‘VEL to filter’ also works here sometimes, more difficult to replicate. But when it does act up, it’s just like with crossmod.
Hey, thanks for checking on yours! Makes me feel a whole lot better about keeping mine.
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This is one of the things that drove me a little nuts with the super 6. So many quirks that I didn’t know were bugs, or were hardware malfunctions, or were how it was supposed to work. You will probably find a lot of these if you are using the 6 a lot.
Another thing that I noticed is that the colors of the sliders are different on a lot of units. Mine were all white, but I see a lot of people have some black sliders too, but always a different number and in different places lol.
Last patch here “Jardin” is amazing 
Well, the same guy that designed the Waldorf Irdium also designed the Super 6 (both versions) 
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Finally did a sound pack for the Super 6. All about big atmospheric, cinematic pads, drones and unconventional sounds.
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I’ve had the Super 6 Desktop for about two and a half weeks now, and I’m honestly torn between thinking that this is the best thing since sliced bread and being quite irritated at missing features, strange bugs, and flat out erroneous documentation.
The pros:
- Mein Gott i himmelen, it sounds beautiful, especially for large pads. The binaural aspect is so much more than a gimmick, and even just loading up and playing a single saw wave on one of the oscillators with some slight modulation can be enough. For the sounds it can create, it’s probably, hand down, the most beautiful poly synth I’ve ever heard.
- It’s so immediate. I own the Analog Four and I’ve also had the Novation Peak for a while, and while both of those instruments are super capable, I was/I am never just inspired to dive into the mod matrix (i.e., dive into submenus on a screen) on these synths, but for the Super 6, I do it all the time. Not having a screen was definitely the right move.
- It looks beautiful. Many people might not really care about this, but I simply won’t get inspired by an instrument that looks cheap and boring. The Super 6 Desktop on the other hand, I could hang up on the wall just to look at. I almost hope they won’t release a blue version, because I might be tempted to actually get it.
The cons:
- There are strange bugs (which often can be solved by power cycling the synth), or just unexplainable omissions such that you cannot modify the VCA volume as a source in the mod matrix.
- Patches are quite slow to load. This means that it’s hard to improvise with the instrument and reset it to its original state without having some hiccups in the sound.
- While MPE has been implemented, it’s unfortunately not fully implemented. Polyphonic aftertouch works as expected, but pitch bend is only hardwired to, well, pitch, and if you have an extra dimension on your MPE controller, the best you can do is to only control the filter cutoff with it. As such, I cannot utilise my Expressive E Osmose to the fullest with the Super 6, which is kind of frustrating because I know how nice it would be.
- While the developers are quite open about what they’re woking on (in comparison to Elektron, it’s like a fully transparent process), it still feels like they have a long way to go when it comes to proper communication with their customers. It sometimes feels like the synth is in a permanent beta and many features that are documented in the manual (or some that aren’t) simply don’t work as expected. Unfortunately, it shows that UDO Audio is a new company, and it’s frustrating because so much could be solved by a bit clearer communication that would create trust in people like me, who’s still not confident that all of these issues will be handled.
So, I’m kinda torned. I can still return the device if I want to, and I might actually do so with the intention to buy it again in a year or two when and if all the quirks have been ironed out and the synth actually behaves the way it says it should behave in the manual.
Even so, I’m enjoying it for now. Here’s a number of improvised snippets on custom patches that I’ve made:
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Thanks for your review. How do you find the faders on the desktop version? I sold my keyboard version for about the same reasons you mentioned, but was also thinking about buying it again sometime in the future because I do miss the sound. But if I did I would go for the desktop version due to space and how I work now. But I am wondering if the faders short throw (or other issues) on the desktop version would be a problem.
I haven’t tried the keyboard version, so I can’t compare it to that. But in my own view, the buttons, faders, and knobs are all excellent. Zero complaints really (except that one single of the faders is less stiff than the others, but I can live with that). Also, I haven’t reflected about the length of the sliders, so it’s not a problem for me anyway. And they’re very sensitive, so even a small nudge will make a difference.
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Desktop owner here, I do wish the faders had more travel but I don’t mind them. Also both versions are on sale at various outlets so it’s as good a time as any to pick one up if anyone is considering it.
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Don’t focus too much on what you can’t do with the Super 6 in terms of MPE. If it allows you to reach into polyAT territory that’s fair enough. Beyond that, the Super 6 is able to do stuff which your Osmose can’t and vice versa. For example, the key bed of the Osmose makes it rather difficult to use it as a poly synth, at least when it comes to obtain that typical tone thereof. I usually find songwriting value in synths that sound complementary.
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This. If it just doesn’t work for what you want that’s different, but you seem to like the sound and interface. I had a friend over the other day who tried it out with my Linnstrument. I assigned a bit of AT to filter and x-mod on my init MPE patch and he was blown away; got right to tweaking and had a good time. I went in with my eyes open and have had good tech support from them when I’ve needed it. It also plays well with pedals.
I would like more modulation range on parameters (it seems a bit “safe”), a simple mono setting, and bug fixes as well. But none of that is stopping me from playing it.
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Well, one of the reasons why I bought the Super 6 was to take full advantage of it together with my Osmose, as I really like the expressiveness of it but don’t really like the way I’m constrained to just editing a few parameters for the internal sounds. Reading the manual, it seems like this should be possible to do as well.
That is, there’s a lot of poly synths I stayed clear of just because they didn’t have full MPE support. So even though I’m really impressed by and really like the sounds of my Super 6, if I’m going to keep it, I still need (want) to buy another synth in order to take full advantage of my Osmose, and I don’t really see my buying and owning two beasts in this price class.
Again, if the communication by UDO Audio would be better, I’d probably feel confident enough that full MPE support eventually would arrive, which would make me keep the synth. Keeping it now feels like playing the lottery though. It might still be worth it, but it’s still a feeling of unease.
The Osmose’s EaganMatrix is fully programmable when connected to the Haken Editor. If you find it too complex for your needs, be sure to check out the Continuum’s presets, which you can import into the Osmose’s user area and which generally sound pretty good on the latter despite several design differences between both instruments.
The Hydrasynth is one of the few poly synths with a great MPE implementation and a great synth UI, in a very affordable price range.
In the software realm, Equator 2 is pretty good for MPE.
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Is there an alternative with a full and proper MPE Y axis implementation? In hardware, I only know of the Micromonsta (which I have and love) and the Hydrasynth.
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I don’t get the whole “permanent beta” narrative. Isn’t that just another way of saying “still receiving active firmware updates”? Seems like a good thing to me.
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Synthstrom Deluge. You can assign all 3 dimensions to most of the parameters (unlimited mod matrix). It’s not supporting release velocity though. But you can configure MPE channel splits and also record MPE to sequencer.
Another are all Haken Audio Continuum models.
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Right! The Haken Audio ones are fantastic sounding. I have the mini and it “just works” with my Linnstrument. But I find editing the Eaganmatrix to be a real bear and not something one can do in real time (like moving faders on the Super 6). So to me it feels more like a bunch of awesome MPE presets. Didn’t know about the Deluge though!
Consider the Continuum and the Osmose to be more like a piano, which comes with a single unmodifiable preset. Now how to make music with just one preset?
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It is true that our piano comes with one giant, awesome, preset.
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I agree with the “permanent beta” sentiment to some degree. Problem is, there’s a lot of bugs showing up (I often have to restart my synth a couple of times per session because it becomes unresponsive), features that are documented in the manual that don’t work (for example, the way MPE is described), and some features that aren’t documented at all (for example having the LFO2 constantly on when turning off the MW AT button).
Fixing these isn’t, in my view, the same thing as introducing new features; it’s fixing a broken instrument.
Yeah, that’s true. But I want a hardware instrument with direct control over the parameters, without having to go via a computer. If you’re okay with using a computer, there are tons of good, fully customizable MPE synths.
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