I had really forgotten how powerful the V-Synth is. While it doesn't have the most warm, accurate analog sounds, it's really in a league of its own. How many synths out there in the hardware realm let you take an audio sample (recorded via line-in, mic or USB), run it through an amp modeler parallel to a supersaw going through a sideband filter, then ring-modulate the sum and send all THAT through 3 effects units?! This thing has loop slicing and tempo-synced playback functionality, massive arpeggiation (which can be used to create step sequences), an amazing onboard sample-editor, and probably one of the best if not THE best pitch engines I've heard. I recorded in some vocals from my wife and pitched them down about 7 semitones. Rather than sounding like some ogre, it sounded 100% natural, like a much older, deeper-voiced woman was singing.
This is all to say nothing of the control. The V-Synth has gotta be one of the most expressive, playable synths around. Polyphonic aftertouch, two light-beam controls, an X/Y 360 controller, a veritable arsenal of hard-assigned knobs and 2 assignable ones per patch, plus the modwheel and pitch encoder. All this for less than $700 (admittedly, the average eBay price for a previous-generation V-Synth is more like $1k, but you usually get at least one expansion card.) I'm seriously blown away. While I haven't explored the entire preset bank yet, so many of the sounds are not just usable, but extremely unique, even compared with the heavyweight champion of the software world Omnisphere.
Why doesn't this synth get any love? I almost never hear anyone talking about it anywhere. Is it really because it doesn't sound that "analog"?
Edit: for fun, a video of me unboxing this thing
