VST's that emulate analog synths

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Charles Tryck
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VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by Charles Tryck » Sun Apr 13, 2014 6:27 pm

Hey, I'm relatively new with Ableton, and am incredibly drawn towards analog synths.

Has anyone spent a lot of time with the Ableton Analog synth and could give give me some feedback on how it compares to other virtual synths designed to emulate analog synths?

I've been playing around with Arturia's iMini app, which emulates their minimoog V, and absolutely love it. Arturia has a minimoog VST, has anyone used it at all? I do understand there is something lost in the transition to digital... As analog and digital are two separate beasts, but I cannot afford a minimoog V. I've also heard about Monark from NI, amongst others. I'm sure there are multiple synths that can perform the same thing, but if there is any particular VST that does a pretty good job at capturing the analog synth textures, or has the capability of being tweaked to closely resemble the tonal quality of analog synths, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks!

antarktika
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by antarktika » Sun Apr 13, 2014 6:52 pm

U-he's Diva seems to be a lot of people's recommendation for one of the better ones around, but is presumably beyond your price range as well, and eats CPU like crazy, but I imagine both of those are problems you are likely to run into constantly in the search for a synth that does exceptional analog emulation.

I have the Minimoog V that was given away last year (doesn't have the back panel fx/mod matrix) and it does sound pretty good, though I haven't got much experience with actual analog equipment to compare it to. Really though, how about instead of asking people's opinions on Arturia's products, you try them yourself, because, really, nobody's words should be more convincing than whether or not it gets the job done, personally, for you!
15 day unrestricted trials here: http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/dow ... demos.html

Diva is here, also has demo: http://www.u-he.com/cms/diva

Charles Tryck
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by Charles Tryck » Sun Apr 13, 2014 7:06 pm

Right on, thanks for the advice. Your right about figuring it out myself. I'm also interested in hearing what people say about specific VST's pertaining to analog synths.

Do you have any opinion as to why U-He Diva is a commonly sourced VST regarding this topic? And $200 is my ceiling for investment at the moment.

Machinesworking
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by Machinesworking » Sun Apr 13, 2014 7:30 pm

Charles Tryck wrote:Right on, thanks for the advice. Your right about figuring it out myself. I'm also interested in hearing what people say about specific VST's pertaining to analog synths.

Do you have any opinion as to why U-He Diva is a commonly sourced VST regarding this topic? And $200 is my ceiling for investment at the moment.
Diva is very close to the real thing, and has a really good sound all it's own. If I were to pick just one plug in to emulate analog synths with that would be the one.
This would be the second one, on sale right now: http://www.gforcesoftware.com/gshop/pro ... ek-special

Arturia sound pretty good, but the morphing capabilities of this minimoog emulation put it in it's own class.

Charles Tryck
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by Charles Tryck » Sun Apr 13, 2014 7:51 pm

Machinesworking wrote:
Charles Tryck wrote:
Arturia sound pretty good, but the morphing capabilities of this minimoog emulation put it in it's own class.
'This minimoog' meaning the one you linked that's on sale, or the Diva?

antarktika
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by antarktika » Sun Apr 13, 2014 8:02 pm

Charles Tryck wrote:
Machinesworking wrote:
Charles Tryck wrote:
Arturia sound pretty good, but the morphing capabilities of this minimoog emulation put it in it's own class.
'This minimoog' meaning the one you linked that's on sale, or the Diva?
He's talking about the linked one, since Diva isn't a minimoog emulation, it's a program that tries to meticulously model a lot of the character of a number of analog synths, without being a clone of some existing hardware, but yeah, be keenly aware that while (from what I've heard, constantly, though personally haven't used it so can't comment to that effect) Diva is at or quite near the top of the game for this sort of thing, unless you have a really powerful CPU, it'll drain your resources pretty quickly. This review seems to sum it up pretty well: http://www.musicradar.com/us/reviews/te ... iva-542059

Charles Tryck
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by Charles Tryck » Sun Apr 13, 2014 8:21 pm

That gforce minimonsta looks like exactly what I'm interested in.

Thank you VERY much.

i'm workin with 2.8 GHz i7 and 16GB RAM, and a budget... That Diva looks huge, but I'm keen on the minimoog right now. I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to max out my CPU, yet.

ezelkow1
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by ezelkow1 » Sun Apr 13, 2014 8:31 pm

Also that diva review is pretty old at this point as its been updated numerous times. It now has multicore support that doesnt depend on the host so enabling that greatly reduces the cpu strain. They also added some new filters and a new supersaw module. Its definitely not as cpu hungry as it was when it came out

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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by ian_halsall » Sun Apr 13, 2014 8:36 pm

So many - Native Instruments Monark Minimoog emulation

Machinesworking
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by Machinesworking » Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:16 pm

Charles Tryck wrote:That gforce minimonsta looks like exactly what I'm interested in.

Thank you VERY much.

i'm workin with 2.8 GHz i7 and 16GB RAM, and a budget... That Diva looks huge, but I'm keen on the minimoog right now. I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to max out my CPU, yet.
I will say if you were to buy one analog emulation it would be Diva.
It's a pig, but a 2.8ghz i7 (how many cores?) with 16GB RAM is more than enough.

You can demo both, and I would before pulling the trigger.

Charles Tryck
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by Charles Tryck » Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:30 pm

Duo-core =(. I recall the capability of the i7 can turbo-boost up to 3.3 Ghz or whatever.


Man, that minimonsta looks hot though. I'll get on those demos right away. The Diva just seems FAR more versatile. I'm going for quality, not quantity. I'll have to get back to you guys and report on my reviews of these.

Can anyone who owns both the Diva and the Minimonsta give any feedback on CPU useage and tonal quality relative to the original minimoog analog synth?

footsy
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by footsy » Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:56 pm

minimoog
"A Positive mind is the Key to success" - Tydi

dev
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by dev » Sun Apr 13, 2014 10:23 pm


deva
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by deva » Mon Apr 14, 2014 1:14 am

Charles Tryck wrote:Duo-core =(. I recall the capability of the i7 can turbo-boost up to 3.3 Ghz or whatever.


Man, that minimonsta looks hot though. I'll get on those demos right away. The Diva just seems FAR more versatile. I'm going for quality, not quantity. I'll have to get back to you guys and report on my reviews of these.

Can anyone who owns both the Diva and the Minimonsta give any feedback on CPU useage and tonal quality relative to the original minimoog analog synth?
IMO Diva captures the tonal character of the Minimoog better. It is a distinctly better emulation soundwise. Diva is also having modules based on other analog synths as well. The sound quality is exceptional. Diva uses more cpu and you get something for the cpu use. You have to try the demo and see if that is a worthwhile trade for you.

kitekrazy
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Re: VST's that emulate analog synths

Post by kitekrazy » Mon Apr 14, 2014 1:39 am

They all imitate analog synths. When it comes to that I don't see how one is better than the other.

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