Cherry Audio's CA2600 is available NOW!

[vertibration]

The title of the Music Radar article is this

Cherry Audio says that this $25 ARP-style vintage synth plugin is “the finest 2600 emulation ever created”

See, this is where I think you set your synth up to be probed, and criticized. You cant put it out there that its the finest 2600 emulation out there, because then people are going to rip it up. I think people will now bring up the Barp, and ofcoarse its going to sound better. The Barp is an emulation, so its fair to use it as a comparison.

[Etienne1973]

Now I'm confused. BARP is an emulation?

[foosnark]

Anyway, I demoed this and I feel that patch cable synths like this don't really translate well onto the computer screen in terms of usability. On the screen I find it quite overwhelming.

I find it a bit overwhelming at first too, but I wonder if a real ARP 2600 would give me that same impression.

I use Eurorack primarily, but if I look at someone else's system I just kind of go "huh?" for a while until I find where everything is. And then I probably don't like it as much as my own because it's missing something I use all the time, or the envelope generator feels fiddly or I don't like their patch cables or they have a sequencer I'm completely unfamiliar with, etc.

For me, one of those big blocks on the ARP 2600 is... there's really just the one output VCA?

In the first patch I built I wanted to control the reverb level with an envelope. There's no CV input for that, and there's no extra VCA to run the audio through... guh. So, that's me taking issue with the synth design itself, not with the emulation. I could use a modulator in Bitwig to control the parameter, but that kind of feels like cheating.

I didn't find the sound particularly inspiring either, but I'm sure some people will have a lot of fun with it, and it's nice to see a developer offering synths like this at such a price point.

Yeah, the sound is really not grabbing me, I'm afraid.

[vertibration]

Now I'm confused. BARP is an emulation?

Is it not?

[Etienne1973]

Now I'm confused. BARP is an emulation?

Is it not?

Are we talking about the Behringer ARP 2600 recreation? AFAIK full analogue hardware.

[aMUSEd]

Now I'm confused. BARP is an emulation?

Is it not?

Are we talking about the Behringer ARP 2600 recreation? AFAIK full analogue hardware.

More of a recreation than an emulation.

[filulilu]

Are we talking about the Behringer ARP 2600 recreation? AFAIK full analogue hardware.

Yes. It is an analog emulation. It is far from an exact recreation.

[vertibration]

From a Music Radar Article

"We always suspected that Behringer’s emulation of the ARP 2600 synth was going to be aggressively priced - and certainly cheaper than Korg’s limited edition reboot - but the company has still managed to raise eyebrows with the news that it’ll cost just $599."

Im just saying emulation because its been stated in this article that it is an emulation. Regardless that it is hardware, when you claim to have made the greatest emulation, you leave yourself open to being criticized. Frankly, I like the CA2600, its a lot easier to use than the Arturia version

[Liero]

I start to wonder if anyone in these forums actually has the ability to just enjoy something for what it is. Can’t believe people are in here complaining about this thing at $25. Worse the constant hand-wringing over how close it is to a “real” 2600 which is....what exactly? If you’re that worried buy a real piece of hardware. The beautiful thing about software is bugs can be fixed, features can be modified or added, and it takes up zero physical space.

What's the exact price you're allowed to start voicing that you don't like something? If it has issues like aliasing and an inability to drive the filter, I think most of us are interested in hearing about it even if it was freeware.

[CausticPuppy]

Anyway, I demoed this and I feel that patch cable synths like this don't really translate well onto the computer screen in terms of usability. On the screen I find it quite overwhelming. I didn't find the sound particularly inspiring either, but I'm sure some people will have a lot of fun with it, and it's nice to see a developer offering synths like this at such a price point.

I agree about the virtual patch cables. Having them sprawled across a 2D interface makes my brain hurt, particularly when the cables are blocking other things along the way (transparency doesn't help much). Same with any other synth doing the same thing, even Bazille.. love the sound, hate the sound design. Something like Zebra makes much better use of the software paradigm without sacrificing flexibility.

That said, I'm finding CA2600 easier to get around than Arturia's version. And I think it sounds great with crazy modulations, but I have no idea if it sounds "authentic."

[Echoes in the Attic]

I think it’s amazing that they are releasing stuff like this for 25 dollars. I wish I liked the sound more though. I find it bland, as I did with the 106. Love the interfaces. Time warp still seems like the most authentic 2600 to me. Too bad it was abandoned.

[gentleclockdivider]

Strange resonance peak near self oscillation , just one harmonic boosted
It's like the actual resoance is just adding a generic sine , could they be faking it ??

[WatchTheGuitar]

Anyway, I demoed this and I feel that patch cable synths like this don't really translate well onto the computer screen in terms of usability. On the screen I find it quite overwhelming. I didn't find the sound particularly inspiring either, but I'm sure some people will have a lot of fun with it, and it's nice to see a developer offering synths like this at such a price point.

I agree about the virtual patch cables. Having them sprawled across a 2D interface makes my brain hurt, particularly when the cables are blocking other things along the way (transparency doesn't help much). Same with any other synth doing the same thing, even Bazille.. love the sound, hate the sound design. Something like Zebra makes much better use of the software paradigm without sacrificing flexibility.

That said, I'm finding CA2600 easier to get around than Arturia's version. And I think it sounds great with crazy modulations, but I have no idea if it sounds "authentic."

Well, you'd love Cherry Audio's main product then - Voltage Modular - the one they made their name with. It looks like this...

[4damind]

Well, you'd love Cherry Audio's main product then - Voltage Modular - the one they made their name with. It looks like this...

Have not tested it yet, what I read is that the GUI is better but the quality of the emulations is not as good as with Softube?

[gentleclockdivider]

And here's a fake resonance technique made in reaktor , looks pretty similar he , just one narrow band for resoance ( sine wave tuned to cut off freq )
Sure there is a difference in that ca2600 does have some real resoance ( I suspect ) , but I also think the extra narrow band is a pure actual sine wave not provided by filter feedback ( aka resonance )