1. I don't have paranoia. I just don't want to create another account for a free product. BTW, there comes a forced online verification along with it. So, no login, no use.
2. I have an "awesome and fun tool" for production already since 2014 - it's called Xfer Serum

 

Then why are you here? To tell us how upset you are? If you are so inclined you can go and address your concerns to developer:
https://forum.vital.audio
https://discord.com/invite/dpZxr98

 

If you're happy with Serum, more power to ya.

Here's the thing though when it comes to indie developers, those stats mean a hell a lot. If you get X downloads where X doesn't exactly match your expectations then you might as well can the whole project. So in a sense, the amount of people actually installing the thing means a lot. If you decide not to do that, fine, but at no point I see it as unfair.

Besides, it took me, oh, 1-2 mins to create a unique login and I then spent a couple of hours just "trying it out", so roughly 2% of my time was spent with the account. I'd say that's a pretty decent percentage.

But that's just me, you do as you like.

 

I am here to see what this hype is all about. And I see where it's going. It's going the same direction the 1 Euro synth nobody remembers the name of went: down the drain. You don't need me to send any links to any support forums. Whats the point of registering for a forum for a synth I don't want to register for? That was a rhetorical question…

Anyway, I am less upset about the dev than about 99 % of people in here creating a huge hype before this product is tried and true! But hey, it's free – must be "the best thing ever" when it's just what seems to be a mediocre rip-off of serum with features locked behind a paywall/subscription model. Wow, best thing ever…

 

Serum is a limited massive ripoff with basic feature set. If not a table editor noone cares about serum duda and deadmouse. Same hypetrain 6 years ago.

 

But most of us were already trying it out when this thread hit!

Hardly. Try this one for free, and you will probably retract those words.

If you mean NI Massive, then yeah! I suppose it was!

 

Last edited: Nov 25, 2020

I don't have online production machine, so this new synth is useless in my case... (Not like I needed it, but yeah... just wanted to try it)

 

Yup. NI Massive.

 

OK, apart from all the concerns about the registration and so, let's talk about the synth itself.

I've been all the afternoon using it, this is what I can say from a sound designer point of view:
I've been using it with my own wavetables, as I was not able to connect to the site from my DAW which is blocked in my firewall, and this is not going to change.
The synth is very easy to use, mainly intuitive.
With the mix of classic waveforms and more complex wavetables, plus the sampler, it's easy to create good sounds.
The modulations are very flexible and also easy to visualize which is important.
The variety of filters is also very useful and interesting.

For my old i7 first gen, it's a bit heavy, as heavy as Avenger (which is another good synth) , from 4.4% to 5.6% with any preset I've created.

The sounds obtained are not so harsh as with Serum, and anyway can be tamed at the end with the eq.

Honestly for a free synth, or for 20 dollars synth it's really a good deal.

I'm going to pay for it, not because of the presets which I dont need, but to encourage future development.

 

That's the idea. The developer has plans to allow for curated preset/wavetable packs to be purchased through a store on the Vital website in the future (which will be entirely optional for users, obviously).

However, should any users of the (fully functional) 'free' version ever feel like paying for some additional content or to move from the free version to one of the paid options (that also include addition presets/wavetables content and limitless Text-To-WaveTable requests and other perks, prioritised support etc.), then everything is handled seamlessly* through the same single user account.

*However, the developer is working hard to iron out some kinks, early teething issues/performance bugs that some early adopters are currently experiencing with this early/launch version. Eventually though, it should be smooth sailing experience to do so.

It should be stated, this is only 'IF' any users of the free version ever decide that they wish to pay for some additional content. There is no obligation to ever pay for anything extra with this synth.

Not only that, but there is already a thriving community of free user-created presets (numbering in the hundreds and counting...) that are being uploaded daily and shared throughout the entire Vital community (free users included) through the Vital Discord and Forum, with the full blessing and encouragement of Vital's developer.

We really can't knock that now can we? ... surely?

 

I dunno? Perhaps Matt (the dev) just really wanna slide in your DMs?

I mean, your shiny helmet does look kinda cute!

 

How about connection through the Standalone version to download content? That shouldn't effect your DAW setup, and you will be able to use any content you download through Vital Standalone (connected online), also within your VSTi etc. version within your DAW (with no internet connection required).

One caveat, as mentioned above - some people are currently experiencing issues downloading content through the installer (standalone or otherwise), which is in the process of being fixed.

But if you don't experience such issues and are okay with connecting only the standalone version of Vital to download the content, then you could give that a try.

 

freeware in most cases is never free : you pay with email address or telemetry
--
ccleaner piriform eg is calling home every launch
--
i agrree with so what just make music but i dont aggree with ignoring and dont talk bout such stuff

 

Erm, you don't mean the.... 'G E N E S I S P R O ™ ?' (batteries not included)
There, I said it. No, you're probably right, this 'Vital' situation is almost, in all probability, 'EXACTLY' like that!

Welllll excuuuuse moi! ... The thing is, you see, a fair few 'people in here' actually have 'tried' the product, myself included, for quite a while now (with the early access version), and at least some of us have also agreed that, at least some of that 'hype' is in fact 'true' and even possibly justified.

But I sincerely doubt any of us ever intended to upset you in doing so. So, please accept our honest apolywoogies , with love.

^ Regarding the 'hype' you mentioned ... Well, as for those in the thread who hadn't yet managed to sample the product, since when was it a crime to freely discuss or enthuse about a thing in anticipation of it's release?

... "Hello, Hollywood? Yes, this is the fun police calling, I'm afraid you will have to cancel all scheduled movie trailers ASAP. I'm sorry, but we just can't risk building up hype or excitement for something that may, or may not deliver upon some people's expectations."

Well, you know what they say, 'appearances can be deceiving'. Especially so, when you've never actually experienced the thing in question, for yourself.

Friendly (hype-free) suggestion: Try it, ...you never know, ...you just might like it.

Meanwhile, I'll save you a slice of humble pie in reserve, just in case you do.

Either way, it's all good though!

 

First, there is no goddamn "telemetry", the plugin does no such thing. Apart from the log-in auth and preset/WT download that's it. Emphatically that's not tracking user behavior.

I didn't get the hype, I wasn't hyped, I just saw a free capable synth, and you know, that was exactly what it was. You can read my first impressions a couple of pages back.

I don't know the developer or their track record, so I'm just taking this thing as it is. If you've already got the things to make sounds like this thing then good on ya.

After this comment I'm going to just feed on what the thing does or doesn't synthwise, and let's just keep it that way, ok?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 25, 2020

I agree that excessive phoning home is not a good thing, but check it yourself, fire up Wireshark or somesuch (https://www.wireshark.org) and see for yourself that this is not "phoning home". Up to you.

 

Well. I would tend to agree that in 'most' cases, you are probably correct. But that also implies, not in 'every' case.

There's nothing wrong with being sceptical when it comes to tech and privacy, I lean towards that way of thinking myself. But, I've seen nothing to suggest that there is anything ulterior going on in 'this' case, other than a talented developer who wants to reach the widest audience possible in an already very competitive and crowded marketplace.

As for the FREE model being suspicious. I think it's genius. Look how many Serum users are migrating to Vital or at least paying attention to Vital already (never mind, once this free alternative becomes much more widely known to a wider audience.) I'm willing to bet that a large part of this is not only due to their similar capabilities, but because Vital is FREE!

Imagine if half of the Serum user-base also become FREE Vital users, and many of those decide to upgrade (to paid tiers which is still far cheaper than Serum costs) and/or purchase presets and content from the Vital store? That's a pretty good amount of customers and a great way to encourage people to jump on board your new product. Personally, I hope more developers follow this model in the future, if it can prove to be successful.

It's not like the developer, Matt Tytel, has just sprung up from nowhere with a shady background. He's the same guy who previously created another free synth, the opensource 'Helm'. Whatever you may think of that particular synth plugin, a lot of people have used it and followed the developer's progress of what he was going to bring out next. So, his track record is pretty well known already and is well regarded both within the industry and among people who have previously used his software.

It's a bit of a false equivalence to compare a guy whose previous m.o. is creating a 100% free music creation product for users, to another company whose product is designed to search through all your computer files and decide how to process them.

As for the email concern. It takes perhaps a couple of minutes or so, to create a new email account that does not directly identify you as you to whoever you share it with. Heck, you could just use one specifically made just to receive spam/junkmail etc.

The likes of the big companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple likely mine more data from just launching their products than something like this synth will ever do.

I get the general scepticism and I tend to usually agree with it. I just think it's misplaced in this instance. This is no different really than any other legitimate application that has forms of authorisation. I mean, you don't even need to download/install anything other than the app itself if you don't want/need the additional content. The offline synth still works by itself, so...

If you have no problem with authorising legal copies of software from other big developers like the Waves, Native Instruments, U-He, etc. of this industry, then why discriminate against the little guys, using pretty much the same processes? Unless you don't own ANY legal software that requires online authentication at all? Which is a whole other matter.

Check Matt Tytel's track record and his previous free synth, Helm. released years ago.

 

Last edited: Nov 26, 2020

That's exactly what I thought afterwards.

 

All about no telemetry in THIS PARTICULAR SYNTH have been explained.
So I don't think we need to go on with a general debate about protections and telemetry in THIS PARTICULAR THREAD. (Feel free to create thread about protections and telemetry if you really want to spend time on that subject).

Let's get back to Vital and its advantages and disadvantages.

Now that I have used Vital quiet a bit, I think that It really worth its price even the higher one: 80€.
There is no other synth that can do what it does in this price point.
About it's CPU impact, it's obviously hard to tell from a 10 years + pc.

I will go on trying it today, and probably share some presets here.
Btw, anyone knows if the wavetables are saved in the presets?

 

Yup.