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Cameleon 5000
Reviewed By pschelfh [all]
December 5th, 2003
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows
When I first heard my Kawai K5000, I though WOW!, additive synthesis sounds nice : hard basses, piercing leads, evolving pads! Until I began to disect the patches : most of them used the build-in PCM samples
:(
When the new batch of additive softsynths(CA5000, Cube, Vertigo) came out, I decided to test them and finaly went for CA5000 for these reasons :
- Good resynthesis : only 64 harmonic bands unlike Vertigo witch has 256 (but is unplayable like this because it takes too much cpu!). If you take care of your samples before you import (mono, 44KHz,..), the results can be very inspiring. Once the harmonics of the sample are imported, you can change the amplitude and pitch of each of the 64 bands to your liking : that's called additive synthesis).
- Patch sharing with other users (My resynthesised instruments take 50 - 100 Kb, where they took 1,5 Mb with Vertigo, try sharing a soundbank like that!)
- You can morph the sound between 4 sources and the transition sounds great (the morphs can be automated and synced to tempo).
- Once you become familiar with the synth (and after reading the excelent manual a couple of times), it's very easy to navigate. There's even an 'EASY' page where you can set envelope attack, release offsets,etc without editing the more complex amplitude envelope.
- The FX sound great (especialy the Chorus which is a must to warm up digital sounds) and there are many modulation routings, eg. the filter cutoff can be controlled by an envelope, lfo, keyboard position, just like on 'traditional' analog synths!
- Good customer support!
So, now I have my hard basses, piercing leads and evolving pads, but without using PCM samples like the K5000!
Read Review:(
When the new batch of additive softsynths(CA5000, Cube, Vertigo) came out, I decided to test them and finaly went for CA5000 for these reasons :
- Good resynthesis : only 64 harmonic bands unlike Vertigo witch has 256 (but is unplayable like this because it takes too much cpu!). If you take care of your samples before you import (mono, 44KHz,..), the results can be very inspiring. Once the harmonics of the sample are imported, you can change the amplitude and pitch of each of the 64 bands to your liking : that's called additive synthesis).
- Patch sharing with other users (My resynthesised instruments take 50 - 100 Kb, where they took 1,5 Mb with Vertigo, try sharing a soundbank like that!)
- You can morph the sound between 4 sources and the transition sounds great (the morphs can be automated and synced to tempo).
- Once you become familiar with the synth (and after reading the excelent manual a couple of times), it's very easy to navigate. There's even an 'EASY' page where you can set envelope attack, release offsets,etc without editing the more complex amplitude envelope.
- The FX sound great (especialy the Chorus which is a must to warm up digital sounds) and there are many modulation routings, eg. the filter cutoff can be controlled by an envelope, lfo, keyboard position, just like on 'traditional' analog synths!
- Good customer support!
So, now I have my hard basses, piercing leads and evolving pads, but without using PCM samples like the K5000!
Z3ta+ 1.2 is one of the most complete synths I've worked with. I have mostly hardware synths (Virus B, Juno, Matrix,..) and this is the first time I felt a software synth was on the same level!
You can combine up to 6 oscilators for a very powerful sound. The included waves can be fully edited with the WaveShaper. If that's not enough, you can even import your own (single cycle) waves!
There are now 100 arpeggio's included and these can also be replaced by user made midi files.
Most important change in V1.2 are the dual filters in serial or parallel mode, you can make a whole bunch of new sounds now and this can be heard in the additional soundbanks.
The modulation matrix is very complete but because of this also a bit complex.
Support is great and René is now doing a Clinic on the use of the modulation matrix.
I think the use of sliders was a great idea, very easy to change values.
Z3ta+ is a synth for programmers (thanks to the many options to change a sound) as well as for players (768 patches included + great sound quality)!
Read ReviewYou can combine up to 6 oscilators for a very powerful sound. The included waves can be fully edited with the WaveShaper. If that's not enough, you can even import your own (single cycle) waves!
There are now 100 arpeggio's included and these can also be replaced by user made midi files.
Most important change in V1.2 are the dual filters in serial or parallel mode, you can make a whole bunch of new sounds now and this can be heard in the additional soundbanks.
The modulation matrix is very complete but because of this also a bit complex.
Support is great and René is now doing a Clinic on the use of the modulation matrix.
I think the use of sliders was a great idea, very easy to change values.
Z3ta+ is a synth for programmers (thanks to the many options to change a sound) as well as for players (768 patches included + great sound quality)!