Pentagon I

OK, I won't add much to the ratings about Pentagon, it's just a very great sounding synth that I love.

Just so much about that, but I just have to add some things (as these haven't been mentioned yet):

- MIDI learn implementation. This is just as good as possible. You switch a knob into learn mode, touch any external controller's fader or button and there you go! You can even limit the range, it's all well thought out.
Then, important for Logic 5.x users: Whenever you want to record some automation using that CC assignment method, Pentagon will happily record both to the new and the old automation. It's the only virtual synth doing so, not even Logic's internal ones do that!
And finally you can save a bunch of presets for your CC assignments which is very nice too. Just what the doctor ordered.

- Vocoding. Not only that Pentagon is an extremely flexible synth, it also works as a vocoder - and as a VERY good one even! I really wonder nobody has mentioned this feature yet! Try it on a drumloop and be amazed!

So in the end you're not only getting a kickass sounding synth but a vocoder as well, with the benefit of having the Vocoder GUI looking exactly the same as the synth GUI, so you don't need to get used to yet another interface.

IMO there's only two drawbacks:
1) This is Logic related and Pentagon is not responsible for it at all: Only the setting saved on internal preset No.1 will be saved properly along with a song. The workaround is to fool around with Pentagon's presets as long as you're happy, then use it's internal menu to copy to preset No.1.
2) The vocoder setting won't be saved, so each time you load your song you gotta have to readjust that. Assuming that most people are not using much more than one or two vocoder instances it's pretty much what I'd call a minor hassle - more like one of the typical .0 release bugs. Only takes two mouseclicks to fix it and I'm also pretty much sure René will fix that in the next update.

Finally, here's a short snipplet of my first Pentagon experience:
www.saschafranck.de/kvr/PentaShort.mp3
Apart from the drumloop everything is 100% Pentagon, no further FX, no nothing (oh well, of course I had to record a - rather lame - vocal line to trigger the vocoder). Forgive my keyboard skills, I'm still mainly a guitar player.

If it was possible Pentagon would get a higher rating than 100% in terms of "bang for the buck". Actually, I am a bit confused about the general ratings here, but following the apparent standards I just have to give it almost the highest possible rating. The "9" for the user interface only resulted of observing other people.Read Review