VST MEGATHREAD: It's just so much easier to reach for a sawtooth

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > VST MEGATHREAD: It's just so much easier to reach for a sawtooth

Flanky: Jun 2, 2011

Is there any good reason to own both Z3ta+2 and Massive? I was going to pull the trigger on the NI sale to upgrade from my ancient Komplete 3, mostly for the sake of Massive. However, as far as I can tell without a demo (Cakewalk :argh:

) Z3ta+2 appears to do what Massive can as a wavetable synthesizer, but has more oscillators, envelopes, lfos, the ability to directly see and manipulate the shape of the waveform itself, and the ability to oversample the waveforms. Massive's bend modes for controlling the oscillator shapes is pretty cool, and I'm not sure if it's directly duplicable in Z3ta+2. Aside from that, Massive seems to have a generally better UI but that's about it. Is this assessment reasonable/unreasonable?

I'll also piggyback a technical question I'm stuck on, as far as I can tell this is the thread for it? I'm running into a weird issue with the FM7 (and I assume by extension the FM8). I'm getting a really strong flange-sounding effect on the first notes of an instance of the instrument. It happens specifically when I have unison detune on. From searching the internet it sounds like I need to dephase the oscillators, i.e. make them start at different points in their cycles, but I'm not aware of a way to do this on the FM7. Is there a way to get around this or is it just a strange oversight in the synth?

# ¿ Jul 12, 2012 09:45

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# ¿ May 7, 2024 10:54

Flanky: Jun 2, 2011

h_double posted:

They're both great (and fantastic sounding) synths, though they are fairly different in sound and design.

Z3ta+2
PRO: Great for complex, lush, arp-y sequences
PRO: Awesomely huge (quality) built-in preset library
PRO: Impressive built-in fx
CON: Kind of a pain in the rear end to program. Entering stuff into the modulation matrix is pretty fiddly, and there's lots of multi-page sub-windows to keep track of. Creating new arp sequences involves importing them as a .MID file.

MASSIVE
PRO: Beautifully designed UI, VERY intuitive, easy to see what's going on with the whole patch and tweak things on the fly
PRO: Lots of routing possibilities, fx well suited to the overall synth design (tube sims, bitcrusher, etc.)
CON: Built-in preset library is just so-so

Overall they're both really solid, it all depends on your workflow and what kind of sound you're after. You can find some patch demos on youtube for Z3ta+ that give a good sampling of what it can do. I love the way it sounds but I've never found it super inspiring for sound design. Massive isn't as comprehensive a synth, but it's very satisfyingly hands-on and well-suited for on-the-fly tweaking.

Thanks so much! This was really helpful. I decided to get the upgrade after all.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2012 08:29

Flanky: Jun 2, 2011

Hey guys! I'm trying to get back into producing and am wondering, is there a better thing for controlling a hardware synth with a VST via MIDI than CTRLR?

I bought a Virus TI a while ago and the VC software makes my PC BSOD. Spent way too much money + time trying to fix it and couldn't.

I found this panel for the TI in CTRLR: [http://tinyurl.com/hgnuffp]

Despite researching and plugging away at it for hours though I can't get it to work. It half works in the standalone; MIDI goes to the TI okay, though it can't seem to receive anything from the synth. Doesn't work at all in the VST.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2016 12:33

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