U-HE Hive Synthesizer (Sneak Preview)

At Musikmesse 2015, Urs Heckmann of U-He was demonstrating their upcoming Hive synthesizer.

Here’s what Heckmann has to say about Hive:

Hive was made to be fast and simple. The streamlined single screen UI lets you dive into sound creation immediately. A fluid workflow invites you to tweak away until your sound is just right (or wrong in just the right way).

Hive was engineered to be light on CPU, and won’t slow you down while you work. But being “fast and simple” doesn’t mean we’ve sacrificed sound quality or creative control – Hive is packed with features, controls and enough flexibility to deliver stunning sounds.

Features:

  • Very low CPU usage
  • Switchable audio characteristics (normal, dirty, clean)
  • 2 main oscillators, 2 sub-oscillators
  • Up to 16x unison for each of the 4 oscillators for “super” sounds
  • 2 multimode filters
  • Step sequencer and arpeggiator
  • 12 slot modulation matrix with 2 targets per slot, 4 envelopes (ADSR), 2 LFOs
  • 7 built in effects
  • Single screen interface

Hive is coming soon. It is currently priced at US $99, with a regular price of $149. See the U-He site for details.

via Synth Anatomy

25 thoughts on “U-HE Hive Synthesizer (Sneak Preview)

  1. Tried the beta demo and must say this is amazing. The sound vs CPU usage is on par if not better than Sylenth. Best of all its 64bit and even looks great in Retina Mac. Thank you for delivering quality without chewing up resources. No need to wait for the Sylenth 64bit version.

    1. i didn’t need to hear anything….this seems to be intended as a workhorse “go to” synth so one should know what to expect. personally i prefer bizarre and quirky synth plugins but this synth definitely should have a large audience.

      1. Playing sounds on a demo video should go without saying, its like watching a football match without seeing the ball. I do not like installing crap in my system I imagine Ri thinks the same.

      1. Normally I would 100% agree with you. But u-he is on the extremely short list of plug in developers who can get away with it, and Urs is a good speaker so it’s a valuable exchange. I already know and trust that a new product from them will sound fantabulous.

        … that being said, I’ve been using this synth for a few months now. And yeah, it sounds great.

  2. If you like it go buy it now! Because it´s on a discounted, pre-release discount for 99$.
    As mentioned above. And there will never be a discounted price again!!

  3. I find it very odd that the first item on the feature list is “very low CPU”. Is that really the most important feature?! What about sound quality, expressivity, musicality, synthesis methodology, ease of use, any innovation there? or is this just yet an other virtual analog synth?

    1. the original u-he was known for its massive resource draw, so cleaning that part up is a large step towards a stable product that can be used at a gig.

  4. This guy should make hardware. I’m just not that excited over his vst’s these days. Not to mention he’s more stubborn than a donkey…he refuses to make an ipad synth..even though that would be awesome.

  5. The one thing they forgot to mention was that the synth is AAX compatible, which is a huge plus for some like me who mainly uses Pro Tools.

  6. The reason CPU is mentioned so prominently, is because some of their other synths – such as Diva – use loads of CPU.

    Btw, this is very like Sylenth.

    1. ” Btw, this is very like Sylenth. ”

      Good to see someone else think the same thing. I’ve been a long time Sylenth
      user, and as soon as I tried Hive, I instantly thought ” Very similar to Sylenth…even the
      layout is very similar. ot too sure about the sound comparison…There was nothing
      Hive that popped and made me go ” Wow ” but perhaps it is because I have used Sylenth
      all these years….anyway, I’ll stick with Zebra…it’s my familiar territory.

  7. I’m not sure why people use anything but Xfer’s Serum for digital sounds. Aliasing free wavetable oscillators that are modulatable in all kinds of interesting ways, and it’s great for supersaws.

    If it’s too much CPU just freeze and render.

    1. Yeah, Serum is king for sure. It’s extremely well-suited to making sounds that have a lot of motion in them as well. Everything can be modulated by everything with very few exceptions. U-he makes absolutely fantastic synths though. I’m a big fan of Zebra and Diva. They have made increasingly complex synths and it looks like Hive is a way to get more of the entry-level crowd, and those with older machines into the fold.

  8. downloaded the demo…not impressed, didn’t rock me out of the gate (and i just love Zebra 2 BTW)
    downloaded the Serum demo…could see something there, but not worth the purchase…didn’t kick me where it counts
    downloaded the Nave plug-in demo…have it for ipad, LOVE it…but the plug-in version is missing something critical IMO: midi learn

    i guess i am just coming down from a shopping spree of Dune 2 and Sunrizer plug-in (which i have for ipad as well…that too I love)
    i am blown away with what i just picked up and further trippin’ out to the Sylenth purchase my buddy just made (he’s also got Trillium on it’s way)

  9. The layout of this synth seems nice and well organized to me and also it has built in sequencer and this is a rare feature for the Vst’s…But I agree that a proper demo can’t be based only from descriptions without playing the instrument and messing around with some sounds…!

Leave a Reply to steve gilbert (cresshead) Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *