Ok, so I read the review in some magazine. OK, so they warned me to have the credit card handy if I try the demo. This time they were right.
I am not into dance/trance music, my choice of synth is the one that can be used in indie rock, pop, jazzy even. So I was considering NI Pro-53, which is really great for the job.
But this one appeared with its 6 oscilators, wide range of waveforms, FM matrix, 2 LFOs, Filter, Amp, Distortion, 32 step sequencer, EQ and effects, and took the prime spot. Basically, this can do Moog, Pro-53 or Albino.
Layout is very ergonomic and easy to understand. You could say it has some touching points with LinPlug design. All buttons can be tweaked without buzz. Key response is quick, no latency problems.
There is a huge number of presets that show the whole range of the synth, although the emphasis is on dance music. Most presets are usefull, huge selection of bass, lead and pad variations.
Sound: powerful, convincing. Effects are really useful. Goes to the mix without the need for additional tweaking or boosting.
CPU usage is surprisingly low, even with pads. No crash jet.
I had some problems with MIDI assigning, since Toxic has pre-defined controls cc #1-30 that can be assigned to parameters, while my controler Edirol PCR-30 has different numbering. But, I can assign control through Tracktion anyway so this is no issue for me. I contacted Maxx about it, and he was very helpful and quick to reply. He promised to fix it in the next major update.
As I said, I tried the demo, saw the very attractive price and concluded that this is the only commercial synth I need. Price/performance here is unbeatable.Read Review
