do you still use this synth? - MinimalAudio Current

[@nominou6]

As EmbersAndAsh mentioned, I also prefer to delve into the gear I already have. And to have a common ground for creativity and learning, or learning put into practice. None of the synths I have are simple :) All U-he, all Tone2, many Rob Papen, Bitwig synths and Grid (many thanks for your very well-done videos !), each of these synths is almost a world by itself. Exploring them deeply and integrating the knowledge in creativity.

[@SUBCHVRGE]

this thing has become my go to. absolutely insane warp modes, perfect for my specific type of sound design.

[@partlysimpson5154]

How much they pay for u?

[@louiekabu4960]

Please make more Current videos! You explain things so well and I do use that VST, so it would be a joy to listen, watch, and learn!

[@PolarityMusic]

good to know :) noted!

[@jeffreyhanc1711]

Ditto!

[@DeadzoneMusic]

I bought it for $120 as part of the intro pricing deal and I use it every time I do sound design, just as much or more than Serum. It seriously has a great feature set

[@madmanj.official]

It became my favorite synth since i have it. The workflow is so easy and the FX are great, it also has some neat features I did not see in any other synth.

[@partlysimpson5154]

Really?

[@madmanj.official]

Yes but it is CURRENTly, could be next month a different synth is my favorite, but it is very very good! @@partlysimpson5154

[@itinerantghost]

Nice one. Have been enjoying Current recently. Things are laid out nicely, and it sounds phenomenal!

[@jfklmk13447]

I literally started using it because of you, glad you're making some more beautiful patches here!

[@jasonbotha4139]

Current is a fantastic synth and just really fun and intuitive. I have a lot of synth plugins but for some reason just gravitate towards Current more than any of the others.

[@ueberlicht_]

Best Synth ever! I only use it for all. Puts competition to dust imo.

[@artificiallunacy520]

Would love to see you play around with phase plant! It's a semi modular synth with focus on ux and productivity. On the scale of modularity it places itself somewhere between the grid and a normal vst synth like current/vital/serum/pigments. I keep using it because of it's nice trade off between modularity and ux, u just get stuff done fast. Kilohearts users probably likes your channel as well

[@andreas-franke]

Nice, thank you! I just got it 2 days ago, but had not much time to go into it until now.

[@joefiorini]

I was already a user of Rift on my Linux Bitwig setup. Once Current came out it was a no brainer. I love playing with it for sound design, but its only started working well on Linux with the latest update (1.1.3). Great synth!

[@PolarityMusic]

I need to download the update. Solid synth, good to know it's Linux compatible.

[@UweGranzowfilms]

Happy New Year and happy sounding, Robert! 🥂🎶🎶

[@PolarityMusic]

hey uwe, schön dich ma wieder zu lesen 🔥 happy new year

[@MaxFarSeer]

Nice pad, I like it. You asked if I would like to see videos about bass in current?) Yes, I would like to see them)

[@PolarityMusic]

noted 💪

[@Pintosonic]

I don't know if it's because I have PhasePlant that I think would be perfectly capable of doing similar sounds but like a lot of people, I prefer putting more efforts into using the synths I already have. There are so many good virtual synths nowadays that we just can't have them all. Even if money was no object, there's a point where having too many choices can really hinder our progress.

[@face.r]

is this like vital but not free

[@ulfb5467]

Nothing convinces me that Minimal Synth is worth €199, I think it's overpriced. This Christmas, all U-He's as Diva, and Hive 2 were sold for half price (it will be the same procedure next Christmas), Pigments €99, Massive X €99 and Vital for free. I also think many users feel that the market for VST synths is saturated.

[@YourMom-zt5zj]

It really is saturated. I should know: I have most of them!

[@ulfb5467]

@@YourMom-zt5zj It is an interesting topic depending on what you are looking for. I think slicky plucky sounds and beautiful pads are not a selling point nowadays, there are already tons of them. I'm waiting for the next generation of more analogishbrutal-sounding synths, which take it to the next level and allow you to stay in the box.

[@madmanj.official]

I took the annual RTO, that costs 120 dollar, for that you will receive a voucher of 180 dollar, so then you can have the perpetual license for 140 dollar total, plus a year all packs and fx plugins you can use.

[@terrordisco2944]

It’s called Current. The company is minimal audio. Their main sell is the subscription, so its not 200$, but 5-10$ (but recurring). It’s really preset focused, the presets are way more distinctive, arpeggiated and modulated, they do a lot of heavy lifting for you. So its less a competitor for paid synths, more of a competitor for splice or Output Arcade. Or even: Output Arcade but for EDM.

[@ulfb5467]

@@terrordisco2944 No matter how you calculate €10 month after month ends up being €200. I am very familiar with which VST synths are on the market, and nothing convinces regarding the price. Then many people may like Minimal's products anyway, I have nothing against the company. As I wrote the market is saturated but I still bought Moog's new Mariana for $50, which I think is a reasonable price in 2024.

[@stefancruz1074]

I still use it. In fact, they just released a new version that adds a mod matrix and a bunch of new patches

[@notsure1135]

I got Phaseplant and Vital. I have Serum and haven’t even bothered putting it on the new beast. I haven’t even dived into pigments yet.

[@PolarityMusic]

vital and phaseplant is more than you need

[@notsure1135]

@@PolarityMusic I have DS Thorn as part of the Plugin Alliance bundle and it’s an interesting synth. I need more samples at this point, everything else I have pretty much.

[@projetxion]

Thank you for this great video. How can I donwload your patch ? Your link seems broken. Do I have to copy/paste the content of the XML file ?

[@PolarityMusic]

Click the link and save the xml page. File > save page

[@robmlisanti]

My new fave synth very user friendly

[@jazzanaut7850]

Current is absolutely stunning! Don’t ever listen to someone’s opinion when it comes to your creativity! Some heavy weight capabilities with Current . Insane and infinite

[@nominou6]

He he ... Insane : the price Infinite : the subscription (was ?)

[@defendrr_ru]

Damn that pad almost sounds vocal, thats crazy

[@hrrld]

nice sound - that vst seems to have a pretty user interface... might be fun to make a similar pad in bitwig with the grid and native effects + supermassive for fun.

[@BorisBarroso]

I have used and did not purchased. I think it's great but I have purchased Avenger 2 :). Anyway I'm lately more interested in using Bitwig than adding new synths. I think Bitwig is close to be the only synth you need.

[@adamarmstrong9408]

How are you finding Avenger 2?

[@BorisBarroso]

@@adamarmstrong9408 It's a really a beast, it feels a lot like Kontakt in many ways. You can set drums and multiple arpegiators. Very complete and powerful FX you can have a lot of oscillators up to 6 and drums. You can have multiple FX buses as well as send buses and arrange the routing to your desire. The sound is superb.

[@cryptout]

I’ve forced myself to only use Vital and Phase Plant in order to really learn them.

[@nominou6]

I put a thumbs up, for any synth for that matter.

[@GodelsPrison]

Tbh I don’t use many synth VSTs. There’s very little that cant be accomplished with the Grid.

[@PolarityMusic]

agreed, the grid is powerful!

[@nominou6]

@@PolarityMusic For me the status of having learned something is made up of twp tasks : 1) Acquiring the data (your videos are perfect examples of how to) 2) Integration into common creativity tasks. Unless step 2) is performed and assessed, there's no learning that happened. I'm comfortable with some synths, and with the Grid it barely starts. By that I mean to put the Grid to creative purpose in real-time when creativity is the main task, not searching for things, not learning, but instead 100% creation. Your videos are an invaluable source of learning but one also has to do the work of following along, experimenting, getting the learning into practical steps, understanding at a intuitive level. I'd say you are doing your part, and it's up to the people to do their own.

[@theRumbleChannel]

Purchased it immediately (because GAS), never used it 😬🙈. Suppose I'm just too much into the Grid.

[@PolarityMusic]

:D true, the grid really eats up a lot of time, at the expense of other synths

[@BorisBarroso]

I also think that we are near to not need any other synth to generate any sound in Bitwig.

[@nominou6]

Maybe one day you'll try the recent update of a very nice and innovative ambient synth : RayBlaster 3. It has no trendy commercial value, though. Just one of those 'old' quality synths getting along.

[@nominou6]

Unless I'm missing something, if one wants a synth that combines the analog tones of Diva with the FM goodness of say, Blue3, then in Bitwig one can simply combine those two synths into one device. I haven't tried it yet but I suspect that the 5.x project modulations can allow to modulate parameters of different synths on a same track (as instrument layer or chain) so that by one hardware knob or slider several parameters of multiple synths can be modified which actually makes it a brand new synth that never existed before.

[@clementpchiit1911]

I prefer the synth interface to serum/pigment/vital I like the new rent to own system but I’m relying a lot on preset and the preset on current are way too complex sounds so I went back to pigment. It’s still missing some things like a modulations matrix. For exemple you can’t modulate the output volume

[@marcotronic]

I tried it out but it didn‘t give me anything I can’t do with Phaseplant, Serum or Pigments which I already own. Current also didn’t impress me at all. There is something about its sound I don’t like, but I can’t describe what it is. Also it‘s way too expensive.

[@chanpaniameas3628]

This is almost replaces serum for me!

[@ehdyn]

I have this one and am optimistic about its development but just like Phase Plant I’m getting occasional CPU spikes and crashes. All of these new synths are luxurious to use but until they can feel “snappy” and quick to throw around I’m mainly sticking to reaktor, uhe, and stock Bitwig devices.. these heavy overheads limit the usefulness for me and processors + OS seem to be stagnating lately.

[@Shane-zo4mg]

Hopefully they make a multipler next.

[@SongOfItself]

Nice. Very nice. I really like the UI design by Minimal Audio, clear and seemingly consistent, very classy, somewhere between Vital and Pigments. I wish Diva was designed like that, I might even start using it then :-) Does it have any "special" features that somehow distinguish it from the crowd? (It could be something relatively small. In Vital, one such feature to me is the ability to put stereo mod on anything, I miss it everywhere else). But at $200, Current is way to expensive, esp. if you already have the likes of Pigments or Phase Plant. Those two are offered at half that price several times a year, and I don't suppose Current has anything special enough and awesome enough to top either of those. I could see it being the go-to synth for a lot of things, because I'd probably enjoy simply using it. First, they have to run a sale though :-)

[@YourMom-zt5zj]

If you can't deal with Diva's (excellent) UI, I don't know if much can be done for you. Picky, picky.

[@SongOfItself]

@@YourMom-zt5zj Diva may be the most beautiful plugin ever made, but that by itself doesn’t make it usable. In the world of software, it was already known over 20 years ago that it’s generally a bad idea to make software resemble the physical devices it models, studies were conducted and books were written. Some developers (like Minimal, or Kilohearts) appear to be aware of that; others (hello, Cherry Audio) clearly don't care. For one thing, I like when oscillators, filters, LFOs and modulations are visualized, that really helps. But Diva also has parts that are obscure, like not being able to quickly see which envelope controls the main amp (it’s not always the top one). And the absolute worst: the „Polarity” toggles for each LFO. There is no way to tell what the indicators mean: when they’re lit, does that mean unipolar or bipolar? It’s not for lack of space, the word “Bipolar” is even one letter shorter. It could have been fixed years ago, at the cost of changing the label. It’s like u-he want it to be that way: intentionally difficult.

[@nominou6]

@@YourMom-zt5zj Diva's UI is not bad at all. So many things can be done as it is. Listen to the latest soundset from U-he. Most synths are using a hardware UI metaphor today. That does not make them difficult to use. Because with knowledge possessed, when something is not seen in a graphical way, the user will picture it quite correctly in the mind. No problem with that. Not everything can be explicitly represented graphically. And then there are alternative skins available, like Aiko.

[@YourMom-zt5zj]

@@nominou6 - I agree with you, I think you meant to respond to the person above me. You know what really gets my goat? I upgraded to Fabfilter's Twin 3 recently, and they're STILL not using semitones for pitch bend! Still! I don't want to have to remember that 1.60 or .160 or whatever corresponds to 2 semitones. It's stupid. I love their UIs generally, but it's a radically different style. I really don't mind either style, is my point. I can adapt to both, and it's kind of fun to figure out what the original hardware manufacturers were thinking and visualize the signal path in your head. It's not always easy, but it can lead to some happy accidents, which can be more inspiration. There are UIs I really do not much like, though. MeldaProduction is getting somewhat better, but there are still issues. The plugins themselves tend to sound fantastic, though, so I buy them anyway. Really, at the end of the day I will suffer for SOUND QUALITY. That's the main thing we should ultimately be after if we want to release a commercial product: what is the final, rendered outcome of the instrument and does it sound competitive? If it doesn't, all the pretty UIs in the world are worthless and you must admit you're just a hobbyist. You're not looking to compete with the best of the best, because a dance club full of beautiful people, for example, do not at all know about or care about how usable your UIs were: they care that what they're hearing sounds cool enough to make them look cool by being in its presence with their friends. Does it?

[@nominou6]

@@YourMom-zt5zj "I think you meant to respond to the person above me." Indeed. Sorry but then, it sparked more replies. I agree with the adaptation to the UI of the synth/tool. It's actually part of the discovery, exploration, creation process. And the fun in there. If uniformity is wished then Bitwig 5.x can group, using modulators and remote controls, many different layered synths thus creating a new and unique synth on the spot, for the need of a current creation. With Melda I find myself often going back to the edit mode although for MSF I like several of the proposed UIs. I'm from a software design background, so naturally I found the basic edit Melda more just nice. It reminded me of emacs :) Yes, sound quality is the main interest. When having such a focus, and with a liking to discover things - not to forget the fun in doing so - then I don't recall any UI that was so bad that it couldn't be used or caused creative blocks. Although I must say the the new Bitwig browser .... sometimes, well, that's another topic :) It;s actually that fun, that 'play' part of 'music playing' that makes things interesting and is the one most susceptible to vanished when fiddling too much about a creation. The challenge being keeping a good balance between fun and technicality all the way to the results.

[@Cornholio0494]

I tried and to me its just another synth i'll stay stuck to the grid and my good old Serum. Otherwise their FX are very good and i think it's the main purpose of this synth, the fx included. Also i have to go deep learn another synth it would be Falcon or Phaseplant but for the moment ...

[@tekm]

It's cool but I prefer the Grid + native devices.

[@ryanabrams77]

This synth feels like the modern version of Serum, but everyone is negative about it because of the business model they tried to launch it with. It’s a shame, it’s a great synth. It’s very similar to Pigments in a sense but I don’t usually like the results I get with Pigments as much as with Current. Also the presets on Current are incredible, almost too good to use!

[@partlysimpson5154]

Cpu high

[@berniehcc]

Not yet, have to many other Synths 🤗

[@PolarityMusic]

we all do 🤣

[@kevinkearney3836]

No mod matrix, just like Rift = no buy for me. Makes it impractical to deconstruct presets I like

[@woopeedyscoop1858]

havent tried this exact one synth, but i have plenty others and i never use them because there is no benefit over what bitwig already provides

[@embersandash]

Nope - no new gear this year for me. Want to master BWS instead of buying the new shiny new.

[@PolarityMusic]

stay strong 💪

[@VodkaStudios777]

It is fantastic, but it does use a lot of CPU on certain patches. The effects are bar none the best effects in a synth I have heard, maybe Avenger 2 is 2nd place.

[@PolarityMusic]

Yeah, I agree with you there. The effects are quite sophisticated and not just cheap add-ons. If the CPU gets too strained, maybe try turning down the oversampling in the options.

[@PGAudioworks]

Not lately.

[@SmileyFabian]

Tried it for a month, but unsubscribed

[@julianguffogg]

Now $99

[@colognialist1964]

Nice synth but to expensive.

[@PrimaudiaRecord]

I might have done but it just sounds plain cheap.

[@KozmykJ]

Reasons NOT to Current. Not so groundbreaking compared to Pigments, Phase Plant, Vital. One Time Purchase - $199 minus ALL the Extras Ridiculous subscription pricing. Absence of Loyalty Discount for owners of their other products... All reasons to wait for them to see sense or just forget it.

[@jumpstar9000]

I was quite disappointed. It's pretty difficult to come into such a crowded market with an unknown product at such a price. Quite some hubris. I know they walked back the business model, but it set people thinking about the value proposition. I know at least I can't justify it. It looks a lot like Phaseplant or Pigments, which I have both. It takes a lot to get me to buy a synth because there is so much you can do in Bitwig, and synths have a pretty high bar in 2024. I mean, it looks great, but they really hurt themselves and I feel quite upset about it. Hope it works out for them. Not for me right now.

[@joepvans5035]

Bought Rift and Morph EQ before, but I don't want to support this sketchy company anymore.

[@PolarityMusic]

sketchy because of the subscription model at launch?

[@joepvans5035]

@@PolarityMusic No they did not tell the youtubers covering this synth before launch that it would be subscription only. They apologized after becuz of the massive backlash, but have since removed that video. I dont think you can trust them anymore with your money.

[@No.0.o.0]

Insane that there is still no wavetable editor. There, no wavetable resampling. If you're going to be influenced by serum, be complete like serum. No mod matrix No direct out for echo oscillator. So many missing things. Great effects lol