IK MUltimedia UNO Synth

[Distorted Horizon]

Uno and uno drum must be the best things IK has ever released

[BONES]

Yeah been looking at Skulpt sounds really cool. Seems to be 2 different colour versions., black KB and white in some videos, different models?

I think the pre-ordered/pledged versions are white and the retail versions are black. They are the same machine inside, though. (Mine is black ,like my heart.) It's also a lot of fun to play with and goes quite a bit deeper than Uno. It sits in a nice space between Uno and Micromonsta for me, both in terms of its sonic capabilities and the immediacy of working with it.

I had Tanzbar 2 delivered today and it can sequence 2 midi tracks so was thinking about a couple of little synths to jam with like Uno and/or Skulpt.

That sounds like it could be really cool. Will have to check out Tanzbar 2, methinks, although I am happy sequencing stuff in software.

[rob_lee]

Yeah been looking at Skulpt sounds really cool. Seems to be 2 different colour versions., black KB and white in some videos, different models?

I think the pre-ordered/pledged versions are white and the retail versions are black. They are the same machine inside, though. (Mine is black ,like my heart.) It's also a lot of fun to play with and goes quite a bit deeper than Uno. It sits in a nice space between Uno and Micromonsta for me, both in terms of its sonic capabilities and the immediacy of working with it.

I had Tanzbar 2 delivered today and it can sequence 2 midi tracks so was thinking about a couple of little synths to jam with like Uno and/or Skulpt.

That sounds like it could be really cool. Will have to check out Tanzbar 2, methinks, although I am happy sequencing stuff in software.

I'm getting x1 Uno and x2 Skulpt.. If Uno has a good editor I'll make some banks for it and do some demos on my YouTube. Tanzbar arrived yay!

[Mushy Mushy]

You’re outta control Rob. I hear nothing from you for months then you suddenly appear and buy 2 of everything.

[rob_lee]

You’re outta control Rob. I hear nothing from you for months then you suddenly appear and buy 2 of everything.

That's coz I have to build houses to buy gear.. I work a few months and have a year off mate, stopped doing Sound Design for a bit coz I wanna actually make more House and Techno and I only do stuff for Waldorf now Gathering gear for when I retire.

[Mushy Mushy]

You’re outta control Rob. I hear nothing from you for months then you suddenly appear and buy 2 of everything.

That's coz I have to build houses to buy gear.. I work a few months and have a year off mate, stopped doing Sound Design for a bit coz I wanna actually make more House and Techno and I only do stuff for Waldorf now Gathering gear for when I retire.

Sounds like the life.

[rob_lee]

You’re outta control Rob. I hear nothing from you for months then you suddenly appear and buy 2 of everything.

That's coz I have to build houses to buy gear.. I work a few months and have a year off mate, stopped doing Sound Design for a bit coz I wanna actually make more House and Techno and I only do stuff for Waldorf now Gathering gear for when I retire.

Sounds like the life.

It really is Mushy

[Mushy Mushy]

[BONES]

I'm getting x1 Uno and x2 Skulpt.. If Uno has a good editor I'll make some banks for it and do some demos on my YouTube. Tanzbar arrived yay!

Way cool! They both have really good editors, although the Skulpt one isn't yet available as a plugin (will be VST 3 only when it drops). I'm holding out for a Craft Synth 2, so one Skulpt is enough for now. Still no Micromonsta in your life?

[rob_lee]

Still no Micromonsta in your life?

Nah mate I keep meaning to get it but haven't done it yet. I'm quite into these little synths right now, real space savers. Uno sounds really great to my ears and that Skulpt just sounds big & wide.
Looking for a new mixer tbh right now.

[BONES]

I'm also right into these little buggers and the moment, which meant that I have also just gone through the nightmare of finding a new mixer to accommodate everything. I had to return my first two attempts and ended up with a Behringer, as it does exactly what I need, quite well, and is small enough not be a hassle on my boat (where I live).

I'm also thinking of replacing my Roli Seaboard Rise 25 with a Seaboard Block, to save even more space. It looks like Roli have lost their distributor here so a few places are selling them out quite cheap. Hopefully it will also make it easy to sell my Rise 25 as nobody seems to have them in stock any more. With luck I will get 90% of what I paid for the Rise back, because I got a double deal on it when I bought it (the store had them on special and eBay had a 20% sale going on top of that), which will more than cover the price of a Block.

All this change got me thinking about which things I'd keep in a pinch and which I could manage without. Uno is definitely my no. 2, after Analog Keys, but MicroMonsta would be equally definite at no. 3, with the others - Pulse 2, Skulpt and Rocket - way behind.

[BONES]

I just went to update my UNO Editor and noticed there were several banks of presets in my downloads. With the factory presets it gives me 260 patches. I haven't had a chance to go through them yet but I did listen to a preview of some commercial patches on YouTube that kind of blew me away. If the demos haven't been faked, they are doing things that shouldn't be possible, like hard sync. (UNO has neither cross-modulation or osc sync.) I may end up buying a bank just to see how they've faked it so convincingly.

[AnX]

firmware update maybe?

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

firmware update maybe?

There is a new firmware update available and we plan to continue to offer presets regularly.

[BONES]

firmware update maybe?

Firmware is up to date, although without release notes I have no idea what it brings, but the editor app has no facility for those things so I assume it is still not possible. It is the easiest firmware update process I've ever encountered. Quick and very straightforward.

Hearing those patch demos last night got me thinking about what hardware I really need and why I have the things I do. Being as objective as I can be, Pulse 2 is a great synth, really great, but it doesn't excite me so I rarely think to use it for anything. I could sell it for enough to buy 2 UNOs. Rocket is a bit the same - I love the sound but without patch memory it gets tedious very quickly. I could probably get at least half-an-UNO for it. I've also had my Ultranova for 6 or 7 years now but since I bought the Analog Keys 18 months ago I haven't plugged it in even once. It's still a current model so I reckon it should still be worth 2 UNOs (which is more than I paid for it). That means I can sell three synths I hardly ever use and buy 4 or 5 new UNOs, which I'd use all the time!

More realistically, a second UNO would make those older things obsolete, given what I've heard from these sound banks, simplifying my set-up and giving me more time to concentrate on getting the most from them. I'd still have Analog Keys (utterly irreplaceable), Skulpt and MicroMonsta for different things so I wouldn't be over-relying on UNO, just taking greater advantage of what it can do.

It's a very tempting proposition because UNO is such an exciting little thing to have in front of you and with good presets as a starting point, it is easy to get it up and running in a song. I'll need to dig into all these presets to decide if it really is a workable plan but the prospect is quite exciting.