Favorite Cherry Audio Synths

[pandashake]

Picked up Dreamsynth because of the bundle, definitely a good synth, though I feel like Cherry Audio does this blanket oversampling to get the quality to be decent and it can often make their plugins very CPU intensive, and not quite fix the issue. For instance, you need to crank the oversampling all the way up to get audio rate filter modulation to sound OK, and then it only sounds OK. You can hear the sample rate beating against the note frequencies. I feel like other developers handle this in a more elegant way, like Synapse Audio. In Dune, you can just up the modulation refresh rate. (Though to be honest, it could go a bit higher)

This is my biggest complaint about CA stuff. 2x oversampling should be good enough for almost all applications, but there is still some beating going around in the upper octaves. 4x just kills my i9 waaaay moreso than Diva or RePro5. Maybe the CA stuff is not multi-core processed like the u-he stuff can be.

[zerocrossing]

Picked up Dreamsynth because of the bundle, definitely a good synth, though I feel like Cherry Audio does this blanket oversampling to get the quality to be decent and it can often make their plugins very CPU intensive, and not quite fix the issue. For instance, you need to crank the oversampling all the way up to get audio rate filter modulation to sound OK, and then it only sounds OK. You can hear the sample rate beating against the note frequencies. I feel like other developers handle this in a more elegant way, like Synapse Audio. In Dune, you can just up the modulation refresh rate. (Though to be honest, it could go a bit higher)

This is my biggest complaint about CA stuff. 2x oversampling should be good enough for almost all applications, but there is still some beating going around in the upper octaves. 4x just kills my i9 waaaay moreso than Diva or RePro5. Maybe the CA stuff is not multi-core processed like the u-he stuff can be.

I remember Urs once saying that he was working on improving the algorithm of the per-voice distortion in Repro 5 and he was excited that he suspected it wouldn't use that much more CPU than the current algorithm does, so I bet they're doing a lot of optimization and only using oversampling where it makes sense, where Cherry Audio just uses brute force to make things sound better.

[pekbro]

While I haven't really looked at the standalone synths or effects, I 'd wager their stuff is largely written in java, multithreading in java can be complicated, even more so since were dealing with audio, where a lot of stuff happens at the same time.

Bitwig has super java guy IIRC, not sure about CA. Definitely having super java guy is gonna lead to the best results. (He was one of the java team over at sun or something like that)

[DCrown]

I really like some of their synths and I am glad they are not trying to make a 1:1 copy, lots of their synths are rather inspired by some old synth or new creations.
I think cpu usage could/should be improved and it doesn't seem to be their focus, though, they simply ignore their customers and that's not a good thing.

[iNNeRNoiZe]

I own allmost all of them but no synth is in regular use. The most over-hyped developer on the market. The resale policy is an absolute no-go. I no longer support this developer, for reasons.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I like the simple stuff like mercury 4 or 6, but nothing with any audio rate modulation or serious analog distortion behavior. I'd probably check out a jupiter 8 if they did it.

[Ou_Tis]

Going by audio demos, I'm surprised so many here are saying Dreamsynth. Conceptually it's the most interesting, but the saturation doesn't sound as good as some of their other synths. It lacks the timbral richness and hardware depth and dimensionality that you can hear in the best analog emulations. And even though Dreamsynth isn't an emulation of a specific 80's synth, it is "inspired" by them and, judging by the presets, aiming for a similar sonic range. If you have decent speakers, it seems more like a pale imitation of those analog synths rather than an equally good and/or original and interesting variation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMr3HAzCCkI

The Mercury-4 seems to have much better saturation and a more analog sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O2MgTrzC3k&t=9s

The Octave Cat also sounds good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HpIFCk1fSU

I also like the fact that the Mercury-4 and Octave Cat are based on relatively obscure synths that very few people have access to. So they're less likely to sound like pale imitations of familiar ancient stuff.

How is the MPE integration? Do most (or any) presets have Pressure/Aftertouch and Slide/Y Axis/Timbre already set up?

[BBFG#]

On my "home" computer where storage is a consideration, I regularly remove anything I consider essential to have ready on hand. The CA plugins are generally there as something more for nostalgic inspiration. The only ones I currently have installed are Dreamsynth, Memorymode, Polysynth, PS-20, Quadra. I can already guess that Quadra and maybe the PS-20 will be removed soon. The others gained from HB deals are still on my "studio" computer, but I consider them unnecessary to keep on hand. Mercury4 has always been "meh" to me and was cut quickly after a couple of weeks of playing with. Dreamsynth is what I consider a culmination of their coding at the time and has been the most desirable to me. I can see keeping it on hand more than the rest. I was pleasantly surprised to see it in this bundle and think it generous of them to offer it there.

The one most on my GAS radar now is the Novachord/Solovox.

[zerocrossing]

Going by audio demos, I'm surprised so many here are saying Dreamsynth. Conceptually it's the most interesting, but the saturation doesn't sound as good as some of their other synths. It lacks the timbral richness and hardware depth and dimensionality that you can hear in the best analog emulations. And even though Dreamsynth isn't an emulation of a specific 80's synth, it is "inspired" by them and, judging by the presets, aiming for a similar sonic range. If you have decent speakers, it seems more like a pale imitation of those analog synths rather than an equally good and/or original and interesting variation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMr3HAzCCkI

The Mercury-4 seems to have much better saturation and a more analog sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O2MgTrzC3k&t=9s

The Octave Cat also sounds good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HpIFCk1fSU

I also like the fact that the Mercury-4 and Octave Cat are based on relatively obscure synths that very few people have access to. So they're less likely to sound like pale imitations of familiar ancient stuff.

How is the MPE integration? Do most (or any) presets have Pressure/Aftertouch and Slide/Y Axis/Timbre already set up?

If you read their marketing, you’ll see that Dreamsynth isn’t focused on emulating any analog except for the divide-down string synth section, or the filters. It’s more focused on the early Ensoniq hybrids.

I probably would have never paid full price for it. I have plenty of good vintage hybrid emulations and some good hardware as well, but for $20, it seemed like a fun way to spend an afternoon. I haven’t spent any time with MPE yet, but I’ll check it out later and report back. I’m having trouble getting my 3rd Wave and Nina to properly pitch track my Rise and Linnstrument… not sure what I’m doing wrong.

[Examigan]

Here is a preset I made when Dreamsynth was first released:
https://soundcloud.com/examigan/a-dream ... s-1-preset

[Ou_Tis]

If you read their marketing, you’ll see that Dreamsynth isn’t focused on emulating any analog except for the divide-down string synth section, or the filters. It’s more focused on the early Ensoniq hybrids.

I probably would have never paid full price for it. I have plenty of good vintage hybrid emulations and some good hardware as well, but for $20, it seemed like a fun way to spend an afternoon. I haven’t spent any time with MPE yet, but I’ll check it out later and report back. I’m having trouble getting my 3rd Wave and Nina to properly pitch track my Rise and Linnstrument… not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Ah, I see... I mistook "Prophet VS" in the description for Prophet-5 series lol. Still, I'd prefer it with more/better saturation.

[zerocrossing]

How is the MPE integration? Do most (or any) presets have Pressure/Aftertouch and Slide/Y Axis/Timbre already set up?

MPE integration is pretty straight forward and robust. Better than Arturia's, that's for sure. You go into Settings and enable MPE mode. It comes with a lot of MPE presets, but making any preset or your own sound, MPE is pretty easy. Just right-click on a parameter and in the drop down menu, assign away. Then you can open up a modulation list by clicking on an MPE icon at the top of the interface, and a side panel pops out that will show you all the assignments and let you set up the range, whether or not it's bipolar, and even a response curve, which is crucial in my book. I'm giving them a solid A for MPE implementation. I'd give it an A+ if they let you edit the response curve even more.

[Ou_Tis]

Comparing the Dreamsynth with some of the hybrid digital/analog synths that inspired it... even though their oscillators are digital, Dreamsynth does seem to be lacking in their hardware mojo (saturation, depth and dimensionality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3h9oquk6rE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9eKB3pHDSY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4gSZ7_AWOk&t=5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMr3HAzCCkI

[Uncle E]

Sounds better to me than the K1. But yeah, ESQ-1 and Prophet VS are pretty special. It's crazy how cheap ESQ-1's and SQ-80's sell for these days because they're fantastic.

[imrae]

Surely most of the saturation mojo of those digital synths is on the DAC and output buffer? We can slap on our favourite plugins for that (maybe chipcrusher for exaggerated artifacts and Saturn for grind...)