I know we don’t talk much about VSTs here but I figured this deserved it’s own thread as Fabfilter are leaders in the software business.
I’ve been messing around with the demo and truthfully it’s a fairly basic synth. 4 analog style oscillators (that can be panned). 4 multi mode filters that can be ran in serial, parallel, or one per oscillator, can also be panned. And a rather nice effects section.
I didn’t ever mess around with Twin 2 but I am liking what I’m hearing out of Twin 3. It has a familiar intuitive Fabfilter workflow so if you’ve used literally any of their other plug-ins this works the same. I think just the ease of the interface is worth check it out.
Oh, almost forgot to mention modulation sources.
In total I was able to add about 30 I believe. 6 LFOs, 6 Envelopes, and a handful of other parameters. You can even have multiple keyboard modulation sources so if you want something to be effected linearly or something else to be effect logarithmically you can do that which I thought was neat. I don’t think Pigments can do that, not sure how many other synths can.
I’m a huge Fabfilter fan but never really used Twin 2 that much. Though I have a ridiculous amount of softsynths, I definitely see myself using this quite a bit. I think it sounds great and the filter routing/modulation options are super fun.
I think having a basic but strong synth is nice. No granular or sampling. It’s just oscillators, filters, and envelopes all in a nice and clean package.
The filter section is basically just Volcano packed into a synth and the FX sound pretty close to their standalone counterparts to me (at least, Saturn, Pro-R, and Timeless).
I also don’t hear any stepping on the filters (to be expected from them) where when I use Pigments I always here some subtle stepping, at least when I use a mouse to adjust the filter cutoff, it’s not smooth like I’d expect.
Another thing I like is their approach to hiding things, if you’re not using it it’s not visible. So you don’t have all the oscillators laid out and all the envelopes laid out in a confusing way from the beginning, you build up to that. Keeps the interface clean.
So giving it a quick AB for CPU usage. I have an Intel i9 9900k processor with 32GB of RAM and I’m running it on Ableton at 256 samples and 48khz.
With no notes playing the Twin 3 is sitting at 1%, basically unaffecting the CPU and Pigments is sitting around 3 and 4%. Both of these on their init patch.
Next I’m trying one sine oscillator and no modulations and no effects and doing an 8 note chord.
Twin 3 is sitting at 4% CPU in normal quality and 7 to 8% in high quality. Pigments is going between 13 and 16%.
Next I’m doing the same test but with all the oscillators turned on for each synth. Thats 4 oscillators on Twin 3 and 3 wavetable Oscillators or 7 analog style oscillators on Pigments. Again, this is an 8 note chord with just sine waves.
I’m getting 4% in normal mode and 9 - 10% on high quality mode with Twin 3.
I’m getting 39 to 40% on Pigments with 2 wavetable engines and 1 oscillator in the utility section. On the standard Analog engine (three oscillators per engine totaling 7 oscillators) I’m getting 14 to 15% on Pigments.
Final test is really stress testing this. I’m maxing out the unison, oscillators. Twin 3 has 64 voices and 64 unison. I think that would technically mean 256 oscillators playing at once. Pigments has a max of 8 voices in unison mode and 32 polyphony.
Twin 3 is getting 8-10% in normal mode and 23-27% in high quality.
Pigments is getting about 15% with the analog engine and 20% with wavetables. Keeping in mind this is 24 oscillators vs 256 oscillators.
All in all, even though this wasn’t entirely scientific I think its safe to say that Twin 3 is quite a bit more efficient overall.
I’ve been wanting to use Pigments as my synth to learn sound design with, but I find it makes my PC stutter after a few tracks.
I’ve been on the hunt for something efficient. I was recommended Dune 3 as a really high quality synth with low CPU, but this looks like it might be a great option.
I’m sure it’s a great synth but man, that interface is a turn off to me. I’m tired of VST interfaces trying to replicate hardware in this way because often it carry’s over a lot of the limitations hardware can have. Where companies like Fabfilter design their interfaces around the idea that they are software and it can add and remove things at will.
Dune 3 looks like a deep synth, also looks like another kitchen sink synth, it’s probably a better overall alternative to Pigments where Twin 3 is more of just a VA synth.
Yeah I just preset surf those synths. They sound great but I don’t want to design sounds on an MS-20 clone where I’m dragging fake cables to fake patch points. It’s cool that they are actual synth engines and not samples and they are fully editable but make it computer friendly lol. It would be nice to toggle a cleaner view without the fake synth engines and counter tops and floors visible.
I’ve been playing the Twin and Dune 3 demos and Twin really doesn’t seem to do much that I can’t do with Polymer on Bitwig and the sound doesn’t blow me away.
Dune 3 on the other hand sounds absolutely amazing and is quite easy to use so I might give it a go.
Always worth playing the Bitwig synths side-by-side with VST alternatives. They surprise me sometimes when I haven’t looked at them for a while, although many of the presets rely heavily on tons of FX and that isn’t always a good sign for a the “vanilla” sound of the synth.
I’ve never understood the fuss about the Arturia emulations. I don’t have a trained ear or anything but despite the carefully copied interface design the basic sound just doesn’t measure up well to the competition. Sit with a few of those emulations and compare some presets with e.g. U-He Diva or Repro. It’s like night and day in terms of the basic sound quality.
I never much liked the Twin 2 sound but I think the Fabfilter interface design is excellent. I’d be tempted to demo Twin 3 to see how much the oscillators and filters have improved.
Perhaps I ought to try to avoid the mistakes of the past and learn to use what I have before buying more plugins.
The base sound of Twin 3 seemed to me to be fine, but nothing special.
The UI is nice enough, but I don’t find it revolutionary or any easier than any other modern synths. I suppose one big advantage is that the filters will be from Volcano, but given that I have Volcano I can just use that with anything other synth if I want.
None of the presets were especially jaw dropping so it’s not just my limitations as a sound designer.
I was really looking for an excuse to buy it as I’ve got everything else Fabfilter so I get a big discount, but I still think I’ll pass.
I also find the Arturia synths decent, but not amazing and CPU hungry. I’ve got V Collection and Pigments, but I don’t find anything I really love and want to use as the basis for really exploring sound design. Pigments I do like, but it makes my PC stutter very quickly.
I must say firing up Dune 3 the preset patches were just an immediate “Wow” and editing them was a breeze so I think I’ll be getting a copy.
