U-he appreciation

[Martin Gifford]

tedlogan,

Everything you say is totally cool. You are noticing the good in Bazille, and your enthusiasm is understandable and appreciated. But the review didn't mention any limitations or problems with Bazille. I mean, I'm gasping for something new and futuristic, and Bazille was at a bargain discount price, but I still didn't buy it. That's because it made me feel ambivalent. And many others felt that way too on the KVR forum.

I'm fine with it being complex, but the review didn't mention that it was complex and therefore would take time to learn.

"Distant sound quality" - it really does have that to me. If you listen to it loud and alone in a dark room, then it sounds full in a sense, but after listening to Sylenth, which comes on strong immediately, Bazille seems like it hasn't started yet, like the people programming it are still learning and experimenting. It's hard to express - it's a subjective thing. And many sounds have almost blank moments to them because of the rerouting or something. It's a valid timbre, but again, limited.

Yes, I listened to all the presets. It left me and many others feeling ambivalent. So why didn't the review pick that up? Instead it just blasted on about how wonderful it was.

I like the wires in principle. It's just the implementation - you often have to fiddle to get it to exactly match up with the hole. It should be more "magnetic".

I don't think there's one dance sound in the patches I heard that would fit a dance song better than a Sylenth patch. The reviewers should have said that.

EDIT:

Having said that, I did come up with an interesting bass riff with it. Believe it or not... A 12-bar blues! It did sound interesting and intense.

[tedlogan]

tedlogan,

Everything you say is totally cool. You are noticing the good in Bazille, and your enthusiasm is understandable and appreciated. But the review didn't mention any limitations or problems with Bazille. I mean, I'm gasping for something new and futuristic, and Bazille was at a bargain discount price, but I still didn't buy it. That's because it made me feel ambivalent. And many others felt that way too on the KVR forum.

Fair enough, it certainly will not appeal to everyone. This is more aimed at the synth geek, the modular enthusiast. I recall Urs also saying something similar a little while ago.

I'm fine with it being complex, but the review didn't mention that it was complex and therefore would take time to learn.

He could have mentioned that yes. Perhaps he assumed that people just know that Bazille is a modular synth, and therefore rather complex by its very nature. A fair point.

"Distant sound quality" - it really does have that to me. If you listen to it loud and alone in a dark room, then it sounds full in a sense, but after listening to Sylenth, which comes on strong immediately, Bazille seems like it hasn't started yet, like the people programming it are still learning and experimenting. It's hard to express - it's a subjective thing. And many sounds have almost blank moments to them because of the rerouting or something. It's a valid timbre, but again, limited.

I'm always alone in a dark room when working on music hehe. I listen to it through Sennheiser HD600s, which are pretty damn transparent. I understand it's a subjective thing, and it would be pointless for me to try and convince you that your preference is "wrong" when it's nothing to do with right/wrong.

Yes, I listened to all the presets. It left me and many others feeling ambivalent. So why didn't the review pick that up? Instead it just blasted on about how wonderful it was.

Once again, I guess the review assumes you're into modular synthesis and this is the nature of such synths - ranging from bread n butter basses and leads to very bizarre one-note held down "songs" in a patch, to animal noises etc. It's a very subjective thing, but I cannot disagree that regardless of one's taste, the presets are of the highest quality in their respective fields. Well, very many of them.

I like the wires in principle. It's just the implementation - you often have to fiddle to get it to exactly match up with the hole. It should be more "magnetic".

I would like a magnetic feature you suggest.

I don't think there's one dance sound in the patches I heard that would fit a dance song better than a Sylenth patch. The reviewers should have said that.

I don't think that would have been fair nor relevant, as it would be like saying this screwdriver does not hammer in nails well.
They're different synths, why should they be compared? Even though dance music is probably the biggest genre on earth (I dunno someone correct me), doesn't mean that every synth should cater to it. There's a huge smorgasboard of other genres and sounds out there to be explored.


But I hear ya, and totally understand that Bazille is definitely not for everyone, and the reviewer perhaps could have mentioned this. It is a WEIRD thing haha. I love it (obviously), and do actually hope that it doesn't become anyone's go-to synth, so that it's MINE! all MINE!

[ImNotDedYet]

Why should a review pick up on the fact that some people don't like the presets? That's purely subjective, and the reviewer is giving his/her opinion on the item based on hopefully a lot of experience with other soft synths. Your dislike for the review because there was no mention that some others really don't like the sound or presets is rather well, um...short-sighted.

The same for the fact that there's not one "dance sound" preset or that Bazille isn't good for dance music. I'm not sure what kind of dance music you're into, but I could see a lot of things coming from Bazille in true deep house, techno, or melodic techno. But again, why should a reviewer mention the fact that this synth might not produce sounds for a specific genre, or even sub-genre? I'm quite certain (although not 100%) that reviews of Sylenth don't mention it's inability to be used in hard rock/punk rock, etc.

Reviews should always be taken with a grain of salt because they will always be flavored by the reviewer him/herself.

And this is all coming from a person who listened to many of the presets and gave a really long look at the demo, wanting to like it. But chose to pass because in the end, it just wasn't for me and the type of music I make. But, I can see and respect the fact it's an incredible synth with more possibilities sound-wise than one can shake a stick at. IMO, it's deserving of the five star review even though it's not for me.

[deva]

Yes, I listened to all the presets. It left me and many others feeling ambivalent. So why didn't the review pick that up? Instead it just blasted on about how wonderful it was.

considering that Bazille is the most successful launch of a U-he synth to date, perhaps there are less of you than you think

[deva]

I'm fine with it being complex, but the review didn't mention that it was complex and therefore would take time to learn.

On this one I agree that a review could mention something about taking time to learn depending on the users background...

but it is not because of complexity... Zebra is more complex, Alchemy is much more complex... in fact, quite a few synths are. Bazille is not complex. It is structured differently and with different modules than are usually in most soft synths. Anyone coming from analogue modular will have no trouble right from the start.

[XSIMan]

Looks what's coming 64 sawtooth oscillators per voice DUCK!

[mholloway]

"Distant sound quality" - it really does have that to me. If you listen to it loud and alone in a dark room, then it sounds full in a sense, but after listening to Sylenth, which comes on strong immediately, Bazille seems like it hasn't started yet, like the people programming it are still learning and experimenting. It's hard to express - it's a subjective thing. And many sounds have almost blank moments to them because of the rerouting or something. It's a valid timbre, but again, limited.

There is not a single phrase of this assessment that makes even the slightest bit of sense. Just kinda felt like I needed to point that out.

[mholloway]

If I were to judge U-He products based solely on the presets, then Zebra would be one of the worst synths in my collection, and Diva would be down near the bottom as well.

But these are two of the greatest synths on the market, and Zebra is imo the deepest & most flexible synth -- probably ever.

I don't like Howard Scarr's presets at all, and most of the Diva stuff is just bread-n-butter filler afaic. The notion of judging the quality of these synths by that content is.....

[tedlogan]

If I were to judge U-He products based solely on the presets, then Zebra would be one of the worst synths in my collection, and Diva would be down near the bottom as well.

But these are two of the greatest synths on the market, and Zebra is imo the deepest & most flexible synth -- probably ever.

I don't like Howard Scarr's presets at all, and most of the Diva stuff is just bread-n-butter filler afaic. The notion of judging the quality of these synths by that content is.....

Zebra's 2.6 factory presets are not to my taste for the most part. I downloaded the older, larger and superior factory 2.1 presets and was really surprised that they replaced them with the current batch. Doesn't really matter as I just use my own anyway. Zebra HZ's presets, judging by the demo video, sound great though. Don't own it yet but probably will mainly for the resonator.

I don't like most of Diva's presets either, but ignoring style, their quality/timbre really is stunning. They're just a bit cheesy.

Bazille on the other hand has some badass presets. Lots of them.

[deva]

Bazille again

http://draigathar.org/sounds/B69.mp3

[Martin Gifford]

I'll finish on a positive note, since this is a u-he appreciation thread:

Zebra is awesome.
Diva is beautiful.
Bazille is the ULTIMATE synth EVER for emo's, film soundtracks, mad scientists, and 50 year old Romanian forest dance music artists!

[tedlogan]

I'll finish on a positive note, since this is a u-he appreciation thread:
Bazille is the ULTIMATE synth EVER for emo's, film soundtracks, mad scientists, and 50 year old Romanian forest dance music artists!

haha, wicked. I'll take it. Although not sure where the "emo's [sic]" comes from...

[XSIMan]

Sounds like a - if it's not got dub step presets its not got any good presets. Howard Scar made the presets for the last two bat man movies. He's at the top of his game.

[deva]

Sounds like a - if it's not got dub step presets its not got any good presets. Howard Scar made the presets for the last two bat man movies. He's at the top of his game.

plus other top movies... and some well known Virus presets too

[XSIMan]

Zebra EDM preset packs that I bought for Zebra these are great if you want something more modern and shows Zebra is for trance and EDM too.
http://www.adamszabo.com/zebra2-soundset/
http://www.freshlysqueezedsamples.com/z ... ume-1.html