I haven't posted a review for a VSTi before as I usually only had demos and there hasn't been any that have really grabbed me. However I got to try the FabFilter One at a friends, who, like me isn't loaded and so only gets something if it's really worth it - so when he buys, I'm interested! He got the One after checking the demo (something I have done since) and mailed me excitedly about this top little synth. I was sceptical - 1 filter? Pff, how's that gonna sound any good? I had visions of DaHornet (thin, indifferent and not really that good), but how wrong I was..
The One has one (sorry!) of the sweetest filters I have heard in a VSTi, all in part due to it's ability to self oscillate and it's fine tuned slope. To my mind it is on par with the impOSCAR - the only other soft synth to really remind me of analogue - and it sounds like my beloved old (and sold :( ) Roland MC202 (SH101 too I guess)! It has the kind of sound where you can come up with a nice arp like pattern and sit for hours opening and closing the filter, changing the waveshape and varying the pulsewidth without it getting boring. It's like making Pete Namlook like ambient tracks which are just a manipulation of an arp but as the sound is so nice you just lose yourself in it!
Ok - it has a really nice filter. It also has a touch of noise on the waveforms too - analogue synths had noise too, and the One seems to benefit from this.
On the minus side tho...
No LFO sync, no sine wave, odd EG implementation (also a good thing as you may get results you didn't expect!), no actual real world values on the knobs (hz, etc) and I couldn't find a way of assigning controllers - although we didn't RTFM :). Oh, and it's mono - you should know that tho!
Overall - Well, any synth that even gets close to my old MC202 in terms of inspiration and quality of sounds is a winner. If it's a VSTi - even better. If it's this cheap - it's a steal!
Roll on One v3 with sync, polyphony, sine wave and more!
Oh, and their forum and support seems quick and friendly too, which is cool!Read Review
