effect unit. You see, why to have user choosing between regular distortion modes and bitcrushing, when all it takes is two extra knobs for having it all at once. This is the way of thinking I like. I'd love to see possibility to change order of effect signal chain though. It would take just one more tab at the FX area. The modulation stuff is just cherry on a cake. Whole bunch of LFO's, envelopes and step sequencers with (really) nice collection of destination to route them to.

Sound: 9/10

Really somewhere between Sylenth and Twin. Creamy, warm, but rough enough when you need it. It can lack "concentraion" on high frequencies sometimes, on the other side, when your sound needs to be "softer", Spire is right there for you. Even when you use stuff like FM synthesis that usually tends to be harsh. Effects have great quality to themselfs. Especially reverb is kind of cool for a built-in unit.

GUI 8.5/10

User interface is great. It's all really intuitive, straight nice flow. Where it needs to have some tabs, it has them, but only on small restricted areas, so the whole synth doeasn't dissapear when you need to adjust LFO speed, or something. Olny thing I'm missing is some kind of quick modulation assignment. Either knob related pop-up menus, or some drag'n'drop way. Just so we don't have to browse through the whole selection of destination.

Value 9/10

Price is set reasonably, eventhough I think seeing it permanently on discounted price would suit the synth much more as it is really nice bread & butter instrument. What makes it extremely valuable though is customer support. Developer is not just responsive, but also active, which is really breath of frash air having in mind another bread and butter softsynth of the history. ;) It still takes a bit higher CPU load, but developer is actively optimizing the code, so it got better already and it will continue to get in upcoming months. I strongly recommend you to try this little thing. Nice, fresh, easy, capable. Really appealing combination. :)

Cheers,
Martin.

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Spire

Reviewed By Blake Arius [all]
October 8th, 2013
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows

Believe the Hype about this plugin and get yourself a demo to hear yourself.

This plugin came off as another run of the mill synthesizer at first, but as soon as I listened to the presets, its become my go to plugin for its brilliant balance of simplicity and sound quality.

GUI 8/10

The interface is laid out to be incredible fast to navigate, though it is a bit plain. I could complain about the modulation matrix, Its packed too small and over several tabs, but still does the job well.

CPU Usage 6.5/10

I have the new haswell core i7, sits it at about 6% idle, around 35% on playing complex sounds and caps up to 55% when pushed. This isn't as bad as the Diva when it comes to performance. But takes about twice as much processing as the Sylenth1.

Sound Quality 9/10

The presets are some of the best i've heard come with a plugin. Though not extensive, you'll immediately be wanting to use some of the sounds straight away. While the plugin doesn't do analogue warmth like the Diva or great trance leads like the Synthmaster. What it does do is a brilliant balance between warmth an electro grittiness. It sounds brilliant on mid range frequency heavy hitting lead and base sound. These are sounds that are gonna take charge in your tracks. PADs and soft chorded sounds came out sounding alot more plain and boring.

Price: 6/10

At 140? its not cheap. If you already have an extensive plugin library like me, you wont find anything new or crazy on it that'll tempt you to buy it. If your building your plugin library, Spire is a brilliant place to start, due to its great presets and ease of use compared with other plugins.

Id recommend this plugin to newbies or if your bored of your other plugins. It does sound great, but at performance and cost. If it were priced at half of what it is and used a bit less CPU it'd be a must buy.

Overall 7.5

Review by Blake Arius

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Latest 14 reviews from a total of 14

Comments & Discussion for Reveal Sound Spire

Discussion
Discussion: Active
PUSHA
PUSHA
11 May 2013 at 6:14pm

This synth came out of nowhere and after one look I knew I had to try this. After first few minutes I knew this thing had a powerful engine. CPU load is a little high for my CPU, that doesnt mean everybody will have that problem, but still managed to get some very nice Poly sounds. Overall I give this a 7 out of 10. This Synth has tons of potential in my opinion.

LunaTech
LunaTech
14 May 2013 at 8:17pm

I agree with PUSHA about the CPU usage but was able to get it down to about 4 - 7 % using the creative asio driver and not ASIO4ALL. The sound is absolutely amazing, very thick and epic. These are the sounds that will keep you awake at night :).

PUSHA
PUSHA
4 June 2013 at 4:28pm

Really? I might have to check that out cause that's what I am using, ASIO4ALL, and I get lag. Is Creative ASIO free? Ive never heard of it before.

qfoxecho
qfoxecho
7 June 2013 at 9:55am

This Motherfucker is hot! I checked tons of VSTi Synths and most of them is garbage. Only a very few Synths comes near a highclass Hardwaresynth and Spire has what its takes.IMHO lots of potential. It plays for me in the Class of Native Instruments Massive when it comes to sound quality.

@pusha.

Its the ASIO Driver for his Soundcard.Dont use ASIO4ALL its shit. Buy an M-Audio Card, its very
cheap and has good sound and driver support.

PUSHA
PUSHA
16 July 2013 at 11:49am

I love the fact that Spire is continuously updated. Great support from Reveal Sound. I hope this is just the beginning for this company. They seem to know what people want in a synth so hopefully they dont stop here and keep knocking out new instruments and effects.

Biscotto
Biscotto
9 October 2013 at 7:19pm

Pure Pleasure! I have never made presets as fast as with this one.

Hopefully they will work on Spire growth and depth before moving to a new plugin.

krypton_official
krypton_official
21 November 2013 at 5:47pm

brilliant vst, and capable of virus ti hypersaw with only 1 osc.

Boe Larsen
Boe Larsen
11 February 2014 at 1:25pm

I use it with Vienna Emsemble Pro 5 and Protools 11. Sounds great - however I experience a lot of hanging notes. Is this the place to get support… newbie to this forum. Boe.

BlackWinny
BlackWinny
11 February 2014 at 7:22pm

Hello Boe.

No, the right place is here.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=248

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outofspace
outofspace
21 February 2015 at 5:17pm

nice sound but more CPU usage.

W23
W23
13 October 2016 at 1:06pm

Version 1.1.9 works REALLY REALLY WELL. Sounds just incredible! Uses a tiny bit more CPU than Hive and Dune2, maybe. It arguably sounds better (to my ears at least) than those two as well. It goes on sale periodically (more so than Dune2 or Hive) and is well worth the money spent. I don't EDM, so I don't have a much use for most of the presets but, it is super easy to tweak and get some great sounds that sit really well in a mix without a bunch of subsequent EQ or compression necessary. It also has some of the best sounding delay and reverb I've heard built into a synth (where most other synths fall short, though U-he's is just as good). I don't really like to jump on synth band wagons with people who make music I don't really like (not an EDM fan AT ALL) but, the SOUND of this synth is in a league all its own. I don't know if it's really better than what it's often compared to but, it's different, and that's good enough for me.

chk071
chk071
13 October 2016 at 1:57pm

I totally agree, with everything you wrote. :)

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