CronoX

Cronox 3 is a nice hybrid sampler/synth and good value for money.

Cronox 3 has a nice looking user interface. Most nobs and buttons are fairly large wich makes them easy to grab and adjust with the mouse. I like the 2-dimensional userinterace elements where you can adjust two parameters at once by dragging horizontally or vertically. It's clearly laid out and easy to understand.

Sound-wise I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Cronox. I think some of the presets are really, really, stunning, but then, most I find useless, and I find it hard to get my own sounds to sound great (no, I don't have that problem with other synths!). The presets I really love are based on samples, so I'm afraid its really the quality of the samples and not that of the synth-engine I love.

Cronox has all the features of a subtractive-style synth. Add to that: multimode and variable state filters, 4 oscillators with various sample playback and manipulation modes, a powerfull programmable arpeggiator, a modulation matrix and 6 built in effects. It's actaully very powerfull!

The manual is small, but well written. You won't need it much, because this synth is very simple to use.

The preset management is clumsy (at least on OS X). The presets are in the system library folder and if you decide to place your own sounds in the user library folder (because otherwise they'll be replaced in case of an update)you'll have to manually navigate from one to the other.

I've had contact via mail with customer support at linplug in the past and it was allways good.

Cronox is good value for money. You get lots of features, but you'll have to decide for yourself if you like the sound of it. I find Cronox very stable on OS X.Read Review