New Cherry Audio synth- SH-MAX!

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SH-MAX$59.00Buy

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Some of my fav motion presets:

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FWIW, I used SH-Max in the song I'm working on now and I think it sounds great.

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twal wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 7:40 pm "Cherry Audio will be taking it to the MAX with next Tuesday's Live Premiere of our latest release... Don't miss it!"
Hey, why don't those guys support Linux? That's what "I'D" like to see. :?
Last edited by audiojunkie on Wed Feb 11, 2026 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Vendor‑Dependent Copy Protection: Customers lose. Pirates win.:mad:
(Also: I'm Accused of lying about Linux—it boots, runs my pro audio workflow, stays stable, updates--though yearly dismissed as “niche”. Yet I'm the deluded one.)
:roll:

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audiojunkie wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 7:58 pm
twal wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 7:40 pm "Cherry Audio will be taking it to the MAX with next Tuesday's Live Premiere of our latest release... Don't miss it!"
Hey, why don't those guys support Linux? That's what "I'D" like to see. :?
+1 on Linux.
Although I'm a hard pass on this particular emulation.


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https://soundcloud.com/user-216327424/c ... h-max-some

Some presets of SH-MAX demo version I like with different arrangement examples. This synth ain't bad, but not good enough to make me buy it.
I already have other, similar and better softsynths.
Last edited by DCrown on Thu Feb 12, 2026 4:47 am, edited 3 times in total.

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wagtunes wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 8:40 pm The main riff is SH-Max

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim/demolition-man
This synth is a freak haha

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BBFG# wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 8:11 pm
audiojunkie wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 7:58 pm
twal wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 7:40 pm "Cherry Audio will be taking it to the MAX with next Tuesday's Live Premiere of our latest release... Don't miss it!"
Hey, why don't those guys support Linux? That's what "I'D" like to see. :?
+1 on Linux.
Although I'm a hard pass on this particular emulation.
+2 :)
Their plugins work great with wine+yabridge but native Linux support would be better.

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wagtunes wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 8:40 pm The main riff is SH-Max

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim/demolition-man
You just wrote that?

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Seafire Mk2 wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 9:01 pm
wagtunes wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 8:40 pm The main riff is SH-Max

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim/demolition-man
You just wrote that?
I wrote and recorded it in one day.

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audiojunkie wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 7:58 pm
twal wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 7:40 pm "Cherry Audio will be taking it to the MAX with next Tuesday's Live Premiere of our latest release... Don't miss it!"
Hey, why don't those guys support Linux? That's what "I'D" like to see. :?
Well, I don't work for them so you would have to email their support.

This synth sounds amazing. Cherry can really get it right and they are getting better and better, definitely one of their best synthesizers. One of the best not just Cherry sounding synthesizers in my opinion. Lush is great but haven't heard it in awhile. This one is very characterful, vibey, clean but vintage, incredible quality, useable, I had a feeling it would be upon first listen. Just amazing in many instrument-like ways, the Brass is very, very, good. This, Chroma, Atomika, Pro Soloist, P-10, sound amazing. Dreamsynth is fantastic too, also Elka-X.

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After spending some time on SH-MAX.

My conclusion: I will pass on this one and if Cherry Audio won't change their repetetive concept, I won't buy no cherries any more, not even demo again just like Acustica Audio, PA and NI products.

I always check how many presets I like
SH-MAX: 14 presets
and they are not so good that they make me wanna dance.
I am not willing to pay more than 1,5 USD per good preset. So in my world synth is not worth more than 21 USD.

Is it possible that Cherry always makes similar presets in every synth? instead of considering the strengths and character of each synth.
Some synth might be better for pads, some for leads, some for keys.
Most plucks, leads, bells and keys of SH-MAX sound terrible or boring or even harsh. Some presets have a very lot of fx added to distract from the fact that they are real bad. And to make drum presets makes no sense to me, there are drum plugins!
My first impression "great job" was wrong.
I like their last release Mercury 8 and it probably made me judge their new product too positively first.

Is it good for sound design?, I don't care any more and won't dive deeper. I already have 3 synths for creating own presets, a fourth one I would add only if it is an amazing synth, cuz to learn a synth takes a lot of time

Do better.presets, don't get repetetive, otherwise you just sell new guis like Acustica Audio.
You don't have to cover all categories each time, look at the character of a synth or do you intend to turn every synth into a bread and butter rompler?, this concept won't work!
To release two Roland synths one by one was not clever imo.
Maybe think of releasing less, but better products, quality instead of quantity and fire your sloppy preset.programmers, find better ones.
Last edited by DCrown on Thu Feb 12, 2026 5:27 am, edited 10 times in total.

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wagtunes wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 10:20 pm
Seafire Mk2 wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 9:01 pm
wagtunes wrote: Wed Feb 11, 2026 8:40 pm The main riff is SH-Max

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim/demolition-man
You just wrote that?
I wrote and recorded it in one day.
I'm impressed. Good work.

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What do you think the sound designers should do for you? Go back and listen to every previously made preset and make sure a new preset is completely different?

Right now Dreamsynth is on sale. If you chose to never program a sound on your own, you would eventually run out of sounds to use or inspiration. Then you would stop using it until inspiration came back or bought presets; or, you can use the same presets over and over. A preset pack is usually not cheap compared to a cheap synth's price, like in this example, Dreamsynth where is $30 for 1100 presets. A lot of preset packs give 50 for anywhere from $5-X.

But, since they all sound the same, why bother? If one can't discern quality or character from one synth to another, not sure how much one is using their brain to actively understand what is going on. For one: nobody is going to sit around patching Thor all day to get 70% of the way to SH-Max, nor are most artists making music where timbre isn't important and therefore can use the same bell on every song. Remember: electronic music can use various sounds and they work together in different ways; or you can spend time processing them with tape and 60 choruses like Prince. Atomika's bells pretty much by DEFAULT will sound different than Elka's not just because of the engine but because of the presets themselves. I don't know, maybe I'm insane and every Cherry synth is a clone of the others and the sound designers create presets with identical parameters...

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DCrown wrote: Thu Feb 12, 2026 4:31 am After spending some time on SH-MAX.

I always check how many presets I like
SH-MAX: 14 presets
and they are not so good that they make me wanna dance.
There is a limit when it comes to how much variation you can get from the standard subtractive synths from the past.

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