Antidote vs Reason stock/ RE Synths

[ambeant]

What's your opinion about the difference in sound intricacies between Antidote and Reason devices? Is there a difference besides patch design?

[riemac]

In my opinion you can compare the functions (oscillators and filters) of Antidote best with Thor in Reason.

- The overall sound quality of Antidote is much better than Thor or the other Reason synths

- Antidotes possibility to stack up to 12 voices per oscillator and detune and stereo spread them is a great feature. You can compare this with the MultiOsc in Thor, which sadly is only mono and doesn't sound half as good as Antidotes supersaws.

- The filters in Antidote are very good. My favorite is the Sallen Key filter. Thors Diode Ladder filter is also nice but not as good as the Antidote filters.

- The FX's in Antidote are great. I love the reverb and use it as my main reverb.

Overall Antidote is a must have. Without Antidote I wouldn't produce in Reason exclusively.
It comes with the price of a little more CPU usage.

[ambeant]

In my opinion you can compare the functions (oscillators and filters) of Antidote best with Thor in Reason.

- The overall sound quality of Antidote is much better than Thor or the other Reason synths

- Antidotes possibility to stack up to 12 voices per oscillator and detune and stereo spread them is a great feature. You can compare this with the MultiOsc in Thor, which sadly is only mono and doesn't sound half as good as Antidotes supersaws.

- The filters in Antidote are very good. My favorite is the Sallen Key filter. Thors Diode Ladder filter is also nice but not as good as the Antidote filters.

- The FX's in Antidote are great. I love the reverb and use it as my main reverb.

Overall Antidote is a must have. Without Antidote I wouldn't produce in Reason exclusively.
It comes with the price of a little more CPU usage.

Those are good points, I must add that it probably sounds better because of the emphasis and intent on it's sound design

[selig]

I love both Thor and Antidote for different Reasons. As a bread and butter synth, AND as an advanced synth construction set Thor smokes Antidote. But there are still things I reach for Antidote for, such as stereo stacked oscillators, a quick sub-oscillator, it's filter options (still love Thor's filters, just also love Antidotes), Antidotes quicker/snappier envelopes (prefer Thor's for longer envelopes), etc.

I don't see Thor or Antidote as being that different, or one being that much better than the other - I see the differences as must-have options for my work, and wouldn't want to be without either synth in my rack.

[Spryx]

Antidote is the only synth with the sonic breadth in Reason i'd feel comfortable replacing my Virus TI with. This is mostly due to the fact it sounds similar in some circumstances. Probably due to the combination of osc stacking and spread...it can do things that other synths in Reason can't.

[CookieClimber]

Hi there. I'm new to the forum! A reason user for over ten years.

I agree that antidote is almost a must have. I bought it last month, and god. The sound quality coming out from that synth. It refreshed my reason experience a lot. It is really easy to get really nice sounds because of the stereo spread. However, it is possible to reach similar sound quality with the other synths easily by splitting and detuning, but it's still a hassle. I really think it's time for PH to implement a badass stereo synth in the next version of reason. Thor is getting old, and to be able to compete with the other DAW's I think it's important to include a killer synth in the intro box for newcomers who don't necessarily want to buy rack extensions, but still don't understand exactly why their mixes don't have the sound quality of some VST's you can use with other software.

[Vince-Noir-99]

Have patience, Thor mk2 will have a proper detuned stereo superoscillator, NN-osc, and updated filters!
They say an update is around the corner...

[tibah]

Never been much into Thor, beside the occasional tweak of a patch, so my comparison is rather based on Malström and Subtractor, because these are the 2 stock synths I know much better. Malström is my favorite synth of all-time, no matter which VST I tried, no matter which Reaktor ensemble I played with. It remains my personal holy grail for my own sound-design.

What I like about Antidote is that it fits the idea of Reason, or my personal idea of how a synth should be, much more and fits nicely along with the things I like about e.g. Malström. Less clutter. Straight. Easy. As mentioned in this thread already, you _really_ have to try hard to make it sound bad and it's pretty much effortless, while Thor still brings me to that *hold*, which is somewhat needed or wanted but often kills my flow completely. The effects in this case might be a bit of a *cheat*, but they literally become a part of the sound, compared to using synth A with inserts which sometimes doesn't feel that designated.

[CookieClimber]

What I like about Antidote is that it fits the idea of Reason, or my personal idea of how a synth should be, much more and fits nicely along with the things I like about e.g. Malström. Less clutter. Straight. Easy. As mentioned in this thread already, you _really_ have to try hard to make it sound bad and it's pretty much effortless, while Thor still brings me to that *hold*, which is somewhat needed or wanted but often kills my flow completely.

I have to agree with you there. The interface in Antidote is way better than all other reason synths i've tried. I also avoid Thor, simply because it gives me this feeling of getting stuck.

It's like when I'm cooking. I want all the ingredients and tools on the table right in front of me, nicely stacked. Not spread out all over the room. It's the same feeling

[CookieClimber]

Have patience, Thor mk2 will have a proper detuned stereo superoscillator, NN-osc, and updated filters!
They say an update is around the corner...

Where have you heard this?

[mcatalao]

I don't have it yet, but seeing so much praise i think i'm going to get it in the Synthetic rig upgrade.

Now my question is... Can you do the same exercise for someone who already has Rob Papen Predator?

[riemac]

Have patience, Thor mk2 will have a proper detuned stereo superoscillator, NN-osc, and updated filters!
They say an update is around the corner...

Where have you heard this?

Is this a guess or do you know some things we doen't know?
There is a thread about Thor MK2 with this suggestions.

[WongoTheSane]

I don't have it yet, but seeing so much praise i think i'm going to get it in the Synthetic rig upgrade.

Now my question is... Can you do the same exercise for someone who already has Rob Papen Predator?

Predator, like all Papen's synth, has very good sounds, an incredibly rich palette of effects, lots and lots and lots of functions, but... The GUI sucks. It's ugly. I have four of them (Predator, Quad, PunchBD and SubBoomBass), and everytime I load up patches, I think "wow, I should really get into this synth, the sounds are brillant, hey, maybe I could add some modulation? Where is the modulation? What's this brown button on a brown background for? Hey, I found the filters! Where... How do I apply them? Oh, it must be that brown thing... No wait, that other brown thing..." and in the end it's just too much brown with microscopic brown buttons everywhere and I'll fire up another Antidote instance instead. Same as Revival. It's a shame because the sounds are really, really good, probably just as good as Antidote's if not better, and with a wider array of sounds and effects. And the ideas are really creative. Not trying to disparage them in any way, but I just wish they were visually inspired by Mondrian instead of Munch.

Antidote hides all this complexity and replaces it with large friendly knobs that you can't help but fiddle with. I find it quicker and easier to go from scratch to finished patch.

This is all completely subjective of course, and pretty much a matter of personal taste...

[electrofux]

With certain Soundsets Thor can sound like Antidote. When i first heard eg the vengeance sounds in the Factory Bank i could have sworn i hear Antidote. Also combined with stock effects is another different story. I mean Antidote has tons of inbuild effects that Thor doesnt have and need to be added.
But as a matter of fact Antidote just sounds pretty awesome on most patches. So imho it is the Goto Re as far as Synths go. It does come with a higher CPU tax though. But it is the one Re i dont want to miss.

[Vince-Noir-99]

Have patience, Thor mk2 will have a proper detuned stereo superoscillator, NN-osc, and updated filters!
They say an update is around the corner...

Where have you heard this?

Is this a guess or do you know some things we doen't know?
There is a thread about Thor MK2 with this suggestions.

Wishful speculation

[TritoneAddiction]

Since we're on the topic of Antidote, I thought I'd share a song I made some time ago with only Antidote for synth sounds.

The bass sounds have been victims of Saturation Knob and Pulverizer (with Comb filter on the more aggressive bass riff sound). Otherwise the other sounds are pretty clean without too much effects from other devices.

[chk071]

What's your opinion about the difference in sound intricacies between Antidote and Reason devices? Is there a difference besides patch design?

Tbh, i was a bit disapointed when i tried Antidote. I really liked the sound demos on Synapse's, and Propellerhead's website, but when i fiddled with it, Antidote didn't seem to be THAT much of an upgrade to Thor. Mind that i'm pretty spoiled though with stuff like Largo, Spire, Electra2, Z3TA 2 and what not from the VST world, which are all very classy synths, and i'm also not particularly a fan of the Synapse sound, it always has something "muffled", and the envelopes and filters are a bit weak IMO. Also in general, the character of the filters, and the slope seems to be a bit off. But hey, take all this with a pinch of salt, we are all different in terms of taste, so it's best to just demo it yourself.

What i found very cool though is that Antidote is finally a synth inside Reason, which gives you full control over unison spread on oscillator level, and easy to use effects right in the synth. I really get the shudder thinking about how to achieve stereo spread in Thor, or the other Reason synths. That's something every VST synth nowadays does out of the box, and with stereo oscillators, and unison on oscillator level. Synapse's synths all have that fortunately.

[CookieClimber]

Since we're on the topic of Antidote, I thought I'd share a song I made some time ago with only Antidote for synth sounds.

The bass sounds have been victims of Saturation Knob and Pulverizer (with Comb filter on the more aggressive bass riff sound). Otherwise the other sounds are pretty clean without too much effects from other devices.

Really sweet track! shows off the power of Antidote.

[gak]

Unfortunately it's not on sale. What I'd say is I waited a long long time to demo it and felt retarded for waiting so long

It's that good.

[JerrelTheKing]

For producers Antidote is Reason at this point. There is no way I would still produce in reason without it. I have almost every refill for it and value Antidote refills over buying other rack extensions. I just wish more refills were available for Predator as well.

[Skullture]

Antidote, then Thor, then everything else.

I'm secretely hoping for a Antidote II, just like Synapse did for Dune.

[miscend]

Antidote could do with an update. I like the snappy new envelopes they recently added to Dune 2.

[alex]

Antidote could do with an update. I like the snappy new envelopes they recently added to Dune 2.

That's interesting because I always thought the envelopes in Antidote are really snappy and in my "feature request" for that synth there is a "button to activate a less exponential envelope curve" entry. Now I'm curious, need to check new Dune 2 envelopes...

[CookieClimber]

Antidote 2 doesn't sound like something many people would buy, its a beast right now too. But some new waveforms could be really cool! Some of them are very similar

[Theo.M]

Since we're on the topic of Antidote, I thought I'd share a song I made some time ago with only Antidote for synth sounds.

The bass sounds have been victims of Saturation Knob and Pulverizer (with Comb filter on the more aggressive bass riff sound). Otherwise the other sounds are pretty clean without too much effects from other devices.

I really enjoyed this, thanks alot for sharing.

BTW, not a reason guy anymore, but i highly recommend antidote without reservation for each and every reason user. GREAT company to deal with, the cpu is not out of control as with some other RE synths, there are great refills and presets for those of us who like that, and the on board fx are just superb. I do think Dune 1 sounded muffled, but i didn't get that from antidote, maybe only just a bit. But it has too many strengths to outweigh the weaknesses. I actually still wish for a vst of it, cause it's the inbetween of dune 1 and dune 2.. and dune 1 i don't use, and dune 2 is too hard on cpu! I wish i could have antidote outside of reason! So there you go, a synth i am actually jealous of that i can't use outside of reason