Ableton Forum

Hands up if you love Operator!

Man, I've loved Operator for a couple of years already, but it still continues to impress me.
It's so well integrated into Live, and has a huge amount of power, in this really understated GUI.

I don't think people realise how far beyond FM this synth it goes. It's a truly versatile semi-modular hybrid synth at this stage, and coupled with Lives built in effects, the sonic potential is huge.

Was experimenting this evening with using Operator without any FM - so just additive and subtractive synthesis.

That Low Ladder Filter sounds as good as any of the best Analogue Emulations IMO. And the Filter Shaper Drive feature is amazing, especially when you consider that it can be modulated by LFO/Velocity etc.

Add to that your Oscillator feedback, loop modes, and don't get me started on custom oscillators.

Brilliant synth and a pleasure to work with.

That's all.

PS - here are some bass patches I made
http://www.vstreview.com/operator_bass1.zip

i'm just a preset tweeker (got other fish to fry) BUT i love operator, every track i use it one way or another

Don't forget the low CPU usage. Find another FM synth that you can load up and make a full drum kit with 10 instances with that low of a CPU hit! It's the swiss army knife of all things.

Sounds so clean, yet so dirty and the minimalist approach is very performance friendly. Every parameter seems to glide effortlessly, as with all Ableton devices. That buttery smoothness is something easy to overlook.

Also, as an additive synth, just today I was using the even/odd selections to 'spice up' a triangle wave

I picked up this synth on Friday and it has been great. I worked all weekend and still picked it up pretty well. I plan on taking some time with it on my days off.

A proper FM synth but with a resonant filter = dream synth!

+1. Its one of the best things about Live. I have to find reasons to use other synths because it's so easy to realise ideas in, or to experiment with sound design.

Agreed funken - Operator is a brilliant tool for learning about harmonics, and how they relate to oscillator shapes.

I agree

Operator is a very nice bit of kit to use,although I'm only starting to enjoy its qualities,lol

Nice synth, had it for ages but still feel like there's so much more I could be doing with it.

I wouldn't mind another LFO though...

simonlb wrote:Nice synth, had it for ages but still feel like there's so much more I could be doing with it.

I wouldn't mind another LFO though...

If you own Max for Live or Live 9 Suite you have as many as you want.

100% in love with it, to the point that I barely use anything else. It's so good that I really, really, really wish Abelton would put out a dedicated hardware controller for it.

yes, Operator is really something. If you're looking for some inspiration, or just to see how far you can go with it, I heavily recommend checking out Christian Kleine's free patches: http://www.christiankleine.com/ck/random.html

synnack wrote:

simonlb wrote:Nice synth, had it for ages but still feel like there's so much more I could be doing with it.

I wouldn't mind another LFO though...

If you own Max for Live or Live 9 Suite you have as many as you want.

Guess I'd better start saving then

simonlb wrote:

synnack wrote:

simonlb wrote:Nice synth, had it for ages but still feel like there's so much more I could be doing with it.

I wouldn't mind another LFO though...

If you own Max for Live or Live 9 Suite you have as many as you want.

Guess I'd better start saving then

One of my fav tricks is to put a M4L LFO on the waveform chooser of Operator. So over time the different OSC in Operator move between different wav form shapes making dynamic and unpredictable sounds.