› Home › Blogs › Arp's blog ›

Quick vst synth impressions

Submitted by Arp on Wed, 04/22/2009 - 20:26
in

 I just installed some demos of VSTi for testing and had some quick, just messing with patches & knobs impressions:

  • Massive - 25-30% cpu hit on average.  It might sound good, but I don't want a synth I can only use twice in a track without bouncing.  Meh.
  • Jupiter-8V - Underwhelming.  That can't be right, must play a bit more.
  • Fabfilter Twin - It's fat.  And it's got a really nice variety of sounds it's capable of, with a vibe that I like.  Some of the patches hit the cpu pretty hard, but that's apparently due to the number of fx & modulators.  The modulator section is FUN to play with, especially the XY controllers.  The interface as a whole is very, very well conceived - I dig the ability to click & drag and then do different things with ctrl-click or alt-click & drag.  If something is going to virtual, it should be that easy to use  And I like that all it's got for fx is 2 delays.
  • Cobalt - pretty nice, especially for $25.  Kind of a big sound too (something Reason can only dream of).
  • BTC Audio Valsier - I found this on my hard drive, which is why it's not mentioned in my list of contenders.  The description on the website is dead-on as the interface is simple and the sound is 'devastatingly large.'  If I can't find a workhorse synth to scratch my need for bass, this is one trick pony is worth 25euros.
  • Fabfilter One - Kinda thin, but might be ok layered.  If this was my only experience with their synths, now I know why I never bothered with Twin.  I still can't complain for $6.50.
  • ImpOSCar - I couldn't play and ignore it Tongue  The demo comes with only one bank of patches so I started messing with the oscillators and the user waves.  There's no doubt - I love its sound.  I like the edgy, bellish tones it can make, and its bass kicks ass.  And the filter is sick.  I may not buy it right away, but I will own it some day.  Unless I find I can program pads & textures to my liking.  I will be playing with it a lot more.

Last one for the evening before sleeping (and after writing this) - Zebra.  I wasn't sure about it but the recent Arksun patches made me very intrigued.

 

  • Arp's blog