Too many to mention. There are tons of realtime controls (knobs, joysticks, and continuous wheel controls galore). There are also a great deal of LEDs and status lights to let you really know what's going on. In addition to the normal stuff, there are 3-D modulators, a studio-quality reverb and delay. It's a stunning pad/SFX machine. There is also a surround mode (in addition to the digital outs, there are six assignable outs). The only problem is that the so-called set up mode (for surround/multi-timbre) really feels Beta...

Price paid

$4200 USD

UTILIZATION

This is an incredibly complex synthesizer that is also one of the easiest to use (see all the real-time features). You can radically change the entire character of the timbre with a small twitch of a stick or two.

The machine is built like a tank (metal with a wood side panel). The only iffy bits are the plastic joysticks. Mine shipped with a cracked one, but AudioMidi sent me a whole handful of replacement ones immediately!

SOUNDS

The sound quality is superb! Strong points include digital out, but there is also a dodgy surround mode. The only trouble is that you have to really listen for distortions (watch those levels!)

OVERALL OPINION

This machine is the best digital I've played, bar none. The tones are totally unique - the blender/morph section blows my mind. There are so many modulation routings that you can create incredibly slowly moving timbres that are extremely coomplex; yet, the creation is very easy due to the wealth of real-time controls. I realize that no review can really tell you the SOUND of anything, but if you go to www.hartmann-music.com they'll try to explain it in pseudo-scientific jargon (AKA bullshit). Just believe the hype - the thing DOES sound as good as it gets

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: bunnyman ( 8-, 2005)