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Any Synthmaster fans out there?


MisterB

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Just curious if there are any other Synthmaster fans out there. I discovered this synth years ago, and immediately loved its warm sound. At the time, it was the closest thing to analog I'd ever heard. It kind of fell off my radar a little bit when Arturia Pigments became really advanced, mostly because Pigments has a really clean, clear interface and Synthmaster just looks cluttered by comparison. I have been missing that Synthmaster sound though, and the really excellent presets too. Synthmaster 3 was promised, I think about two years ago, but never materialized, and the world moved on, mostly to Kilohearts Phaseplant for insanely flexible routing, and there remained some other more specialized applications that are mostly as old now as Synthmaster 2 (eg, U-he products like Diva, Spectrasonics Omnisphere and xfer Serum).  

 

Well, literally years after Synthmaster 2 was released, Synthmaster 3 is in the final stages of Beta with a final hopeful release date of September 1st. It's on sale now until the final release.  I've been using the final beta (which is labeled v.3.0) and it has been stable and without any major issues on both my systems.

 

It's not a super cheap synth (though my upgrade from v.2 was under $30), and as far as the main user interface goes, v.3 is not a whole lot different than v.2, so that is still going to be a bit of a downfall. It is well organized, but unquestionably a bit cluttered.  But it certainly has been turbocharged with significantly more flexible routing more like a true modular synth, and oscillator and layer limits are now governed by the performance of your computer, rather than the typical internal inflexibility. It has multiple synthesis types including virtual analog, sample, wavetable, vector and additive and has a built in waveform designer.

 

There is a bit of a learning curve to it, but it's actually pretty good in terms of its organization, and when going for more complex synthesis types, I actually find it easier to follow, compared to Pigments, and certainly way more flexible than any of the classic emulations out there. It just tries to cram a lot into (mostly) a single screen, and that's my only criticism of it. Some of the editor panels expand to full screen, so you can use a much larger space for things like wave form design, arpeggiator and sequencer modules etc, and there's a separate screen for mixing layers, and basic editing of those layers. I think this was particularly well thought out - things like arpeggiator/sequencer modules being visible across multiple layers is great for visually creating polyrhythmic elements.

 

There is a bit of a learning curve, and right now, all the tutorials are on YT as videos... they are kind of long-winded, but you will learn plenty of stuff about Synthmaster by watching them. I believe the long development time is because the developer kv331 is literally just one person.

 

You can download a demo or buy the product from here - https://www.kv331audio.com/. I would recommend you download the demo and run it - after a half hour or so, it directs you to their web site, where you get an additional discount - I think another 5%.

 

I'm not affiliated with kv331 in any way. It's just a product I like and believe in. Of all the very many soft-synths I have, Synthmaster is still my favourite in terms of its sound and I'm prepared to put up with its busy UI for it.

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After listening to a load of demos I bought Synthmaster 3, which came with 3 expansions for free. I’m looking forward to many lost hours. I’m up on different types of synthesis and the various elements in synth architecture. The interface looks pretty straightforward, but you mention there is a learning curve. What elements required the most effort to learn?

 

Thanks for the recommendation!

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7 hours ago, john said:

After listening to a load of demos I bought Synthmaster 3, which came with 3 expansions for free. I’m looking forward to many lost hours. I’m up on different types of synthesis and the various elements in synth architecture. The interface looks pretty straightforward, but you mention there is a learning curve. What elements required the most effort to learn?

 

Thanks for the recommendation!

 

Learning curve - I just feel that its not really quite like any other synth I've ever come across. Some of the elements aren't in particularly logical places (like routing and FX sends for instance), though they do all (I think) work in logical ways and have a logical flow to them once you've learned the interface. But mostly, its just its shear depth. I mean, sure, you can use it like a basic subtractive synth, but that's kind of missing the point. 

 

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