

They are just about to release Repro 5 (Prophet poly)bundled with Repro 1(mono),pre-release price for both is $99,it sounds truly amazing! Zebra 2 w/DZ sounds amazing and it is easy on the computer resources.ĭiva as well is one of the best soft synths out there,a ,it s my personal favorite, it sounds so damn analog! Presently Z is about to be updated to Zebra 2.8 and anyone who purchases Zebra2 with Dark Zebra will get Zebra 3 when it's released for free. Dark Z used U-he's Diva filters it just sounds gorgeous. Myself I have turned into a U-he fanatic,Zebra2 w/the Dark Zebra add on is an amazing Synth bundle. Unless you're using Logic as your DAW imo as great as Alchemy is,it's not worth the the hoops you'd need to jump through to work with it presently. In the final reckoning, though, Absynth 4 goes down as an extremely powerful synth for the expert sound designer, an exceptional preset bank for the casual synth user, and an increasingly approachable training synth for novice programmers.Absynth is a great synth,a classic in the softsynth world but as Cuttime mentioned it's been around as is for quite awhile,many users are begging for it to be updated. If you're perfectly happy with what you've got, we wouldn't argue against sticking with it and saving yourself a bit of cash.

#Native instruments absynth 5 demo review upgrade#
That said, some version 3 users may feel there's not quite enough here to warrant the upgrade fee this time. If you ever struggled with version 3's preset management system, for example, you'll think the browser system alone is worth the upgrade price.

With today's music software, much of the effort that used to go into developing new features now seems to be aimed at making the ones we've already got work as well as we always wanted them to, and this is certainly the case with Absynth 4. There are many other improvements, too, ranging from a new oscillator module and wave morphing (waveforms can be blended in one oscillator) to an envelope step mode that makes envelope tweaking feel like additive synth programming. These are freely assignable and setting them up is easy - perfect when you want to get busy with some expressive, real-time twiddling on the spur of the moment. Having said that, Absynth still fails where so many other synths have before it - it doesn't have a master 'disable FX' button - invaluable when you're browsing presets to place in an already busy track.Īnother addition (in retrospect, it seems staggering that it wasn't there before) is a master ADSR envelope for quickly adjusting Absynth's complex layered patches to your requirements.Īlso new are 16 assignable macro controls, each of which enables you to group and tweak a selection of parameters simultaneously. At first glance, the effects screen seems to be one of the more needlessly confusing, but once you get to grips with it, you realise that it offers some very powerful processing and real-time control options. This type of browser is cropping up everywhere these days (we've seen similar systems recently in Cubase 4 and Arturia's Analog Factory) and is something we welcome.Įlsewhere, Absynth now has a much-expanded effects section. You can even assign a personalised rating to a patch.

Thanks to the implementation of NI's Kore technology, presets and effects can now be selected from a browsable interface that enables you to narrow down your choices by choosing characteristics (Instrument, Source, Timbre, Articulation and Genre). You'll notice the first big improvement when you look at the Browser window, which is now a far more sophisticated beast than before. It's still Absynth, but the GUI is larger and a little clearer. Absynth 4 operates either standalone or as a plug-in, but whichever way you use it, loading it up for the first time presents you with a completely overhauled interface.
