Xfer Serum VS Virus

[erol]

Hi,

Did anyone here tried to recreate Virus patches with the Xfer Serum VSTi?
Seems like a real competitor.
Check out this movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaxyGbT1sfY&sns=em

[MBTC]

I think soft synths caught up with hardware some time back, with the current-generation of synths achieving often better results.

It's a balancing act - with hardware you have the advantage of offloading some of the CPU (always a precious resource) burden, but you have the disadvantage of things like latency and other workflow hassles.

See the Dune 2 thread if looking at Virus-competitor software instruments. Serum is a nice plug-in and I love the visualizations but I prefer Dune 2 overall for sound, workflow and performance. Every time I want to quickly reproduce a sound, I reach for Dune 2 first.

[erol]

Originally Posted by MBTC

I think soft synths caught up with hardware some time back, with the current-generation of synths achieving often better results.

It's a balancing act - with hardware you have the advantage of offloading some of the CPU (always a precious resource) burden, but you have the disadvantage of things like latency and other workflow hassles.

See the Dune 2 thread if looking at Virus-competitor software instruments. Serum is a nice plug-in and I love the visualizations but I prefer Dune 2 overall for sound, workflow and performance. Every time I want to quickly reproduce a sound, I reach for Dune 2 first.

Thanks
I'm not a huge Dune fan to be honest..
The "record and load any wavetable" Serum feature looks awesome btw

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by erol

Thanks
I'm not a huge Dune fan to be honest..
The "record and load any wavetable" Serum feature looks awesome btw

Interesting, I would have thought it would appeal to any Virus fan, but I guess some prefer Spire or Serum. You've tried Dune2 right? I just asked because you mentioned Dune without the qualifying "2" behind it. The original Dune is good but not in the same league as Dune2.

[Thunderkyss]

I don't think of the Blofeld or the sub 37 or the pro 2 as competition for the Virus as my plan is to one day own them all. I just set out to own the TI first. I doubt I'll ever buy serum or Dune2. Not because I don't appreciate the quality of the sound, but for whatever reason they just don't appeal to me.

I own several soft synths so it's not like I'm totally against them; komplete, Olga, analog keys, omnisphere... they just don't capture my imagination very much.

Then again... I might see a special for one of these for $50 or something & I'll buy it on a whim.

[RDubble]

Someone has upped the virus wavetables which are doing the rounds on the pages, be interesting to see how close you can get by using them, may give it a pop if I get time this weekend, considering how people big up the virus fx section, I may try to recreate something pretty closely and see just how far apart that sets it, got a link to the wavetables for people to try if its cool to post mods?

[TheHobbit]

FWIW I think Serum opens up a lot of boundaries and really compliments the Virus.

Personally use both in a lot of audio ramblings.

Main instruments now are virus, u-he hive, omnisphere, serum and anything I feel like dropping in.

[mrdos]

I just ordered a Virus, so I can't say I'm an expert on that yet.

But I bought Serum early on, and have used it a lot (I have been using basically only that and Massive on tracks for quite a while now).

It is a great synth, but it has its own sound. From what I have heard of the Virus, it does not sound similar, even with the wavetables imported. It is not a particularly aggressive sounding synth (Massive is much more aggressive sounding, and that isn't saying a whole ton, but a bit).

People seem to be very interested in the wavetables thing. The ability to import wavetables is neat, but in practice you will never do it.

The best thing Serum has going for it are its filters (especially its range of filters). The basic oscs are slightly on the weak side imho.

Also, people forget, wavetables were actually invented as a poor-man's alternative to sampling, back when memory was too expensive/complicated for the storage for samples... to use to emulate sounds like horns and accordions and shit. Its my impression that the Virus is still one of the (if not the) most unique, most aggressive synths out there, and is still well worth the value over software, and I only use the soft synths I purchase.

For reference, my only other hardware synth is a Nord.

[synthfiend]

I like the sound of Serum, it is has some nice pads etc. It seems funny saying a VA like the Virus sounds warm like an analogue synth but I would have to say that it does sound warm compared with Serum.

[mrdos]

Originally Posted by synthfiend

I like the sound of Serum, it is has some nice pads etc. It seems funny saying a VA like the Virus sounds warm like an analogue synth but I would have to say that it does sound warm compared with Serum.

It's true. There's a guy on YouTube who has done some comparisons of the Viruses waveforms into a scope vs soft synths and notes how the soft synths produce "perfect" (eg boring) waveforms, and the virus produces ones that are more slightly bent like an analog synth does. It's that DSP.

The way I figure it,DSP is still quite a lot more powerful because x86 has always been inferior at calculating floating point, by its nature. Not to mention plugin makers are having to scale things down to run on lesser machines; one size fits all kinda thing. Not so in a closed hardware platform.