Ableton Forum

After reading so manypeoples posts about said lil synth and seeing a deal on here (thanks again Karel) I thought well I might as well buy it. 50 euro's etc.

After playing around with it I was fairly unimpressed. Now that might be just first impressions etc.

I am not a preset lover, I tend to prefer tweaking although I wil often start with a factory sound and the modulate it / mangle it.


Synths I use - Komplete, Massive, Microtonic, The Arturia V Collection, Omisphere, Stylus, Trilogy etc. . .

Am I missing something here?

Totally missing something. It's awesome.

Your other synths are mostly analog subtractives or wavetable based. Operator is FM based. Learn how to program an FM synth (which is more difficult than a subtractive or sample based synth) and you will enjoy it a lot more. As someone who once owned a DX7 and a DX100, and had FM8 by NI, I am used to messing around with FM synths.

Did you download the covert operators free Operator pack. Ableton's own presets don't really showcase the synth as well as they might, but there have been a few live packs available from other people such as COvops and Puremagnetik, some free, some paid that really do show it in a better light.

Ableton also recently did some cool drum racks using Operator sounds on free download.

def missing something.



its my go to for a lot of things.

Operator is a stormer of a synth... I use it for everything

Ahh good stuff, thanks for the positive words of encouragement.

must dig into it, kinda what i figured.

Am so used to subtractive synths and being able to dial in the soun I am looking for relatively easy from goto templates so I gues it's just maual time needed

operator is both awesome and lame if you ask me. it sounds good and does it's job well and has a lot of possibilities. but it could certainly use more operators, an lfo that doesn't restart on every note. a second lfo (although looping envelopes help in that department) and maybe a noise source that isn't looped. then it might be something special. and yet, somehow it is special. I like it, but it needs some improvements.

What I like about it is that it mostly sounds totally different to all the analog VAs I own. I love them and use them loads, but Operator brings something different to the table. The flaws John mentioned are part of that for me, I have various other synths with those capabilities if I need it.

I don't think there can ever be one complete synth that will cover every need, certainly not as a VST anyway, but I doubt even a Korg Oasys would do for many people at a cool 8-9 grand !!!

I'm getting into it more and more, but I still don't think it's super great. Going through the included lessons will help you a lot in terms of seeing the potential of what it can do, but the more I use it the more I wish it had more features. The LFO's one john mentioned is my biggy too. The ability to map things to mod wheel would be cool too.

Nice ideas on the features. +1


It like most synths is worth the time needed to make it speak.

some tutorials on Operator:

http://www.ableton.com/_common/download ... part_1.mov <-- part 1

http://www.ableton.com/_common/download ... part_2.mov <-- part 2

http://www.sequencer.de/ableton/fm_bass_operator.html


IMO the Live presets categorically suck. if you google for "ableton live operator presets" you can find tasty presets. mad props to the Covert Operators, PureMagnetik and TrackTeam Audio for making tasty presets.

http://www.google.com/search?q=ableton+ ... =firefox-a

Operator is great for layering or resampling, it's the cleanest thing ever and it's sound hardly ever goes somewhere you wouldn't expect. It does do a fair amount of sounds that can be featured but I think the real genius of it is being able to get something absolutely clean and tie it in with some other sounds (Operator + Sampler is a killer combo), or get something clean enough that it can be processed a million times over.

Really while Operator doesn't overlap with all the features you get with big shiny synths, a lot of those tools are all in Ableton Live somewhere. Live is the toolkit, not the synth.

The key to making operator interesting is to add appropriate effects and automate it. It has a great raw sound but it needs some dressing and a little movement to bring it to life.

That said, I would like to see the kind of midi controls that Sampler has brought to Operator.

its good. it can get annoying using your mouse to program tho. Its hard to escape that disconnected feeling. (yea you can use a controller and i do but theres still some stuff you cant midi map besides nothing beats a well organized UI like a moog lp.)

Here are some really nice ( if i might say so myself )freebie operator lead sounds/racks for operator. check em out dissect em... Also, I will say that lots of other synths come stacked with effects, so to get operator on the same playing field you have to add effects to her.

Base Class Operator Patches

I agree a lot with John. Both awesome and lame.

Tarekith also did a great review of it once. The most important thing is that it's unique. It is about the worst synth out there for emulating any other kind of synth (hardware or software), however other synths similarily do not sound much like operator. Even FM synths like FM8 (I happen to prefer FM8 though, but operator is much more fun to program).

See, if you own a bunch of other synths like NI stuff, arturia, spectrasonics, you may very well open up operator and think it doesn't sound as good as those. In some ways I agree. But that's a bit like saying guitar doesn't sound as good as a cello, because it can't really. But the key is that it's different so it has other places.

And the truth is, there are times I play with operator for a while, developing a patch and think "Hey that sounds pretty cool", and then I open up Massive or sylenth1 or zebra or something and within minutes have something that I think sounds way better, and think "shit, why was I using operator?", but that's because operator would have simply been the wrong tool for I wanted to hear. So it's certainly not always going to please you if you have diverse tastes, but sometimes probably will. And some people just hate operator. It's just not the sound they are after. Other people love it, because it's totally what they want to hear. I think it's a bit misleading to say whether you are missing something or not. There's really not too much to miss about it, you usually just like it or don't (unless someone doesn't quite get FM synthesis).

There are such polarized opinions about it, and that's because it's really has a certain undeniable sound. I can almost always pick it out. And most people who don't like it wouldn't bother posting, they simply don't bother with it. It's mainly the fan boys who like to rave about. And that's fine. But I definitely see both sides. Sometimes I've considered selling it, but am mostly glad to have it for when the mood strikes.