TERA

I've been using this since it was just called Virsyn. For about a year I went through a minimalist phase and it was the only synth I was using and it was able to do all I wanted it to. Except for loading samples.

Much has been made of the flexibility of this thing but the standout feature for me is the sounds it can make. It may not be the phattest analogue emulation ever made but it can be very warm and fat if you want it to. It can also do nice thin digital sounds that don't eat up a mix if that is what you need. The fx that come with it are nice but I prefer to use dedicated VSTs on inserts most of the time. The filters are great. They self-oscillate when the rez is turned up full and can be as subtle as you want at lower resonance. In particular the formant filter can be used for some great effects.

I used to occasionally run out of modulators in v1 but since they added the looping envelopes in v2 I haven't encountered that problem. Apart from not being able to load samples I cant think of anything this synth really needs. Some people might prefer more fx but there's always the insert slots on your sequencer.

I've seen the documentation criticised for not detailing all the hidden features and there have been a couple of occasions that I haven't found an in-depth explanation of how some functions operate, myself. But there's enough information to work with all the features easily.

The presets are good but not all of them are useable right out the box. Most are and so far they are all just a couple of tweaks away from being excellent. But then if tweaking aint your thing you would probably be better of with a sample player anyway. Whatever, there's enough of them to get you in the ballpark for any type of sound.

I haven't had any stability issues for a long time. Pre-Tera on the K6 I had a few problems and I got to say that Harry was right on the ball with the customer support. He should get an 11 for that category.

Overall I would say that Tera is probably the most versatile synth I have used.Read Review