Cherry Audio's CA2600 is available NOW!

[Shabdahbriah]

Price and branding are more important. If you buy cheap gear you don't think much of it.

I disagree.

+1

[bmanic]

.. well, I'm glad for those that like it but I just can't get on with the sound. This is not sounding at all analogue to my ears.. neither is it behaving analogue in terms of gain staging within the different modules. Thus this ends up quite sterile and lifeless compared to quite a few other emulations out there.

I'll explore it some more tomorrow but to my initial impression there is a distinct lack of "nuance" to this thing.


About gain staging within the synth:

I have a very hard time believing the original doesn't have any kind of internal, quite heavy gain staging possibilities. There should be a distinct difference in how the amp section and especially the filter section sounds depending on how hard you drive it. The filter section should probably sound quite different if it's driven at full volume by two or three oscillators instead of a single osc at low volume. Same with the amplifier section. Hitting it hard should sound completely different to hitting it at low volumes. CA2600 does none of this.

I even routed one of the oscillators through the preamp at x100 and then into the filter.. well, the preamp itself has some saturation but that's where it ends. I can't figure out a way to drive the actual filter section itself at all. I mean, I can get the resonance to either "clean up" or get a bit "fuzzy" but that's it.. there's no more complex interaction than that. Surely it must be possible to drive it real hard so that the actual oscillator itself also "mutates" together with the resonance. Now it feels like two detached modules, where the filter goes "oh look, a signal at high volume.. lets fizz out the resonance a bit!". It's almost like each section is somehow independent from one another, using look-up-tables to change their behavior instead of actually interacting. Kind of like how we I faked self resonance or very high resonances on the K2000 by mixing in a keytracked sine wave.

I'm sure it's all more complicated than that behind the scenes but it's just all so extremely polite somehow. I don't know.. I can't explain it but it just doesn't sound right to me.

EDIT: I'll play a bit more with it and try to truly abuse this thing.. any help would definitely be appreciated. Anybody got this thing to truly "growl" and go nuts without using effects like distortion?

[chk071]

Price and branding are more important. If you buy cheap gear you don't think much of it.

I disagree.

+1

I think v1o has a point though. Buy a $3.000 synth, and even if you have some niggles with the synth, you're probably more likely to talk your investment good.

With something cheap (Behringer), especially when they clone expensive conllector's items, there'll be more potential for managing to find something to complain about. Nothing sober and factual, especially when you consider how close the Behringer clones are to the originals (I watched a video about the Pro-1 where Starsky Carr compared it to his original Pro-1, and it was ridiculous how close they sounded even with the exact same parameter values...). It's just that I experienced myself very often that people are by default rather satisfied with more expensive stuff, even if there is cheaper stuff which is just as good, or people finding stuff they don't like with cheaper stuff even though it is equal. I also notice that with myself: I'd rather buy a real Moog than a Behringer. Simply because it is a Moog. Don't think anyone is really 100% free of stuff like that.

[EvilDragon]

Just raw sound from BARP2600 kills this thing. Start at 1.41.

[bmanic]

Just raw sound from BARP2600 kills this thing.

Indeed. Even that very first super basic patch sounds completely different to the CA2600. Like, it's not even remotely close.

[gentleclockdivider]

I agree to a certain extent and which is why I never purchased voltage modular ( to my ears reaktor sounds a lot better ) , but you can't hear me complain for a 20 euro arp emu , and I love audio rate capable synths
Are you sure you're doing the overdrive routings correct , I can get a healthy anmount of filter drive , filter into preamp , into vca , but yes this is just post filter overdrive .




But example 2 , routing the output of the vca into the preamp back into the mixer ( creating feedback ) sounds pretty horrible with resonance

[vertibration]

Does the Arturia 2600 sound better?

[jonalyn]

hey Cherry Audio team,when will finish the DCO-106 intro price (25$) ?

[bmanic]

Here's a very quick example of what is easily done on the Neutron, in terms of gain staging into the filter section. Listen to how huge the difference is.

First I go hot levels into the filter (the Neutron is by default going really hard into the filter). I've skipped the whole overdrive section and just routed oscillator 1 into filter straight up. After that I go through an attenuator and bring it down by quite a lot, then boost back digitally on output to match levels somewhat. I play it both with and without resonance after this.. in the last section. Even with filter fully open without any resonance you hear a very clear difference in the basic saw wave and how it gets complex and sort of "fizzy/dirty" when driven.

Google drive (mp3): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UllAoF ... sp=sharing

Order of playing in the example above:

HOT+Filter+Resonance -> Cold + Filter + Resonance -> Cold + Filter fully open, no resonance -> HOT + Filter fully open, no resonance.

[chk071]

Just raw sound from BARP2600 kills this thing. Start at 1.41.

One of the fattest sounds I heard from a synth coming from this thing anyway. Already watched a couple of videos before, which were quite a blast.

Edit: I remember now that that was just the video where I was wondering about why many analog synths have such a fat sounding square wave, compared to most soft synths. Think, like on the Minimoog, it may come from the square wave not being a perfect square, but something like 48 or 52% pulse width.

[gentleclockdivider]

I am trying this trick , aliasing rears it's ugly head in ca 2600

[cherryMitch]

To those asking about A/B vids with a real ARP2600… CA2600 was created with a couple of real vintage 2600’s in earshot at every step. If you’ve actually owned and used vintage analog synths - they’re quite inconsistent for many reasons - wide component tolerances, age/deterioration, design changes (the 2600 had at least three different filters throughout its run), etc. etc.

We certainly aren’t “scared” to make a comparison video - we actually did make a video comparing the Voltage Modular DCO-60 module to a real Juno-106, but there are so many variables and customer biases (not to mention they’re really a pain to make, if I’m being honest) that it doesn’t end up proving much, it just stokes the fires of endless internet debate.

Here’s what I can tell you - we’re all experienced synth guys with many years into this and sizable vintage synth collections. We honestly feel this is a great sounding, really fun synth that gets super close to the sound and experience of a genuine 2600, literally for the price of having a pizza delivered. It’s hard to fathom how that wouldn’t be exciting for anyone who truly loves synthesizers. We hope you enjoy it and see what a ridiculously good value it represents. For the record, I’ve been waiting for my own KARP 2600 since January, for which I will pay more than 160 times the price of CA2600 … and it lacks many of CA2600’s niceties (the integrated, CV-controlled effects and second VCA come to mind…).

And BTW, DCO-106 will remain at the $25 price for the forseeable future.

Mitchell/Cherry Audio

[vertibration]

Mitch, all good. Its understandable. I think the CPU has some issues going on. Probably needs to be ironed out in upcoming updates. Its kind of spiking all over the place.

[vertibration]

I tested this along with the Arturia, and this does sound better to me. I find it way easier to use as well, as the Arturia Version has a top down approach, and that is annoying.

[EvilDragon]

It's kinda hard to sound worse than Arturia's 2600 which is really old and hasn't had DSP improvements in a long while...