Kubik is a wavetable/wavetable sequencing synth. It has 2 oscilators (upto 4, count unison modes), which are wavetable based. This means the oscilators are made up from between 1 and 64 seperate waveforms, wave position is modulatable. They can be drawn individually by drawing the wavefrom or adjusting 64 harmonics. It can also anaylize wave files in segments and resynthesize them, its not intended to be highly accurate but adds to the ability and intrest of the synth.
It has a list of preset waveforms in catagories.This is a very usefull thing to have and makes for good starting points. There are many more neat touches as far as making wavetables goes. It has menus for editing and modifying your waves and wavetables. Options such as reverse, normalize, smooth, move to zero for waves. Options for editing/modifying waves are, distort, FM,low & highpass filter, ring mod & phase distort. You can perform morphs & interpolate, where any gaps in the table without waves in are interpolated or morphed! Each oscilator has its own volume , pitch, tuning, pan and wave offset amount and unsison features. There are wave shaping options such as bit, S&H,Phase, Rectify and Pulse Width.
All this is before we even get to the filters! Which sound very good, it sounds sort of sophistocated in its standard modes. However it has more exotic modes such as formant,comb,ringmod & noise. They have keytracking and a vari amount , depending which filters used has a different function.There are 2 filters & 4 routing options.
Next you choose how the filter outputs are mixed or interacted, they can be added, subtracted, mixed, ringmod, FM, waveshaped, sync, sample and hold, or PWM. These options allow a very wide range of sounds to be generated. These can give wild results, especially when you consider how complicated the sources being interacted can be to begin with! Metallic and otherwordly sounds are easy peasy with this synth.
The envelopes and LFO's are very flexible indeed. Envelopes are upto 32 sections with variable slope. Its easy to latch the mouse on to points without having to be too precise & double click to add points. You can set your own loop sections (which is easy) even loop the whole envelope. There are preset/saved envelopes, & randomize options. LFO's are also flexible, they have sine, saw and square components mixed together, can be modulated by velocity and have smooth, humanize, symmetry parameters, also have their own delay, attack and decay options.
There is a Mod panel it allows LFO's, keyboard parameters and midi control sources to modulate the destinations. It has 4 slots and phase, smooth and humanize parameters to control modulations. There is also a full mod matrix with 20 slots which can transfer settings from the pre wired envelopes and LFO's & allows you to modulate loads of parameters with a huge range of sources.
Kubik has a 2 wavetable sequencers. This is a 64 step sequencer, it allows you to sequence several set parameters. This is very cool, it can be displayed numerically in rows and columns, it isnt difficult to use like that, and also has a visual editing option which can help to make viewing relative values at a glance easier.
Theres are global control sections where an arpegiator lives and you set poly/mono, bend ranges and filter smooth amongst others. There is a global attack and release control which is very useful. I would love a full global page with more extensive global controls! There are also very usefull midi latch options for the parameter sliders.Polyphony can be set from 1-16.
Finally we come to the effects. There are 2 main effects cells. Cell A & B they both have modulation/distort, delay,reverb,comb filter. Then it passes to an E.Q, compression, widener, vibrato and tremelo. They sound good, & add a lot to an already superbly equiped synth.
Theres plenty of good presets & banks (some v good). Kubik has many little touches that show alot of thought been put into it, and its paid off! It can sound warm if you want, but it can very easily sound harsh,fizzy,abstract,biting,raspy & metallic. The interface is good and you will soon find your way around. There are some good tips in the manual, it really does pay to read it.
Support is very good, bugs are sorted very quickly when they're posted and Jon has a very cool and pleasant attitude both on the forum and in emails. He welcomes suggestions and appreciates feedback, and is obviously a hardcore synth nut, so I have no problem buying his products.
This is a very powerfull synth as it stands, and it keeps getting better with each update!. I would recommend this to anyone wanting something exotic. Its capable of a very wide range of sounds, warm to harsh and many intresting ones inbetween, and its ok on the CPU too. If your only half intrested in it, its worth trying out, and at the price is very good value for the features. It takes time to know this synth, and Ive got to know its a gem.Read Review
