Sequential Trigon-6 ► 150 custom sounds

Presets compatible with desktop / rack & keyboard.


FAQ / read before you buy

Via Instant Buy & Download:
Click your preferred currency: $27.90 (USD) / €25.90 (EUR) / £23.90 (GBP) – This platform works with credit & debit cards and / or PayPal. You will receive a download link to your e-mail after the purchase (check your spam folder too).

What’s in the bundle?:
You will receive all the sounds from all my demos plus extra. This is 150 patches / presets in total. You will also get all the sequences that I play.

What format / import method?:
My soundpack comes in two sets (A&B) saved as sysex files exported directly from my T-6. You will have the option to choose the destination banks (you will be able to import my presets into banks 000-099 or 100-199 or 200-299 or 300-399 or 400-499).

What genre / style?:
There is no one style, because YOU decide what style these patches will be played in. It’s a wide variety of sounds that are meant to inspire, make you look at the synth in a different light and give you a great choice of directions. Some patches are bread & butter, some offbeat; they’re the result of me trying to find the limits of the instrument. The sounds are ready-to-use in music or can serve as starting points; just pick the textures or dynamics that you like and easily fine-tune them to suit your exact taste or purpose.

Any external stuff?:
I did not use any external FX in the demo; all the delays, reverbs, noises & distortions are part of the Trigon-6 engine. However, I used some slight EQ-ing on selected patches.


Notes on grades lower than 3/3:

[modern]: sounds modern vs other Sequentials, but for truly original sounds go Hydra or Opsix
[organic]: vibey & gritty for a Sequential, but it will not beat Prologue or Polybrute;)
[engine]: classic architecture, no mod matrix, inflexible control for LFO & Poly-Mod, etc.
[flex]: timbres hard to put into one camp, yet far from the best chameleons out there
[soft / mgmt]: no patch names, editor / librarian only third-party & paid



CONTEXT

This isn’t going to be a lengthy write-up, as the Trigon-6 had the misfortune of coming to me after the OB-6, the REV-2, the PRO-3, the Prophet-6 and the Take-5. I feel like pretty much everything I had to say about Sequential synths had been said in these write-ups so I don’t want to make you bored by repeating the same conclusions or the same technical descriptions. If the Trigon-6 was my first Sequential synth, there would have been a much more enthusiastic undertone in this review, because I do like it. So bear this context in mind;)


WHAT MAKES T-6 SPECIAL?

I’ll start by taking the dangerous route (irritate the hair-splitting nerds;) and say the Trigon-6 is almost identical to the Prophet-6 and the OB-6 – at least in the layout department. Technically it’s not far away either, as it shares practically the same architecture (most notably in the FX & LFO section) with the sole difference residing in the filter. Of course there are other minor differences, and in order to come up with some interesting and new sounds I mainly focused on those differences. The most unusual and creative features of the Trigon-6 that I decided to concentrate on include:

– oscillator 3 working as LFO;
– oscillator 3 modulating Filter, Pitch, Pulse Width or Feedback;
– oscillators working with one or all waveshapes active;
– feedback / drive / distortion.

THE VIBE

So how does the synth sound? I feel like I can as easily come up with retro / vintage type of sounds as well as patches that are more modern or ambiguous in their nature. The synth exhibits a very interesting balance in that respect and this is its quality that attracts my attention in the largest degree. Relying on my ears’ judgment the Trigon-6 sits some place between the versatile, clean & modern sounding Prophet-6 and the characterful, fizzy & gritty OB-6. 


OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVITY

When I saw the Trigon-6 being announced (in my pre-nerd stage of mind), I thought “gosh, don’t we already have too many synths on the market which are too similar to one another?”. I thought releasing another Sequential synth, this time with a Moog filter on it was just taking the lazy route. We had Moogs, we had Sequentials – did we really need a Moogy Sequential on top of it?…

But when I actually spent some good amount of time with my Trigon, the nerd in me started to appreciate all the nuances that otherwise might have seemed too negligible for the logical, outside observer. The end result (or fruit) of the idea behind this synth is distinct enough to justify the Trigon-6 becoming a separate, independent product. The transistor ladder filter is one thing, but the feedback / drive block is as important for defining and understanding this instrument, because this is the door / passage into a territory not usually associated with Sequential’s poly-synths. Do you like the saturated quality added to a sound by preamps? Using the Trigon-6 drive feature can make it sound as if it was running through a preamp, while experimenting with the feedback lets us create sounds with flavors reminiscent of Polivoks or Korg Prologue. What I mean by that is all things rusty, toxic and screaming. Of course the Trigon-6 being a Sequential – the rust is going to be served to you in a hi-fi version;)

This makes the Trigon-6 a more characterful synth than the Prophet-6. It has a little bit more texture, it can be softer and more organic-sounding, but it can also be more venomous than the Prophet-6. The matter becomes more tricky if we throw in the OB-6 for comparison. The OB-6 has a richer filter section (Trigon has just LPF, whereas OB-6 has LP, HP, BP and notch) and can be as gritty & fizzy as the Trigon-6, but its “Oberheim” sound is unmistakable. The Trigion-6, on the other hand, goes into a noticeably different direction with the feedback / drive plus the 4-pole / 2-pole dichotomy. I’m really enjoying Trigon-6’s mixture of Novation Peak’s airy & crystalline tone, Moog’s classic & synthy tone, Roland’s roundness & squelchiness and Sequential’s personality & grungy-ness.


TO COMPARE OR NOT

Now let me explain why I said that comparing the Trigon-6 to the Prophet-6 and the OB-6 is dangerous. It may be dangerous for you – the user – as well as the synth itself. I’ve seen a more-than-average amount of unfavorable comments made by members of the synth community ever since the Trigon-6 was announced. People have been comparing it to the Prophet-6 and the OB-6, which is understandable and that’s what I did. But we have to remember that P-6 and OB-6 are synths with an established reputation. They’ve been on the market for almost a decade and no longer are they terra nova. We’ve heard them being used creatively in almost every genre. If you are underwhelmed by the Trigon-6 demos, wait until it gets the same treatment.

Now what’s less understandable to me is that people have also been comparing the Trigon-6 to… Memorymoog. I mean, come on… just because it has 3 oscillators and a ladder filter? If we go that route, than I guess we can compare anything to everything. Parrots and bananas, just because both can be found in Costa Rica and both are yellow. I don’t think Sequential ever said the Trigon-6 was supposed to be a copy of the Memorymoog (“the Trigon-6 is Sequential’s polyphonic take on the classic, thick and creamy, 3-oscillator-plus-ladder-filter analog sound that defined the dawn of the synth era; it’s a sound that bridges genres and styles — now refined and redefined with Sequential’s own modern imprint.) There is a different company that officially admits to making exact clones of epic synths;) I’m sure that if the Trigon-6 was released by Moog as “Memorymoog 2” or by Oberheim as “OB-3osc”, the sales would have quadrupled.

True story: one time someone asked a radio manager why the station plays the same old songs over and over again instead of throwing in something offbeat. He replied: “because listeners like what they know”. Ha ha. But this is a sad fact indeed. Audiences have always been drawn to what’s familiar – because familiar things are safe comforting.

So as you can see, the comparison / recreation game is a dangerous one. A lesson for any company making future synths is that they should either release something totally new, or something that is a direct copy of an original. Synth nerds do not forgive!

Don’t play this game – better go to a store and play a Trigon yourself to be able to judge the appeal & value of this synth.

OUTRO

If you ask me whether I have any negative feelings about the Trigon-6, I’ll repeat the comment which I had made in my previous write-ups: the top-tier Sequential synths have a low price-to-features ratio. What this means is that you pay a lot of money but you don’t get an awful lot of sound design possibilities in return. However, the issue of money (or value) is the hardest & most tricky part of the discussion. The thing is this: if you need to be saving up 2 long years to be able to afford a $3500 synth, and – god forbid – at the end of the day you’re disappointed with it, the expense seems awfully high and the experience leaves you bitter.

If, on the other hand, it’s easy for you to buy the synth and if it sounds fantastic and gets used on every track – then it’s the best $3500 you’ve ever spent. The price of the Trigon-6 is high, but the sound design process is a blast. Each & every parameter is laid out in front of our eyes and we don’t get distracted by menus and clickology. What’s more, the resulting patches most often end up in the “gorgeous / phenomenal” department. Of course there are other synths also equipped with comfortable UI and capable of making phenomenal sounds which are cheaper than the Trigon-6, but they come with flaws or downsides not present on the T-6 (like insane weight or bad-feel keyboard if we take the Arturia Polybrute for an example – which makes it ungiggable in my view).

The now-cool Trigon-6 would be a truly fantastic synth if the engine was a little bit deeper (without raising the current price, of course). Two or three LFOs and a small mod matrix would work wonders and would make any sound designer ecstatic, because the sound of this thing seems to be naturally receptive to modulation. Some minor things could be perfected too. I’ve always been wondering why manufacturers choose to use buttons for the filter tracking feature. Is there a viable technical reason behind it, or is it just a whim of the designers? There’s a 3-position button for filter tracking on the Trigon-6. Why not a dedicated knob for continuous, full control of that parameter? The other thing is that you cannot name patches on these Sequential synths. With a large library of sounds it can make things confusing, all the more so if the first bank is called “0”, and the 2nd one is called “1”, and so forth.


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This Post Has 15 Comments

  1. SnuggleMonster

    Unsure if you tried an SE-02 but I’m really curious to know if the Trigon 6 is a polyphonic version of that synth.
    I’ve been using the SE-02 for several years and enjoy it immensely. It fills right in with my SH-2 and Two Voice Pro wonderfully adding a counterpoint to those instruments with its Moogish yet unique characteristics.
    The Trigon interests me as a poly version of that little guy.
    Is there enough similarities?

  2. BennyBlanco

    Hi Jexus,

    How about comparing it to Take 5? Are they too much far apart in terms of sound? Just wondering if to buy one, but as I can’t demo one, counting on your experience with them all from Sequential. Thank you!

    1. Jexus WCOG

      Yes, to me they’re very far apart, the Take-5 sounds a bit like vintage Korg or Kawaii, unlike all the other Sequential synths.

      1. BennyBlanco

        Thank you as always:) One last comparison so I could decide, as I read you messed around with a Polybrute as well – how does the Trigon 6 compare to it in terms of sound, I’m aware the Polybrute offers much more possibilities (LFOs, ModMattix etc) and it has a ladder filter alongside the Steiner Parker one? Thanks!

        1. Jexus WCOG

          The Polybrute has two filters. What’s more, one of them is continuously variable between LP, HP and BP. What’s even more, the two filters can be played in series or in parallel. It’s a powerful synth but overall the default sound is pretty “retro” and “dirty” I would say. Trigon on the other hand can be very clean, hi-fi & modern sounding.

  3. George Papageorgiou

    I really appreciate the job you are doing, mate.

    That said… are we done with the prophets?

    😉

    1. Jexus WCOG

      Thanks. For now I don’t see any new Sequentials on the horizon;)

      1. GBHB77

        Jexus, you forgot about Prophet-12, the most interesting, mysterious, powerful and underestimated Prophet. I hope you see him on your horizon someday!

        1. polysixxer

          Give up on the P12, it’s sounds nasty (not in a good way but in a cheap way), same terrible filters as the REV 2 with serious sonic flaws (actual RF interference like high pitched anomalies in the upper spectrum) married to weak sounding/plastic digital oscs… it’s not always about the toys present in a synth, it has to SOUND GOOD first and foremost, not just ‘do interesting things’ that grate the ears. Certainly, never use a P12 to even attempt to make any ‘analog sounding’ tones because its harsh and thin and will irritate your listeners (much like Rev 2).

          On topic: Trigon 6 and Prophet 10 rev 4 are the 2 best synths Sequential currently make. Prologue 16 is awesome too esp considering how cheap you can buy them, all three sound better than Polybrute, Prophet 12, Rev 2 etc

  4. Bbhgg

    It is really a surprise that you tested the quite new trigon.
    I like it too soundwise.
    I hope you finally test the polybrute.
    I have the feeling that you are not so much interested in this synth.
    All sequential were tested, prologue, t-6, take 5.
    So it would be round and logic to look at the polybrute and see how he competes.
    I know the polybrute a bit and it is very different to the matrixbrute. More controlled sound but very nice sound and versatile.

    1. Jexus WCOG

      I do want to test the Polybrute, it looks very interesting & exciting! But there are so many synths these days and the sound design / demo production process takes so long that it is inevitable that some synths will come first and some are pushed back to the end of the queue. Many times the order of appearance is not under my control – I buy synths as they appear in local ads. Polybrute is rare;)

      1. ploikt

        I’m kinda confused since you make comparisons with the Polybrute in this review. Have you actually played one or are you just basing those on impressions from videos / online comments? Looking forward to when you get around to it 🙂

        1. Jexus WCOG

          Yes, I did spend a good amount of time with a Polybrute. However, I can’t give you any date of a potential demo release yet.

          1. Aaron

            Polybrute is fascinating. Great for wispy, airy sounds. Envelopes can be altered to get great plucks and percussion. Just about everything is variable. Tip: Route vco 2 to vcf 1. Filter fm vco 2 > vcf 1. Shift around the wave shapes you can find some great dirt. Add noise to vcf 1 and adjust noise color. Just about all of that is routable in the matrix. Arturia knocked it out of the park with it’s architecture but they could have made it with a semi-weighted keybed. It would have been a dream to play.

          2. Chris

            If it’s worth anything, I have a Polybrute and your comparison is spot on. It’s a big heavy synth and the keybed is… not so great (in my opinion) when compared to the Fatar keybed. I do find aftertouch to be a bit easier to work with on the Polybrute, but damn, it’s one creaky keybed.

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