# 2 Hive 2 or not 2 Hive 2... that is the question



## lettucehat (Dec 29, 2020)

Hi everybody. I have Zebra and Diva and am wondering if I should get everything else on sale at NI or leave out Hive 2. I'm not sure where it fits in exactly. I've watched a lot of videos and I'm just wondering if anyone has a succinct description of what Hive is good for and who should get it? I'll demo it of course. My feeling is that I might just want to save for Serum when it comes to the modern synth sound. But if people feel Hive offers something pretty distinct that Zebra can't offer, I'm happy to hear it!


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## X-Bassist (Dec 29, 2020)

I finally picked up Zebra and ZebraHz, then decided to pick up Hive 2 since it's the only one I don't own. I wasn't wowed by the reviews or walkthroughs, but once I got it and started playing presets, I loved it. Some extra edgy leads and basses that sound great due to U-He quality programming.

My advice is download the trial of it for free and see how you like the sounds. Go through as many of the presets as you can, there is some real gold in there. And it does a lot of techno-ish stuff not found in other synths, yet still has that beefy warm u-he sound. Once you get it under your fingers, it's a whole other experience than listening to the videos and demos.





u-he Products: Synthesizers, Effects and Soundsets


u-he products: creative software synthesizers, effects and soundsets



u-he.com


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## doctoremmet (Dec 30, 2020)

X-Bassist said:


> Go through as many of the presets as you can, there is some real gold in there. And it does a lot of techno-ish stuff not found in other synths, yet still has that beefy warm u-he sound.


+1. I like the sound - it’s modern yet beefy. I like that descriptor, well chosen.


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## tomosane (Dec 30, 2020)

I bought Hive 2 and Repro from the NI sale, not having any u-he products previously. Generally I am very careful about not installing superfluous plugins, currently have less than 10 synths installed, and I already had Serum as my go-to synth for creating sounds from scratch.

I agree with @X-Bassist above, flipping through the factory presets very quickly sold me on this synth, actually in my case I'd say the presets alone were easily worth the 75€. (I never liked the Serum factory library, but maybe that's just me)

Besides that, the basic built-in (non-wavetable) saw and square waveforms in Hive to my ears sound somewhat warmer and less "high-precision" than the corresponding wavetables in Serum. It's not a huge difference and I'd be hard-pressed to say that either of them sounds intrinsically better than the other. A huge plus for Hive is the comparatively low CPU usage, which I suppose is linked to the built-in non-WT waveforms -- working on a mobile processor, I sometimes have to be careful with Serum pads and stuff, the CPU load can get pretty ugly.

I always liked Serum for its super quick and convenient workflow, and Hive seems to be similar in this regard, although I don't know it that well yet. Serum's wavetable editor is very powerful for certain types of sounds that you can't easily get out of the built-in wavetables -- I don't think there's anything quite similar in Hive, after all it's designed much more clearly from a "less is more" standpoint.

So there's ultimately quite a bit lof overlap between these two synths, and realistically I'm not sure anyone really *needs* both of them. This is especially true if you don't care for preset browsing. I'll probably get a lot out Hive though, without feeling the need to abandon Serum


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## Saxer (Dec 30, 2020)

I like Hive a lot. Sounds great, easy on CPU and I like the GUI. I find it's more straight forward than Diva or Zebra... not a copy of older synth buttons or hidden pages. And I like the recording function of the built in sequencer: recording steps from the keyboard and no mouse clicking (+7/-2 etc) for step input.


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## FGBR (Dec 30, 2020)

I have far too many soft synths (including all the U-he stuff) and I find I end up using Hive all the time. Probably my most used synth. It sounds great and it's very intuitive and quick to use, and actually very versatile in my opinion. Highly recommended


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## Dan Light (Jan 6, 2021)

Hive is awesome. I have a ton of soft synths and use it a lot. I love that it's just the one panel with essentially no tabs or anything so it's super easy to see what's going on. The included presets are very good. It's super easy to program and it's cool to flick between the 3 different synth engines. 

My favorite feature is the cool shape sequencer thing which makes it easy to make really cool pulses and whatnot. 

My only gripe with the synth is that it doesn't include a ton of wavetables by default.


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## Pier (Jan 6, 2021)

Hive sounds great. You can drive the input filter and then change the synth modes (clean, dirty, etc) so it has a broader sonic palette than it might seem at first glance.

Compared to Zebra or Diva, the workflow is so much faster. It's a joy to use.

I have owned all U-He synths and I reach to Hive by default, unless I want the power of Zebra or a more analog sound.


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## vitocorleone123 (Jan 8, 2021)

You can import other wavetables into Hive2 - it just can't edit/create them because U-He made the choice to keep the synth simpler that way.


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## John Longley (Jan 9, 2021)

The filter has serious bite. It’ll knock your fillings out on attack heavy basses or plucks. I prefer Dune for pads.


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