Is anyone able to offer a comparison between this editor and the one offered by SoundTower? Is there a demo version for this one?
I was fortunate enough, that a working version was sent to me for review purposes (I had reviewed the SoundTower editor in another thread). Here is my comparison to that review.
Synthet
- no user manual. Much like the SoundTower product, the user needs to figure stuff out for themselves. I had issues connecting... but eventually got stuff straightened out and working.
- it is more of a 'general' editor. OK if the OB-6 was not such a 'knobby' product --- but it is. So it seems very basic. Compared to the features of SoundTower... it was very basic.
- No 'program' level preferences, aside from connectivity that I could find. This meant, being stuck with confusing mouse movements on controls, values that jumped from one value to the next, with no granularity. Again- to compare it with SoundTower - ST has settings which define how your mouse interacts with the controls.
- No bank manager, or a confusing one at best. There is a 'Program Manager' that allows importing and exporting banks, but not shuffling patches around, like a bank manager should do.
- No 'Sound Generators', which morph patches to similar timbres. This is fairly unique to the SoundTower product, and I know the Sythet folks are looking into sound design features - but they dont exist yet.
In the plus column - he was extremely polite and helpful, even as I pointed out shortcomings.
SoundTower:
Communication: Other than an initial inquiry - I have never heard from SoundTower folks. - ever - . Not for lack of trying. I plopped my money down, and have sent a handful of inquiries, but never heard back. This is a problem. Little things, like getting a list of what changed in the latest version? Nope... Tumbleweeds and crickets...
Unfinished UI: The SoundTower has niggling little bits, like the wrong values in their 'Effects' dropdown lists. So - while it shows "Flanger 1" in the ST GUI... you're actually editing values for Phase Shifter 1. The values are actually stored correctly, and get called up right later on - but they display incorrectly. Hard to trust settings that are showing the wrong tags. This is off on both sets of effect banks
On the plus side - the SoundTower editor works fine, and the library management features work well. It also has Sound Generators - which is just a wicked great way to make patches up. Want sound effects? Dial up sound effects you like.. and start morphing / jumbling them - and see if something cool comes up. Purists, may scoff at the idea of software generating timbres... but honestly, they take pads, leads, effects, ... in directions I wouldnt have gone..
So - neither is perfect. I almost, would rate Synthet better, just because he is trying, and responsive. But if I'm being honest, the SoundTower stuff (warts and all) is a keeper.
Joe
24 Replies
20546 Views