Supersaw Shootout - Serum, Sylenth1, Dune 3, Hive 2, Spire, ANA 2, Pigments 2, Synthmaster & more

[@ogasimov]

Man, you made my day. I have lost the license for Dune 3 a year ago, and was thinking for buying a new one. During the year I used spire, sylenth1, serum, massive x, massive, fm8 mostly. Your video was the last checkpoint for me today :) you convinced me, going for Dune 3 again… was thinking about it a year trying to use other synths only, but Dune is Dune :)

[@joshuaadam1775]

It's for sure the best! Welcome back to the Dune club!

[@Harzurner]

Dune is a hell of a soft synth! Amazing! And criminally underrated.

[@DataBroth]

I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but you did it with way more synths than I was going to, I think dune might be my favorite out of those

[@joshuaadam1775]

My favorite too! The filters are absolutely incredible too, especially the Xpander ones.

[@jeevanrohtak5126]

Your vsts are cracked

[@DJGlashammer]

Thx for the Video 👍 My List 1. Dune 2. Sylenth 3. Hive - Anna - Serum - Fm8 4.Spire - Surge 4.5 - Massive 5. Absynth 6. Synthmaster‘s 6.Pigment 7. Twin

[@joshuaadam1775]

Very similar to my list!

[@Kelvintjju87]

Great video, but really missed Adam Szabo's Viper in this one. Awesome synth that comes close to the Acces Virus soundwise.

[@joshuaadam1775]

Yeah I've seen Daniel Kandi using it, amazing sounding synth. Sadly, not available on OSX :(

[@meru_lpz]

I loved Surge the most!

[@MARAASIM]

Really impressed by your refining skills at each synth haha ❤️

[@riot245]

You should also put phase plant on test

[@erikvanzanen]

Ah yes. I was hoping you would pick Dune. It is awesome!

[@CostasCh]

I think Surge had the most in-phase supersaw and deferent sound. First 6 synths was pretty close. The worse was fabfilter. Pigments was suprisely out of phase. Overall I agree with you about Dune3, Hive, Sylenth1. Actually, Dune3 is my favorite synth. It sounds soooo nice!

[@freddygonzalez889]

Nice video but I wish you had put some pop-up text on what synth is currently active. It's hard to read the track if watching on a phone. I'll watch later on my laptop.

[@joshuaadam1775]

Thanks! Good suggestion, I'll make sure it's more clear on the next video

[@Jason75913]

@@joshuaadam1775 rearranging the list of synths in the description to match the order in the video will do as well ;)

[@m-musictechacademy4419]

Wow Surge is amazing.

[@Shane-zo4mg]

Great video! Thank you. Was surprised most by pigments sounding sub optimal

[@joshuaadam1775]

Thanks! Yeah, me too. Beautiful GUI though.

[@universeman657]

I love Pigments, but I definitely think it needs some extra effects to get the best sound out of it. I think a big difference also comes from how louder volumes tend to sound better to people at first, and Pigments tends to sit a bit quietly in a mix with no effects.

[@rivvelmusic]

Might just be me, but I think it sounds bad because to me it sounds very mono. Don't know if you can widen in pigments but would be fixed by that very easily. Edit: Just noticed that the corrolometer seems to agree with me

[@Eldorado1239]

Don't know why you and the meter think otherwise, but I loved the way Pigments sounded here. Probably would have picked it as winner if I didn't know anything else about the synths. And it actualy felt wider... strange. Was weirded out when the video started (slightly) bashing it, especially since I agree on pretty much everything else it says. My ears didn't magically turn Twin non-disappointing for example.

[@rivvelmusic]

@@Eldorado1239 No, me and the meter agreed. Truth be told, there's hardly a difference in sound quality between the synths. You can only hear subtle differences when they're compared like this. And even then, I'd say it's only the older native Instruments synths which sound worse in actual quality (barely) and dude in the vid had a good reason for that. End of the day, surprise, a supersaw sounds like a supersaw.

[@tranceemerson8325]

If you wanted to be scientific, then you would go by the definition of "Supersaw" that Roland defined with the JP-8000 series synthesizers. The Roland JP-8080, and JP-8000 both have 7 voices, and have no stereo spread.

[@joshuaadam1775]

OH YOU GOT ME THERE

[@deliveraz9184]

Really good Video! The first six where all top notch. With spire being my favorite. (It's also my most used goto synth and favorite overall) But One Question: How have you set up the density setting in spire ? May it be that it's set to hypersaw(neutral setting) rather than supersaw(max setting) ? As for ANA2 I think it's the best value per price synth. I bought it for 60$ which is 1/3 of the price of serum. But it's really close quality wise. Best bang for the buck

[@joshuaadam1775]

Thanks! Spire is set to the default Density (right in the middle) and Detune value set to 400.

[@deliveraz9184]

@@joshuaadam1775 Alright thanks for the answer

[@itamarbiton8888]

Thanks man excellent My favourite is sylante 1 I competed between viru ti and is sound grate! I check dune is looking me interesting

[@mattbukovski92]

Would be super interesting to see which of them sounds best in mono. I'm a Trance producer and often my sylenth or serum leads sound like total crap when played in mono, even though the saws are absolutely awesome in stereo. So is there any plugin that prevents it more? 😝 My absolute personal favorite at the moment is Dune 3, but is it better in mono? :D would be cool to see an objective/scientific test about it

[@joshuaadam1775]

Great point. Maybe I'll do another video comparing their phasing in mono.

[@functionform]

@@joshuaadam1775 That would be ideal, and you already have the setup! Just switch it all to mono.

[@donjawad7733]

If you use fl studio you can just set your project in mono mode and pull up the ”fruity stereo shaper plug-in”. There you can change phase delay and the stereo placement. I wouldnt mind these things at all

[@mattbukovski92]

@@donjawad7733 I know all that. I just proposed conducting a similar test because I would be interested in hearing the results and don't have patience to make as objective tests as author has done here :)

[@MrMikomi]

Yes this is the issue with all these synth patches that sound amazing in stereo. They just collapse in mono.

[@Shane-zo4mg]

Ana 2 sounds best I think. Others synth I would suggest are predator 2 by Rob papin and rapid by parawave

[@joshuaadam1775]

ANA 2 definitely sounded great. I'll have to check those synths out, thanks for the recommendations!

[@thewest6128]

I like the first 6 the most.

[@Martin1519]

If there’s anything I learned from this video, it’s don’t buy Twin 2! On another few notes, I kind of expected the two SynthMasters to sound a bit lower on the high end since they are mobile synths. I’m also kind of surprised pigments didn’t have as much of that stereo range when compared with other synths, I never realized that. I would have loved to see Massive X in there, and maybe a modular synth like blocks wired. There’s also a mobile synth app called “Waldorf Nave” I think sounds pretty dang good for a mobile app.

[@joshuaadam1775]

I actually used to really love Twin 2, but it has such huge limitations, like how dark it is, terrible envelopes, and the fact that it only has 32 voice polyphony, so if you have an 8 voice unison you can only play 4 notes at a time. Twin 3 fixing these and several other things would actually be compelling to me. I ended up doing another video with other stuff like Vital and Wavetable, but didn't include Massive X because I'm still on Komplete 10 and haven't seen a good reason to upgrade yet lol

[@keithlane4705]

Great vid, which one used the least CPU ? I think FM8 was my fave.

[@joshuaadam1775]

Incredibly, Dune 3 used the least CPU, even less CPU than Sylenth. The heaviest CPU hitter was Pigments, with Hive and Massive following, and then Serum.

[@keithlane4705]

Arturia always seems to hog a fair bit.

[@hOttOddYfAiLz]

@@joshuaadam1775 This is great information that I really appreciate. I use a lot of twin 2 cause of cpu usage but if dune 3 is better I will most certainly look into it. Great vid as well. Thanks again.

[@Screaming-Trees]

Wait what about Diva? It actually has the JP8000 oscillator section as one of the oscillator modules.

[@pocho3881]

It sounds too detuned doesn't cooperate with other vsts

[@sub40hz]

People will also miss the great thing about Dune. It’s 8 voices are basically 8 Dune’s in one. Frustratingly, it’s a sleeper synth that deserves more credit than some of the well known synths out there.

[@joshuaadam1775]

I agree. It's my absolute favorite.

[@dezyLmedia]

Definitely a sleeper synth. Been testing a lot of softsynths to complement my Virus C and DUNE 3 is fantastic for what the Virus C lacks compared to Virus TI2. The filters/saturation/effects does not come close to my Virus C though.

[@sub40hz]

@@dezyLmedia Dune was originally based on the virus, and it’s sound. Dune does this with the filters,,,,,, so I hear. To be honest, I look at it as it’s own entity rather than looking for a virus replacement. If I want a virus synth, I turn on my powercore. 😉 The new genetics feature is fantastic too.

[@thewest6128]

How about a niew test with synths like Vital and Phase Plant?

[@joshuaadam1775]

It's on my list for sure, just haven't had time to do it yet :)

[@thewest6128]

@@joshuaadam1775 cool

[@lukeskirenko]

I'm a Pigments user and I'm wondering what the hell is going on with the stereo image. Even though I don't really use supersaws, I need to know why it's behaving that way.

[@joshuaadam1775]

To be fair, the stereo image wasn't that egregious for Pigments. It wasn't too different from the Synthmasters or Spire. Plus, in the new Ableton 10 you can use the Utility effect to raise the volume on the sides (using the Width knob) which can get you into the same territory as something like Sylenth :)

[@lukeskirenko]

@@joshuaadam1775 Yeah, I was just experimenting with it. Once you get over 4 voices the unison seems to narrow. At two voices they're clearly completely separate with one in each speaker... at 4 they sound quite distinct, but at 8 they seem to blend in the middle. Seems a strange implementation.

[@hostnik777]

Sounds at 1:41, 4:25, 11:35, 14:42; Serum, Hive and ANA were the best, with Dune, Sylenth and Surge right behind, but Hive had the most character, body and balance; Spire had an interesting sound, but in this comparison wasn't quite there. But in a recent Juno106 comparison, ANA came up very short, so in the end, unless your life revolves around supersaws, this is just one tiny sliver of a way of comparing these synths. Let's hear some classic Moog bass plucks, moody 106 pads, wub basses, airy ambient chorus pads and all the other staples sounds, and then lets hear what they can each do that the others can't. And let's hear all of that in a mix as well as soloed.

[@joshuaadam1775]

Damn that'll take a while to compile, maybe I'll do that with fewer synths than I used here haha

[@hostnik777]

And we need to add Vital to the list now too. :D

[@falconbravo66]

I love Spire ,lol

[@Barefoot67]

Dune is the best cause I just bought it

[@joshuaadam1775]

Dune is my favorite too!

[@CoolDudeClem]

You didn't even show the most obvious free ones that can do this job. I don't think I (if you'll excuse the pun) "saw" Super 7, Superwave P8 aren't they worth a mention? Or even Tyrell N6, I'm sure that has a Supersaw patch. I just create my Supersaw sound from a saw wave with TAL Chorus LX thrown on to it, sounds great.

[@slippyg]

I think this proves it doesn't hugely matter which synth you buy

[@joshuaadam1775]

Pretty much!

[@lukeporter6258]

Is the second song “Forgive me now”?

[@rocca717]

is it me, or does Sylenth1 sound better then Spire? 😂

[@jadeone]

they’re very different! i use spire more but there are times where i’ll quickly recreate the sound in sylenth1 and prefer it.

[@rocca717]

Jaydn Turley agree mate, I own both and use spire slightly more than Sylenth, but they both very much my go to tools

[@kinzokumusic6250]

hold up, where's Rapid? it's supersaws are absolutely superb, especially with the built in layering

[@joshuaadam1775]

I didn't own Rapid when I made this but I'll be making an updated comparison video now that I do!

[@joshuaadam1775]

Made a new version of this with Rapid included, just check my channel :)

[@PedroAnastazi]

interesting... theres afew things Id point out but i dont wna sound like a dick... good effort and good to see an Aussie giving youtube a go.. unless your kiwi and i missed the accent twang coz i been hanging out with too many kiwis lately... Good vid, but keep an eye on relevance... Your method isnt what Id personally do if i was lookin to compare supersaws, but that at least leaves room for expansion of the subject... OK down to business... *wipes cobwebs out of his memory, as tears well up in his eyes as he trolls the catacombs of a regretfully sold yet perfectly boxed JP8000 of yesteryear, while physically powering up Gaia SH01 and MC707 to suss out their supersaws instead ... TBH, I dno what the fascination with supersaw is when one can actually create a limitless supersaw of their own...About 15yrs ago I sampled a SSaw, and tossed it on 15 tracks on my RS7000 (1 ch left open to internally resample), so it was a 2x supersaw patch across x 15 tracks... (14 saws x 15 tracks LOL... k k im being facetious) In any case, thats alot of saws.... 210 in fact... I sampled THAT into ONE... then tossed THAT NEW SAMPLE on every second track... Then rinse tweaks and mess with detuning, and mods and effect sends and envelopes across each track and repeat the resample process till i get one patch... ....and then sit back in wonder as you almost shit your pants ... Point is, numbers of saws arent relevant.. what u use isnt relevant unless youre performing live, and how you compare comes down to what and why youre comparing... If youve ever worked with a supersaw OUTSIDE of these trance type leads, you'll notice the REAL difference between supersaws and hypersaws and my stupid megasawrus... You'll find an insane process in which you can tweak some insane filters and lfo mods on multistacked pads...believe me the supersaw trance leads arent the only sounds it can pull off... Anyways, i had written a huge spiel about the JPs cross mod and osc manipulaton and whatnot, going down to the actual DA converters and 15-20yr lifespan capacitors, but im thinking i might do a video on it considering so many ppl are curious... The oscillator to REALLY take note of on the JP is the feedback oscillator... not saying supersaw sucks, far from it... but im yet to find a synth that can mimic it... Superwave P8 comes close, but you didnt include that here which was a surprise considering its one of the oldest and most worked on (and most accurate) emulators on the market... Anyways... .. Not many people have actually HEARD a real JP, let alone play with one and make sweet sweet love to it and then get into its guts like a porn star on Levitra... The closest you'll get to a real one in software is Superwave P8 and its variants... NONE of the ones you demo'd will give you the modulations you need the way the JP processes them... and the bass and treble, as well as the chorus, in addition to the osc mix tweaks (particularly xmod) all play together to give u that sweet sweet climax of her multiple orga...err.. saws....

[@joshuaadam1775]

I'm not Australian, I'm American haha

[@PedroAnastazi]

@@joshuaadam1775 LOL where the hell did i get the idea you were from don here?? FML im losing the plot.. mooooving right along.... go check out Superwave if youre into the supersaw :) ... then possibly grab a hold of a Jp80x0 , giaia or newer MC unit which has a supersaw wavefurm on it... . it might give you a better insight into the manner in which the saws are detuned through the xmod of a silent osc 2 or the addition of a sawtooth seond osc WITH the supersaw controlling the lfo of osc1 (referencing the original JP detuning) and will definately update your results...lots of fun either way

[@JohnSmith-it9lc]

Serum is the clear winner

[@barsnur]

Where is Serum?

[@joshuaadam1775]

Serum is the first one :)

[@StardragonEX2]

facepalm XD