kHs ONE

kHs One is a bit of a sleeper. It doesn't seem like anything special and the factory presets don't really set the world on fire but when you spend a bit of time with it, you realise that it is a great sounding synth and that it is a lot more capable than you might think.

It's not as simple as it looks, either. The oscillators have their own built in sync function and the waveforms can be morphed so you can do a bit with them. The GUI is laid out so that all the modulation ends up in what looks like a mod matrix but is actually 3 destination slots for each of the 2 envelopes, 2 LFO and Mod Wheel. It's clever and makes kHs One very easy to work with. The two multi-mode filters are better than average without being stand-outs and you get a waveshaper style distortion, chorus and delay effects.

No one aspect of the synth stands out, yet the overall result is really quite good. It's not too hard on your CPU, either. At $99 it probably doesn't look like great value but I suggest you have a good long look at it if you are after a competent, easy to use and great sounding V/A synth. Kilohearts seem to ahve fairly regular sales so you might be able to pick it up at a good price.