Absynth 6

This review depends on whether you owned Absynth 2-5 or not.

If you owned old Absynth, and don't care for MPE, this is a 1/5 terrible update. $100 skin with no new features.

If you never used Absynth, this is an amazing revival to the old beautiful synth! 5/5


I've used Absynth 5 extensively both before and after the discontinuation. After demoing Absynth 6, I can confirm that there are basically no changes other than GUI. This update is almost like a very intricate skin. The work flow is the same, but with more graphical features such as replacing number sliders with rotatable knobs. The modulation is still a slow work flow, as you need to swap to the modulation tab and use drop down menus to assign modulation, almost like a modulation matrix.

non-GUI changes:

-You can now create waveforms by drawing them, which is okay.

-Modulation has more features, but the same slow workflow as Absynth 5.

-New "analog filters", but they are basically the same HP/LP/BP/notch that was already present in Absynth 5. Honestly not really a new feature as a user could just use saturation on the old filters to mimic the "analog" feel.

-The MPE support is new and a great feature for performers and Kontakt users! Personally I don't care for this, but if you use MPE, then this is a good update for you.

-Graphical Preset selection, technically a GUI feature, but strikingly different from Absynth 5's old library.

-32 Grain density adds a bit more smoothness to the sound of granular synthesis, the only change involving synthesis.

The real selling point of this synth are the unique effects. Each are very detailed physical-modeling /reverb/echo type effects that add extreme depth and ambience to any sound design. My biggest problem with this was that you could only select 1 effect per instance, and they never fixed this Absynth 6. Still, I would highly recommend this synth to new users just for the effects.

Absynth was always a king of creating ambient sound design, and the update does not take that crown away. If you need a high quality Ambient synth, this is perfect for you. I am happy that the synth has been showed love and revived for new users to enjoy. I am just sad that I cannot justify upgrading my Absynth 5 just for a GUI make-over.

The champ returns complete with a facelift and a clever new trick or two. I will admit the frugal part of me would have loved it if this was included as part of Komplete 15, but the practical part of me recognizes that the $99.00 USD upgrade fee was more than fair and overridden the frugal part. However, I will be the first to admit that this is a 'beauty in the eye of the beholder' principle.

In my opinion, this upgrade did exactly what upgrades should do; it brought the things that the synth did well up to current standards and added a couple of things to compliment an already mature and stable product. The same high-quality synth engine that we all know and love is still there and sounds as awesome as ever. The additions include improving the GUI, overhauling the preset browser, adding MPE, and supporting VST3. In all, I feel this upgrade hits the mark quite well.

One of the best for soundscapes and atmosphere sounds! I always find a sound that suits me in the large banks.

This is one of those colossal, towering sound monsters that make you feel intimidated at first. But when you get in to it... Infinite sonic possibilities!! I really like the semi-modular structure of this synth, you can make it as simple or complicated as you want. Even a one oscillator patch can yield truly 'out of this world' results with all the waveshaping, modulation and filtering options! With all this power it's amazing how intuitively it works, but there's bound to be some quirks too: The envelopes, for example, can be really tricky to program no matter how graphic they are. And I would really prefer a simple 'keyboard follow'- knob option instead of the messy key-by-key editing across the 8 octave 'board. Some might find this very useful, but to me it's just unnecessary complication. Anyway, just for the unlimited range of never- heard- before sounds you can conjure with Absynth, it deserves the max points.

It took me some time to realize everything that Absynth is capable of, and I'm going to blame that on lazy sound designers. It's too easy, in Absynth, to animate a couple of oscillator and filter parameters with envelopes then throw a bucket of effects over the top and have something that's impressive on first listen. Unfortunately everyone has already done that a zillion times.

Consequently, when learning Absynth, it's very important to work your way through the seemingly endless folders and categories of sounds that are now included in the factory library, finding the ones that work for you and stand out. Absynth is well known for its typical ethereal sounds but also does beefy mono leads, gut-punch basses, versatile percussion and mallets, rhythm and melodic sequences, and very usable FM and electric piano timbres as well as organs.

When you find a sound you like, categorize it as a favorite and learn what makes it tick. Turn off effects and waveshapers and find out what's happening with the oscillators, filters and envelopes. Are there combs? What are they doing, how are they modulated? Are they being used to model or enhance the resonance of an instrument?

The options for sound sculpting are endless, starting right with the oscillators - load a standard oscillator, draw one, create it by fractalizing a primitive shape, lowpass filter it if it's sounding too trebly, morph between osc shapes, ring mod or FM them, select individual partials in the overtone series, load a sample and granulize it - and this is before coming to any of the filters or waveshapers or effects. And just about everything can be modulated and cross modulated by performance macros, LFOs and what are quite possibly still the most advanced envelopes in the realm of plugins. Hint for budding sound designers: you don't need to use every feature in every patch.

One of the most exciting and criminally under-explored features is the tuning tab, where you can create and load tuning files - everything from exotic world scales to alternate tunings from early and modern classical, or create your own from scratch. There are other synths that let you load Scala .scl and .tun files, but not many that let you create your own custom tuning right in the plugin. It's a rare and special feature.

Absynth has the best CPU efficiency to sound quality ratio of any synth I've tried. You can get pristine sounds at very little resource usage. If you don't like freezing tracks but still want high quality sound and bottomless options, Absynth should be in your tool kit.