What's your favorite synth? I'm posting current versions of the synths I discussed because since some of these are pretty actively updated, some of the stuff I said in the video might not necesserly hold up in the future. Serum : V. 1.363 Vital : V. 1.51 Pigments : V. 4.1 Phase Plant : 2.1
@5ammy13
5 ай бұрын
Vital is the best beginner's synth and is something that I look to even now when I have other synths. I use it to teach my students all the time because it is absolutely free. I like the visuals as well. Really, the best way to get into the world of synthesis imo. Not the best, but my favourite for packing so much for free.
@BlackMarvin
5 ай бұрын
@@5ammy13 I agree! Best way to start, easy on the eyes and good value for a free synth!
@carlelliott7490
4 ай бұрын
I have UVI Falcon 3, what are your thoughts on Falcon 3 yourself?
@BlackMarvin
4 ай бұрын
@@carlelliott7490 I need to try it. On paper it looks very good. The onyl thing is it's pretty pricy and they don't offer a rent-to-own (as far as I know).
@ryanpongracz8051
11 ай бұрын
And now PHASEPLANT is back and better than ever too
@BlackMarvin
11 ай бұрын
Indeed!
@psybursonic
Жыл бұрын
Great video ❤I use and love all these synths. If I had to pick one it'd be Phase Plant. For me, a few of the positives for Vital over serum are 1. Vital's LFOs and randoms have more options than serums. The differnt types of random in Vital a big plus, and also the LFO has things like point cycle, loop point etc. which I find useful. The ability to easily do stereo modulation from the LFO and randoms in Vital is something I wish Phase Plant had at the fingertips. All that combined with the remap too. 2. The spectral warp modes in Vital are really nice and offer something a bit different than Serum's warp modes. 3 - and this is a big one for me, the ability to have the osc snap to pitch so easily is really really great (espically combined with the stereo modulation). Snap to pitch also pretty easily done in Phase Plant with a remap, but I still find myself reaching for Vital over phaseplant when I want to do this (also another plus for Pigments, cuz it has this implimented in much the same way). Also, while I do find Vital's FX and filters a bit limiting like you said, I think the FX themselves sound pretty great.
@tomdemojo45
11 ай бұрын
This is a great roundup man, thank you for your time on this. All these synths are amazing for the reasons you laid out so well. I love Pigments but Im really tempted by Phase Plant. I have been trying out the demo and I appreciate the layout so much. Its like modular snap-ons that you connect together from generation to modulation and FX- it really simplifies the signal flow. New empty presets might be overwhelming for complete beginners, but if you have a little bit of fundamental synthesis knowledge, Phase Plant's layout makes it so clear what is going on with the signal flow. It helps you feel like you really understand what you are making and invites you to experiment. From then you become more interested in how other presets have been put together and learn through your curiosity. Its almost like an educational instrument! Thanks again for the great overview
@jeedmodorn5494
11 ай бұрын
Deep but very accessible review. Thank you.
@BlackMarvin
11 ай бұрын
Awesome, that's kinda the angle I was going for.
@DaddaPsy
Жыл бұрын
Steve Duda is working on Serum 2 but it takes time and he hasn't promised any date. One of my favorite plugins is Synplant, i'm so excited for Synplant 2! Such a quirky weird little piece of software
@BlackMarvin
Жыл бұрын
I need to checkout Synplant 2. I have to say at first glanced it looked a bit too quirky for me but I should maybe give it a deeper look and even a try. Awesome yeah it definetly looked like Steve Duda is working on Serum 2. I'm sure it will be a masterpiece. I saw that DMG audio was collaborating on it so I'm sur it will be brilliant.
@adamarmstrong9408
Жыл бұрын
Do you know when synplant 2 is coming out?
@DaddaPsy
Жыл бұрын
@@adamarmstrong9408 It should be this year according to Sonic Charge's website but one cannot be sure. It's been in the making for over 10 years, long before the boom with AI. He had a working prototype for a long time but it took too long for the algorithm to create sounds using the AI function so he had to wait for better times before release.
@akira20ish
8 ай бұрын
Tried phase plant too much for my head to wrap around I prefer surge XT
@PeakByte
Жыл бұрын
Wow! Thank you for the info! merci! It's awesome that you tagged your sections!!
@BlackMarvin
Жыл бұрын
I'm glad you enjoyed and yeah it's a massive time savers for viewers to have marked sections. I think it's a must for those type of videos.
@paulgrooveside2803
4 ай бұрын
Very interesting observations on these synths, thank you.
@BlackMarvin
4 ай бұрын
Thank you Paul! Glad you found that helpful!
@jussivalter
7 ай бұрын
i really wanted to love phase plant but it felt really really limited when you're used to bitwig and grid. The same feeling when comparing the pigments to Phase Plant, Pigments feels really limited. when you compare Phase Plant to BitWig, Phase Plant feels really really limited.
@Tyrell_Corp2019
3 ай бұрын
Yeah, but Bitwig is a DAW. As a media/classical style composer who needs a more linear and precise approach to editing for video and ATMOS, (which Bitwig doesn’t support), I personally have no interest in it as DAW. (I mean, talk about limitations.) That said, I find Phaseplant to be an incredibly powerful synth for what I need. And it’s constantly updated with new features and products. That said, I wouldn’t push people into Bitwig if they need something beyond synthesis. As the old saying goes… To each his own. 🤷🏻♂️
@notsure1135
7 ай бұрын
Multipass goes on my kicks and my basslines. I will then put different transient shapers and a touch on f phase distortion on the different bands. I own all of these but really only use vital and Phaseplant due o familiarity.
@theunconciousmind7314
21 күн бұрын
Vital has amazing sounding filter and makes everything so smooth. For WT creation both work great but very diffrent. Vital has a lot more morphing features and i get very smooth amazing glitchy results very fast. With serum its all about the processing. I couldn't get amazing glitchy wavetables with serum altough it has a lot of amazing features. The only thing where i would recommend serum over vital is fm leads because the fm knob works smoother in serum in my opinion. Just i dont like serum filter so much for the leads. So i just use a diffrent filter. Both plugins have advanced unision control which can be really nice and useful for fm sounds. But base is also really good with serum. I really like how it sounds.
@BlackMarvin
20 күн бұрын
Nice! Yeah it's nice to see how other's perceive it! I personally don't like how the Vital filters sound but I can see why some people might love it. It's true that Vital has a good WT editor too!
@theunconciousmind7314
20 күн бұрын
Forgot one point. Yes you are 100% right WT EDITING works way better on serum.
@BlackMarvin
20 күн бұрын
@@theunconciousmind7314 When it comes to wavetable I would say : Serum : great editing, import scan are soso Vital : Very good import scan algorythms, personally don't liek the keytracker based editing Phase Plant : Best import scans, best editing features.
@Solanaar
5 ай бұрын
Although this is an older video, I would like to share my thoughts on these synths. Serum: I started with this one. I struggled to understand what made a patch 'work' despite being able to create cool sounds by following guides or looking at presets. Although the UI is an improvement over older plugins, the matrix was hidden away on another tab and the modulation process was clunky compared to modern plugins. This discouraged me from learning more about it, and I mostly created simple, even barebones patches. I found it difficult to engage with the central aspects of sound design due to some details, such as the envelopes not scaling well with durations or the finickiness of LFOs. Overall, I do not believe this is the best option for beginners. Personally, I found experimentation to be challenging. Pigments: This was my next synth. Its excellent UI and intuitive drag-and-drop system unlocked the 'hidden knowledge'. The deciding factor was being able to see everything on one page and how it interacts with each other, trying out different things, switching modulation sources, and having access to the different engines. It may not have the same level of complexity as Serum or Phaseplant, but that is precisely why I believe it is the ideal synthesizer for beginners. It hides away its complexity until required and it does it much more elegantly than Serum. Pigments was the synth that got me into reconstructing sounds I heard and liked. However, I always struggled to accurately reproduce certain sounds. I also felt Pigments was missing "depth" in its engines. I honestly never liked the sound of it, especially compared to things like Diva or Dune. So while I think it's the perfect synth to start out with I also think, once you are more comfortable with sounddesign you should start looking elsewhere. Pigments was necessary for me to truly get into synths, but I rarely use it nowadays. Ironically I started using Serum more, now that I am more comfortable with navigating and using synths. I'll skip Vital, cause I haven't played with it much. Phaseplant: While I don't have it, I know it is THE synth. I have Snapheap and how the UI handles is perfect. While certainly overwhelming for a beginner, as an intermediate it is perfect. You can modulate everything, drag-and-drop and rearrange, so experimentation comes incredibly easy and it is probably the gateway drug into modular synths. I don't know about its sound quality, but I'm sure it's in the same ballpark as other industry standard synths. If I could start anew, I'd start with Vital (cause it's free) and Pigments as my first payed plugin. I might even skip serum completely and go straight to phaseplant. After that I'd probably get specific plugins for specific usecases, like Diva for that analog crunch or UVI Falcon for that modulation maddness.
@BlackMarvin
5 ай бұрын
Nice! I enjoyed reading your feedback and I resonate with it. I think your perception of these synths is pretty accurate (in my opinion). I think what makes Serum a bit beginner friendly is the fact that it has so many resources available both in forms of tutorials and presets but it's true that if that wasn't the case it would be very different. I like the way you describe that Pigments hide its complexity really well and same I also share the feeling for the engine. And yes, Phase Plant is THE synth. Have you seen the new Shaper plugin they added last week?
@Solanaar
5 ай бұрын
@@BlackMarvin Great point about Serum! I watched a few of Virtual Riot's recent videos and he uses Serum a lot. Having to engineer a similar solution in another synth would be a major hassle and proves your point. And yes, Shaper is amazing. I immediately bought the wavetable version. Wavetable distortion is such a wild concept I never even considered and I am having lots of fun with it. And when paired with Snapheap/Multipass/Phase plant it is incredible. One more reason to save up for phase plant ;) And thank you for the nice reply. I really appreciate it!
@takemymonkeyoff
4 ай бұрын
Oh, for God's sake, it all depends on your needs and preferences. If your goal is to create music, i.e. move forward and not stuck tweaking, you absolutely have to be limited! That's why I would not recomment Pigments / Phase Plant. Actally, even Serum may be a bit too much, but I think is the best balanced synth among those you've mentioned. Also, Serum's filters are great (U-He's level of greatness). PS: why no one ever bothers about memory foot print? It is about time it take to load/open a plugin which you do many times, and it is just a sign of a well-thought piece of software (shout out to U-He once again). Absolutely hate when you load a synth which takes 1gb+ of RAM. How the hell a very versatile Zebra2 takes only 30 Mb in memory while Vital is taking 1gb?? Btw Serum takes "only" 300 Mb and is the winner among the mentioned in the video synths.
@BlackMarvin
4 ай бұрын
Hey! I have to disagree with Serum's filters. They are great but I would say the U-He ones have a an extra something, hard to describe. In your definition, is memory footprint the same as the CPU effort it requires to run or it's specifically related to load/open? I own Colour Copy and Diva from U-He. They sound gorgeous and rich but they are amongst the heaviest. Vital is surprisingly heavy as well. In the end, you are right, it all depends on your preference. I personally use them all, but for different tasks and different vibes.
@BorisBarroso
9 ай бұрын
I would like to hear your opinion about u-he synths. I love Zebra 2 and Hive, I have not used Diva so much but I think it's a great synth. I^m waiting for Zebra 3 😝
@BlackMarvin
9 ай бұрын
I have Diva and love it. I'm planning on making a preset pack for it. Diva is one of the most organic and true ''analog feel'' synh. I got my eyes on Hive2. I'm waiting for it to eventualy goon sale not sure it's going to happen anytime soon. I really love Hive's filters they sound really good. I will eventually do a video on it. I' not really feeling drawn to Zebra at the moment but maybe I should give it some time. What you think?
@BorisBarroso
9 ай бұрын
@@BlackMarvin I purchased Zebra because of the so many sounds it gives you but after I tried I fell in love with it, it has really amazing sound.
@BlackMarvin
9 ай бұрын
I might try it in a stream soon@@BorisBarroso
@ouhyjevha
6 ай бұрын
Yes! U-he products seems really great.
@djjohnny5166
5 ай бұрын
Can you recommend a virtual analog synth besides diva? I just don’t like looking at it. Obviously it’s a great sounding soft synth but the visual aspect is important to me. And btw GREAT comparison going on here!
@BlackMarvin
5 ай бұрын
hey! I'm glad you enjoyed the comparison. There's a couple of great analog emulations that I like. Here are some recommendations : Free : Surrealistic MG-1, OB-XD. Paid : BA-1 (really like this one lately), Kniforium, bx_oberhousen.
@djjohnny5166
5 ай бұрын
@@BlackMarvin thank you so much!
@3.14ULSAR
3 ай бұрын
Repro-1, Obsession, The Legend HZ
@KordTaylor
5 ай бұрын
Ok. This is a great subject. Thank you for this video man! ❤
@NeuroPete
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for the interesting comparison. I will check out your preset packs. I recently bought Phase Plant and some of the paid effects snap-ins, and I was blown away by how powerful the Kilohearts ecosystem is. The modular synth architecture in Phase Plant is limited only by your imagination and CPU power. You can modulate everything. One person can save both synth patches and snap-in effects racks as presets that anyone else can use, even if they don't own all the snap-ins used to create a given preset. I agree that Phase Plant needs a sequencer/arpeggiator. I would also like to be able feed in audio or virtual instrument output to be modified by Phase Plant and other Snapin hosts, for real-time effects such as Vocoder. Before I bought Phase Plant, I already had Pigments, the Arturia V Collection, and Cherry Audio's GX 80 and Voltage Modular. I had purchased these on sale, with the idea that I would learn advanced sound design on them when I had the time and inclination. I retired several months ago, but have not done more than playing with each a little. None of them inspired me to put in the work to climb the learning curve. Phase Plant seems worth my effort. Again, thanks for this and your other videos. Peter.
@BlackMarvin
Жыл бұрын
Thanks! Glad you found that useful! All the Kilohearts stuff is indeed mindblowing. Depending on the genre you produce I'd suggest either go with Sludge and/or Vertigo. Also little heads up : there's going to be an anniversary sale September 15.
@NeuroPete
Жыл бұрын
@@BlackMarvin Wow! Thanks so much for the heads-up about the sale!
@ChumpyDumps
8 ай бұрын
The steppiness of Pigments filter is noticeable on a lot of their soft synths, including the Minifreak VST (obviously not heard on the hardware synth). I’ve seem to notice it mainly when I use the mouse and move the filter knob but when I assign modulation I don’t hear it. Regardless, it is weird that there is stepping with the filter in this day and age when other synths don’t do that.
@BlackMarvin
8 ай бұрын
Thanks! The track ID in the intro is a remix is an unreleased Solarpunk track.
@imaginableAudio
9 ай бұрын
This was a very informative video. I am new to all this, and it gave me all the information that I would need about these programs. I was looking at how to make sample packs. I bought Arturia pigments. It's amazing, but I couldn't find any sample pack tutorials. I will go ahead and download the free one, as you mentioned. I think I will also give serum a try as I found a sample pack tutorial. It's also lole $10 or something a month which is fine.
@BlackMarvin
9 ай бұрын
I happy to know you found that informative! Making a sample pack is not very hard, at least the ''packing'' process. The hardest part is learning the synth fully and making great presets. If you need more help with your preset /sample pack project, you can reach me on Discord : discord.com/invite/2bVpxcUbUM
@fallenleaf24
7 ай бұрын
I have to say that I love Vital for pads.. some how its just flows better in Vital.. I don't have Pigments as audio quality wise I don't see it being better than Serum or Vital.. its options are none the better or the worse. I have yet to really dive into Phaseplant after buying everything on their site. LOL Just because Vital is free is very tempting. but I reach for Serum more than I reach for Vital when looking for a none pad sound. & then there is Surge XT & the pads that thing does is other worldly!!!!!!!
@BlackMarvin
7 ай бұрын
I can see whre you're coming from when it coms to Pigments. If you like creating pads, I'd suggest you play with the creative unison algorithms inside Phase Plant. I'd suggest this video if you want to dive a bit into the mindset of pad and ambient sound design inside PP. kzitem.info/news/bejne/uJCa3JiFnZSia34
@fallenleaf24
7 ай бұрын
@@BlackMarvin I will have a look thank you. I L O V E Phase Plant I really do but I only just got back to the studio after 10+ years so I am taking it slow & building a synth is a little more than I ready for! lol. but I brought phase plant because its basically the best VST synth as you can do anything with it. so I stick to following tutorials for now as Vital & serum are way more approachable. at least for now! Thanks for all the vids mate! & the link
@ericdias4199
9 ай бұрын
Hey man amazing video, thank you! Phase Plant is on sale now for $99. Do you recommend buying it even without any premium effects of the eco system?
@BlackMarvin
9 ай бұрын
Yes because if you get third party presets (or also some presets from Kilohearts themselves) they are going to load with the premium effect in them, you just can't interact with the premium snapins directly, but the presets will run with no problems. I'm currently progressively releasing a Phase Plant masterclass on Fractal Mentorships. Hit me up on IG if you want to know more.
@ericdias4199
9 ай бұрын
@@BlackMarvin Thank you! 👍🏻
@sascha10489
Жыл бұрын
I have to say that I love the subscription model of phase plant. You get the whole collection for 10€ and you get a payback for kilohertz stuff about 100€. Effective you pay 20€ for the service. I think the overall collection is over 1300€.
@BlackMarvin
Жыл бұрын
Yeah I think it's a subscription model that kind to users. I think a good way to proceed with the Kilohearts plygins is to get the subscription then slowly wait for the specific tools to go o sale and make your move. Personally I own everything except the Carve EQ. I'll get it eventually!
@sascha10489
Жыл бұрын
@@BlackMarvin also good that you really get all the producer collections, too. You might need them for a good start, but not for the future.
@zdrovamen
9 ай бұрын
Amazing video❤
@gkillmaster
9 ай бұрын
Thanks for the great video! The one question I'm having a hard time getting clarity about is how great is Phase Plant if you don't have a subscription. Is it still powerful and great or is it limited in an undesirable way?
@BlackMarvin
9 ай бұрын
It’s still powerful in my opinion. If you buy aftermarket presets, they will load with all the snapins used to create the preset. You won’t be able to edit the snapins directly but you can use the presets and if the preset creator made some macros using snapins you don’t own, you can tweak those macros. I own everything from Kilohearts now, but if I hd to start over again I’d start with the rent to own on splice.
@gkillmaster
9 ай бұрын
@@BlackMarvin Thanks so much for this! I had a hard time finding this information on their website..
@trocchiettoski
4 ай бұрын
please keep doing reviews so cool on soft synths, for instance pigments 5 is out, what about alchemy, what about vcv,cardinal, surge xt
@BlackMarvin
4 ай бұрын
I have more videos like this coming up. Like you,ve seen I really talk by experience so I try to have a quiality 100h+ spent professinoally on eahc of these. What I mean b professionally is either designing presets for a pack or just trying to achieve a final product with this synth. It helps understanding each of these synths deeply. I'll definetly investigate your suggestions!
@trocchiettoski
4 ай бұрын
@@BlackMarvin thank you was really worthy to follow a video indeed based on experience from different angles/users and independent judgements
@mikefisher84
8 ай бұрын
Now you have to update this list to include Current :)
@CRayBeats
Жыл бұрын
Phase Plant is great!
@BlackMarvin
Жыл бұрын
Indeed! My favorite!
@CRayBeats
Жыл бұрын
@@BlackMarvin Rapid Synth is on my top list too..
@BlackMarvin
Жыл бұрын
I need to check this one out as well!@@CRayBeats
@jaysmoketrue
4 ай бұрын
See im not a Big fan of serum i use parawave rapid and Avenger 2 but out of the 4 you mentioned serum is the best
@willievaughn6474
10 ай бұрын
Awesome
@adamarmstrong9408
Жыл бұрын
I have phaseplant and vital i love them both
@mass-1128
11 ай бұрын
What about Omnisphere?
@BlackMarvin
11 ай бұрын
I need to check it out. I choose these 4 since these are mostly the ones that people hesitate with.
@mass-1128
11 ай бұрын
@@BlackMarvin Omnisphere by Spectrasonics is very well known and many people are using it. Only problem is, it's very expensive and more expensive than any of the synths listed in your video due to it's features.
@BlackMarvin
11 ай бұрын
@@mass-1128 Yeah it's well known. I should try it. Do you have any other synth in mind that comes close to it? UVI Falcon?
@mass-1128
11 ай бұрын
@@BlackMarvin Probably Falcon 2 and Phase Plant, but Phase Plant more so in my opinion.
@BloodyChunX
5 ай бұрын
Which one is the easiest on the CPU?
@BlackMarvin
5 ай бұрын
From lightest to heaviest : Serum, Phase Plant, Vital, Pigments. BUT it can vary depending on the pacthes loaded. Those are the results when netural/idling but it also feels that way when they are opened. I would say Phase Plant will also vary on what's inside the presets, you can build a very very heavy patch on Phase Plant. But in general it's fairly light.
@BloodyChunX
5 ай бұрын
@@BlackMarvin Thanks for the fast reply. I have been trying to get to grips with Serum. Some presets are fine, but others eat my CPU. I suppose it is down to experimentation to see what I can get away with.
@BlackMarvin
5 ай бұрын
@@BloodyChunX They all have some amount of impact on the CPU to be honest. If you're having trouble with your current setup you might wanna consider rendering audio as soon as you can to lighten up the CPU load.
@Xstatic1975
3 ай бұрын
Strange, I use Pigments all the time for granular I think it sounds great. No clicks here
@BlackMarvin
3 ай бұрын
It's not with every configurations, but some granular configurations, with some sources can result in clicks. I recall experiencing some clicks while creating sequences and arpeggiators.
@bokidjordjevic
7 ай бұрын
Current :D
@BlackMarvin
7 ай бұрын
I'm soon going to make an update concerning Current. But like you can see, I really wait before having at least 100 presets created in each synth in order to really grasp the details. For sure, after spending a couple of hours inside Current I really like it. The FX section is insane.
@GardensoftheAncientsHerbal
9 ай бұрын
Vital is good for beginners and broke…. But serum is if you want to be very specific.
@jeremybowden3134
8 ай бұрын
Vital has way more versatility and specific in my opinion.
@jussivalter
7 ай бұрын
I dont know if there are any reason to get Serum these days. Vital is more capable overal and more recent + has updates.
@JSprayaEntertainment
6 ай бұрын
42:02. from a pro perspective. but.. you only spoke about the FREE version ... did you really try. the PRO version of Vital that cost $80 ? ... so this entire video is unclear... did you. use the free Vital ? or ? the PRO version ?
@BlackMarvin
6 ай бұрын
I own and use the pro version. But you should know that there is absolutely no difference in the synth between free and pro. What you get with the pro is more wavetables and more presets but the synth itself is 100% the same tool. I ended getting pro 2 years ago just so I could get the new update faster. Hope that helps clarifying things for you ;)
@connorharris1900
23 күн бұрын
You did no comparison all you did was move your teeth.
@photasticimages363
6 ай бұрын
'Xfer' is pronounced 'Transfer'. It's amazing how many "pros" are unaware of this. I laugh every time I hear 'EX-fer'. 🤣
@BlackMarvin
6 ай бұрын
It's the first time I've heard it that way. I could swear I've heard Steve pronounce it Ex-fer but...maybe I'm wrong.
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