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writing "super6 patches"
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(you will get a unique download
link after the purchase).
How many patches?:
You will receive all the sounds from my Youtube &
Soundcloud demos plus extra sounds. This
is 128 patches and 16 sequences.
What genre / style?:
There is no one style. It's a wide
variety of sounds that are meant to inspire and make you look at the synth in a
different light. Some patches are bread & butter, some offbeat; they're the
result of me trying to find the limits of the instrument. The patches are
ready-to-use in music or can serve as starting points; you can find the textures
or the dynamics that you like and tweak them to suit your exact taste or purpose.
I tried not to include patches that would overlap with any other soundsets out
there, so 90% of my patches should be original-sounding to you.
What format / import method?:
My patches come as computer files that you load into the Super-6 by using
its flash drive feature (when you connect your Super-6 to your computer, it appears as
a new disk drive and you can just open it and cut / copy / paste the files).
Any external stuff?:
I did not use
any external FX in the demo;
all the delays, noises and
other effects are part of the Super-6 engine
& mod matrix.
I recorded my demo straight through an audio
card. This is a standard factory unit - you don't need any custom wavetables or
add-ons for the patches to work.
Notes on grades lower than 3/3:
[modern]: it can
sound very modern, but some "1980's Roland" specs keep the potential limited
[vintage]:
amazing warmth & organic feel, but for more dirt / VCO feel go Prologue
or OB-6
[engine]: things hard-wired to LFO1; non-continuous switches; only 2 FX; mod matrix
limits
[high
end]: great,
but not as bright as Novation Peak / Summit or Sequential synths
[timbre plasticity]: one LP/HP filter, static
waves; only chorus and delay; no chorus fine-tuning
[versatility]: great
polysynth for bass, leads, pads, but the engine and filter create limits
[ui &
ease]: no
display, so instead of menu-diving you have to shortcut-dive or guess
values
Phase 1: UNBOXING (Build Quality)
When I opened
the box, in it I
found a burlap sack. Out of the burlap sack came a pearl-white, heavy as a tank piece of kit. On
the one hand it seemed like nothing special - a desktop synth with good-old
Roland-style sliders and Prophet-5-style buttons. On the other hand it seemed
beautiful, inspiring & inviting to tweak some patches or create some music.
I don't know if Axel Hartmann was responsible for designing both the keyboard
and the desktop, but for me the desktop is the better looking model. Whichever
way we look at it, one thing is indisputable: these toys are top of the tops in terms
of quality & design. Solid like a rock, pretty like a scolecite. There is
absolutely nothing irritating about the tactile side of this synth - no stiff /
wobbly knobs like in the PRO-3 /
REV-2, no clicky buttons like in the
SUB-37 /
Argon-8. It's a
pleasure to look at and touch.
Phase 2: EXPLORING (User Interface)
Then things made a U-turn. When I
started to look more closely at the synth and wanted to actually tweak it in
some meaningful way, the user
interface seemed alien and I was constantly getting lost. There was
not a single hour without me having to consult the user's manual. There were so many acronyms and
symbols. Some examples include: "U SIZE", "DDS", "SUPER (DDS1)", "SWM", "DH",
"W1" (I thought "WTF"). Also, there was the shift button which enabled or disabled certain features.
And the synth had no "SAVE" button for saving patches, let alone a
screen to make sense of the mod matrix. There was no easy way out - I had to simply learn it all.
But my educational
course lasted no longer than a day, and then things made another U-turn, this time in the
positive direction. This is quick, especially when compared with synths like Korg Modwave /
Wavestate, which are much more difficult to grasp or move around just by intuition.
Phase 3: PLAYING (Roland Sound)
The Super-6 tibmre seemed "good" and
satisfying from the get-go. I
instantly recognized the Roland Juno
sound and I thought that UDO not only
copied the looks, but they also transplanted the internal organs to make a
modern-day clone of the Japanese classic. But then again - I was confused. First
of all, the sound was unmistakably reminiscent of the aforementioned Juno, but it wasn't 100%
right. So I thought to myself: why did they make the synth at all? If engineers want
to clone a sound, they better clone it right ot not do it at all. The Super-6 sounded
too
clean & hi-fi, too polite. I tried to animate or degrade the sound somehow, but there was no
satisfactory way to do that. The chorus did not have the Juno-esque noise. The filter drive
was controlled by 3-position switches. The cross-mod was
sending / receiving only the pitch signal and not the waveshape signal. DDS2 (Oscillator
2) could only be
detuned 6 semitones instead of the usual 7.
Phase 4: MORE PLAYING (U.D.O. Sound)
I was again frustrated. I thought: dang, 2200 Euro
for a Juno clone of debatable Juno sound quality? I had to leave my
synth chair again and go back to the computer to read the manual. I wanted to
understand everything about this instrument, this time from a more technical
angle; explore every nook and cranny of the engine.
And again, this was the right thing to do, because things started to move fast forward. Tweak by tweak, I managed to move out of
the Juno spehere into completely new realms of sound (more into
JD-XA /
Virus TI / PPG
Waldorf timbres & territory). I took advantage of the (reversable)
Cross Mod, the LFO1-working-as-Oscillator feature, the
Oscillator2-working-as-LFO feature, and finally the Oscillator-to-Filter
modulation, and the Super-6 changed from
an "analog clone" into a curious sound design tool. During just one
day (or 8 hours in other words) I made around 20 varied patches (this is quick!).
And even if these patches / structures
are
nothing sophisticated or ground-breaking, I still find the resulting sounds special.
Despite the static, single
cycle waves (their
shapes cannot be tweaked like in
Argon8 or
Modwave) and other limitations (one filter, the aforementioned
non-continuous controls / switches), the Super-6 kept me inspired and
willing to re-listen to the sounds I never cared about and would never want to
re-listen on other synths. The
Korg Opsix /
Modwave boast their wave folding capacity, wave blending and what not. But
whatever you do with the wavefolder on the Opsix or the wavemorph on the Modwave,
it's extremely easy to end up with a sound that is dry, flat, thin, abrasive &
not interesting in any manner. The Super-6 also has a way to achieve a wave folding / phase modulation
effect (by putting the cross-mod oscillator setup in reverse), and even if the
result is not as deep as in the Korgs, it sounds pleasant and usable almost
instantaneously. This is one of the qualities of vintage synths - many times these
instruments are
nothing special in terms of features, but the sound alone (and the immediacy) is big enough an
appeal to keep and use them.
And I think I'm hearing echoes of my vintage Akai AX-80 in the Super-6, so it's
definitely not a one-trick pony. There is some magic hidden in various spots of
the sliders.
So this is how I would generally describe the
Super-6: the engine has a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and
whichever way you go with it, it will sound at least good. There's a lot of
patch structures you won't be able to achieve, but you can make the Super-6 sound
warm or cold, analog or digital. For many people this is a
better situation than having a "most powerful synth with no limits" and having
to wander around this limitless landscape in search for a sweet spot, possibly ending up in a state of
analysis paralysis. I praise the
Novation Peak / Summit in my write-up, but I
know that some folks view it as exactly that: a deep synth with a lackluster /
characterless sound. I don't agree with the opinion that Novation is totally
devoid of "character", but I'm sure such people will find more character in the sound of the
Super-6, and this character is there from day one, even if it's not as strong as
in Oberheims or Korgs. But read on, I have a warning for you.
Phase 5: BINAURAL ON! (The British Sound + Stereo 2.0)
You've probably heard about the UDO company when the
Super-6 was announced and made a stir in the community by introducing the word "binaural"
to the general public. If you don't like nerd talk, let me just say in simple
words that it introduces a new
kind of stereo sound with just one click. This is stereo 2.0 - when you activate
the binaural switch, the Super-6 turns into a two-synths-setup where one is playing in
the left channel and the other one is heard in the right channel of your
headphones / speakers (polyphony is then halved). This creates even more stereo depth than the usual
methods of using chorus or delay. The idea itself is not new - there are many
synths that can be binaural if only their architecture allows that. You can
create binaural patches in synths like
the REV-2 or the
Hydrasynth,
but you have to do it in the mod matrix (HS) or by combining two layers of the
same patch (Rev-2). On the Super-6 you adjust the spread with
LFO 1 - a dedicated slider is right there on the front panel.
It's a very cool feature, it makes the patch sound
more lively, but I think the stronger part of the synth is the core sound itself. Just like in the case of Modal and Novation, the UDO
sound can also be described as the "British sound" - clean, hi-fi,
amazingly
smooth. But the Super-6 is the warmest and lushest of them all, and the binaural feature makes it even more lively
and breathing. So if I were to keep one synth out of the British trio
just for the sound, it would definitely be the Super-6. It's 100%
"eargasmic", very soothing.
Of course there's also the negative aspect, like
with
every other synth. The binaural Super-6 sounds so "omnipresent"
or "spacious" that in the context of a mix it
may "steal the show" so to speak - if only psychologically and not
technically.
Also, the binaural effect may be great for pads and drones, strings and effects, but
for some people it won't make a lot
of sense to make binaural bass patches for example. Sometimes you just have to
turn it off... What I'm saying is that the "binaural button" is not an equivalent / counterpart to the "vintage
knob" on Sequential synths - a miracle shortcut that you can use day and night
to make all your patches sound "better". Also, some people may not
like the kind of "flanging" effect that is created by the binaural audio path
and would rather prefer to do the panorama work after they've recorded the
takes / tracks. It's a matter of approach & workflow.
One more word about the technical side of this
feature: if you use the LFO 1 for some
extreme modulation speeds, the binaural effect becomes impractical. That's why
this
feature should have its own independent LFO.
Phase 5: CONCLUSION
So here's pros and cons: the synth has no display & no menus. It's good for
the old-scholers, but not so good for the sound designers. It's hard to tell
slider values
or mod
matrix assignments. If you forget a given mod matrix source-destination
association, there's no way to know what it was. That's why it's not a come-back
synth. If you start building your sound, you better finish it.
There are two LFOs, but
the LFO 2 is only sine, and the majority of parameters are hard-wired to LFO 1. The DDS1 waves are static
single cycle waves. Some of the features like Filter Drive, Chorus
& Filter Keytrack are controlled by
three-position switches instead of continuous sliders. The same switches are
used in Korg
Prologue for example, and it translates into the same limitations.
The mod matrix has 8 modulation sources: [Osc 2] / [LFO
2] / [Env 1] / [Velocity] / [Aftertouch] / [Ped-CV] / [Pitch Wheel] / [Note]. As you can see,
[Osc 1] or [LFO 1] or [Env 2] or [Mod Wheel] are not available as mod sources. It's
somewhat limited. The binaural feature adds some movement and atmosphere to the
sound, but this affects the "stereo panorama" aspect of the sound rather than
the "texture
/ dynamics" aspect. A deeper mod matrix would help.
However, when all things are
considered, I like this
synth and I think it's unique. The only thing I don't like about it is the
price - but if you build things in the UK, they won't be cheap. The strongest
magnet for me is the way this synth sounds - vintage yet
modern, organic yet "pro", smooth yet being able to spice things up
and make them dirty to a noticeable degree, even if far from the West Coast or
the Japanese masters. I feel a significant amount of love
& attention to detail invested in this instrument on the part of the creators. Also, what's important is that at the end of the day
the synth manages to rise above all the aforementioned engine limitations and become a user-friendly
factory of delicious, exquisite sounds. Again, I find this case similar to my
experience with Korg Prologue - a synth that is limited but sounds fantastic
within those limits. The only difference between the Prologue and the Super-6 is
that Prologue sounds "eargasmically dirty" while the Super-6 sounds "eargasmically
lush". It's a different kind of texture, and the UDO synth sounds much better in
person / on audio monitors then on Youtube - it's kinda audiophile'y (maybe it's
the FPGA oscillators, because I felt that the Peak / Summit also lost some
dimensionality on Youtube).
OUTRO / NEXT UDO?
Let me wrap it all up with an analogy: the Super-6 is
like a connoisseur wine that has a
perfect balance of flavors and scents. It's expensive, not
the most versatile drink like water or milk, and it needs appreciation. Then
magic happens: you get a little bit drunk and all of a sudden the world seems a
warmer place. The warmth, depth & smoothness of the Super-6 sound is one of a
kind, there's nothing else quite like it in the synth world. Add to that the good interface (making sounds is as easy as opening a
bottle of wine - you just need to find a corkscrew at the beginning), and we have a very proper instrument. I'm
very curious about what UDO will come up with next in ther line of synths,
because if they start this way, the bar is already high. I wish they went more in the Hydrasynth
(chameleon) direction: deeper mod matrix
with more filters, LFOs, FX or waveshaping, so that further instability, expressiveness
or "dirt" could be introduced to the sounds. A minimal effect of this kind could also be
achieved with a Korg Modwave-style
kaoss physics pad. Maybe this synth wasn't made with a view in
mind to behave this way, but the more mutable the sound, the
higher it sits in my hierarchy;)
2022-05-12
UDO just announced at the Superbooth that the new
firmware release supports MPE. We're going in the right direction.
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