New wavetable synth - Sektor by Initial Audio

[jeffb01]

My honest thoughts:

Okay. I picked it up without even demoing it. I have a lot of WT synths (Avenger, Pigments, Icarus, Serum, Massive), but what is $15?. TBH, I when I buy a new WT synth, it's usually for something the others can't do, usually in manipulating the waves or interesting filters. I do think the presets sound nice and it's not a bad WT synth (especially if you don't already have a few), but it just doesn't do that much. I can't find any way to manipulate the wave except for the wavetables FM-ing each other. The filters don't sound bad, but there's just the standard Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, and Notch (2 and 4 pole). And I was thinking that I could use the wavetables, but while they are in .wav format, they are individual waveforms that must be cross-faded together or something. The wavetable editing seemed cool, but I don't really do that too often.

I don't regret buying it, but I can't say it was money well spent.

[dune_rave]

There are too much wavetable synths. Though this one is only 15 in this current promo, I will not go for it. Rather wait a little, and then buy it for 7,5 from you

[Musical Gym]

By that time it will be back at $139 and in marketplace for $99.

[plexuss]

I don't think it's a bad synth. I paid $50 and I am ok with that. You guys are too harsh!

[Musical Gym]

By that time it will be back at $139 and in marketplace for $99.

I like it a lot, just wish it had midi drag/drop from sequencer to host or for sequencer midi output could be routed as input to other instruments.
I asked them and they responded it isn't going to happen.
Maybe they have stopped developement essentially, although I did download the update for it.

[Halonmusic]

They still claim it supports MPE, but it doesn’t. As soon as the price dropped once that low, they will never fix it...

No one uses MPE anyway

Massively Polyphonic Eejit.

Are you calling me an Eejit !?

[sqigls]

i'm guessing the filters run parallel and there's no way to make them serial?
ok, read the feckin manual...

[BONES]

I have a lot of WT synths (Avenger, Pigments, Icarus, Serum, Massive), but what is $15?. TBH, I when I buy a new WT synth, it's usually for something the others can't do, usually in manipulating the waves or interesting filters. I do think the presets sound nice and it's not a bad WT synth (especially if you don't already have a few), but it just doesn't do that much. I can't find any way to manipulate the wave except for the wavetables FM-ing each other. The filters don't sound bad, but there's just the standard Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, and Notch (2 and 4 pole). And I was thinking that I could use the wavetables, but while they are in .wav format, they are individual waveforms that must be cross-faded together or something. The wavetable editing seemed cool, but I don't really do that too often.

So what you're saying is that you spent $15 on a WT synth that isn't as full featured as others that cost more than 10 times as much and that is disappointing. What were you expecting, something that made all the others obsolete? I like it's simplicity, it makes for a faster workflow.

[Tj Shredder]

They still claim it supports MPE, but it doesn’t. As soon as the price dropped once that low, they will never fix it...

If true, this is what continues to confound me and stops me from buying this at the current ridiculously low sale price. I don't even use MPE (nor do I have an MPE controller), but the thought of giving money to a developer that specifically advertises a broken feature that does matter a lot to some people galls me.

I guess my question is: does the advertised MPE ability really not work at all, or is it just not as robust an implementation as some might want? If the latter, I'd probably pay $15 for this under the current sale just to satisfy GAS. But if MPE simply doesn't work, I'll probably skip it as a matter of principle (which is of course made easier by the fact I in no way actually need it).

It does not work at all. Their reaction when I reported it, and explained I tested with a LinnStrument, they answered (after a very long time), they never heard of a LinnStrument. They only heard of Seaboard (which I have as well) and suspected I talk bullshit, and explained like Halonmusic the majority of users does not care anyway (which might be true, especially for the musically unexpressive genre they are aimed at).
Obviously they implemented a button which should switch it into MPE mode, but never tested it. Just to add another feature to the list and then stopped developing...

[Amram]

They still claim it supports MPE, but it doesn’t. As soon as the price dropped once that low, they will never fix it...

If true, this is what continues to confound me and stops me from buying this at the current ridiculously low sale price. I don't even use MPE (nor do I have an MPE controller), but the thought of giving money to a developer that specifically advertises a broken feature that does matter a lot to some people galls me.

I guess my question is: does the advertised MPE ability really not work at all, or is it just not as robust an implementation as some might want? If the latter, I'd probably pay $15 for this under the current sale just to satisfy GAS. But if MPE simply doesn't work, I'll probably skip it as a matter of principle (which is of course made easier by the fact I in no way actually need it).

It does not work at all. Their reaction when I reported it, and explained I tested with a LinnStrument, they answered (after a very long time), they never heard of a LinnStrument. They only heard of Seaboard (which I have as well) and suspected I talk bullshit, and explained like Halonmusic the majority of users does not care anyway (which might be true, especially for the musically unexpressive genre they are aimed at).
Obviously they implemented a button which should switch it into MPE mode, but never tested it. Just to add another feature to the list and then stopped developing...

can you upload a video?

[BONES]

They only heard of Seaboard (which I have as well) and suspected I talk bullshit, and explained like Halonmusic the majority of users does not care anyway (which might be true, especially for the musically unexpressive genre they are aimed at).

Really? Do you want to have that discussion again because I am more than happy to lay out all the reasons that MPE support is largely a waste of time and that 99% of the expressivity of a controller like a Seaboard has nothing at all to do with MPE.

[Tj Shredder]

I know that you are using it mainly monophonic, but to assume all others should play and think in the same way does not lead anywhere. I paid too much for a synth you personally like, that is fine. I love Thorn as you do, though it does not support MPE, but advertising a feature that is not working and obviously has even never been tested tells a lot about the mind set of the developers. Don’t expect them to care about a feature you might need...

[SoundPorn]

I mean there's a reason that MPE support isn't implemented in like 99% of synths out there, and that's because it's clearly a PITA to program. It seems like these guys tried to implement, didn't go as expected, and they probably have no idea how to fix it which is why again most synths don't even touch it.

People got to get out of the habit of attributing malice to what is most likely common mistakes, misunderstandings or aiming for goals out of they reach.

This is why we demo and we see if the features we're interested in work or not on our system in our hosts.

[Gamma-UT]

I mean there's a reason that MPE support isn't implemented in like 99% of synths out there, and that's because it's clearly a PITA to program. It seems like these guys tried to implement, didn't go as expected, and they probably have no idea how to fix it which is why again most synths don't even touch it.

I think it's probably OK if you start with MPE (or poly aftertouch) in mind but it's a real swine to retrofit because you suddenly have to keep track of channelised note on/off triggers and multiple CC streams where you might have started out just forcing everything into a single queue.

[Topcheese]

Awesome deal and the synth is nice. I'm not really trying to learn another synth interface, but at that price the presets that come with it are worth it alone. I look forward to playing around with it and creating custom presets.