Kilohearts - kHs One?

[plexuss]

Yeah... but One might appeal to some people. it has an interesting sound. We'll leave it up to others to decide if they want to buy it. at the very least its on at a good discount for those that do.

[ghettosynth]

Yeah... but One might appeal to some people. it has an interesting sound. We'll leave it up to others to decide if they want to buy it. at the very least its on at a good discount for those that do.

Ok, let me turn this around. What is interesting about the sound to you?

[nicksohn]

Playing with the demo: it sounds like a baby Spire to me. $19 seems like a really good deal if you like the sound and features.

I like sound , but don't like features..
So i'm still considering for buying it.

I don't want to mess up my arsenal.
I have almost every synths from NI ( since i got komplete ult.) including monark, massive, fm8, absynth, etc.., cakewalk zeta1 and 2, rapture, kv331 synthmaster, AAS ultra analog, xils 3.2, etc...

I don't know i need this or not, but sound nice to me. But features are... um... um..
I really don't know!
Maybe i'll just grab it!

[plexuss]

Yeah... but One might appeal to some people. it has an interesting sound. We'll leave it up to others to decide if they want to buy it. at the very least its on at a good discount for those that do.

Ok, let me turn this around. What is interesting about the sound to you?

I had mentioned it sounds like a mini Spire. Like Beatzille is to Bazille. Except instead of free, its $19. That's cheap enough for someone who wants something like One. I am not getting it because I have many synths covering a wide range of sounds. But for someone who likes the sound of One, $19 isn't a bad price to pay.

[bite_me]

Sounds a little boring like Bitwigs Polysynth. Not really fat. I like Kilohearts ladder filter!

[greenfly]

Sounds a little boring like Bitwigs Polysynth. Not really fat. I like Kilohearts ladder filter!

It's interesting you mention Bitwig's polysynth because the workflow of kilohearts products is very similar to that of Bitwig in that it excels with the simplicity of its modulation routings.

Reading this thread, I wonder if people have missed this aspect of kHz one, for sure it's a standalone product and I agree you can get a similar sounding synth, but this argument can be made of any synth on review.

I like Kilohearts products and products like this come into their own when used as tone generators to be used in conjunction with something like Multipass in much the same manner Powersynth becomes even more fun with MXXX. Just a developer completing is product portfolio. Not sure why people are knocking it just because it's on sale as a marketing initiative to develop interest in suites like snapheap and multipass which are both excellent and underrated products.

[greenfly]

Sounds a little boring like Bitwigs Polysynth. Not really fat. I like Kilohearts ladder filter!

It's interesting you mention Bitwig's polysynth because the workflow of kilohearts products is very similar to that of Bitwig in that it excels with the simplicity of its modulation routings.

Reading this thread, I wonder if people have missed this aspect of kHz one, for sure it's a standalone product and I agree you can get a similar sounding synth, but this argument can be made of any synth on review.

I like Kilohearts products and products like this come into their own when used as tone generators to be used in conjunction with something like Multipass in much the same manner Powersynth becomes even more fun with MXXX. Just a developer completing his product portfolio. Not sure why people are knocking it just because it's on sale as a marketing initiative to develop interest in suites like snapheap and multipass which are both excellent and underrated products.

[chk071]

Yeah... but One might appeal to some people. it has an interesting sound. We'll leave it up to others to decide if they want to buy it. at the very least its on at a good discount for those that do.

Ok, let me turn this around. What is interesting about the sound to you?

I had mentioned it sounds like a mini Spire.

Mh... i can't confirm that really. Spire is another league IMO. This sounds a bit harsh, cold, and digital. At least that's my impression from demoing it briefly.

[Gamma-UT]

Ok, let me turn this around. What is interesting about the sound to you?

Well, I get the urge to play the main riff from "Just Can't Get Enough" every time I hit a key on the default preset. Does that count?

[grymmjack]

This is currently $19. I plan to demo it but wondering if there are any Team KVR opinions on it? What does it compare to?

It's worth $19. It's limited so don't expect a super synth like for example LuSH-101, but it can make some very decent sounds. I re-bought at that price (previous owner). The reason I did was sort of specific - I used it in older projects that I had to abandon once I sold it. The reason I sold it was because while it was very well made and sounded great, there was too much overlap with other plugs I owned that did a little better job and were more flexible. To qualify the better job statement: to me the most bases a plug covers the better but this is only to a point - my mind has to be able to grasp the finite and consider the limitations yet it has to keep me interested for more than say an hour when patching it before I lose interest.

kHs One definitely has it's sweet spots, but eeking them out is a longer process than with other plug-ins. I think the reason for this is simply because of it's more limited approach. It can't do a ton of things, but what it does it does extremely well. However, I always feel at the end of patching sessions "man I wish it could do these things". Here's a list of them:

• Sine wave in the main oscs
• Easier selection of a sine for the sub (you can get close to a sine if you pass the plug through an oscilloscope you can see what I mean - you have to dial the shape knob just right to get almost a sine)
• Better phase per osc, either free run oscillators (this is a big want) - the osc's in kHs One all start at the same time, so when you pile on the unison it has this audible triggered sound that in other synths I can smooth out by configuring the oscillators to be free running and thus not as noticable and much more unlikely to happen or a phase control (as a mod target too) to make this less noticable.
• Tempo sync option on the per voice LFO
• More modulation slots 3 doesn't cut it for some jobs and yep, I've run out often. Even double the amount would suffice.

For $19 I feel it's a no-brainer purchase because:

• I can add a little more variety to my choices
• I'm keen on it's UI
• The shaper makes things sound very unique and interesting
• The filter is fun to program and there are 2
• The speed of bread and butter sound building

My thought process for the initial purchase was to replace Linplug Alpha (my 2 osc subtractive workhorse) and while kHs One has slightly more features than Linplug Alpha, the sounds are way different so this was a silly thing to consider. However, I was younger and thought less about these things back then.

Another thing that is nice about kHs One and often overlooked by other plugins is it's ability to use native FXP and FXB formats. I understand the rationale for internal preset management it just bugs me a lot because my DAW can handle those duties and I like it to do so when possible. The work around is always rack it as an instrument rack in Live, and create a library of racks with each preset but that is a tedious and cumbersome thing to do.

When it was initially released this synth hit that sweet spot while looking so much more appealing (and that's a big deal to me) and I found that I was really turning to it often because of this ease of use. As time went on, a lot of competing products have since come and some even free (as mentioned) so it's become a lot more of a challenge for me to personally justify the use of it over other options, but I think the modest feature set can get you a long way, and is certainly worth the $19.

[exmatproton]

This is currently $19. I plan to demo it but wondering if there are any Team KVR opinions on it? What does it compare to?

It's worth $19. It's limited so don't expect a super synth like for example LuSH-101, but it can make some very decent sounds. I re-bought at that price (previous owner). The reason I did was sort of specific - I used it in older projects that I had to abandon once I sold it. The reason I sold it was because while it was very well made and sounded great, there was too much overlap with other plugs I owned that did a little better job and were more flexible. To qualify the better job statement: to me the most bases a plug covers the better but this is only to a point - my mind has to be able to grasp the finite and consider the limitations yet it has to keep me interested for more than say an hour when patching it before I lose interest...

...My thought process for the initial purchase was to replace Linplug Alpha (my 2 osc subtractive workhorse) and while kHs One has slightly more features than Linplug Alpha, the sounds are way different so this was a silly thing to consider. However, I was younger and thought less about these things back then...

...As time went on, a lot of competing products have since come and some even free (as mentioned) so it's become a lot more of a challenge for me to personally justify the use of it over other options, but I think the modest feature set can get you a long way, and is certainly worth the $19.

I agree 100%, but only at this pricepoint. Normally it costs €99,-, which i find way too much for what you get. The €19,- was a no-brainer for me.

[fluffy_little_something]

Yeah... but One might appeal to some people. it has an interesting sound. We'll leave it up to others to decide if they want to buy it. at the very least its on at a good discount for those that do.

Ok, let me turn this around. What is interesting about the sound to you?

I had mentioned it sounds like a mini Spire.

Mh... i can't confirm that really. Spire is another league IMO. This sounds a bit harsh, cold, and digital. At least that's my impression from demoing it briefly.

Yes, it does sound a bit harsh and cold.

As someone else mentioned, the phase issue is not helping, either. They should include complete phase control like on Sylenth1.
But the way it is now, it is good for percussive stuff.
It also makes nice synth basses.

I can't seem to make the chorus sound lush and pleasant. Either it's too much or too little, so to speak.

The user interface is too small and dark, it is hard to see options when selecting mod targets.

I like the eq section, though, simple and effective.
The envelopes also seem to be good.

Ai, just noticed it is one of those synths where one has to load a new instance when trying to reload a factory patch one has changed, which is irritating in the case of the init patch.

[Mattvk]

My biggest gripe with Charlatan is the feature set. I really wished it had a bit more capabilities. Sound wise, especially when using the unison, it gives many payware synths a run for their money, IMO. Sort of the same problem as with TAL-Noisemaker. Both really good synths, but, unfortunately, very limited...

I´m still suprised what sounds Charlatan brings. Despite that fact i mostly built supersaws
But take an instrument rack, 2 or 3 Charlatan with different settings and hear what happens.
With more features i would never experiment so deep. And that is what wanna do. Starting less and grow.

My two cents:
Only cosmestics to charlatan. Switchable Colours

[fluffy_little_something]

Noticed two more unpleasant issues:
- when playing the same not with longer release repeatedly, it sounds ugly, so one has to do a velocity to pitch modulation as a workaround to enforce a little pitch drift, just like on Sylenth1
- there is quite some grinding noise when playing chords with patches that have semitone detuned oscillators, similar to Predator

[fluffy_little_something]

I have uninstalled both One and the Chorus now, in my view kHs are not on the same level as leading developers yet, sorry to say that