User Interface The GUI is a little plain, but very well laid out and easy to navigate. The new NL2 skin (official DiscoDSP release) brightens it up no end so that's worth investigating. The most notable aspect of the GUI is the setting of morph values for all parameters. Holding "CTRL" while adjusting a knob will reveal a second "ghost" pointer. More Later...
Sound If you like rasping growling VA antics, then Discovery delivers what you're after. One of my favourite sounds is that of sync'ed oscillators and Discovery offers a wealth of options for modulating the second oscillator for some seriously hard-edged sounds. There are a variety of filters on offer which all have their merits, particularly the LP24 which sounds warm and thick and the Formant24 which (as you might expect) uses formant filters to lend "vocal" timbres to the sound. FM of oscillators is available too, so tings, pings, bells and twangs are in amongst the sonic arsenal.
Features As mentioned in the GUI section , the morphing feature is thing that makes this synth really stand out. Without it, Discovery would be an excellent VA synth. With morphing, this synth moves to a whole new level. Each and every knob can have two settings applied. One main setting and a second "ghost" setting. You can then morph between these using the mod wheel or (my favourite) velocity. Since you can set the synth to ignore velocity on the VCA (ie no volume changes no matter what the note velo) this feature makes this synth come alive. Imagine filter cutoff, resonance, envelope level, oscillator sync depth and vibrato lfo amount all varying with velocity. Set up a sequence in your host, then play around with those little velocity bars underneath the piano roll that you normally just set flat (or ignore) and you can achieve some incredibly complex effects.
The second feature of note is that Discovery can have up to four layers (ABCD) with each layer being a totally independent, completely programmable version of the synth. A nice bell sound, with a low string fading in , all underpinned by a pulsing growling sync bass? No problemo! Admittedly this does make the synth a bit of a CPU hog, but if I'm honest, I rarely go beyond one layer - this synth is that good.
A tempo-synced delay, a dedicated LFO for pan (great feature!), 3 types of filter distortion, incredibly flexible modulation routing (although not as flexible as a modulation matrix, but nearly) all add up to a superb list of features.
Documentation A good PDF manual is supplied which is well laid out, clear and concise.
Presets This synth comes with a shed load of presets and you can import Nord Lead 2 sounds too.
Customer Support DiscoDSP forum on KvR is lively with regular input from DiscoDSP staff.
VFM Really excellent value for money, this synth. I wouldn't be without it.
Stability Never had any problems whatsoever. Never.
In summary? I really love this synth. It's sound and features are top notch.Read Review
