Cherry Audio synth coming out May 14 (ARP Rhodes Chroma?!)

[Korg Supporter]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgkpRNDFlUg

It actually sounds really really good to my ears (unless I'm missing something?) but not in an analog way, more like a really good digital synth with great integrated effects. In fact, it's those beautiful effects that stand out that seem to work so well with the synth engine.

The video doesn't impress me honestly, but it still sounds promising. The Chroma did have a cold sound at times, as the envelopes and lfos were all digital! What grabs my attention, though, is that you have 2 amplifiers in 8-voice mode! Not many synths have 2 amplifiers. PPG Wavegenerator has two VCAs! The Hydrasynth has an LPG filter mode, so you can fake having 2 VCAs

[McLilith]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgkpRNDFlUg

It actually sounds really really good to my ears (unless I'm missing something?) but not in an analog way, more like a really good digital synth with great integrated effects. In fact, it's those beautiful effects that stand out that seem to work so well with the synth engine.

To me, it sounds like it could easily be an analog synth of ARP heritage being played with a generous amount of digital effects added. If we want it to sound as analog as possible, or if we simply want to know how well they nailed the original sound, we would probably need to turn off the modern digital FX. Overall, I like what I've heard so far, and that's what matters most to me.

[egbert101]

I had a listen again to the video, and I have to say, it sounds amazing. I think this might be Cherry Audio's best sounding synth to date. It may or may not be an accurate emulation (we won't know until it's compared to the original without FX), that isn't important to me, it just sounds like an amazingly good modern instrument with those presets.

[beely]

I had a dive around YouTube for Chroma demos, and I found it to be somewhat of a mixed bag - quite a lot of bad demos, few that sounded that great. There's a lot of that kinda Arp-ey thin, almost string machine type stuff which I was never that fond of, a few more interesting things where the modulation might be doing something a bit more unique, and a few genuinely great sounding things.

But so far, from what I heard at least, nothing that puts it in the same category for me as the better polysynths of that era, despite being (on paper at least) more capable... we'll see when the plugin hits and people can play with it, just how capable and good-sounding the engine is. As ever, I reserve judgement until there is more real-world examples...

[egbert101]

This demo of the Chroma Polaris (not the Chroma, I know confusing) does sound similar and shows off the beautiful digital like sound, although I think he's got a reverb on it so you can see how necessary effects are to bring out its beauty.

https://youtu.be/GfyO4D9N85E

[egbert101]

Bump (because it's the 14th!).

[soulata]

We'll know at 18h gmt, or 19h...

[rsaintjohn]

All will be revealed today at 10:00am PT (1:00 pm ET -- 5:00 pm GMT -- 6:00 pm UK) in our live premiere on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/DBQmoWosE7g

[beely]

The question *really* is - will the software version finally get the ARP branding that the original never had...?

[gentleclockdivider]

The question *really* is - will the software version finally get the ARP branding that the original never had...?

I doubt it ,Arp is now part of Korg and perhaps they have good reasons to not be associated with Cherry Audio

[egbert101]

https://youtu.be/scMxNiv16H8

[Shabdahbriah]

Not to 'debby-downer' this completely as I'm sure others will desire/love its sound enough to tolerate it, but that 'button-button-who's-got-the-button?' mini-menu-diving interface makes it a hard-pass for me.

{aside} What is the keyboard immediately behind his head, at the beginning of the vid? Moog something?

[egbert101]

Noir edition of the Moog Matriarch? I think the new plugin sounds fantastic but I'm going to guess that CPU is going to be a problem, especially for laptop bros, going by the end of the video.

[Shabdahbriah]

Noir edition of the Moog Matriarch?

Spot-on, thank you.

[egbert101]

Nice showcase of some presets.

https://youtu.be/dXiIpif8DS4