Soundspot Union Wavetable Synth out today

[street spirit]

Pass even at the price. It has no legato playback just 1 voice or polyphony
Who designed this thing? Wouldnt waste 5$ on this

[BONES]

There is a parameter in the top-right of the GUI that allows you to set the number of voices. Surely that's for setting the polyphony? (I'm at work so I can't check.)

[Butwug]

I'm going to pass - After collecting vsts for many years, sometimes less (vsts) is more. Just use top 10 best vsts you like. I've learned that mediocre synths are just not worth the money, time, or management

When I first got my daw last year I downloaded a ton of vst’s from computer music mag. Someone said they have good stuff so just downloaded all of them like an idiot and couple months later I was like wtf are even half of these plugins. Spent a few hours going through all of them deleting each one after testing them, and only kept DuneCM and Litote GranularFX. Adding vst’s just because they’re cheap/free eventually turns into a nightmare. Handful of good synths and FX is the way to go IMO.

[BONES]

Maybe if you're new and inexperienced but I have a pretty good idea which of the 30 or so synth plugins I have installed will get me the result I am after to the highest standard in the shortest time. I find that working with the same handful of synths gets quite boring after a while and I lose my inspiration. Adding new synths to my arsenal sparks my creativity and gets me going again.

Having something like Union in my set-up is a boon, in that it will always be quick and easy if it's the right synth and I won't waste hours fiddling with the wrong synth before I realise my error.

[AnX]

I won't waste hours fiddling with the wrong synth before I realise my error.

you won't anyway, because...

I have a pretty good idea which of the 30 or so synth plugins I have installed will get me the result I am after to the highest standard in the shortest time.

[Faiky]

This synth isn't really worth it.
Produces aliasing, the control causes headaches. I wanted to use the function "stereo wavetable". But loading your own wavetable isn't possible.
The number of unison is also an argument, but due to the unsatisfactory quality i love to use additional osc's in other synths.

[Gamma-UT]

Unless they're desperate to recreate the feel of an oldskool PPG, most experienced users are just going to pick a synth that has velocity response (and the PPGs at least responded to aftertouch) unless the sound quality is way better than existing alternatives - which doesn't seem to be the case here.

You are being specific but there are plenty of examples of great basslines and synth riffs that don't rely on velocity at all and Russell was being entirely general in his comment.

Classic BONES.

If you can cast your mind back just one day, you might recall my answer was to your specific point about workarounds for lack of velocity. Not that there are situations where you might want to kill the velocity response (though even then, reducing variance is what you often want to do). I didn't think it was that hard to grasp but...whatever.

[dionenoid]

How is SoundSpot policy regarding updates/ improvements of their plugins? Anyone knows?

I own a few Soundspot plug-ins, they have never been updated nor improved. Never. Despite many user's requests.

[Hear2help]

This synth isn't really worth it.
Produces aliasing, the control causes headaches. I wanted to use the function "stereo wavetable". But loading your own wavetable isn't possible.
The number of unison is also an argument, but due to the unsatisfactory quality i love to use additional osc's in other synths.

This is the first build, and alot of suggested features will be added in due coarse.
!!!!THIS PRODUCT WILL BE UPDATED!!!!
Maybe purchasing at it's low price would be a good tactic, rather than pay full price when the updates begin to roll out?.

[Hear2help]

How is SoundSpot policy regarding updates/ improvements of their plugins? Anyone knows?

I own a few Soundspot plug-ins, they have never been updated nor improved. Never. Despite many user's requests.

Union will indeed be updated, as there are plans for added features/controls. This is SoundSpots baby, and it will be nurtured.

[Gamma-UT]

This is the first build, and alot of suggested features will be added in due coarse.
!!!!THIS PRODUCT WILL BE UPDATED!!!!
Maybe purchasing at it's low price would be a good tactic, rather than pay full price when the updates begin to roll out?.

How do you do, fellow kids?

[Hear2help]

Pass even at the price. It has no legato playback just 1 voice or polyphony
Who designed this thing? Wouldnt waste 5$ on this

Top right of the interface is a voices option, and this goes up to 32. Voices = Polyphony.

Also, you may like to take advantage of the low price before you have to pay the full price when updates begin to roll out?.
This will not be abandonware, there will be added controls and features over time.

[tatanka]

This will not be abandonware, there will be added controls and features over time

This looks of course good news but may I ask how come that you know ? Are you the dev or otherwise involved (apart from marketing....) ?

[Hear2help]

I want to like this synth but every interesting or innovative thing is double-edged. No mod matrices, no click and drag, super-fast click-the-circle until the color matches one of two mod sources. This works because there are ONLY two possible mod sources. Add velocity and the workflow increases 50%, nevermind aftertouch or modwheel.

Amp ADSR, Mod ADSR, LFO, and filter per oscillator is great, but no easy way to copy them to the other two oscillators.

LFOs are really MSEGs and super-simple to edit, double-click to add or remove points. Click the dots to the left of the label and it becomes the dotted version of the next longer period, click again and it becomes to dotted version of the current value. But I can't find a way to make it not sync'd (e.g., for vibrato).

Speaking of vibrato, it took me a while to figure out, but click on Fine or Coarse to modulate it. The flip-side is there is no numerical value, it's purely graphical and by ear, and trying to add small amounts of vibrato is difficult since there is such a large range. Logarithmic increases would help.



ADSRs are similarly graphical, but again, no numerical values or snap which makes precision difficult. The envelopes can be as long as 10 seconds, but there is no way to tempo-sync it.

The wavetable oscillator is an interesting concept, but it honestly sounds like the two other oscillators merged together. I mean, that is what it is, but it becomes redundant. You can modulate it and do other things to differentiate it, but it's inherently limited. Also, there is no way to save it or go back to a previous state. To call it a wavetable synth is a little too generous.

The FX are generally decent to good and being able to reorder them is great. The reverb is trash but it's good for glueing and ambience if you filter and dampen it. The distortion is pretty nice, you can get some nice lofi sounds that way. The delay uses the same click-to-dot method as the LFOs. You can modulate them with 4 shared LFOs, so now it's up to 4 clicks to choose the modulator you want.

32 unison voices is cool but after 12 or so it's diminishing returns. The detune is rather limited to a sweet spot. You can't make the uglier reese bass sounds (there's a "Gentle Reese Bass" preset in the factory bank). But you can make some really wide sounds.

The GUI takes a significant amount of time to load. Close the window, reopen it. It's going to eat away at your workflow over time.

This is only going to add clutter to my arsenal so I am passing. I know I'm never going to touch it again. If you're starting out and/or don't have many softsynths already and you can give up a pint of craft beer then maybe. But it's a not complete synth to me, there's always some half missing or flawed and it's frustrating. Better to save up for something like Synthmaster One ($36 on sale) or put it toward Serum on Splice.

Well put.
That's why I asked if SoundSpot use to release updates/ upgrades to its products or not. As it is I wouldn't say Union is worth it, but if they surely will improve upon it, I'd think otherwise.

There are plans for added features and controls to be implemented over time. Suggestions will also be collated from users.
The logic is to introduce user to the synth in a gentle manner, and via updates it will expand with features. It's SoundSpot's first venture into the synth world, and it is the FIRST build.

[Hear2help]

UK intro price: £5.99. Now that's aggressive, even for a limited synth.

Making products affordable is not a crime. You may think it is limited, but this synth will be receiving updates over the coarse of time. Updates like added features and controls.