Ableton Forum

I love the Waldorf synths, the PPG 2.2 and 2.3 Wave was THE SOUND of 1984 and 85.

I was actually quite impressed by the demo sounds actually, it reminded me of Propaganda's 'A Secret Wish' album on the ZTT label produced by Trevor Horn and Steve Lipson and to this day, one of my all time favourite albums.

The majority of the synths played on that album were the PPG Wave and Yamaha DX7, with the occasional Fairlight CMI sampling. This was in a day when analog synthesis was considered old hat and passe, digital FM, wavetable and sampling was king. If you love the work of Horn and Lipson, or Art Of Noise, etc. Propaganda's 'A Secret Wish' was must have album.

The tracks 'Murder Of Love' and 'Dr. Mabuse' are particularly laden with PPG sounds (Propaganda are probably best known though for minor hit single 'Duel', which is more DX7 based). The PPG choir pad sound in particular, also heard often in Tangerine Dream's album Le Parc was particularly coveted at that time. The amazing opening track 'Dream Within A Dream' also featured some prominent PPG Wave sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWoUZwr6 ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcPZspW83BE *the part between 3:30 and 4:00 especially, all the sounds except some Fairlight mangling of the singer's vocals are PPG Wave *

I think Neb is mostly correct about hardware having a slight edge, although there are some great VST/AU simulations out there such as Arturia's JP8V, Prophet V and Minimoog and G-Force's Minimonsta for VA synths.

If I was rich, I would buy Largo. Although there are other priorities ahead of it.

nebulae wrote:^^ thx for correcting me on the features...

I'm willing to hear it in all its glory, but the mp3s don't do it any justice at all, especially for the asking price.

@ploysax - the "waldorf sound" will be tainted by any number of things based on whatever hardware someone has, even down to the DAW they are using. Once you get out of proprietary hardware, you can't control the sound in the same way, which is why I don't see a value in paying for the "waldorf sound" - in VSTi form, it won't be the same. Feel free to disagree, but I never found the Novation V-station to be anywhere close to even the cheapest Novation hardware unit. Same goes with any Roland VSTi - "It's the same samples as in the XP-Whatev!" but it ain't the same. Same goes for the Emu samples. The list goes on and on and on.

That's why i posted the video clip. The mp3s (assuming it sounds identical to the blofeld) i listened to don't do it any justice like you say. If it sounds the same as the blofeld then it's hype is justified imo. I thought i knew what digital synthesis was til i heard the blofeld! Massive sounds positively miniscule in comparison.

some speculation follows, my $0.02...

at a low level modern synths are written for the chipset the designers wanted to use. they put their efforts into getting the DSP code to be their best effort. when they port the code to Mac or PC they have to compile it for a different chipset, perhaps C code can compile straight into VST format. the problem is, it's not the same result.

basically the software version is a follow on project, there's probably less time spent on it and there certainly isn't the time spent on it to make it as good as the original. you'd be better off starting over from scratch with a VST than trying to make a square peg fit a round hole.

my guess...


as for how they actually sound, use your ears. there's always the 'happy accident' where good results come from luck.

there was a hardware synth years ago that used the same chipset as a certain sound card, I want to say it was Turtle Beach and the Virus(?). in that case the software result was much closer to the hardware. it's the SAME code.

^ I think you're either talking about Creamware synths or the Virus made for Protools. But yeah, good explanation, thx.

Tone Deft wrote:some speculation follows, my $0.02...

at a low level modern synths are written for the chipset the designers wanted to use. they put their efforts into getting the DSP code to be their best effort. when they port the code to Mac or PC they have to compile it for a different chipset, perhaps C code can compile straight into VST format. the problem is, it's not the same result.

basically the software version is a follow on project, there's probably less time spent on it and there certainly isn't the time spent on it to make it as good as the original. you'd be better off starting over from scratch with a VST than trying to make a square peg fit a round hole.

my guess...


as for how they actually sound, use your ears. there's always the 'happy accident' where good results come from luck.

there was a hardware synth years ago that used the same chipset as a certain sound card, I want to say it was Turtle Beach and the Virus(?). in that case the software result was much closer to the hardware. it's the SAME code.

I think these issues shouldn't affect sound quality...
maybe they can affect CPU consumption vs. the hardware dsp specific code...
the big job is to make it as cpu efficient as possible...
other then that...it's just bits and bytes...
plus dsp ( math )formulas/algos..
I think D/A conversion has more to do with the 'quality' of the sound...
to tell the truth..
I actually don't need any more software synths...I don't think anybody does..
but I do miss the mQ...I loved that Synth..
that's the only reason I'm considering 'Largo'...
that being said...it NEEDS to be demoed...
mp3s and youtubes are definitly NOT the way to compare sound,,,

We're still chatting this one out on KVR. It is possible, that this synth deserves a bit more of a look, from those too quick to criticize it. Myself included...

I'm sure it sound fantastic, but no demo and syncrosoft copy protection make it a no go for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3obpt5upDvc&hl=de

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3IkZ5uxl8g&hl=de


...cheers

I want it...

Largo Embargo

DocT wrote:A quantum of largo:

http://www.trippler.net/files/largo/lechiffre.mp3

All sounds from Largo. No additional processing except a little compression
on the drums.

Just for fun, as always

This is a demo by DocT. Check out that fat bass!

There's a demo, and it doesn't require the dongle, they just give you that option if you prefer.

Pretty interesting synth, been messing with the demo this morning. Sounds really nice, covers a lot of territory without being TOO much of a CPU hog. The GUI is only so so for me, kinda of reminds me of Logic's synth, small text and kind of busy in a futuristic way. Kept running into a weird bug where the preset selector left and right buttons would randomly get stuck down until I closed the reopened the plug in, but otherwise no issues.

Not sure if I'd choose this over say Massive, since they are both covering roughly the same sonic territory with the wavetable angle. I find the GUI and modulation set up on Massive to be better, so that's likely the route I'd choose.