The Mysterious Synapse-Audio HZ

[osiris]

Sound quality? How does it sound coming through a 4mW phone speaker?

[seafire]

Aside from adding features like MSEG, did they do anything to improve the sound quality? It sounds a lot worse than the hardware:

Oh, so you mean it's exactly like every single software synth emulation ever made?

Do they all sound a lot worse?

Like most people, I don't have a studio full of every piece of hardware, so cannot always do a side by side comparison, and nothing is 100% perfect for sure. (Some are closer than others too)

I tend to feel lucky that I can pick up a soft synth that is so close it doesn't matter to me, and have all the advantages that software gives me at a fraction of the price.

Ymmv of course.

[zerocrossing]

I’ve always been surprised that no one snagged the name “Oracle” for a Prophet style synth. It’s right there. Sounds good in the lineup, too. Dune, The Legend, The Oracle.

What me surprises more is that there's so much fuzz about naming a synth. I don't get all that lets-make-it-a-reference-to-that-other-synth stuff as well. To me Oracle does not sound like a good name for it, but that's just my opinion. If Oracle (the company) would mind is another story.

I understand that it's getting harder to find unique names for new stuff and even more so for stuff that evolves from something with a well-known name, and companies protecting brands and copyrights for named items, but sometimes this is just getting weird...

(and no, I don't like "The Legend" either as a name).

Well, Larry Ellison doesn’t make software synthesizers, so I don’t think there’s any conflict there, at least not one that would survive legal scrutiny. Both words imply the ability to see the future, so it’s just a fun nod to Dave’s name, which he used to death and in a pretty arbitrary manner. Basically he used it to name all his polyphonic instruments… except for a few.

I do see why one could argue that there is a link between both terms - I just don't see a reason why it is necessary to maintain it in a compulsive manner. The name does not affect the sound of the synth. If it sounds good - it sounds good. If it sounds bad - a "good name" doesn't help (neither do virtual wooden side panels).

As to Larry... philantropic billonaires have a slight tendency to put a lot of money in things they love / adore. Just because he's into yachting and avation that does not mean it stops there. Yes, I know that's more than speculative. Nevertheless, Synapse isn't that size of company being able to stand a lawsuit with Oracle anyway. I guess a friendly note asking to rethink the naming from a corporate lawyer would be sufficient to make it happen.

Another example of unused names are all the Greek and Roman gods. Roland used Jupiter and Juno and then stopped. I’m surprised that when they stopped licensing the name to Arturia they didn’t use Titan or something.

There's alot of titans, actually, so if you're looking for names in that mythology you might find some more. Korg already did, so Kronos is taken...

You seem like a sad person. Maybe synths should just be numbered. Would that be to your liking?

[zerocrossing]

Aside from adding features like MSEG, did they do anything to improve the sound quality? It sounds a lot worse than the hardware:

Oh, so you mean it's exactly like every single software synth emulation ever made?

Do they all sound a lot worse?

Like most people, I don't have a studio full of every piece of hardware, so cannot always do a side by side comparison, and nothing is 100% perfect for sure. (Some are closer than others too)

I tend to feel lucky that I can pick up a soft synth that is so close it doesn't matter to me, and have all the advantages that software gives me at a fraction of the price.

Ymmv of course.

I don’t have every synthesizer either, but I have quite a few hardware synths that range from $400-$3,500, and I’d put Synapse Audio plugins up against any of them. I don’t even buy hardware for higher quality sounds. That’s hurdle has been jumped for some time now. I buy for unique features and character. I’m lucky enough that I can afford nice hardware, but if I couldn’t, the sound quality of my music wouldn’t suffer at all. Anyone who thinks plugins can’t sound as good as hardware are suffering from cognitive bias.

[BONES]

Aside from adding features like MSEG, did they do anything to improve the sound quality? It sounds a lot worse than the hardware:

Absolute bollocks! It sounds IDENTICAL to the hardware instrument upon which it was modelled and closer than most hardware examples you are likely to get your hands on would. In both those videos, I can guarantee that in a blind test you could not tell which was which with any degree of accuracy.

The first video you posted (done by Kevin I believe) I can hear the difference between the hardware and the software.
The second one that I am 99.99% sure was done by BigTone, I couldn't really tell the difference and in a blind fold test I am pretty sure I couldn't tell the difference.

I was a bit the opposite. It was much more difficult to hear differences in the first one, because of the way it was done, but in the second I thought that two of the examples sounded slightly different. In one I thought Legend sounded a teeny-tiny bit fuller but in the other I didn't think one sounded better than the other, just not identical. But they were so similar, you'd have to be an absolute fuckwit to think that it made any difference whatsoever.

this will not be my go to minimoog bass and lead replacement synth

What does this even mean? When would you need to replace a MiniMoog? Wouldn't just be looking for a sound? And if you had a synth that sounded so much better than just a MiniMoog, why wouldn't you use that instead?

But I'm a little concerned that the new presets might all (or almost all) be very "cinematic"...

So make your own, it's not f**king hard. It is also fully compatible with all current Legend patches, so there's plenty of stuff out there for you.

I like the Youtube demo of their Oberheim a lot more

That's because Oberheim synths always sounded much better than Moog synths.

But yeah, still not quite as good as the hardware when the patches are matched (this comparison plays the same piece with the hardware two times then the software two times)

Again, in those demos they sound absolutely the f**king same. As in, 100% identical such that you couldn't pick them in a blind test. If I had some means of putting them up for you to listen to, I'd re-arrange them and dare you to pick which is which.

Incidentally I just noticed it's 43% off now at Thomann (so $56). Supports MPE but I'd assume the presets don't already have Pressure/Aftertouch and Slide/Y axis/Timbre mapped? Doing that myself for every preset gets really tedious...

So you need MPE for every single track in a song? That's just f**king ridiculous. Most presets in the majority of factory banks don't even map anything to velocity or mod wheel, so expecting MPE to be set-up is really asking for way too much.

[Second edit: I was mistaken about the Oberheim modeled for Obsession being from the 70's; it's based on the Ob-Xa which was released in 1981.]

Yeah, that's what you were wrong about.

[Ou_Tis]

Absolute bollocks! It sounds IDENTICAL to the hardware instrument upon which it was modelled and closer than most hardware examples you are likely to get your hands on would. In both those videos, I can guarantee that in a blind test you could not tell which was which with any degree of accuracy.

Again, in those demos they sound absolutely the f**king same. As in, 100% identical such that you couldn't pick them in a blind test. If I had some means of putting them up for you to listen to, I'd re-arrange them and dare you to pick which is which.

lol

To be brutally honest, BONES... I'll bet that you're getting old and your hearing is going. No shame in that (though all that loud music you chose to listen to probably didn't help...). Please don't cry. (And don't despair: if you live long enough, maybe some day you'll get a hearing aid or brain implant that can fix it. And of course you can still make good music even without that.)

I'll happily do a blind test. I'd love to be proven wrong.

There are some plugin emulations I actually prefer over the corresponding hardware in terms of sound. Even some circuit-modeled ones. For example, the 480L has a greasy character that Relab's emulation doesn't capture... and I prefer the Relab (though I prefer other reverbs over both of them...).

[BONES]

I have absolutely no doubt my hearing is getting worse but if that was the issue, it would have shown up in the spectra we could see in one of those videos, wouldn't it? But what also informs my opinion is knowing Rich. I mean, seriously, if he has gone to the lengths to model the difference between different domestic power supplies for the US and Europe, you can't honestly think he's missed anything more obvious, can you? Because that's a difference absolutely nobody has ever even noticed, but he clearly did.

[Dirtgrain]

ITB vs. Analog blind tests have fooled many here, IIRC.

[kylie]

You seem like a sad person. Maybe synths should just be numbered. Would that be to your liking?

Thank you for your deep psychological analysis of my personality. I tend to be happier than you might imagine, though. Especially after being reminded of the entertaining character of KVR.

Personal likings differ - be it how synths sound, look or are being called like. I happen to dislike some names more than others, and I told that to the public, that's it. You might have a different opinion. And yes, why not ?

As to your question: I don't think that a naming scheme contaning only numbers is better. A good mixture would do, in my opinion.

[zerocrossing]

You seem like a sad person. Maybe synths should just be numbered. Would that be to your liking?

Thank you for your deep psychological analysis of my personality. I tend to be happier than you might imagine, though. Especially after being reminded of the entertaining character of KVR.

Personal likings differ - be it how synths sound, look or are being called like. I happen to dislike some names more than others, and I told that to the public, that's it. You might have a different opinion. And yes, why not ?

As to your question: I don't think that a naming scheme contaning only numbers is better. A good mixture would do, in my opinion.

That was my shallow analysis. For a deeper understanding, I’d need to know more about your relationship with your mother.

[BBFG#]

Be careful of projection.

[nix808]

-nearly have someone's eye out half the time

[kylie]

You seem like a sad person. Maybe synths should just be numbered. Would that be to your liking?

Thank you for your deep psychological analysis of my personality. I tend to be happier than you might imagine, though. Especially after being reminded of the entertaining character of KVR.

Personal likings differ - be it how synths sound, look or are being called like. I happen to dislike some names more than others, and I told that to the public, that's it. You might have a different opinion. And yes, why not ?

As to your question: I don't think that a naming scheme contaning only numbers is better. A good mixture would do, in my opinion.

That was my shallow analysis. For a deeper understanding, I’d need to know more about your relationship with your mother.

Sweet. I assume you lost interest in the topic itself. If you're just looking for volunteers for you psychology studies, why don't you do ads? Please be so kind and bore the pants off someone else.

[zerocrossing]

You seem like a sad person. Maybe synths should just be numbered. Would that be to your liking?

Thank you for your deep psychological analysis of my personality. I tend to be happier than you might imagine, though. Especially after being reminded of the entertaining character of KVR.

Personal likings differ - be it how synths sound, look or are being called like. I happen to dislike some names more than others, and I told that to the public, that's it. You might have a different opinion. And yes, why not ?

As to your question: I don't think that a naming scheme contaning only numbers is better. A good mixture would do, in my opinion.

That was my shallow analysis. For a deeper understanding, I’d need to know more about your relationship with your mother.

Sweet. I assume you lost interest in the topic itself. If you're just looking for volunteers for you psychology studies, why don't you do ads? Please be so kind and bore the pants off someone else.

If my posts are causing you to remove your pants, things are worse than I imagined.

[seafire]

So when is this out?