As much as I’m very picky when choosing plugins, everyone makes mistakes. Some of them simply didn’t pass real studio test and failed expectations. Here they are:
The Mangle – despite cool and colorful interface, as well as potential for unheard harmonic clouds, this granular synth is a chore to use. Not only is the interface split among many pages and dialing in desired amount of modulation is notoriously difficult (“drag and drop”, they said). It also tends to lose / forget loaded samples after some time, under different circumstances. The Mangle doesn’t come with suitable sample pack for granular synthesis in first place, so every time I need to search for something nice before I even get started. All in all, lots of wasted time with this one. Bye, bye.
Unfortunatelly, a list of possible alternatives for a granular instrument is short.
Vacuum Pro – The idea behind it is cool and so is the sound, but actual usability leaves something to be desired. First of all, this synth is suprisingly terrible for bassline, since
- It has free-running oscillators which phase uncontrollably.
- It adds huge DC offset which cannot easily be filtered without completely destroying the original sound.
Also, the modulation options look more like a cheap monosynth than a modern digital VST. I ran out of options quickly and it’s unlikely to design something original with Vacuum Pro. Again, a waste of time which could be better used with other synths.
I also quit using Sylenth1 – not because of any actual issues, but the fact I simply grew out of it. It’s just a simple learning synth – there are others, like Dune 2 and Serum, which can do everything Sylenth1 can and so much more. Unless I specifically need oldschool simplicity, I consider selling this one for good.
DJ Warmonger blog 