Wow...I'm rather suprised this synth has not been reviewed yet. What you get is very good for the asking price. For one thing, Firebird has anti-aliasing oscillators. This allows for the creation of convincing analog sounds as well as very clean, smooth digital textures. You can get quite a variety of sounds out of this thing...it can sound like an analog synth, an FM synth (using the unique FM filter), a wavetable synth (by using the more motion based oscillators and modifying them and messing with the loops) and also timbres unique to the type of synthesis Firebird uses (Harmonic Content Morphing synthesis, I believe it's called). There are some very interesting filter types in Firebird-- FM filters, an AM filter, 30db Lowpass (for those screaming acid lines), a vocal filter, a desamble filter, etc, etc. This allows for very different textures than most synths out there. Most of the parameters in Firebird can be synced to host tempo-- a very important feature for those into ambient/electronica. Even the oscillator loops are tempo syncable. Firebird comes with a couple hundred presets to get you started (for those who use presets). However, Firebird is dead easy to figure out and novices should be able to crank out new sounds from scratch in no time at all. Although this synth is quite capable of more commonly used timbres (FM and analog), I think this synth is built more toward those who wish to stand out from the crowd and be different. It has found a lot of use in my DAW for creating etherial soundscapes, ambient textures and cold, futuristic tones. I've even managed to get some glitch-esque tones out of it through thoughtful programming. Only cons I can think of is that CPU usage is moderate. Not a CPU hog, but not synth1, either. On my 3.6 Ghz machine with 2 GB ram, if I play a thick chord and turn on the FX, CPU usage is about 12%. Not bad, actually, but could be better considering this isn't a big synth with pages upon pages of menus and a snotload of oscillators per voice. I recommend Firebird not only because of the price, but because of the synth's sonic character as well. If you dabble in the more futuristic and spacey music styles, go out and grab this puppy.Read Review
