Absynth 6

[machinesworking]

About to purchase, the upgrade price is exactly what could be expected from every other NI products upgrade price for years now, and of course people complain. Seriously what do people expect? NI have at this point a very straightforward routine with pricing, intro at around 200, upgrades 99, then 6 to 9 months later Komplete comes out, 6 months later half price. You either wait, our you pay $50 "extra" to upgrade now. Personally I don't want to wait maybe a year to upgrade.

[Touch The Universe]

I just found out I get 2 Massive X expansions free. Cool.

I've made some too, how about another one for free. Or anyone else who happens to stumble across this

[Examigan]

I didn’t have the original, so no upgrade price for me of course. Anyway, I can’t afford a $199 synth. If it goes on sale in a year, maybe I’ll get it then.

[faxinadu]

Disregarding it "bothering" someone who seems to be anyways bothered, speaking of presets, there seems to be some confusion as to the locations. It looks like any pre Absynth 6 files on Mac (so .nabs) need to be placed in

/Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/Absynth 6/Sounds

in order to show in the browser, and not the usual ni user content absynth subfolder

[Echoes in the Attic]

Can you combine osc signals together, e.g. with ringmod, sync, both, or invert one, etc?

Is the waveshaper module also avaialble as fx?

Doesn't seem so. Synthesis-wise it seems the same as Absynth 5 (except for one new ladder filter). FM only within the osc.
New UI with AI Cloud, plus MPE.

I haven't been able to demo (no download delivered yet), but Absynth 5 had an FX version so I'm guessing 6 does as well, which should allow you to use the waveshapers.

Not blown away, about the minimum I'd expect. But will be happy to have it back in the next Komplete, especially for my old patch libraries and mutations. Not something I'd spend 99 bucks on for the period of time until the next komplete though.

[Echoes in the Attic]

MPE implementation a bit odd. Expressions get assigned to macros, not directly like the other expressions. I would have though slide would have been added alongside Aftertouch as an Assignment, not a separate thing relating to macros. And with Absynths endless wavetables and envelopes I would have expected a modulation curve per expression.

Like this:

Picture1.png

[Rivanni]

Disregarding it "bothering" someone who seems to be anyways bothered, speaking of presets, there seems to be some confusion as to the locations. It looks like any pre Absynth 6 files on Mac (so .nabs) need to be placed in

/Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/Absynth 6/Sounds

in order to show in the browser, and not the usual ni user content absynth subfolder

I did, but they are not recognized.
Is this not working in the demo?

[BBFG#]

It's easier for me to take a pass now.
I remember asking years ago how Absynth (A5) compared to Alchemy 1 and many referred to Alchemy1 as being like Absynth on steroids. This (A6) sounds like it's on premarin.

[liv]

Browser walkthrough.

[Echoes in the Attic]

It's easier for me to take a pass now.
I remember asking years ago how Absynth (A5) compared to Alchemy 1 and many referred to Alchemy1 as being like Absynth on steroids. This (A6) sounds like it's on premarin.

Yeah Absynth is not really ahead of the competition any more like the old days. Hybrid synthesis including granular, wavetable and fm, isn't really uncommon now. Alchemy indeed was a level up conceptually and in terms of (re-) synthesis methods.

If I'm totally honest, I also lost interest in multi-breakpoint rhythmic envelopes in synths, as I found DAW automation like Ableton's clip envelopes to be more useful since they aren't baked into a patch but variable between clips. Absynth envelopes are like full song in a patch type things.

But none of this changes that I'm still happy to have it back (not sure I would have upgraded Komplete otherwise), and it does have it's own sound, so will still fit nicely among an arsenal of synths. Plus, it's a software vintage classic!

[KBSoundSmith]

I've never tried earlier versions of Absynth. Version 6 (and Kontakt 8 ) may be an incentive to upgrade when Komplete 16 goes on sale. Not going to buy it standalone. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye out for user videos/audio. Looking at the (incomplete) manual, there seems to be some interesting things with the synth.

[EvilDragon]

Also, there was no option to choose where to install the 2-plus GB of content. That’s… not great.

That should be the Content Path in NA. Set it before installation and content should end up there.

[aMUSEd]

Disregarding it "bothering" someone who seems to be anyways bothered, speaking of presets, there seems to be some confusion as to the locations. It looks like any pre Absynth 6 files on Mac (so .nabs) need to be placed in

/Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/Absynth 6/Sounds

in order to show in the browser, and not the usual ni user content absynth subfolder

I did, but they are not recognized.
Is this not working in the demo?

Not sure if it is a demo limitation (if it is it's a weird one) but it does work once rescanned - see below

Screenshot 2025-12-09 at 16.30.49.png

[enCiphered]

Also, there was no option to choose where to install the 2-plus GB of content. That’s… not great.

That should be the Content Path in NA. Set it before installation and content should end up there.

Ah, that sounds great. Thank you

[noiseboyuk]

Mr. Clevinger speaks.

https://www.musicradar.com/music-tech/i ... -clevinger

That's a great piece.

However important Absynth is or isn't to you personally, it has always been an idiosyncratic labour of love. Idiosyncratic labours of love and venture capitalism don't usually go hand in hand, so when it was discontinued the eye-rolling and bitterness was palpable. The harsh realities of the business. NI wrote its corporately loving public obituary and that was that.

Only it wasn't.

I am so pleased for Brian, and so pleased that new management (about whom I notice we hear nothing in the piece) recognised the value of what they had and the scale of the mistake they made.

Somehow it seems like people are back at the heart of NI again.