LuSH-101

[twisted-space]

To the D16 guys, I personally think you'd have been better off with a straight up SH-101 emulation in the vain of the classic boxes and at a similar price point. That, for me at least, would have been a no-brainer.

TAL-Uno-LX proved that model at the $40.00 USD price point can be successful. Still interested in hearing Lush up against a real 101.

I don't really get the comparison TBH, the D16 classic boxes are all €99 except phosycon @ €59 (which seems a little cheap).
What I meant was that I'd have bought a classic boxes style SH-101 emulation for €99 even though I don't need it.

Lush-101 is unnecessarily complex and too expensive for me to do that.

[core]

I have to say, I am really impressed with the presets, there are just so many and so many of them are by Sebastian himself. Infact I am stunned he made so made decent presets.

You're going to do a great set yourself, no?

Are you getting the Lush synth yourself? If so let me know if you'd like to do a review.

I have it, but time is not on my side. Hoping to check it out this week if work, the mrs, kids, life, etc allow

[pdxindy]

Any infos about the timbres? Are they just fixed waveforms mixed together with the "Source Mixer"?

The timbres are everything you see on the main page, but no effects or mixer settings are saved with them. They are the raw presets, with the one insert effect.

You can make a "preset" with one, or many timbres, mixed with effects, eq settings etc in the mixer page.

Timbre is a confusing term... I assumed that was some waveform control... It is a layer preset, not a timbre

[Ingonator]

I really wanted to like this synth as i also like Drumazon and Phoscyon from D16 but after spending some time with it i have to say i am really disappointed.

Some things i found:
- GUI is almsost unreadable and crowded, in terms of ergonmics it totally fails IMO. This seems to be even worse in the mixer window.

- numerical value s are shown at the bottom of the GUI, not as a small pop-up window or in an extra display

- If you hover above a control no value is displayed. You have to move the slider to get the current value

- selection of a preset is also not really straightforward as usually you first have to open the browser window, choose a preset and then close the window again. With other synths this seems to be much easier (e.g. drop-down menus).

- CPU use is very high, i would say equal or worse to Diva

- the overall sound, especially in the lower frequencies does not really impres me so far

- a Ringmod is missing

- there does not seem to be a way to do Crossmodulation/FM

- the modulation matrix is very limited IMO. You don't even have the LFOs and envelopes as a mod source.

- why is the SH-101 mode not the default mode for both the filter and the envelopes?

- like others mentioned the 16' octave seems to be one octave too high.

- the Arpeggiator seems to be limited to simple modes and a gate sequencer but no programmable steps/patterns.

- the discounts for existing customers seem to be a joke too. People who mentioned that they got all other products got 20% off.
With other synths like e.g. Diva, Synthix or Oxium there was a bigger discount even for new customers.
Personally i got both Drumazon and Phoscyon and did not receive any discount a t all.

Conclusion:
I don't see by any means how this could be "The only synth you'll ever need".



Ingo

[aMUSEd]

Thankyou for saving me $200

[Igro]

I just tried to create a basic SH-101 lead sound and did the same one with TAL Bassline.
I don't hear that LuSH-101 sounds any better. They sound almost 100% identical and i have the feeling that TAL Bassline does even sound a bit better in the low end...


Ingo

I just created two audio demos using LuSH-101 and TAL Bassline with comparable settings/parameters. No external (and internal) FXs were used:

LuSH-101_Demo 01

TAL Bassline_Demo 01


Ingo

Knowing you from the past, how you couldn't hear the trimmed decay enveloped in Electrax and Saurus, I would take all you words about synths qualities with the grain of salt.

[ariston]

The demo limitations are a real deal breaker. I could live with that, though, but the UI clinches it: I can't see myself working with these tiny faders and buttons for very long. Even the generous 15-minute time limit gave me a headache.

I know a lot of hard work went into this baby, and it doesn't make me feel very happy to say this, but: no, thanks. There are a few design decisions I just don't get here. And the sound is good, but not really remarkably so; at least not enough to make me overlook the faults. We're spoiled for choice these days, with synths like Diva, Synth Squad, Xils and Diversion really pushing the envelope.

Wishing them the best of luck with it, though. Seriously. Going by the responses here so far, it looks like it's going to be a very polarized love/hate affair. Hope enough people love it.

One thing I don't understand, though: did all beta testers just love this without reserve? Not a critical comment anywhere? I can't believe this went through Q&A without anyone remarking that maybe it'd be a good idea to kill the useless keys and expand the interface to actually make it usable.

[Aiynzahev]

I don't see by any means how this could be "The only synth you'll ever need".

Ingo

lol, no such thing. I need em all

Seriously, it's a nightmare making a whole track with the same synth. There is a problem with frequency masking this way in my experience. It's so much easier and works so much better when you have different tones all working together, they don't clash that way.

[pdxindy]

I've got great vision too but for the first time I actually pulled my screen closer to my face to read labels.

It's a shame - they've certainly achieved a pretty slick, crisp, photo-realistic look, but at the expense of severely undermining the usability.

I wish I could hide the (huge) keyboard and scale the whole thing by 50%

It is very hard to read and some of the controls are comically small. The little LED switches to enable and disable stuff are like tiny dots on my screen. I wish I had a good ruler to measure the actual screen size...

[Crackbaby]

Very well written Ingo.

and what twisted-space (almost) wrote: i want a simple sh-101 too!

i wonder how the betateam could give this an ok for sale .. the relation between pianokeys and textsize must have been the first thing to stand out for a tester, wouldn't it?

[Ingonator]

Knowing you from the past, how you couldn't hear the trimmed decay enveloped in Electrax and Saurus, I would take all you words about synths qualities with the grain of salt.

I don't remember what you talk about. Even if i would i don't know how you could judge the overall quality of a synth with the example you provided here.


Ingo

[zvenx]

Very well written Ingo.

and what twisted-space (almost) wrote: i want a simple sh-101 too!

i wonder how the betateam could give this an ok for sale .. the relation between pianokeys and textsize must have been the first thing to stand out for a tester, wouldn't it?

I didn't beta test this, but as a beta tester for quite a few products, I can say in many cases, I would go so far to say in most cases I have beta tested, many times, the developer has his vision and not always is the beta testers opinion on features, GUI, design etc 'convincing' enough for the developer to put stuff on hold and redesign.....

just my two cents

rsp

[Aloysius]

well i think we just compare it to that (DIVA) because it's the standard CPU KILLER

FTFY

Why nobody mentions GForce ImpOSCar2 when they talk about Analog/Hardware sounding Synths?

aloysius, i never said that, please don't quote me with words i didn't say. Thanks.

How come you're TheoM in one post and ttoz in another???

By the way, I deleted the offending portion of text much earlier on today. I realized that it might not seem so funny to everyone. Especially, your good self.

[Igro]

Could have sworn I had a real account..

Anyway, i am real, honest... look..

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Keef+Baker

Ok, I don't play with presets. Personally I might look at one or two and then it's get to grip with the thing.

So... I just spent 15 minutes playing with it and personally I love it. I'm not interested in a 101. I guess I just don't do that kind of stuff much, so I was taking it at full face value as its own beast.

It's a monster.

The synthesis engine is intuitive, the sounds are great if a little weak in the low end (not like that's an issue, I have a million synths that can make a good low end sine wave). Because of the nature of the layering it's easy to use as a drum synth as well as anything else.

For me... Well, I've bought it already...

I will be spending an extended session on it tonight getting to grips with it and probably making something to throw on soundcloud.

Nice to see you here Keef! Always liked your music!

[JimmiG]

Just tried the demo version. It's not a bad synth, but it just isn't worth the cost (in terms of price as well as CPU usage) for me. It also seems to be quite inefficiently coded as I it was using about 10% of one core even with nothing playing. Properly optimized synths shut off the signal when they're not being used, leaving your CPU free for other parts of your arrangement.

The GUI is tiny - I have a low-DPI 1680x1050 monitor - at higher resolutions it has to be virtually impossible to read some of the text.

The modulation matrix is a joke. It's not really a modulation matrix, it's really just a page for assigning MIDI controllers.

Multi-timbrality is kind of pointless with a software synth. I prefer to do that at the DAW level. This gives you more control and flexibility.

Some of the sounds are pretty good indeed, but the market is absolutely and utterly flooded with "Virtual Analog" plug-ins. If you don't own a lot of plug-ins already, this is not a bad choice (as long as you have good eyesight and a fast CPU), but I can't really hear or see anything that makes this a better choice than any of the other several thousand plug-ins available, many which are both cheaper and more CPU efficient.

Maybe we still, in 2012, haven't reached the holy grail of software synths - a plug-in that sounds identical to late 1970's technology - But I think people stopped caring, because what we have sounds "good enough".