Cobalt

I shall do the honors of leaving the first KVR Cobalt review :). Frankly, I am rather suprised that no Cobalt owners wrote a review yet as Cobalt has been out for a while now. What you get for such a low price is WAY above and beyond what you would expect for something in Cobalt's price range. Personally, I feel that the quality of the current version (1.0) could easily compete with VST synths priced in the $49 - $99 range. Guys, this isn't fanboy rambling here...I'm one of the pickier reviewers and as a sound designer by trade, I have enough exposure to other synths on the market to have a clear understanding of how any given synth stands in comparison to its competition. If you lack funds but want decent toys, buy Cobalt for the steal price it goes for. One thing stands out with this synth. It only goes for about $25, but it is NOT some cheaply made piece of Synthedit junk. I recall that Leslie coded this puppy himself in Delphi.
On with the fine details.... The user interface is clean and very easy to navigate. Your oscillator, filter and modulation choices are all conveniently accessable via drop-down menus on Cobalt's single-page GUI.
The sound quality is very good and certainly has the character of those Korg DW series synths. You can dial in all manner of early to mid 80's Synth Pop type sounds that have the typical signature glassy quaility, thanks to the additional osc. waveforms. Cobalt is also very much capable of some rough and nasty sounds that would please musicians who specialize in Industrial, Hardstyle and other, edgy musical genres.
Features-wise, for the price, Cobalt excels. At this writing, there are about 26 oscillator choices. You have 2 LFO's that can modulate PWM (which ALL osc's have), osc pitch, filter cutoff and panning. For effects, you have a stero delay that also has a sync option. I would have liked to see dotted note values included, but for now you can work around that with careful settings in normal mode, though you would have to adjust accordingly depending on your song's tempo. The Chorus effect has its own character and the quality is actually quite good. Many synths in higher price brackets have a chorus effect that is just plain bad. Not so here. It even has a feedback option for decent stereo flanging. I think Leslie would do well to add a HP filter option to this effect so that you can use some wild flanging on a bass sound without the boominess you would get otherwise. There is one other feature that is missing in Cobalt that I think all the Trance/Techno guys would appreciate...adding "modwheel" to the modulation options for the filter. Maybe in a future update...
As far as the included presets go, the original factory set is a mixed bag. You have Leslies own, vintage-oriented sounds which are quite good and usable. Then you have a few of the other contributions which, though I liked personally, may not be very useful to more mainstream composers. Nonetheless, those presets make for a good creative whack upside the head for someone who likes to roll their own sounds. Nothing like thinking outside the box :). I recently contributed a new soundbank available on Leslie's website that would hopefully satisfy those with more standard personal tastes (though I got some wacky one's in there too, lol).
All in all, Cobalt is an excellent value for the money bound to please skinflints everywhere :). I recommend this synth both for seasoned professionals who already have the latest gear but need something quick and simple and for newbies on a tight budget looking for their first quality VST synth outside of what is offered within their DAW software.Read Review