I was not a fan of the original AnaMark synth, it worked well but wasn't my cup of tea. However after a recent thread about version 2.11 I decided it was time to try it again and am I ever glad I did. :)
While still a bit harder sounding than my tastes it is easy to warm the sound up with the filters. Beyond that the programming choices are updated with bezier curve user adjustable multi-point envelopes. It is worth mentioning that AnaMark II uses a unique (for synthesizers) implementation of bezier curve adjustment with the curve handles similar to a drawing package. It's a nice touch and very sensible.
There are 53 oscillator waves to work with ranging from the typical sine, saw and triangle and getting more complex along the way. Each oscillator can contain 2 waveforms which can be balanced to taste. There are three oscillators in all with graphic envelopes for filter, filter modulation, a combiner which works similarly to a control matrix, 19 effects of the delay, modulation, crossfading and stereo variations.
The synth uses a modest amount of screen space with 8 pages of controls divided into logical groupings.
The filters deserve special mention, there are seven different ones sorted by visual representation of the waveform. They are quite different from older versions of AnaMark.
All this control enables a wide variety of timbres. Because of the flexible envelopes and combiner lush pads and evolving soundscapes are easy to program. The effects sound very good and add to the overall character of AnaMark II but like any good synth they are not necessary to get great sounds.
AnaMark II doesn't get the publicity some other synths do but it should. At it's price point it stands alone and is closer to a traditional synth interface compared to synths that do similar things.
The most reasonably priced complex synth available, AnaMark II holds it's own regardless of price. The presets are a good representation of it's sound too.Read Review