For disclosure purposes, I was a beta tester for CUBE.
Having gotten that out of the way I must say CUBE is everything I had hoped for and a few things beyond what I expected.
CUBE is based on additive synthesis. There are a number of segments that additive oscillators can be edited with. The method of editing most intuitive is graphically. Draw the envelope that comprises the additive frequencies that make up an oscillator. Change a few around, it is easy to hear the change in timbre. Consider that you have envelope control as is typical of any synthesizer but that you also have the ability to have up to 512 LFO's that can modulate one another using the "ensemble" control. There is also noise and filter controls. And that's one of four available sound sources.
Beyond multilayering or zones you are able to manipulate sound using what VirSyn call "spectral morphing". Here you create envelopes that are multisegmented. On the main view screen you see them drawn. They can be manipulated by traditonal controls or by mousing on various segments of a line. The effect ranges from subtle to impossible to describe crossfades of sound sources, filter behavior and other simple things such as pan. Best of all, you can play around and see just how easy it is to make sounds.
Speaking of the main view screen, CUBE itself is one screen, you go to the main screen view to change each sound sources editing properties. These include partials (the sound source), attack, decay, pan, filter and noise; all graphically.
On the main screen there are also a setup and effects buttons that take you to the main view screen. Below that interface section you will find the envelope areas which is also hand drawn, similar to Absynth, z3ta, Rhino and Crystal. You can set up morphs in the 'x' and 'y' axis' along with additonal editing features in use. There is a randomize function and highly functional arpeggiator.
CUBE has 8 channels of polyphony. CUBE is a large scale and processor intensive synth although for what it does it is fairly light and the sounds you get are so substantial you won't be playing slabs of chords although CUBE can certainly provide the ability for simple sounds to do so.
It is the cleanest, most impressive sounding software synth to date. It's timbres go beyond describing other than to say if you liked the Kawai K5000 you will probably love CUBE. The bells, percussive, sweeping, resonating, modulating pads and more percussive sounds are exceptional, and you get 300 out of the box to play around with and tweak to your heart's content.
This is a digital synth and sounds like just about the most perfect one you will hear. It is more flexible than FM and far more intuitive. CUBE is an extrodinary pad synth with striking leads, syncopated percussive grooves and morphing that beats the Wavestation.
It is not the ultimate in analog but it does a fine emulation.
Highly recommended. CUBE is now the VSTi quality standard.Read Review
