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Vital v1.5.3 [Early Access] update + CLAP

abacab

By abacab
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PavlovsCat

PavlovsCat

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Unlike most of you guys, I have no talent for making patches -- don't get me wrong, I wish I did, but don't want to invest the time. I'm a lowly preset user. 

But I absolutely love Vital. I think it may be my favorite soft synth --- and I've bought a lot of soft synths over the years. But Vital, which anyone get pick up for free, is always the one I find myself turning to the most. 

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abacab

abacab

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1 hour ago, antler said:

I'd say in some cases that a 'flashy' UI can make a plugin easier to use, e.g. when you're programming a synth patch

  • It can be helpful to see where you are on the ADSR envelope in real time as you play the note (helps someone understand the concept better too)
  • Animating the LFOs can help you see what's going on with the sound you're shaping
  • It's helpful to see which frame in a wavetable you're on and how quickly the frame transitions
  • If you're morphing oscillator waveform e.g. between square and sine, it's useful to see what the shape is

I would say that this is something that the devs of Vital, Pigments, & Phase Plant definitely got right! As compared to another recent allegedly state-of-the art synth, Massive X. 

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antler

antler

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1 hour ago, abacab said:

I would say that this is something that the devs of Vital, Pigments, & Phase Plant definitely got right! As compared to another recent allegedly state-of-the art synth, Massive X. 

Agree with you there.

Patch creation was always something I said I'd get to 'one day' but never did. Then fairly recently I decided it was something I had to do, having bought Phase Plant. I found getting started quite difficult, and the animated UIs definitely helped me. Same with Pigments - lots going on, so the animations really help. I can't comment about Vital as I've not looked at it, but it seems very cool. (I know there's a free version; does anyone know if the other tiers ever go on sale?)

As far as the other tools I mentioned go, I had FabFilter in mind, as well as iZotope's Insight and Tonal Balance.

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antler

antler

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2 hours ago, Peter Woods said:

Unlike most of you guys, I have no talent for making patches -- don't get me wrong, I wish I did, but don't want to invest the time. I'm a lowly preset user. 

Nothing wrong with that.

For me it started off with presets, then wanting to tweak the sounds to fit, and then deciding I should have a go. Most of the sounds in preset packs sound better than what I can make - curiosity just got the better of me.

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abacab

abacab

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19 minutes ago, antler said:

Patch creation was always something I said I'd get to 'one day' but never did. Then fairly recently I decided it was something I had to do, having bought Phase Plant. I found getting started quite difficult, and the animated UIs definitely helped me. Same with Pigments - lots going on, so the animations really help. I can't comment about Vital as I've not looked at it, but it seems very cool.

I've arrived in the middle as far as creating patches go. I like using presets to get an initial sound that I like, then knowing my way around the synth well enough to tweak the patch into something with my own take on it.

I used to think starting from "init" was something I should be doing more often, but I find it tedious to start from scratch. Probably a result of the Roland and Korg ROMplers I grew up with.  Editing on hose tiny LCD screens and button pushing had me mostly using presets. Patch design can be very time consuming, and easily turn into a rabbit hole in productivity. I will say though, that Phase Plant, Pigments, and Vital are so intuitive that they are very inspiring to work with. I like the fun factor!

I have not seen a sale on Vital yet, but the free version is the full deal. The Plus, Pro, and subscriptions just add preset and wavetable content. I bought the Pro version quickly after trying out the free version mainly to support the developer. It's not that expensive and I liked what I saw, so I want him to keep doing it! ?

Edited by abacab
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abacab

abacab

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21 minutes ago, antler said:

As far as the other tools I mentioned go, I had FabFilter in mind, as well as iZotope's Insight and Tonal Balance.

I haven't gone FabFilter yet, but I do have iZotope's Music Production Suite. I need to dive deeper into it. A lot to swallow at once! I was just playing around with Insight the other day and watching videos on it to get a better feel, and that is an amazing tool!

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PavlovsCat

PavlovsCat

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36 minutes ago, antler said:

Nothing wrong with that.

For me it started off with presets, then wanting to tweak the sounds to fit, and then deciding I should have a go. Most of the sounds in preset packs sound better than what I can make - curiosity just got the better of me.

I remember in the 00s, I was on business in Scotland and met up with Ben from Camel Audio for dinner and to hang out (great guy and an excellent developer). I confided in him that I loved his synths but only stuck with presets. He told me about research finding something like 90+% of soft synth users don't make their own patches -- but they mostly intend to and make it a factor when researching soft synths. I think it's awesome to make your own presets. I have a friend who is big into modular hardware synths and makes his own fantastic and complex patches that he sends over audio files to me that I listen to and am blown away by. But at best, I don't desire to want to make them myself, at best, if he does something for a soft synth, I'll just want a patch! 

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abacab

abacab

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2 hours ago, Peter Woods said:

I have a friend who is big into modular hardware synths and makes his own fantastic and complex patches that he sends over audio files to me that I listen to and am blown away by. But at best, I don't desire to want to make them myself, at best, if he does something for a soft synth, I'll just want a patch! 

If you try Voltage Modular from Cherry Audio, you can have your cake and eat it too! The VM Core + Electro Drums comes with 551 presets.

Plus 105 modules...  on sale now for $99.  Fun stuff! ?   https://store.cherryaudio.com/bundles/voltage-modular-core-electro-drums

Even the free version of VM comes with 130 presets to play around with!  https://store.cherryaudio.com/bundles/voltage-modular-nucleus

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PavlovsCat

PavlovsCat

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43 minutes ago, abacab said:

If you try Voltage Modular from Cherry Audio, you can have your cake and eat it too! The VM Core + Electro Drums comes with 551 presets.

Plus 105 modules...  on sale now for $99.  Fun stuff! ?   https://store.cherryaudio.com/bundles/voltage-modular-core-electro-drums

Even the free version of VM comes with 130 presets to play around with!  https://store.cherryaudio.com/bundles/voltage-modular-nucleus

Thanks. That stuff does sound fantastic.  But I'm not going to pretend I would ever make my own patches.  And I do have some of their synths and honestly,  beyond presets they're over my head. [Now is the perfect time for the jokes about marketing people or drummers not being very bright.]

True story.  This same friend of mine PMed me last year and wrote something like, "Hey, I just bought an Orange Tree Samples library and I see your name in the manual with  a thank you! How cool! What did you do?" So I think that's cool too. Disclosure, that was the first time I learned my name was in an OTS manual and I use OTS libraries in almost every project.  But due to a mix of impatience and who knows what else,  I never read any of the manuals. I've always been able to learn what I needed from a mix of watching videos and fiddling around. And lately I've been making custom presets in KONTAKT and SoundPaint-- and I'm actually really happy with what I can now do in SoundPaint. But synth programming? It's beyond me. I'd rather pay someone who's great at and spend more time making music that maybe three people listen to. 

Edited by Peter Woods
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Lionel

Lionel

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For those that don't know...

If you subscribe to Vital for $5/month, you can use that $5 credit to pay for PRO.  After a few months of subscription, you'll have PRO in no time.  And you get access to the Subscriber-only and PRO-only presets.

I wish more devs did this.  It's a Win-Win for the consumer and dev.

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Nick Blanc

Nick Blanc

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I'm somewhere in between with presets and/or making it myself from scratch. If I have particular sound in mind, I'm usually much quicker using a preset and tweaking it a bit. Also, browsing presets opens up some musical ideas I wouldn't have come up with myself, so it's an inspirational tool.

But having some hardware synths without preset capability forced me to create my own stuff, which in the end is much more statifying/rewarding. It also forced me to learn more about synthesis. Somehow Vital makes sense in that regard. When I was dipping my toes in wavetables, it was Vital which made it 'click'. I'm sure some other synth could have done the trick, but Vital played the part, and played it very well.

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user 905133

user 905133

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In my experience, Voltage Modular is not just for creating sounds and it works well with Cakewalk (and possibly other DAWS).  Admittedly, for those who are not familiar with and/or experienced with connecting things together,  there can be a modest (but not unnavigable) learning curve.  

 

Edited by User 905133
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Fleer

Fleer

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I’m with the GUI gang. I think a plug-in’s aesthetic is a great part of why I purchase. Got me into FabFilter completely. And I remember the first time I saw a skeuomorphic GUI. I was amazed at the detail. I even thought these were actual real-life products being sold, instead of virtual ones. 

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antler

antler

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20 hours ago, abacab said:

I haven't gone FabFilter yet, but I do have iZotope's Music Production Suite. I need to dive deeper into it. A lot to swallow at once! I was just playing around with Insight the other day and watching videos on it to get a better feel, and that is an amazing tool!

It is indeed. When finishing a song I always use insight as it helps me target -14 LUFS Integrated (average over the whole song) among other measurements. But also, Tonal Balance is fantastic for getting a balanced sound - trying to get your song to fit inside the target envelope is quite challenging though!

I also love the maximizer and stereo widener modules from Ozone Advanced too!

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