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Ultra Analog VA-2

Reviewed By factorypresets [all]
November 28th, 2009
Version reviewed: 1.1.4 on Windows

I've been holding off on buying a VA for a long time because, while the sounds are good on many of them, their architecture is usually quite limiting. But I found a huge discount on Ultra Analogue so I thought I'd take a chance on it.

First thing I noticed was the sound. The oscillators are fantastic. I can't think of anything I've used that has better sounding waveforms. I'm particularly pleased to find sine waves as an option. Which is another feature usually missing from emulations of classic synths. The filters also sound very rich and sweet. Although, at high Q settings, there are nicer sounding filters out there. But if you want screaming leads, they will certainly scream for you.

Next up, the signal path is quite flexible for what it is. 2 multi-type filter and amp paths. Each with an ADSR for the filter and another one for the amp. Plus one lfo for each chain. Oscillators can be mixed between the 2 paths and filter one can be routed to filter 2. So you can use the filters in series, parallel or a mixture of both. Simple ideas, but they weren't on the early hardware synths and so they are not usually on modern emulations. The sound can be further treated by an arpeggiator, a further vibrtato/ tremelo lfo and 3 fx.

The GUI is not pretty. But it is set out to make the signal path easy to follow. Which is probably more useful than a nice graphic, anyway.

The manual is fine for getting your head around this synth. Given the straightforward nature of Ultra Analogue, it'd be hard to fail on this score. Only criticism I can think of is that it took me 3 or 4 minutes to work out that the big green LED over the modulation knobs was the invert button they referred to in the manual. Took me a couple of tries to work out that it wasn't an on/off switch. I don't know if you'd blame the manual or me for that confusion.

Customwer support? What can I say? I bought it, I installed it, and it ran just fine. I have no idea if AAS will answer your emails or not. And that's the way I like it. I guess that addresses the stability question as well.


Which brings us to value for money. For me, knowing what I do now about it, I would have happily paid the full price for this toy. Mainly because it covers the bases that so many classic emulations miss. But. given the popularity of synths like Oddity and Minimonsta, I have to think that I might not be your typical customer, here.

Still and all, if you want some classic analogue sounds in a quick and easy-to-program package, you'd be hard-pressed to beat this synth.
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TERA

Reviewed By factorypresets [all]
July 11th, 2004
Version reviewed: v2 on Windows

I've been using this since it was just called Virsyn. For about a year I went through a minimalist phase and it was the only synth I was using and it was able to do all I wanted it to. Except for loading samples.

Much has been made of the flexibility of this thing but the standout feature for me is the sounds it can make. It may not be the phattest analogue emulation ever made but it can be very warm and fat if you want it to. It can also do nice thin digital sounds that don't eat up a mix if that is what you need. The fx that come with it are nice but I prefer to use dedicated VSTs on inserts most of the time. The filters are great. They self-oscillate when the rez is turned up full and can be as subtle as you want at lower resonance. In particular the formant filter can be used for some great effects.

I used to occasionally run out of modulators in v1 but since they added the looping envelopes in v2 I haven't encountered that problem. Apart from not being able to load samples I cant think of anything this synth really needs. Some people might prefer more fx but there's always the insert slots on your sequencer.

I've seen the documentation criticised for not detailing all the hidden features and there have been a couple of occasions that I haven't found an in-depth explanation of how some functions operate, myself. But there's enough information to work with all the features easily.

The presets are good but not all of them are useable right out the box. Most are and so far they are all just a couple of tweaks away from being excellent. But then if tweaking aint your thing you would probably be better of with a sample player anyway. Whatever, there's enough of them to get you in the ballpark for any type of sound.

I haven't had any stability issues for a long time. Pre-Tera on the K6 I had a few problems and I got to say that Harry was right on the ball with the customer support. He should get an 11 for that category.

Overall I would say that Tera is probably the most versatile synth I have used.
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