I really like SynthMaster 2.5. The sound is fantastic and editing sounds seems almost unlimited.

There are a few improvements I'd like to suggest. The Insignia and many of the Rob Lee presets make full use of the controllers in a great way. I'd liked to see the other presets programmed so that they all make more use of the Easy controls and the XY Pads. I know I could go in there and assign parameters to the sounds myself but it would have been nice if the original sound designers had done so because then their expertise is utilised. This is what I like about sound banks for Alchemy - each preset is pre-programmed to make full use of Alchemy's controllers.

My second suggestion is for the presets to all have the same sound level or as close as possible. I realise that it might not be possible to regulate all the uploaded user presets but some of the onboard ones jump in level from preset to preset which is pretty frustrating when auditioning them.

I love the fact that midi files can be loaded into the 'Layer' arps so another suggestion is to have a global arpeggiator. When I load a midi file into the 'Layer' arps and then decide to audition different preset sounds I have to reload the midi file into the arp for each preset. Maybe I've overlooked something but this seems to be how it works. Each time the preset is changed anything programmed in the arp is lost. If there was also a global arp then I could load a midi file and then switch through presets without having to reload the midi file.

I also found that some of the presets cause a juddering sound if I have SynthMaster global sound quality set to 'Better', 'Best' or 'Preset'. This is a bit of a problem when auditioning sounds because, for example, 'LED Plucked Trance RL' and 'LED Noisy Saw Lead RL' are both designed for 'Best' mode. I've got a 6 core PC, 16GB Ram, Win 7 x64, Reaper 4 x64 which can handle a lot of load so I can't understand why it can't cope with anything more than 'Good' mode in SynthMaster. Reaper reports that FX CPU uses 22% but RT CPU is 133%! I have Reaper set to use all 6 cores (allow live FX multiprocessing on '6' CPU's). Is this a Reaper problem or can I adjust SynthMaster somehow?

My comments are based on a preference for using pre-designed presets rather than programming them myself. I know a lot of people like to roll their own sounds but there are a lot of musicians like me who don't want to do this and just want to audition presets, pick the right one and then maybe tweak it a bit. I think that's why a lot of synths (DCAM, Massive, Alchemy) now feature 'easy' controllers and XY pads for instant control. SynthMaster has these as well but I think more could be done with them out of the box.

I've found that it's pretty easy to clip one section or another, and this happens with quite a few of the presets. It's pretty easy to turn down a bunch of the volume knobs until it goes away. However, it might be nice to have a little clipping indicator on each module so you can see which one is getting hit.

Otherwise, loving Synthmaster 2.5 even more than I loved Synthmaster 1! This is a fantastic, rich and flexible synthesizer.

Before I get going I want to say I am a prospetive lover of SM, I have, try to use it and the latest update prompted me to come on the forums and found Munchkins post, most of which reflects my thoughts and experiences so seemed apt to tag along.



Agree and I see SM eventually being a master goto plugin synth much along the lines of Sylenth, Massive, Z3ta2 to name a few.



Im lazy as a sound programmer so yes this is something that is frustrating and to be honest I would live to see, similar as you can do in the VirusTI, copy macro settings and merge them into another sound preset.




In fairness SM is not the only culprit, I find this on Massive, Sylenth and others...apart from switching presets and remembering to turn the volume down...your ears can often be in for a nasty bleeding surprise.



A simple ARP preser bank as an additioan to presets would work wonders here again see the Virus TI.




This is actually one of the main reasons I wanted to post here. On getting Robs preset pack when released I was getting really bad ASIO and CPU overloads, with spiking and crashing. But only on certain presets one which you have mentioned one of the 'Trance' and pads. This has made me shelf spending any more money on it till sorted. Admittedly the latest update as improved the issue somewhat, it is still causing issues. Did post and send an email reagrding it never heard back. No bitterness, just what happened.




Totally my workflow. Look at sounds for inspiration, tweak to mix in the mix

Thoughts and feedback

Please take note and try and get consistancy across all the packs. Maybe 50% volume. You are now charging more for soundbanks so users start to expect more.

Please try and make presets user friendly with the controls as already mentioned in the post some designers do and some not.

Please try and consider CPU and ASIO usage. Not sure if its the preset or the plugin but there is definately some issues in your soundbank Rob sorry. PM me if you read and want more info.

Finally I look forward to SM growing, maturing and becoming a 'go to' plugin. I would love to see a more slick GUI, but then thats a personal thing between sound and vision dare I say pscho acoustics lol.

Website...please someone help KV out and get it looking slicker, easier on the eye especially when trying to select what to download ie windows/OSX/updates etc...

Its not all bad.

SM is an amazing synth got some fantastic sounds and only a few of the presets cause issues.

The rest is workflow and personal so in no way take it to heart. Lot of love here for SM2 look forward to seeing it evolve and mature....

Specs : i7 2.66ghz + 12GBDDR Triple@1333mhz + RME FF800 @ 128. Windows7x64 Cubase 6.5.1 x64

Hey, we already have copy/paste for easy knobs

Simply goto Preset tab, click on dropdown menu next to xy pads, select Copy. Then select another preset, and select Paste from dropdown menu again. Voila!

Guys, hopefuly by the end of June most of those issues will have been addressed.

Many of you guys know, I've struggled hard to turn this into a "feasible business", and thankfully after the positive magazine reviews we're getting somewhere... On June 1st I am going to be "free" at last, and will start working "fulltime" on SynthMaster, on "multiple" platforms, including iOS

Thanks for the update and anyone reading this needs to appreciate that this is in no way trying to tarnish or put down SM and all the hard work that has gone and will undoubtedly go into the plugins development.

I feel there's just a few very minor issues in CPU usage which has got MUCH better and some presets being a little under programmed or over zealous at this stage of the synths development.

Looking forward to progress with this beast



See I said I was lazy...

now after threee, shout at me, RTFM

great feature will be checking it out

Thanks for all the feedback. SynthMaster is still a favourite. I'm glad some of the issues about CPU use and preset consistency will be addressed in the future.

Concerning plugin CPU use in Reaper 4 (and possibly other DAWS) - Reaper can only handle up to a maximum of one core per track. IOW if a synth or series of plugins in a track exceeds the maximum load of a single core then audio dropouts occur. If the plugin load is spread across multiple tracks then they can be assinged to multiple cores and dropouts aren't a problem.

So even if you have a multicore CPU, a plugin can still max out your project even when all the cores aren't being used. In the case of SynthMaster, on the higher quality settings, it exceeds the maximum load of a single core causing dropouts in Reaper.

I've tested other high load synths such as DIVA and some of the FXpansions synths and even at their highest quality setting the maximum core load never exceeds 60%. SynthMaster on the other hand reaches 133% load with certain presets! I have an AMD X6 1090T CPU.

A solution to this is to make a high-load plugin multi-core but I'm told this isn't practically possible. Coding the plugin to be more CPU efficient is another alternative.

Was the number of oscillators, filters, etc EQUAL in all synths compared? Was unison turned on or off for all?

I am asking because unless all synths are set to the same settings, it's like comparing apples to oranges

Totally agree about the comparissons in relations to oranges and apples.

As a non techie/general user and abuser of vsts I do find Synthmaster on various patches (not all) very high cpu/asio hits on onbe note alone. [press a chord and] and your ears bleed as it max's out and basically folds on itself. This is without any other plugins being used as a vst or vsti in a project. In other words load up Cubase and SM only and more than one note on certain patches will max it.

The challenge I see for KV331 SM is to find out what patches are doing this, identifyinh what settings can be reduced without impacting the patches sound. Maybe identifying what in the settings can be improved code wise.

As a general comparisson to other vst instrument plugins SM will max out a project where others I can have many plugins running at once which SM uses up the same resources. This is a shame.

Like I said, look forward to future of SM in the future when the issues have been identified and I imagine coding refined

I just want to offer you my personal congratulations, not just on making a great tool, but on turning what has clearly been a labor of love into a successful living. The opportunity to support that kind of ingenious entrepreneurial spirit is something that is appealing to me, as I'm sure it is for many of your other customers. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds for you and Synthmaster.

I'll have to check this out but the comparison I made was with the all the synths presets. None of the other synths presets went over 60%. Maybe SynthMaster can have much better sound quality but for those of us who use a lot of presets a balance of quality and efficiency is more valuable than extremely high quality.

Be careful with SynthMaster presets that have a high unison value. Those consume a lot of CPU as one voice is actually using multiple voices inside.

As I said, unless the preset configs are identical, it's like comparing apples to oranges.

For instance, if you're gonna do a "fair" comparison, try this config:

2 "basic" saw oscillators
1 "analog" (moog) LP24 filter

only 1 layer, no unison.

Play this by pressing and holding 6 keys with l/r hands on all 3 plugins.

Now measure CPU for draft/good/better/best qualities...

Ok, I'll try this out when I have time over this weekend. I think some of the Rob Lee presets must use a lot of unison then. They sound great but I can only use some of them in 'good' mode.

ah yes, he uses unison a lot! Try lowering unison on them, then you'll be fine!