Sytrus

I received this synth as part of the FL "XXL" package and initally I was very excited to get into all it's presumed juicy goodness. While it is arguably the cleanest sounding FM in the soft-synth market there is very little which inspires me to push this synth with my programming efforts.

It is very difficult to get anything other than the signature "FM" timbre in any of the patches. Just take a listen to the presets, that signature tone is there patch after patch. It does great bells, leads & strings in Vangelis fashion.... makes me wonder about the underlying algorithms. It can make some meaty rhythmic pads, but not really fantastic moving pads.

I'll admit, the multi-point envelopes are the most advanced of any of the commercial synths at this point [cool and novel element for some rythmic beat pads]. They are fun and easy to play with and tweak.


Some complain about the GUI and I'll admit the slider knobs are small. IL always make the slickest interfaces and Sytrus is there. What I'll give props to is the switchable envelope windows... this allows for easy scanning of paramters... no drop-down menus, very ingenious.

What Sytrus needs is:
1) ability to load/morph soundfonts with each oscillator. That way you could put the velocity and keymod to amazing use with the envelopes plus bring in more sonic design,
2) HUGE library of envelopes... how about 200 arp patterns for starters,
3) microtuning to warp the sound even further.

Sytrus seems cobbled from a bunch of code IL has used in other projects and it is really meant to be used best with FLS as there are issues with other hosts when using it as a VSTi (such as not being able to load native .fst files).


With v2 out I have to rethink the above review... there is alot more charatcer to the sounds now, I suppose improved alogrithms somewhere in the app. Sytrus is on it's way up, perhaps joining the regular monsters here at KVR in short order? Anyways, glad the sound quality is up to speed with the intuitive GUI.
#1 on my list will never happen, but with more envelopes Sytrus will be a rhythmic beast!!Read Review