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Cube Synth vs Alchemy Synth for complex evolving soundscapes?

I'm trying to decide between these two for a solution to complex evolving soundscapes. Alchemy's new bundle iAP made me hesitate before pulling the trigger on Cube Synth. I already own Addictive, Nave and Animoog but I'm trying to add something fresh to that collection of synths that can produce huge complex sounds.

Comments

  • I don't own cube synth so can't speak to which is better but that's pretty much what alchemy's sweet spot is.

  • Alchemy gives you ever growing sound packs also.

  • Ah, but to counter that Cube Synth gives you complete control over the sound, unlike Alchemy which locks you out of the synthesis engines. That's the big difference between the two that I'm struggling with.

  • In Alchemy it's very easy to create evolving sounds because the the 1 to 8 grid and the two XY pads. There's also a wide range of sounds, from beautiful to more sinister.

    In Cube Synth the sounds are generally more sinister/weird, it doesn't have the warm/glassy/ethereal sounds you can get in Alchemy, and even though you can morph with the big square control in the centre, the sounds don't change as much as they do in Alchemy.

    You can try Alchemy for free, and decide after using it for a while if the Pro pack and extra sounds are worth it for you. And Cube Synth is pretty cheap, so it's not a high risk purchase. Which one you prefer is almost certainly a matter of taste :)

  • edited November 2013

    Just to add to this, after watching Dave ( @thesoundtestroom ) demo Zmors, I can see that some nice complex soundscapes can be created with it too. I don't think they evolve, but otherwise, it looks like a nice synth that you may want to look into. Also, the wavetable synths such as WaveGenerator, WaveMapper, Nave, and Animoog have evolving soundscape creating capabilities as well. Oh, and Crystal synth is a king at evolving soundscapes, so you may want to look into that one as well....

    But you did want a comparison between just those two.......I find that Alchemy is just easier for this, because the presets are made for you and it is more of a manipulation of the samplesets to get evolving sounds, but Cube Synth is a true synthesizer that evolves. I would imagine that if you are comfortable with synthesis, Cube Synth might be more flexible, but if you aren't, then Alchemy might be more your thing. I own both. :-)

  • edited November 2013

    I have a little sick, noisy and twisted experimental thing done with 100% Cube on my soundcloud.

  • An additional added comment: Crystal really is cool! It doesn't get the love it deserves, because of the playing interface--it's strange. However, if you do as I do, and just think of the playing interface as a way to test the sounds you create, and then use your DAW's playing interface and control the synth through Virtual Midi, it works really well! :-) There are INCREDIBLE Complex soundscape creation capabilities in Crystal synth! :-)

  • @Kloon That sounds really cool! I love it!

  • @Audiojunkie: Thank you sir! :)

  • +1 for NOiS. Diggin it!

  • @funjunkie27: Thank you very much!

  • I own Cube synth...and it's not that great as it seems. The control over the sound is not user friendly...and you can't build up different sounds one on the other. You always work with just one oscillator...so not very complex sound itself. On the other hand, very rich sound morphing and good effects.

  • Thanks for all the input guys, I think I'm going to go with Alchemy just for the crazy synthesis it has in the backend. But @Kloon, that track is tempting me to pick up Cube Synth as well, very nicely done!

  • edited November 2013

    It (cube) seems to have 4 additive oscillators and actually quite a bit of real-time control of the blending of those through the movable tracking points. It's pretty flexible once you get into it.

  • Another vote for Alchemy. With the 8x grid front and center, it's easy to tweak and evolve my sounds by "playing" the grid with one hand while I trigger notes with another. I used to lament that we didn't have more synthesis control in that app, but now I find the grid a lot more fun.

  • I think they're both a little bit different animals. I think Alchemy is more performance oriented in terms of being able to actively morph the sounds as you play. Cube synth allows you to create a wide variety of sounds that you can endlessly modify to create new sounds but these changes are more oriented towards creating new presets perhaps similar to Animoog in some respects. I have and enjoy using both apps.

  • To my ears, Alchemy just has better sound quality than Cube.

  • +1 for Alchemy, it does sound better

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