Pentagon I

Edit Nov 2002. I am notching down the features number by one, since, having played with z3ta+ and crystal a lot lately, I have come to the conclusion that a Mod Matrix is special. That said, the lack of one makes P 1, so easy to program and control, and very easy to play "live", the true essence of a performance synth.

After months of resistance, I finally succumbed and bought Pentagon, when my musical needs required a true subtractive synth that I could control real-time with my new controller keyboard. It was quite a coincidence that the day after I bought PI, z3ta+ came out and now I have two synths that make me drool.

The Pentagon GUI is pretty good and easy to navigate. My only problem is with the color, which is too dark for me, but following the release of z3ta+, I suspect that the next version will have a filler GUI.

The Pentagon sound is fat, perfect for re-creating some of the classic sounds of the past, which works out perfectly for me (prog rock + Tangeringe Dream style electronic rock). The features and realtime control possiblities of the Pentagon are excellent, and give rise to the possibilities for some creative sound sculpting. It is not too difficult to program this beast, as both patch creation and realtime modulation are a breeze. The bottom line, this thing sounds great. The presets are pretty darn good and provide a great starting point for setting up new patches.

The documentation and user support are excellent. Now that Rene has his own KvR forum, even better. The synth has never crashed, and is fairly light on the CPU compared to some other synths in the same class, and at $99 this is very fairly priced.

I consider the Pentagon to be a performance synthesizer cause of its amazing realtime control, which becomes all the more powerful when combined with its monophonic little brothers. If you don't have it .. get itRead Review