Alright! I'm in love. I'm in radical amazement. I'm slack-jawed knocked out by Kubik. Been lost the last few days in exploring it. I don't know whether it's a strange serendipity of synth and preset (and there are several sound-designers from KVR that contributed) but the sound-designers seem particularly inspired and so playing around with the sounds has been really delightful.
I'm not a heavy synth-tech guy nor am I a great under-the-hood, from-scratch tweaker but ever since I started fooling around with Kubik I find myself slipping deeper and deeper into different and varied aural universes. I don't think of it as being the type of synth that can emulate accoustic instruments - although maybe it can (and I did hear some nice el. piano kind of stuff) - but I do think of it as being incredibly musical. By that I mean, I can see it having real inspirational value in working up soundscapes etc. Long evolving pads, richly colored tapestries of sounds, spacial ascents, sublimely bizarre effects. I'm still exploring it after a few days and still have nowhere close to feeling like I know it's boundaries. That may also be one of the benefits of having banks from different developers...people seem to have a very different take of Kubik...giving alot of choice in type of preset.
I had a bit of an early tussle getting it installed and going but that could well have been my fault or the fault of my system. Jon, as per usual, was very gracious and quick with support. There's a MIDI learn function -which is great...and other aspects of the synth seem to be really well thought out and intuitive. I can take a preset and mangle it in moments. There are hundreds (maybe) of different waveforms and wavetables to continually mix and match so I think of Kubik as being relatively infinite in the choice available. I admit that I haven't finished the manual yet but it seems comprehensive and straight-forward.
Best of all, I've found, once I got it working right, that the exquisite, richness of the sounds is not choking my CPU -even when I play full chords or evolving pads with delays and other effects. This efficiency is of particular importance to me as some of my other favorites tend to smother my Athlon 2100+ CPU.
In sum, I love ConcreteFX synths for having unique character and a bit of attitude. With this synth, though, Jon has taken synthesis to a whole new level. I give it the highest recommendation. I will stop going on and on about it now so I can get back to playing with it.Read Review
