Ableton Forum

andydes wrote:U-He ACE is very nice and cheaper than most. Sound is excellent (a big improvement on Albino in my opinion) and there's more to it than you'd think at first glance.

It does sound nice, but it's also the biggest CPU pig of any vst I've ever used.

Holy shit

Hitting one key on some of the patches brings my 2ghz core duo, 2gb ram iMac to it's knees in an instant. Is it cos I'm running the demo ?

As I understand it, Urs is working on a bigger modular synth called the 'berliner' I think, or something like that - and ACE is like a 'lite' introductory version of it, right?
If ACE is the lite version of what's to come.... I'll be needing a new computer to run it...

dum wrote:... I'll be needing a new computer to run it...

Probably

D-CAM will treat your machine the same way. However I really like the Ace demo and I find that I'm replacing Minimonsta with Ace in a lot of situations. Might pick it up this weekend.

The OP: Quite often you can find a good deal on the FabFilter Bundle over at KVR as well. There's a synth in that bundle called Twin2 and it's a decent synth to cut your teeth on. Getting Volcano & Timeless with it makes a nice starter set of plugs.

You almost have to hang out in the KVR Marketplace to get the really decent deals but its worth it if you don't have a lot of discretionary cash laying around. I think someone sold Ace for around 45-50 a month or so ago. Check it out...

any recommendations for free VSTs?

elementv wrote:any recommendations for free VSTs?

http://www.bluecataudio.com/Main/Home/
http://www.dontcrack.com/freeware/

and up stereo at http://www.quikquak.com/

Plogue Bidule - $75.00
not cheap but very affordable for its capability as a modular roll-your-own environment.

http://www.plogue.com/?page_id=56

^^^

funken wrote:Fairly new to music making.

FYI, things in favor of Absynth and Zebra as far as "VSTs for Mac", they were both coded for the Mac platform first. Zebra 1 out the door was Mac AU only, and Absynth was a stand alone OS9 synth first. Both have had little or no issues over the years.

Sylenth1

again not cheap but seems well supported - thinking of buying this myself anyone got experience with it?


http://www.lennardigital.com/modules/home/

as for the free ones, i add to the hint for alphakanal automat.
for the commercial ones, the one it's not been mentioned is Vember Audio Surge. after long searching, it's the very first vst i bought (apart from live inst's in the suite, if they can be considered here), and i'm doing a lot of things with it. it sells for 99€, and i must say it's worth every penny...what i like the most it's the HUGE amount of modulation options, one can modulate almost everything and choose between something like 16 lfo's at every given time, it has decent effects and, most important for me -it was the feature that convinced me- it lets you scroll between patches with the Program Change control, WITHOUT making live stand still for the moment every other-and i say every other- vst do, making them unplayable in a live situation..and it sounds great.as usual i must admit the swedes are a step beyond! (btw i'm not from sweden )

andydes wrote:U-He ACE is very nice and cheaper than most. Sound is excellent (a big improvement on Albino in my opinion) and there's more to it than you'd think at first glance.

What does ACE have to do with Albino?

And about ACE, for anyone using it, just keep the quality setting on standard and it's not bad on cpu at all. If you you're doing crazy overdriven or fm mod-heavy noises you may want to check the higher settings though.