Hmmmmmmmmm..... its a weird one. If i buy, i get all the other cool pre-sets, a fey more features etc. So what does it basically do??? Whats it for??? Do you create your own sounds with it, or edit other peoples pre sets sounds???? Whats the FULL version like, the sounds etc!!!! TALK TO ME!

Also, i was thinking of buying the expansion pack for pro-52 (the sounds from electrix, see link below): does anybody have these? are they any good??

http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?vintagelineshop_us&no_cache= 1&ftu=55df1779ac

Wrt Absynth: I received the full version 3 days ago and have since spent all my waking hous working with it. I has incredible sound - no doubt - and is perfectly suitable for the kind of music that I make. I'll be using Absynth as my main synth for a long time to come, that's for sure. The presets are excellent, also as starting points for making your own sounds. However, having said all that, I have several reservations to Absynth. The UI is inefficient and lacks a lot of basic editing capabilities (I'll post a thorough review soon, so I won't go into specific details here...so judge for yourself on the demo). All in all I'd say that Absynth has so much unrealized potential (synth architecture and features, editor features, UI, VST integration, etc.) and a few bugs that it - to me - comes out as somewhat disappointing. Hope that it will evolve over the years to come...it could become the greatest synth of all times.

Wrt Pro-52 sounds: The Electrix collection is OK, but it contains many similar sounds and it's very much "bread and butter" (does not contain much experimental stuff). Alternatively, you could go for the Signature Series collection (see http://www.gmediamusic.com) which I personally find much more interesting.

brgds,
Jens

[ 30 June 2002, 15:01: Message edited by: spmadmin ]

Absynth?

it's only the best synth ever!
it's not for everyone and if you're just starting out with synthesis Pentagon or Pro-52 might be better.

what it is good for is creating sonic landscape.
i think it's "semi-modular" architecture is better than Reaktor architecture and i hope future synths follow that philosophy.
the only thing missing seems to be a Glide/Portamento feature.

in short, Absynth goes where no synth has gone before!

synthman
http://www.geocities.com/madmanmoonca/

[ 30 June 2002, 16:27: Message edited by: synthman ]

All the good things you've heard about Absynth are true. My advice though, would be to try Crystal before you spend your money on Absynth. I'm not saying the two are equivalent, but if you're looking for evolving soundscapes, you might find what you're looking for in Crystal for free (and it has portamento).

Crystal is an astoishing synth considering it is freeware and it should be in everyone's arsenal but Absynth is unbelievable.

So far you've had one person say it's great but could be better, another saying it's great but maybe difficult to learn and yet another say it's great. Even with three different views words like incredible and great creep up in all of the comments.

I like the interface and think it's sensible considering all the controls you have to work with. It is not similar in design to traditional analog synths to which I say good, about time.

If you have the demo open up the waveform window and start playing around, try the envelopes window and play a note, take a look at what the evelope looks like and see how it mirrors the sound. Play with the ocillators, you're not going to break anything.

In the full version you can simply do a "save as" and have a bank that you can mess up. This is one of the best features of Absynth. It's not my main synth but it is my favorite.

Good luck with your decision.