Pro Soloist Synthesizer

The original hardware was a preset machine, offering just 30 timbres that you had almost no ability to customise, but Cherry Audio have opened it up so you can patch it however you like, which unleashes a monster! On the face of it, it's just two layered monosynths, each with a single oscillator to work with. Without any cross-modulation, it's not as versatile as, say, a MiniMoog but it can hold it's own against pretty much anything from the era in terms of sheer balls.

Sound quality is great, as in really good. It's got that undefinable "something" you can hear in the best analogue emulations. The synth engines are identical and fairly basic. Their layout will be familiar to anyone who uses any other ARP synths. It is ultra-logical and so easy to get your head around. You'll be all over it in a few minutes.

One amazing thing I discovered is that, even though it's a really good effect, adding distortion ruins a patch as often as it improves it. Normally a bit of subtle tube distortion can really lift a patch but this thing has such a big sound that it doesn't need it. One of the things I like about the distortion effect, though, is how the TONE parameter allows you to really zone in on a specific frequency range. It works better than any other tone control on any other distortion I've used. It's really good.

Unusually for me, I read the manual. The synth has a few unique bits that I wanted to understand better, like the Resonators and Growl. It is so well written I ended up reading it from front to back, just for entertainment. The resonators were intended to simulate the resonant body of string and wind instruments. They are basically a series of notch filters you tune to taste. Growl is a fixed LFO that is used with aftertouch to simulate that kind of growl a sax player can get from his instrument.

Layers can be stacked or split, or you can use just one layer (the "Top" one). Some of the best presets use per-layer Arps, with different intervals, to create great syncopated rhythms. You can easily swap and copy layers within a patch, via a drop-down menu. I most often use the layers to get the same sound an octave up or down, as you might with a normal two osc synth.

The hardware was one of, if not the first commercial synth with aftertouch, proper polyphonic aftertouch, years before Yamaha's CS-80, and Cherry have taken full advantage, turning it into per note MPE. Other Cherry additions include an Arpeggiator per layer, SuperSaw mode for the oscillator and a mod matrix that gives you a lot more modulation flexibility. Six slots per layer may not sound like much but it's such a simple synth, it's all you're likely to need. You also get a suite of effects, which can be modulated via the MM, as well as up to 16 voice polyphony. Effects and the Arp can be per layer or global.

The only downside is the interface. It wastes a lot of screen space for no real benefit. I kind of understand why they did it that way, as the original didn't have any controls on the top surface, unlike most other synths. The thing I don't like about the way they have chosen to do it is that the actual synth controls are quite small, so you basically have to have the instrument taking up the full width of your screen, which is stupid for something so relatively simple. I think they could have been a bit smarter and exposed both layers in a more standard looking interface, one above the other, with the global controls and a smaller keyboard below that in a more 2D interface. But it's not a deal-breaker because the synth sounds so good and is still very easy to work with.

I've only been using this for a couple of days, so I'm not going to give it 5 stars just yet, but right now it's already a favourite, something I can see myself using a lot. If I still love it as much in a couple of months, I'll come back and give it an extra star. It's definitely worth your time to download the trial and give it a go for yourself. I'm confident you'll be impressed.