Waves Elements - what does it do ?

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Already fairly outfitted with instruments as I have Zeta2, UltraAnalog2, Rapture, DimensionPro, Alchemy, Ableton Operator & a couple of cool drum instruments.

Looks like Elements is kinda affordable now and curious if I already have that style of synth covered . . . as I know nothing about it

peace
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It's a typical VA style synth. You've got it covered. It's not bad, it's just more good of something we already have tons of.

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Lots of synths overlap in terms of features in one way or another. The way I look at it, is the fact that it all boils down to workflow. I like the layout and workflow of Element so I would say it's a great synth for it's price point whether I have it covered or not. It's totally enjoyable to use. Try the demo, and see if it means anything to you. I think you'll dig it.

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Alienware i7 R3 loaded with billions of DAWS and plugins.

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Where I think Element excel is the modulation options you have.
Many source and destinations for 4 lfo's etc.

And really nice bank of presets to start off with, or use as they are.

But you really have to demo, and see if your host supports it. I had plenty issues with daws that cannot run it because it's listed among effects, not instruments etc.

But I always got away with loading it eventually with http://ddmf.eu Metaplugin. So you might calculate for $49 for that too, and give you plenty flexibility with VI and effects too.

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I guess the best things about Element are a one page design without tabs (which makes it very simple to use) and a very good sound quality.

It got some advanced features like e.g. a step sequencer (that could be switched to a simple Arp and could also used as a mod source) and the "SineMod" feature in the first Osc that actually adds another Sine Osc which does FM with the main waveform in Osc 1. This could also be combined with the FM knob in Osc 2.
in Osc 2 besides the FM knob there is a "PhM" knob which sems to do phase modulation (the phase of Osc 2 is modulated by Osc 1).

The EQ is simple but seems to sound great and you could really boostthe low end with this.
The other effect only seems to have few controls (while the Delay has some more) but they seem to do their job more or less good.

Both Oscs got a dedicated Sine waveform available which is not a common feature in VA synths.

There is an unison (implemented as a simple on/off switch), a Sub Osc (only a volume knob) and you could also add Ring modulation. Osc Sync is possible too and i already menioned the FM features.

The VCO/DCO switch in the Oscs seems to switch between free running (VCO) and retriggered (DCO) waveforms. Wit hteh DCO mode the waveform seems to be re-triggered when playing a new note.

With a multimode filter, 3 envelopes and 4 LFOs Element has a quite impressive feature set while it lokks simple at the first look. In the envelopes you got a "Shape" knob to adjust the envelope slopes and the "Punch" button in the Amp envelope allows a more "punchy" attack.
In Mono mode (see Osc section) the RTRG button controls envelope re-triggering. When activated, every note restarts the envelopes.

In the Gobal section there is a "HD" button to activate a high quality mode for the sound engine.

Element got tons of presets and many of them are really good IMO.

I have compared Element to many other plugins (including some ii recently sold...) but somehow it seems to have it's own sound and/or character that is difficult to really compare to others. Overall the sound could be described as "fat" and/or "ballsy" which could be further improved with the buit-in EQ.

Last but not least like other Waves plugins Element is available in all plugin formats including 64-bit, VST2, VSt3, AU and also AAX which could be important for some people.
So far on Windows 7 64-bit i got it working in hosts like e.g. Live 9.2 (as 64-bit VST2), Cubase Pro 8.0.20 (as 64-bit VST3, VST2 works too when VST3 is deinstalled), Studio One 2.6.5 (as 64-bit VST3, VST2 works too when VST3 is deinstalled), Bitwig Studio 1.1.8 (as 64-bit VST2) and also Pro Tools 11.3.2 (as 64-bit AAX).



Anyway as others mentioned you have to check the demo yourself to see if you like this. Others could not do that decision for you. It's not just about features but also about the sound and nobody could tell you if you would like the sound or not.
Ingo Weidner
Win 10 Home 64-bit / mobile i7-7700HQ 2.8 GHz / 16GB RAM //
Live 10 Suite / Cubase Pro 9.5 / Pro Tools Ultimate 2021 // NI Komplete Kontrol S61 Mk1

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While we're here, does anyone know how to adjust pitch-bend range in Element?

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Andywanders wrote:While we're here, does anyone know how to adjust pitch-bend range in Element?
You can't.

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Andywanders wrote:While we're here, does anyone know how to adjust pitch-bend range in Element?
There is no dedicated adjustment but you could increase the pitchbend range in the mod matrix by using "Bender" as a mod source and "Blobal Pitch" as a mod destination. A mod amount of 100 then correpsonds to 2 octaves (up/down) and an amount of 66.5 to 1 octave up/down. 7 semitones up/down corresponds to a mod amount of around 51.7.

The standard value for the Pitchbend seems to be 2 semitones up/down.

I found those values using a tuner plugin (e.g. GVST GTune or the new one included with Live 9.2).


Of course you could ony increase the pitchbend range for one of the oscillators ("Osc1 pitch" and "Osc2 pitch" destinations) which could give nice results when doing Sync sounds.


Ingo
Last edited by Ingonator on Sat Jul 04, 2015 2:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ingo Weidner
Win 10 Home 64-bit / mobile i7-7700HQ 2.8 GHz / 16GB RAM //
Live 10 Suite / Cubase Pro 9.5 / Pro Tools Ultimate 2021 // NI Komplete Kontrol S61 Mk1

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Ingonator wrote:
Andywanders wrote:While we're here, does anyone know how to adjust pitch-bend range in Element?
There is no dedicated adjustment but you could increase the pitchbend range in the mod matrix by using "Bender" as a mod source and "Blobal Pitch" as a mod destination. A mod amount of 100 then correpsonds to 2 octaves (up/down) and an amount of 66.5 to 1 octave up/down. 7 semitones up/down corresponds to a mod amount of around 51.7.

The standard value for the Pitchbend seems to be 2 semitones up/down.

I found those values using a tuner plugin (e.g. GVST GTune or the new one included with Live 9.2).


Ingo
Or you can do that. Too much hassle for my personal use. But yes, this will work.

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The mod destinations in Element contain most of the parameters except e.g. the parameters using switches or the filter mode selection. The 6 modulation slots are included as targets too so you could add modulation to an existing one.

Most parameters in a right click menu offer a MIDI Learn feature.

The 3 tickmarks at the top of the Elöement GUI called "MIDI", "Arp-Seq" and "Tempo" could be quite interesting too. "MIDI" is related to MIDI Learn, "Arp-Seq" to teh current Arp/Sequencer pattern and "Tempo" to the Temp setting in the Global section.
Usually those tickmarks are on and each preset will load different settings for those features.

If you uncheck the tickmark for e.g. "Arp-Seq" the current pattern will stay when switching presets.
You could easily test this when oading one of the Squencer presets and switch to the next presets. You will hear that the sound changes but the pattern will stay that from the first one you selected. If you switch the tickmark on again each preset will load it's own pattern again.
Of course if you found a great combination of a sequencer/arp sound and a certain pattern you could save this as a new preset. That way you could also use a certain pattern you like in one of your own patches.

BTW the pitch range for sequencer steps is -24 to +24 semitones where 0 is the original pitch.
The sequencer could be also used as a gate sequencer. For that you got the "Gate" knob and the on/off switches for each step.
Depending on the mode setting you could also use this as a normal Arpeggiator without the pattern.
If you want to use the sequencer pattern as a mod source (e.g. for the Cutoff) usually you should switch the Arp/Seq mode to "Off" so it does not modulate the pitch. Of course you could also do both.


If you uncheck the "MIDI" tickmark a MIDI Learn setting for e.g. the Cutoff knob will be used in all presets, and not just in the preset where it was saved.



ingo
Ingo Weidner
Win 10 Home 64-bit / mobile i7-7700HQ 2.8 GHz / 16GB RAM //
Live 10 Suite / Cubase Pro 9.5 / Pro Tools Ultimate 2021 // NI Komplete Kontrol S61 Mk1

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Ingonator wrote:
Andywanders wrote:While we're here, does anyone know how to adjust pitch-bend range in Element?
There is no dedicated adjustment but you could increase the pitchbend range in the mod matrix by using "Bender" as a mod source and "Blobal Pitch" as a mod destination. A mod amount of 100 then correpsonds to 2 octaves (up/down) and an amount of 66.5 to 1 octave up/down. 7 semitones up/down corresponds to a mod amount of around 51.7.

The standard value for the Pitchbend seems to be 2 semitones up/down.

I found those values using a tuner plugin (e.g. GVST GTune or the new one included with Live 9.2).


Of course you could ony increase the pitchbend range for one of the oscillators ("Osc1 pitch" and "Osc2 pitch" destinations) which could give nice results when doing Sync sounds.


Ingo
Thanks Ingo :)

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Ingonator wrote:Of course you could ony increase the pitchbend range for one of the oscillators ("Osc1 pitch" and "Osc2 pitch" destinations) which could give nice results when doing Sync sounds.


Ingo
I've just had a quick play with this and it's great. Thanks for opening my eyes Ingo.

I notice that as soon as "Bender" is selected as the mod source, it overrides the default two-semitone pitch setting, which is great.

Gonna play with this some more.

Thanks again Ingo :tu:

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I have 2 questions and appreciate an answer as I already demoed Elements about 2 years ago and can't demo it further.

1. How is the CPU usage especially compared to Codex?

2. I think having Codex already gives me most of Elements. What do you think about that?

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EnGee wrote:I have 2 questions and appreciate an answer as I already demoed Elements about 2 years ago and can't demo it further.

2. I think having Codex already gives me most of Elements. What do you think about that?
While the two synths have a similar look and layout, they are nothing alike. At all.

Element is a really solid little VA synth and Codex is a streamlined Wavetable synth.

My main problem with Element is the clicky attack on fast-attack patches. I personally believe it's a bug, since switching between DCO and VCO modes doesn't fix the problem, and I've had to dial Attack back to as much as 27ms to get rid of the clicks before, which is 5x more than you normally have to on other SW or HW synths.

When you don't need fast attacks, though, Element can be quite nice, and certainly very easy to program.

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Thanks UltimateOutsider. I was watching this video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raaXnlMgylY

I think it is different from Codex, more analog. Well, everybody is praising the filter which I find it not that great! Are the filters in Analog synths like that?! Anyway, the EQ is excellent. Can you modulate the EQ bands? That would be a killer option!

Well, I should have bought it when I demoed it :smack: I really like the sound of it now (why I didn't like it 2 years ago? :nutter: ) Maybe some synths need a time to have a solid ground in our minds!

The click of the attack is not specific only to Element, but anyway, it doesn't bother me (if it is like in the video).

No! I must resist! I have too many synths already and it begins to be very distracting when starting a new piece of music! Mostly I'll buy it next discount however :hihi:

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