EUROPA and SERUM and eXpanse with same WT

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aeox
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08 May 2018

Try with crossfade or spectral morph on and see if that changes anything

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aeox
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08 May 2018

And turn off the filter in expanse

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cognitive
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09 May 2018

aeox wrote:
08 May 2018
And turn off the filter in expanse
Yep, this one threw me when I first started using eXpanse because I assumed, like other synths' default settings, that the new patch workflow would start with nothing but a raw oscillator waveform to start sculpting. Took me a minute to realize, "Oh, the raw wave sounds muddy because of the enabled low pass filter."

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Loque
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09 May 2018

aeox wrote:
08 May 2018
Try with crossfade or spectral morph on and see if that changes anything
^That.
Reason12, Win10


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Blamsoft
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12 May 2018

You need to set the wavetable mode to Spectral Morph - All Frames in Expanse.

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Aki
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12 May 2018

Blamsoft wrote:
12 May 2018
You need to set the wavetable mode to Spectral Morph - All Frames in Expanse.
you pointed out to me, i tried again, how's this?
http://junktrax.com/europa_vs_serum.mp4
i appreciate it very much :)

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eXode
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12 May 2018

Here's a link to a .zip file (only store, not compressed) with two .wav files in 24 bit, 96 KHz.

Europa_vs_eXpanse-96 (18 MB)

I compare Europa and eXpanse with square and sawtooth waveforms (bass notes). Filter is disabled on both devices and levels have been matched. I've included wave files for eXpanse mid and high quality osc settings.

Europa plays four notes, then eXpanse four notes, square then sawtooth.

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riemac
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12 May 2018

eXode wrote:
12 May 2018
Here's a link to a .zip file (only store, not compressed) with two .wav files in 24 bit, 96 KHz.

Europa_vs_eXpanse-96 (18 MB)

I compare Europa and eXpanse with square and sawtooth waveforms (bass notes). Filter is disabled on both devices and levels have been matched. I've included wave files for eXpanse mid and high quality osc settings.

Europa plays four notes, then eXpanse four notes, square then sawtooth.
Seems to me that the saw from Expanse is a little bit brighter.

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eXode
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12 May 2018

riemac wrote:
12 May 2018
Seems to me that the saw from Expanse is a little bit brighter.
Yeah, I think both the square and saw is brighter/buzzier in eXpanse when set to HQ.

The square is a little buzzier but the saw is pretty much the same when eXpanse is set to medium quality.

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cognitive
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12 May 2018

This thread inspired me to do a quick A/B/C comparison between Europa, eXpanse and The Legend with a basic saw wave, no filters. (sorry, no recordings to share)

With the eXpanse and Europa instances, when I add just a tiny touch of distortion, they both can sound very similar to The Legend's raw oscillator sound. eXpanse in particular, by turning the Mode 1 Saturation distortion on, fattened up to sound quite similar to The Legend.

I may have to rethink my default of almost always popping open The Legend for certain types of sounds. Good grief, eXpanse is a beast!

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aeox
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12 May 2018

cognitive wrote:
12 May 2018
This thread inspired me to do a quick A/B/C comparison between Europa, eXpanse and The Legend with a basic saw wave, no filters. (sorry, no recordings to share)

With the eXpanse and Europa instances, when I add just a tiny touch of distortion, they both can sound very similar to The Legend's raw oscillator sound. eXpanse in particular, by turning the Mode 1 Saturation distortion on, fattened up to sound quite similar to The Legend.

I may have to rethink my default of almost always popping open The Legend for certain types of sounds. Good grief, eXpanse is a beast!
Yea that's because Legends "raw" oscillator has saturation applied; even when you reset device it remains on. Just look at the back for the saturation knob :D

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Data_Shrine
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12 May 2018

eXode wrote:
12 May 2018
riemac wrote:
12 May 2018
Seems to me that the saw from Expanse is a little bit brighter.
Yeah, I think both the square and saw is brighter/buzzier in eXpanse when set to HQ.

The square is a little buzzier but the saw is pretty much the same when eXpanse is set to medium quality.
It's not a scientific observation but in general I've always felt eXpanse sounds more like an hardware synth than a software, if we compare it to Europa. It may be because it sounds brighter in HQ. I dunno but I played with an Ensoniq VFX a few times and we recorded some pads with, and I own a DX7, somehow, there's something similar going on in higher ups when eXpanse is in HQ mode.

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miscend
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13 May 2018

eXode wrote:
12 May 2018
riemac wrote:
12 May 2018
Seems to me that the saw from Expanse is a little bit brighter.
Yeah, I think both the square and saw is brighter/buzzier in eXpanse when set to HQ.

The square is a little buzzier but the saw is pretty much the same when eXpanse is set to medium quality.
Are you saying Europa has less audio quality.

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riemac
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13 May 2018

miscend wrote:
13 May 2018
eXode wrote:
12 May 2018


Yeah, I think both the square and saw is brighter/buzzier in eXpanse when set to HQ.

The square is a little buzzier but the saw is pretty much the same when eXpanse is set to medium quality.
Are you saying Europa has less audio quality.
I would say that the audio quality of Europa is equal to the sound quality of Expanse with the quality setting switched to middle. Expanse with quality switched to high has a little bit better sound quality as Europa. With high it is more in the Serum ballpark.

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miscend
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14 May 2018

What is the quality setting. Is it oversampling?

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eXode
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15 May 2018

miscend wrote:
14 May 2018
What is the quality setting. Is it oversampling?
The OSC quality setting in eXpanse is more like downsampling. :P

I.e. HQ is really the full quality setting for the osc, while mid and low quality kind of downsamples to save CPU. The biggest difference is audible in lower frequencies (as heard in the comparison) HQ preserves high frequency content in the lower notes (like the buzz in the saw) better. For bass sounds (that often are mono/few voices) it's recommended to use HQ if possible.

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Loque
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15 May 2018

eXode wrote:
15 May 2018
miscend wrote:
14 May 2018
What is the quality setting. Is it oversampling?
The OSC quality setting in eXpanse is more like downsampling. :P

I.e. HQ is really the full quality setting for the osc, while mid and low quality kind of downsamples to save CPU. The biggest difference is audible in lower frequencies (as heard in the comparison) HQ preserves high frequency content in the lower notes (like the buzz in the saw) better. For bass sounds (that often are mono/few voices) it's recommended to use HQ if possible.
Good info. But tbh sometimes i like the lower settings more, the sound gets more gritty. Also Zero sometimes sounds better with lower quality.
Reason12, Win10

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