Helm vs Sylenth1
Helm
tytel.orgSylenth1
lennardigital.comSide by side
| Figure | Helm | Sylenth1 |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | €9.95/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Software Synthesizers | 8.6 (#4) | 7.7 (#18) |
| Effects | Built-in effects are formant filtering, stutter, distortion, delay and reverb. | Its master section includes an arpeggiator and distortion, phaser, chorus/flanger, equalizer, delay, reverb, and compressor effects. |
| Filters | Helm provides blendable 12 dB and 24 dB low-, band- and high-pass filters plus low-, band- and high-shelf filters. | It includes two four-stage filter sections with nonlinear saturation and drive control. |
| Modulation | Modulation sources include two monophonic LFOs, one polyphonic LFO, three envelopes, keyboard controls, random values and polyphonic aftertouch. | The product page lists two ADSR envelopes, two LFOs, two additional amplitude envelopes, and modulation sources including velocity, keyboard track, and modulation wheel. |
| Oscillators | The synthesizer has two oscillators with cross modulation and up to 15 unison oscillators per oscillator. | It has four unison oscillators, each capable of eight stereo voices, for up to 32 voices per note. |
| Polyphony | Helm supports 32 simultaneous voices. | Its 16-note polyphony allows up to 512 oscillator voices simultaneously. |
| Support | The maker asks users to email bug reports with operating system, standalone or plugin details and crash information. | The support page directs users to the manual and provides a support request subject selector and a link to the LennarDigital forum. |
Plans
Sylenth1
- Sylenth1 installment plan€9.95 a month
- Sylenth1 full version€139, paid once
In their own words
Helm
Helm is a free software synthesizer for creating electronic music on a computer. It is available as a standalone application or as a plugin in LV2, VST, VST3, or AU formats, with GNU/Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows versions in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. Its sound tools include dual oscillators with cross modulation, unison, a sub oscillator, filters, modulation, a step sequencer, an arpeggiator, and audio effects. MIDI Learn lets users assign a MIDI control to a knob or slider. The maker describes Helm as software that can be run without DRM, studied, changed, and redistributed in original or modified form. The FAQ says the person who plays a sound made with Helm holds its copyright. Listed requirements include Windows 7 or later, MacOS 10.7 or later, Ubuntu Trusty 14.04 or later, and Debian Jessie or later. The project is described as being in beta with outstanding bugs. For bug reports, the maker asks users to include details such as what happened, crash reports, their operating system, and whether they use the plugin or standalone version.
Sylenth1
Sylenth1 has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.