KVR Audio

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Fri May 24, 2019 4:31 pm

Even though the synth is small, it's a bit wide, so it covers the next usb port on laptop.
Has to warm up (analog) oscillators, digital works immediately. Though even after warming up some time, I "had" to hit calibration button to make it sound normal.
VST is small on full hd screen. Especially additive button and additive screen are almost unusable small. Hopefully it's fixed on a later update.
It's possible to play in mono or paraphonic mode. So pads with chords are possible to make. But since paraphonic, the oscillators share the one available filter.

3 oscillators analog/digital and noise on osc3.
Analog oscillator has saw, square and triangle waveforms.
Digital oscillator is additive, but like mentioned that screen is really small. Hope it'd be bigger (maybe popup?)
Oscillator 1 has AM and PWM from osc3. Also VCF destination (that makes trance leads

)

Lp and bp filter, no hp. Not sure how steep the filter is, sounds like it's leaking a bit or then it's just my hearing.
Fully closed filter and still I can hear sound and noise.

Drag n drop modulation. Though there aren't many modulation destinations in vst itself.
Vst shows destinations to DAW (bitwig in this case) so it's possible to modulate even separate partials from digital oscs via Bitwig.
Preset bank. Save load delete (with 1.10 beta). So it's possible to save your presets to a later use, or make whole preset banks (Wags attention!)
Dedicated amp and filter env. 4 extra envelopes and lfos. Filter and amp env doesn't have exponential option, but extra envelopes have.

FX section has flanger, phaser, chorus, delay and reverb. Guess they're ok but I'm not a professional to say if they're good or bad. They fit to the synth and do what they say they'd do.
Sound is sweet analog.. Feels very alive even without filter, but filter really wakes the synth. Opinion about the filter?
Not sure what to say.. Push filter to full resonance and sweep here and there and feelings go between "this sounds bad, omg this sounds so good it gives me a boner, omg this gives me the chills (good or bad)".
Bandpass sounds a bit weak IMO, and the synth could benefit from a built in distortion.

Sound has lots of grit and dirt. Even sine isn't a sine since added noise and harmonics. Some may not like it but I like

Who is this synth for? Can't tell really.. The workflow and the sound may divide opinions, either you like it or hate it. You can probably make music, no matter what is your genre. But if you're used to clean vsti sound, this may shock you

About the workflow. You make your melodies by midi, add automations if you want and when you're happy, you record your piece from the synth itself and drag it back to project from the record folder. So everything, your settings, automations and midi data is all safe and saved while you still have that audio.

This was written in one evening but I tried to make this cover as much as possible. If some questions popup, please ask and I'll do my best answering

*edit*

And a review written by the sound on sound

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ws ... trueno?amp

OneOfManyPauls · Post by **OneOfManyPauls** » Thu May 30, 2019 12:33 pm

Interested to hear your take on it - cheap as chips now at £99.99 from gear4music.com.

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Thu May 30, 2019 12:46 pm

Still waiting for it.. Should be here next week

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Thu May 30, 2019 5:59 pm

I received it today

The sound =

But it works at 44.1khz so if your daw is 48khz, it won't work.. So I'm forced to also use my daw as 44.1khz.

I'll make a longer/deeper text after I've played with it awhile and maybe some soundcloud examples.. Quick conclusion is that it's a nice little synth, workflow isn't annoying because I'm used to record layer by layer, though you can have many instances open and keep the settings so it's easy to come and fix something. You just choose which instance is used for sound.

I'd say it's worth the money but usb stability could be a bit better. But definitely useful (at least for me).

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Thu May 30, 2019 7:12 pm

Does it work like an audio interface, so that Windows is kind of twitchy about using it simultaneously with other interfaces?

Or it does it use a proprietary format over USB, and then the software side sends its output along like any other plugin?

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Thu May 30, 2019 7:46 pm

foosnark wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 7:12 pm Does it work like an audio interface, so that Windows is kind of twitchy about using it simultaneously with other interfaces?

Or it does it use a proprietary format over USB, and then the software side sends its output along like any other plugin?

Not like an interface. Only thing I had to change from the settings was that samplerate.

I just drop Trueno vst to a track, activate the usb selection, and Trueno starts to receive midi and outputs the sound from the same track where the vst is.

I can automate the controls I want, and when I'm happy, I hit record button from the vst and then play from the DAW and the recorded file appears to the location I've decided.

Tried to make some sub bass but the sound was so filled with harmonics and sounded so dirty that I had to eq everything away from above 100hz

Envelopes aren't too snappy either so no psybass from this beast. But leads, trance plucks and fx sound very good (imo). Generally I'd say the sound is bit on the aggressive/dirty side.

OneOfManyPauls · Post by **OneOfManyPauls** » Thu May 30, 2019 8:19 pm

Re envelope snappiness - I take it you can't modulate the envelope stages?

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Fri May 31, 2019 6:03 am

OneOfManyPauls wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 8:19 pm Re envelope snappiness - I take it you can't modulate the envelope stages?

Nah.. But I noticed that there's 4 extra envelopes that also have exponential options so we have snap

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Fri May 31, 2019 8:31 am

The synth has its cons but one huge pro is that.. It's so small and doesn't need a separate audio interface. So easy to carry around and stick it to laptop and have/record an analog synth where ever I go

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Fri May 31, 2019 2:26 pm

Update: the latest beta makes it more stable and works at 48khz! Also preset saving/loading

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Fri May 31, 2019 2:47 pm

would be sweet if this kind of thing took off. the circuits for hardware boards are becoming more available, smaller, and cheaper from china with more people building and buying hardware. i wonder if you could plug 3-4 into a usbC hub for a multi patch for example? maybe they could even make it polychainable.

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Fri May 31, 2019 3:05 pm

I read somewhere that technically it'd be possible, but currently Trueno only supports using one at a time because it's very few people who'd need it.

I hope that Trueno would sell tons of units, but on the other hand.. It'd mean a pile of different remakes of different synths and I'd have to buy them all

bharris22 · Post by **bharris22** » Fri May 31, 2019 3:23 pm

Thanks for your comments - based on them, I just bought one of these from gear4music for $105

. For the cost of a plugin, it will be nice to have portable analog sounds.

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Fri May 31, 2019 6:06 pm

Thread updated

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Fri May 31, 2019 6:10 pm

bharris22 wrote: Fri May 31, 2019 3:23 pm Thanks for your comments - based on them, I just bought one of these from gear4music for $105 .

I was about to post "we can talk about it when it can be bought for $99". $105 is okey dokey indeed. Not sure if i'd pay more though, after all, it has its limitations.

Feel free to post some sound demos, BTW. Always interested in those.

So I bought Trueno synth.. And here's the review!