Ultra Audio - Ultra (A fancy Vital-style synth that popped up out of nowhere)

[Korg Supporter]

Someone on Discord brought this to my attention. How many supersynths are we getting this year?
https://ultra.audio/
Nigel Standord is the guy involved in it.

Looks very gimmicky, but the wavetable map feature (different wavetables for pitch/velocity or x and y axes) seems really cool.

Here's a tutorial video.

[Agg]

The UI looks slick, but then again I don't use Vital that much. Can anyone say if there's anything obvious here that Vital can't do?

[wagtunes]

Just picked it up. This thing is pretty deep. So far, having a blast.

[Benjamin923]

All the social media accounts are out of date/largely unused, idk when this even came out exactly, it’s a little strange. No launch announcement anywhere I can see. Seems cool but I’d personally be a bit careful about impulse buying it right away, just to make sure this launch is going to be supported and the company/product are solid

[Uncle E]

What's gimmicky about it? The online sound library? The features mostly seem pretty in-line with Serum or Massive X.

[morphex]

It's very visually appealing, and looks like they put in a lot of effort to give it a very modern aesthetic. It's also coming out during a time when the market is being flooded with new synths, so it's got some very stiff competition. I haven't read through the description on their website yet, or watched any video demos. But I plan to check it out after the holidays, simply out of curiosity. It could be more than just another wavetable synth for all I know. I wish Ultra Audio good luck on the release!

[osiris]

Is this a Synthmaker VST? It looks like it.

[dmbaer]

The features mostly seem pretty in-line with Serum or Massive X.

Assuming the OP's post is accurate, then a two-dimensional wave table would be something unique and potentially quite exciting. I have not such a thing in any other synth.

[Benjamin923]

Is this a Synthmaker VST? It looks like it.

Why do you think so?

[Benjamin923]

It’s a bit strange. The dev went to the trouble to trademark a wavetable oscillator name and apparently patent the underlying approach but the launch is very barren and doesn’t seem to have any communication anywhere about it

[Uncle E]

Assuming the OP's post is accurate, then a two-dimensional wave table would be something unique and potentially quite exciting. I have not such a thing in any other synth.

Yes, you're right. Sorry, I didn't mean that as a slight.

[Ah_Dziz]

The features mostly seem pretty in-line with Serum or Massive X.

Assuming the OP's post is accurate, then a two-dimensional wave table would be something unique and potentially quite exciting. I have not such a thing in any other synth.

I thought that the latest Dawesome synth was fully based around having 2 dimensional wave tables. 2 dimensional read head is a bit more accurate I suppose. Either thing sounds like wave terrain synthesis to me.

[db3]

Not much info about this on the interwebs, but first impression from the demo is this is an interesting, flexible synth with an attractive, intuitive UI. Given the engine options, filters, and effects, the factory presets seem a little lacklustre and limited in number. If the business model is the built-in preset store, the pricing will need to be competitive.

[wagtunes]

Not much info about this on the interwebs, but first impression from the demo is this is an interesting, flexible synth with an attractive, intuitive UI. Given the engine options, filters, and effects, the factory presets seem a little lacklustre and limited in number. If the business model is the built-in preset store, the pricing will need to be competitive.

Or, given that you can import your own samples, you simply learn to program your own presets. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

[Teksonik]

Well it took me about three minutes with the demo version to know I want this synth. They pretty much had me at "sample import". However, justifying to myself spending $149 for another synth is going to be a harder sell.

Some of the presets are dated November 2024 so this is not a brand new project. How it flew under the radar is beyond me. It showed a recent update on Dec 20th so it appears to be in active development.

It certainly doesn't feel like a SynthMaker project to me and in fact it seems like a really professional and polished product from presentation to performance. There are well known sound designers contributing to the project so this does not feel like an amateur production at all.

The demo sounds really speak to me and the GUI seems to encourage one to dive in and start making sounds. So yeah this one is on my wanna buy list. I would like to know a bit more about the backstory and developers.

EDIT: I found they have a discord channel. Seems like it's pretty active but for some reason Discord does my brain in....

https://discord.com/channels/1046969626 ... 7495895155