UAD PolyMAX - This thing is Sick

[Aloysius]

Well done.

[Gavincoolguy]

Having a clean sound out of the box that is usable is actually sorely lacking in a lot of soft synths. I have 10 distortion plugins and double that in saturation options. Opal and Poly are usable and cheap and most satisfying is the low end that doesn't need an hour to tweak in the mix. I'm more speaking to my own inadequacies and inexperience here but I feel something clean and fast has its place when you are creating on the fly which is the only way I make. Boring isn't always bad when you are trying to nail your own sound signature without being Dr Synth.

[vitocorleone123]

They sound very good, but as I have mentioned elsewhere, they are just too clean sounding for my taste. They sound like if you got a mint fresh analog synth and took away all the idiosyncracies and dirt and character that make some of us nostalgic for our old analog synths (which btw at the time when we got them or played them, seemed more like nuisances rather than pros that we now view them as)
rsp

Definitely agree. The “too clean” thing fits what the Opal is meant for, so I like that about it, but PolyMAX is pretty boring sounding to me. Ironically, one of the best things about their Minimoog is how well it saturates.

All you need to do on PolyMax is turn it up and it starts to saturate and distort, just like a real analog synth. Nothing clean about it. I wish it had a clean option, but I like it how it is.

And, yeah, Opal is a wavetable synth. Are people expecting wavetable synths to sound like analog synths?

[Kross2]

They sound very good, but as I have mentioned elsewhere, they are just too clean sounding for my taste. They sound like if you got a mint fresh analog synth and took away all the idiosyncracies and dirt and character that make some of us nostalgic for our old analog synths (which btw at the time when we got them or played them, seemed more like nuisances rather than pros that we now view them as)
rsp

Definitely agree. The “too clean” thing fits what the Opal is meant for, so I like that about it, but PolyMAX is pretty boring sounding to me. Ironically, one of the best things about their Minimoog is how well it saturates.

All you need to do on PolyMax is turn it up and it starts to saturate and distort, just like a real analog synth. Nothing clean about it. I wish it had a clean option, but I like it how it is.

And, yeah, Opal is a wavetable synth. Are people expecting wavetable synths to sound like analog synths?

According to UAD, Opal is a analog-wavetable hybrid.

[zvenx]

I had to go deep diving to find them, like open files I am not suppose to open etc.
But yes I saw the thread.. Couldn't miss your blue..

But as they said there, I have no idea which youtuber steered you astray but the demo versions are the the exact paid versions. They Have the exact same presets in it etc.

rsp

[Kross2]

I had to go deep diving to find them, like open files I am not suppose to open etc.
But yes I saw the thread.. Couldn't miss your blue..

But as they said there, I have no idea which youtuber steered you astray but the demo versions are the the exact paid versions. They Have the exact same presets in it etc.

rsp

Another contributing factor to my confusion...is that when I was first checking out the demo....I clicked on the pad category & there were only 9 presets(never have I ever, seen so few presets in a single category.)

[zvenx]

They sound very good, but as I have mentioned elsewhere, they are just too clean sounding for my taste. They sound like if you got a mint fresh analog synth and took away all the idiosyncracies and dirt and character that make some of us nostalgic for our old analog synths (which btw at the time when we got them or played them, seemed more like nuisances rather than pros that we now view them as)
rsp

Definitely agree. The “too clean” thing fits what the Opal is meant for, so I like that about it, but PolyMAX is pretty boring sounding to me. Ironically, one of the best things about their Minimoog is how well it saturates.

All you need to do on PolyMax is turn it up and it starts to saturate and distort, just like a real analog synth. Nothing clean about it. I wish it had a clean option, but I like it how it is.

And, yeah, Opal is a wavetable synth. Are people expecting wavetable synths to sound like analog synths?

Serum, modwave are also Wavetable synths. Hell zebra is too essential, they have a lot more real world analogishness to my ears.
And yes, that is the type of sound i like.

And yes as K2 has already said it is advertised as: "

Get giant, inspiring sounds from the world's best-sounding analog‑meets‑wavetable super synth...

rsp

[zvenx]

I had to go deep diving to find them, like open files I am not suppose to open etc.
But yes I saw the thread.. Couldn't miss your blue..

But as they said there, I have no idea which youtuber steered you astray but the demo versions are the the exact paid versions. They Have the exact same presets in it etc.

rsp

Another contributing factor to my confusion...is that when I was first checking out the demo....I clicked on the pad category & there were only 9 presets(never have I ever, seen so few presets in a single category.)

I am not sure where you downloaded that demo from or what you were doing, but both poly and opal have way more than 9 pads. (for either of them, I stopped counting pads at 30)...
rsp

[Uncle E]

All you need to do on PolyMax is turn it up and it starts to saturate and distort, just like a real analog synth. Nothing clean about it. I wish it had a clean option, but I like it how it is.

Thanks. Good to know, I'll try it out again.

[Goony]

Another contributing factor to my confusion...is that when I was first checking out the demo....I clicked on the pad category & there were only 9 presets(never have I ever, seen so few presets in a single category.)

Bet you also had clicked on another category as well, as if you click on poly and pad, you will only see 9 presets, click on poly again and you will then see all the pad presets. Schoolboy error

[hurricaneaudiolab]

I don't know about this one. Very simple synth. Maybe TOO simple. Reason's Subtractor offers more stuff to play with than this. If the sound was special it would be ok, but it's just...meh? Maybe it's cuz I'm a Roland Jupiter/Juno/JX-8P guy. I wouldn't call Polymax glossy, silky or shiny. It's the opposite...it's dark, rough, raw-ish. Slap a Juno-style chorus on it and it's better. But for $25, I don't mind it. I'll use it here and there.

[slaambo]

Personally, I think this sounds far, far better than NI Super 8.

Absolutely agree, just picked this up on offer for $59 and having so much clangorous phun

[Vortifex]

I bought it cheap in the sale with vouchers. There are plenty of twin oscillator VA synths around but not actually all that many with this combination of sound quality and clear, fresh one-page interface that doesn't assault my eyes or force me to squint at tiny and/or unclear fonts. Invader 2 is probably the closest you'll get.

Just a couple of things I'd change. I'd rather the stereo spread was a dial instead of just two presets, and double-click to reset would be nice.

[Danilo Villanova]

You can get PolyMAX for free with a Loopcloud subscription, even with the 14-day trial. No MIDI learn is incomprehensible, though.

[ghettosynth]

You can get PolyMAX for free with a Loopcloud subscription, even with the 14-day trial. No MIDI learn is incomprehensible, though.

But then you'd have a subscription. It reminds me of that old joke about a contest: "First prize is a yugo, second prize is two yugos!"