Just unboxed, first impressions:
- packaging is slick
- this thing has like no weight at all! feels like its hollow inside
- buttons feel pretty good
- encoder action feels slightly coarse/stepped to the touch excluding the cutoff
- its roughly the size of an SE-02 ie larger than a volca
- the included cover is amazing and doubles as a stand! ++
- USB cable included, and not even of the cheapest variety
Now excuse me while I get to know this bad boy a lil better
EDIT: Oh dear, I think I’m in love!
This synth, at least for me, is that “missing link”, a hardware synth capable of many of the sounds I previously though were only possible using softsynths like Massive and Razor. Very happy to have it in my collection, been looking something like this for ages, ever since giving up on the nord micromodular (just too inconvenient for me, I was always struggling with patches needing the computer editor).
The sound goes from typical VA stuff into some serious techstep/neuro territory with just a few flicks of a dial. The morphable filers and oscs really come into their own when FM is thrown into the mix
I can also power the Skulpt straight from the USB-C out of my iPad Pro. I’m getting a USB-C to micro-USB cable so that I can just plug the synh in without extra dongles (currently using the AV HDMI/USB Apple adapter). The app seems pretty responsive and fully featured, almost feels like using overbridge
What I don’t like: the keyboard has a lot of dead space between the keys. This wouldn’t be so bad if the edges of the keys areas weren’t so hard to see (dark gray on black). Also I think the delay, while sorta useful, just muddies the sound when mixed in. It doesn’t sit well with the dry sound at all, easily being way too quiet or too prominent. Maybe its the fact that the synth is not stereo but dual mono? But ext fx will undoubtedly fit the bill here.
I already know analog enthusiasts will scoff at the sound. Its abrasive and a bit flat. But for what I want to use it for, its digital in all the right places. And man, that sequencer is such a breath of fresh air after all these onboard step sequencers every other synth is offering