LinPlug Spectral - your opinions wanted

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psmacmur wrote: Well, I may be misusing the term wavetable; there's probably a more technically correct term. It's certainly not wave sequencing like, say, Serum. But you get to choose two waves per OSC, and each OSC has a modulatable knob to blend between its two waves. And while you can generate your own waves using a harmonics editor, I don't recall being able to load wave files (in 1.0; haven't played with 1.1 yet). So YMMV depending what you mean by "do wavetable".
I don't believe one can load anything other than a user saved wave form. The idea of morphing had its origins from MorphoX, and developed further in Spectral. MorphoX is not as flexible when it comes to shaping your own filters. It's a wavetable synth in every sense of the word, in that waves are drawn mathematically in real time (as opposed to table look up). What it lacks is a wave shaper ala Z3TA+, but it is kind of moot when you can draw and edit your own waveforms and filters. Or click random spectrum and go from there to shape a new sound.

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Wavetable or not, I bought Spectral tonight after a couple of days with the demo. I'm really enjoying just the factory presets for now (shamelessly) and really appreciating the work of the sound designers involved. Lots of wild variations when working with MW/PB/AT/VEL at the same time. Seems a lot of the patches have most of these mapped to something (or things) interesting, so I've been finding some very expressive sounds that have hooked me into noodling for ten minutes on one patch. I'm looking forward to getting a handle on this thing. Lots of potential here.

...so I'm toggling back and forth between this and Diversion, occasionally stopping to tweedle a bit with Kaleidoscope and B2...there are not enough hours between getting off work and bedtime...

:tu:
In rotation here: Hammock- Stranded Under Endless Sky

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Spectral is a great synth, if a bit of an oddball for a flagship.

I don't think it is a bread and butter synth, by any means (at least, if you're composing in common genres), but it is amazing for other applications. It is excellent for backgrounds, pads, ambiances, fx, that sort of thing, or when you need a really different flavor for leads and basses. I tend to think of it as my "sci-fi" synth.

If you need something for an uncommon and unique sound, Spectral is a great choice. I couple it with Diva, Zebra, Serum, and (sigh) Alchemy. I find it fills the gaps beautifully, and it really can be the exact answer you need at times.

Damn shame the marketing for this synth is so poor, it is really a disservice to musicians not to let us know about it. I would have missed it entirely if I hadn't come across Simon mentioning it a few months after release.

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I bought Spectral in december, it's the first synth purchase for me after Komplete 8.
Really nice additive synth, with other nice features such as chord memory and has a nice arpeggiator.
As said, comes with a bunch of lovely presets.
Really does go under the radar, not much marketing. Which is one reason I bought it. :)

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statue wrote:I bought Spectral in december, it's the first synth purchase for me after Komplete 8.
Really nice additive synth, with other nice features such as chord memory and has a nice arpeggiator.
As said, comes with a bunch of lovely presets.
Really does go under the radar, not much marketing. Which is one reason I bought it. :)
I like that it's characterful and am still considering buying it. But,

I have Razor. And Harmor.
Ha ha suck it!

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I'm way everdue for a revisit of Razor and especially Harmor. I had/have too many toys to give those a thorough study when I got them. Both make some really complex sounds. Been saying the same thing about Absynth lately too...
In rotation here: Hammock- Stranded Under Endless Sky

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rustman wrote:I'm way everdue for a revisit of Razor and especially Harmor. I had/have too many toys to give those a thorough study when I got them. Both make some really complex sounds. Been saying the same thing about Absynth lately too...
It's funny...I really liked Absynth when it first came out and used it for the presets extensively. When I went back (after learned something about programming through Sytrus, Harmor, and Serum) I found the gui completely offputting, and the programming needlessly "different". But that's just me, there are a lot of great sounds achievable with Absynth.

Harmor and Razor give back way more than you put in, especially the former.
Ha ha suck it!

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Apostate wrote:
rustman wrote:I'm way everdue for a revisit of Razor and especially Harmor. I had/have too many toys to give those a thorough study when I got them. Both make some really complex sounds. Been saying the same thing about Absynth lately too...
It's funny...I really liked Absynth when it first came out and used it for the presets extensively. When I went back (after learned something about programming through Sytrus, Harmor, and Serum) I found the gui completely offputting, and the programming needlessly "different". But that's just me, there are a lot of great sounds achievable with Absynth.

Harmor and Razor give back way more than you put in, especially the former.
Agreed on the Absynth interface. I was put off by the Sytrus interface and only recently concluded that there are some great sounds hiding in there. IL angered me with their miniscule sizing for a long time. Thing have recently improved somewhat with their stuff. Edison was unuseable, as far as I'm concerned.
In rotation here: Hammock- Stranded Under Endless Sky

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rustman wrote:
Apostate wrote:
rustman wrote:I'm way everdue for a revisit of Razor and especially Harmor. I had/have too many toys to give those a thorough study when I got them. Both make some really complex sounds. Been saying the same thing about Absynth lately too...
It's funny...I really liked Absynth when it first came out and used it for the presets extensively. When I went back (after learned something about programming through Sytrus, Harmor, and Serum) I found the gui completely offputting, and the programming needlessly "different". But that's just me, there are a lot of great sounds achievable with Absynth.

Harmor and Razor give back way more than you put in, especially the former.
Agreed on the Absynth interface. I was put off by the Sytrus interface and only recently concluded that there are some great sounds hiding in there. IL angered me with their miniscule sizing for a long time. Thing have recently improved somewhat with their stuff. Edison was unuseable, as far as I'm concerned.
Sytrus might be the most empowering FM synth on the marketplace, and one of music's greatest mysteries might be why the heck they'd just leave the gui that small. Being an IL customer, I receive lifelong updates, so...exactly WHEN would I get an interface even 10% bigger lol!
Ha ha suck it!

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I had the chance to contribute to a soundset for Spectral that will come out in the near future.
Lots has been sayd about Spectral here.
The synt is absolutely greate BUT needs real computer power if you want to make
huge and deep sounds.
So here is my advice for you IF you consider to buy it.
DEMO it for blood. Make huge sounds with it AND find out if your mashine can handle
Spectral in every aspects.
If your computer can, than you will have LOTS of fun with it, that is for sure:)

All the best
classic

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If it was $99.00 I'd buy it today.
Ha ha suck it!

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The spectral /harmonics editor is indeed a bit sluggish , waveform update is soo slow ..
Prefer harmor over spectral ....
filter FM is nice ..
Eyeball exchanging
Soul calibrating ..frequencies

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BBFG# wrote:
ATS wrote:Well if I had to choose Spectral or Zebra I would take Spectral. So Zebra must be really overpriced since it cost more than Spectral. Luckily I get to have both though. It is so sad how spoiled we all are now. $150 expensive for something like Spectral... :roll:
Not sure I would even put those two in the same group for consideration.
And I was just as hard of a sale for Zebra also (Dino deal helped quite a bit to get the close).

When I think Spectral, I think more in terms of Razor, Iris, Alchemy.
(And Iris was also a hard sale to me until a sale with extra discount in cart came).
Spectral is a fine synth. So are those three I already own.
Some people really forget that the spectromorph mode in zebra , is essentialy the same ..
You have the full bandwidth spectrum ..and you just mask the frequencies ..or bump them for resonant peaks,
combined with wavescanning and you know waht I mean .
I created amazing resonant filters in spectromorph mode
Eyeball exchanging
Soul calibrating ..frequencies

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gentleclockdivider wrote:The spectral /harmonics editor is indeed a bit sluggish , waveform update is soo slow ..
Prefer harmor over spectral ....
filter FM is nice ..
Harmor is what's keeping me from buying Spectral. I like the fact that Spectral has so much character, and it's an excellent synth overall. There's just now way I'd pay more for it than Harmor. Uh-uh.
Ha ha suck it!

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Spectral impressed me when I tried the demo. But after buying it, I find I really don't use it that much.

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