Junglist

I've come full circle on this thing. I didn't like versions 1 & 2. Version 3 got me actually jazzed enough to pony up and buy it (along with Scorpion 2 and Plucked String 2). I was excited about it because I couldn't get any other synth in my collection to make some of the sounds it made.

That said, I hate to admit that I haven't used this synth on a single completed song to date (six months later). It seems to overpower anything I put it into in any role other than a bassline. Even then, I have to bring out the EQ and compressor every time. It's not too loud, it takes up too much freq room. It sounds awesome on it's own or over just a beat, but it does not play well with others.

The presets are mostly average. Some standouts include: Funky Bass, Nice Bass, Perc Lead, Warble Pad, and ACID 1&2. There are a lot of odd sounds in the presets and I had trouble using most of them.

The idea of having two waveforms to mess with (a'la WaveDream) is sweet, but in practice I have great difficulty programming this beast. If it were 100% intiutive, I wouldn't knock off points for the documentation -- but this thing needs a tutorial for making new sounds.

The MIDI automation is nice, but it uses fixed paramters, requiring you to program your hardware to use it, rather than a MIDI learn mode. This is odd considering Sonic Syndicate knows all about MIDI learning with their host, Orion.

The sound quality is excellent, Sonic Syndicate has yet to make anything but a top quality instrument.

Bottom line: this turned out to be a disappointing synth overall and I don't think it was one of my better purchases. I thought I'd get more out of it than I have.Read Review