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Reviewed By dinaiz [all]
January 4th, 2012
Version reviewed: 7 on Windows
Probably because I already reviewed some other products here, KV331 asked me to review their new synth master. Well not only it was a pleasure but also a nice surprise. Read on !
I've been doing some electronic music for a while and like most of you I guess, I've been strugling not to have this shinny metallic sound associated with in-the-box mix and VSTs comared to analogue instruments and mixes.
Fortunately since a while now, it seems that developpers get it right : alchemy, sylenth1, OP-X seem to get it right. Let's end up the suspence here : SynthMaster IS one of them. It sounds great, and the presets in the box are very good already. If that's your intended use, go for the demo, and have a listen, you probably won't regret it.
Now, let's get into programming. Let me get that straight : SynthMaster was wisely named. The first times you try to program anything with it, you feel a bit like trying to fly a spaceship to the moon without even having a car driving licence. It's seriously scary. But when you start looking at the feature set, you understand why. You ARE actually flying a spaceship ! From the factsheet : "SynthMaster 2.5 has more than 650 modulation targets and 95 modulation sources...". No need to elaborate right ? But that's not only about quantity : the filters really sound fantastic, especially the analog-modeled ones
So, depending on what you want to do and how deep you want to get involved with a particular VST, it might or might not be the right choice for you, but in any case, it's definitely worth a try, and a few hours of your time.
I realised quite recently that the OB-X synth (the real machine, not the VST) had the sound I've been looking for in the last 15 years. No kidding. Since I've started making music as a kid, I wanted THAT sound but I had no idea where to find it.
Of course buying an OB-X wasn't an option so I looked for a similar VST. That's when I found this little gem !
I've tried MANY a VST synth in my life : all the native instruments, alchemy, sylenth-1, minimogue, ableton's operator and a lot of freewares. I really found them good, until I listened to that one.
They claim it has an analog sound which I found hard to believe given that everybody pretends to sound analog nowadays. To me it's the only one that sounds analog (the free minimogue is a close match though, but it's a different kind of sound, so they complete each other pretty well). Honestly this one has this "thing" which makes it sound like a real machine.
So yeah, I'm a bit subjective because I discover the OB-X (the real synth) and OP-X (this plugin) at the same time, and got really excited, however I can say to things :
- it's defintely a faithful emulation, and if you can hear the difference withthe real thing, then you definitely have superior ears than mine
- it's the most analog sounding VST I ever heard
Another thing to consider also is that I'm not into tweaking or designing sounds. I'm more into writing music. So to me presets are just as important as the capabilities of the instrument. That's another area where OP-X shines ! There are 1500 presets, and most of them sound just excelent. You have also a lot of presets from famous songs and artists (pink floyd, toto, etc ...) which are surprisingly similar if not identical.
So in a word, this VST sounds amazing right out of the box.
The only thing is that the interface looks really cluttered and that's a bit annoying. Besides, you will probably have to read the manual, if you want to make the most of it (adding efects, controling the detuning of the voices and so on ...)
Yet it does have the best sound I ever heard and to me that's the most important thing.
If you are after this kind of sound, try the demo. If you aren't ...well try it too, you might fall in love ;)Read Review
