Ultranova - Got one! Here are my thoughts..

[MBTC]

I've been having some trouble with bulk importing the Supernova II sounds, onto the synth bank D, the librarian keeps crashing. It will transfer some of the patches successfully, sometimes putting a patch in one slot, then leaving a blank slot, rinse and repeat. First time I've seen this problem, had no problem importing other banks in the past. Maybe I'm due for some updates? I'll have to look into this later and report back.

It's definitely not a perfect piece of gear, but I will say at the price point of the Ultra, when you get let down by the software, it's a lot easier to live with than it would be with a $3k synth.

[trance gate]

Originally Posted by MBTC

Did you read my followup to Timo's question? You can set the oscillator phase to either Free, or a numeric value between 0-180. Set to Free either from the board itself or the VST to get rid of the peeow peeow sound.

I'm curious what you don't like about the supersaw on the UN, maybe I can help there too? If you didn't yet know about the osc phase setting I'm inclined to think you haven't explored it deeply enough yet. You have to on this synth to get the most from it. There are a couple of different ways to achieve supersaws on the UN, one uses up more voices (like the Virus) and one does not. Explore both methods and I think you'll find some good stuff.

Also be sure to get both Supernova soundsets -- they are better than the factory patches. The Daniel Fisher sounds are a nice showcase for its diversity but if it's trance sounds you seek, they are not good starting points.

The biggest shortcoming I find in the Ultranova is simply lack of available soundsets for it. You have to be committed to making your own sounds to get the most out of it.

But about the King Korg -- yes I think it has a nice sound too from what I've heard, been eyeballing that one for a while. Nice price point as well, even if twice the cost of a Ultranova.

sorry for the late reply!

Well, As I told I really like the ultranova but I've got one of the first sold units. It's full of bugs and problems.
Beginning with the hiss on the headphones output, the unreliable big knob (it fell of the shaft in maybe 3 hours of use) and sometimes the synth just doesn't want to turn on.

The software is pretty buggy, the drift of the oscs sometimes works, the same happens with the delay time.

About the supersaw IMHO, I don't find it bad but I feel it begins to sound really thin as you detune it to a point it sounds like a real supersaw. To avoid it you only have to stack another set of detuned saws an octave appart but it usually makes the sound muddier and full of white noise.

Again, IMHO the virus hypersaw sounds better and the sylenth1 detuned saws too.

Appart of my crappy full of bugs unit the synth is really nice. The mod matrix is really nice to use with a lot of destinations and the touch control is clever.
About presets I can't tell you anything as I never use them in any synth, I prefer creating my own sounds.

If I'd only have 700 euros to spend it would be a fight between this and a blofeld keyboard.

Both of them full of nice sounds and a crappy build quality to reduce costs.

Whatever, after having it for 2.5 years, I've never planned to sell it, it's a nice synth with a nice keybed and a great size.

cheers!

[namnibor]

Well, since I have a Blofeld Keyboard Black Shadow Edition, I can attest to fact it is BUILT LIKE A TANK! The Fatar keys are exact same ones used on Virus KC and DSI Mono Evolver Keyboard, of which I own as well. Understand that I did not buy mine until the O.S. was stable as that's a pet peeve of mine with companies and there's only a few minor bugs yet to be addressed that relate to the arp sync on first note, but that's kind of a Waldorf thing because my Q has the exact same little bug. Fabulously deep and capable synth that compliments the Virus very well because of distinct filters, incredibly deep mod matrix, with my preferring Blofeld's envelopes and LFO's, yep, ALL FOUR each of them with choice of linear, algorithmic, bipolar/looping. The Virus of course excels in all of those too, and if I truly were to gripe about *anything* with Blofeld Keyboard, it would be the effects, which are nowhere near a Virus, and being able to run Blofeld through Virus effects make them so happy together I HOPE they produce an illegitimate LOVE CHILD one night. I think both the Virus KC and Blofeld Keyboard have bit of a craptastic mult-mode unless of course, you just use your DAW, which is work-around for both, have learned.
After all, many of the Waldorf Engineers went to work with Access for the brief time of bankruptcy mess in helping develop the Ti. So they actually share some "synth DNA" as far as brilliant minds.
**Seems more common now that ever for a new product upon release to either be incomplete or very buggy and it's beyond me why these companies actually utilize the SAME Beta-Testers most of the time because seems it's people that think and use/push their instruments 'outside the box' that catch all these 'bugs'.
Rant over...had to say something or my Blofeld would keep threatening my cat!

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by trance gate

sorry for the late reply!

Well, As I told I really like the ultranova but I've got one of the first sold units. It's full of bugs and problems.
Beginning with the hiss on the headphones output, the unreliable big knob (it fell of the shaft in maybe 3 hours of use) and sometimes the synth just doesn't want to turn on.

Thanks for the response. I haven't used the headphone output much or had the other problems you mentioned, could just be early production bugs as you say. Although, the big knob does seem to "lose it's grip on the value" if I move it too fast if that makes sense? Its like the software can't keep up with the synth knob.... I meant to contact Novation to see if that's normal, but it didn't bother me too much because I have so many ways to overcome it (such as mapping a knob from my MK II or my Cubase AI controller to the filter on the VST, which works just like any soft synth).

Originally Posted by trance gate

The software is pretty buggy, the drift of the oscs sometimes works, the same happens with the delay time.

I've had problems with the librarian (specifically loading bulk patches) recently, which is weird because before I had no problems and I haven't applied updates since. The software itself is a little quirky, but I find it to be quite solid for an "integrated hardware solution" (my only other experience for a valid comparison would be with Virus control which was way buggier by comparison).

Originally Posted by trance gate

About the supersaw IMHO, I don't find it bad but I feel it begins to sound really thin as you detune it to a point it sounds like a real supersaw. To avoid it you only have to stack another set of detuned saws an octave appart but it usually makes the sound muddier and full of white noise.

Again, IMHO the virus hypersaw sounds better and the sylenth1 detuned saws too.

I can believe that's true, I just don't have a Virus ATM to compare and contrast. When I first got the Ultranova I did some raw supersaw comparisons with Zebra, which I have gotten some insanely rich supersaws out of in the past, and I found the Ultranova to be roughly comparable. But like all synths, great sounds don't just jump out at you from nowhere, sometimes finding the sweet spot of sound design takes some time. Biggest difference for me is that with something like Zebra, Massive, Sylenth1 etc I have huge libraries of already great sounds when I don't feel like investing the time to start from scratch, while the Ultranova is lacking a little on third party patch availability.

I do admit to kind of a love/hate relationship with the software, because on one hand it is very rich in features but on the other hand you sometimes run into limitations that are just in your way, more so than with a good soft synth. As you said though the combination of mod matrix and the touch controls bring a lot to the table.

Originally Posted by trance gate

Appart of my crappy full of bugs unit the synth is really nice. The mod matrix is really nice to use with a lot of destinations and the touch control is clever.
About presets I can't tell you anything as I never use them in any synth, I prefer creating my own sounds.

If I'd only have 700 euros to spend it would be a fight between this and a blofeld keyboard.

Not sure how pricing is where you are, but in the US I paid the equivalent of 450 euros for this unit brand new direct from Novation! Admittedly, the price contributes greatly to my satisfaction.

Originally Posted by trance gate

Both of them full of nice sounds and a crappy build quality to reduce costs.

Whatever, after having it for 2.5 years, I've never planned to sell it, it's a nice synth with a nice keybed and a great size.

I'd definitely agree the build quality is not in the same league as Virus or any high-end instrument. The keys even feel light and cheap to me, but for certain types of playing I find this to be easier on the hands and good for quick movements. I don't expect to see these selling in "mint condition" on eBay 20 years from now.

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by namnibor

Well, since I have a Blofeld Keyboard Black Shadow Edition, I can attest to fact it is BUILT LIKE A TANK! The Fatar keys are exact same ones used on Virus KC and DSI Mono Evolver Keyboard, of which I own as well. Understand that I did not buy mine until I the O.S. was stable as that's a pet peeve of mine with companies and there's only a few minor bugs yet to be addressed that relate to the arp sync on first note, but that's kind of a Waldorf thing because my Q has the exact same little bug.

How are arp patterns edited on the blofield? That's one peeve of mine about the ultranova, there is a fixed set of arp patterns. There are of course a lot of different ways to mangle those so that they are non-recognizable, but it's too experimental once you've worked with a decent arp editor like synthmaster, omnisphere, nexus etc for example are some that come to mind.

[namnibor]

Originally Posted by MBTC

How are arp patterns edited on the blofield? That's one peeve of mine about the ultranova, there is a fixed set of arp patterns. There are of course a lot of different ways to mangle those so that they are non-recognizable, but it's too experimental once you've worked with a decent arp editor like synthmaster, omnisphere, nexus etc come to mind.

On the Blo's large screen you of course could select from many patterns and also user patterns and actually is shy of being a full-on sequencer...certainly easier and less of headache to set-up that on my Virus KC.

With that said, have learned using the DAW as work around for both Virus and Blofeld is simply faster, if anything else. The Blo has it's multi-mode and arp entwined very tightly to where one could easily summize they are one and the same. I actually like the arp set-up on Blo much better than Virus but apples to oranges when it comes to 'menu-diving', as it just becomes intuitive with practice, of which I need more of and will.

Side-note: unloading the Korg Radias because although has a great user interface and it REALLY *could be* a great-er synth, if it simply did not want to sound so damn ~~HAPPY~~ ALL the time .
My Elektron Analog Four just arrived... I am *never* sleeping again!!!

[namnibor]

Originally Posted by MBTC

How are arp patterns edited on the blofield? That's one peeve of mine about the ultranova, there is a fixed set of arp patterns. There are of course a lot of different ways to mangle those so that they are non-recognizable, but it's too experimental once you've worked with a decent arp editor like synthmaster, omnisphere, nexus etc for example are some that come to mind.

Arp user-created set-ups are done on large screen in a grid of 16 note slots and a similar type of set-up is utilized for multi-mode 16 parts or conversely, 16 different ARPS with up to 16 DIFFERENT programs...it's the same deep ARP that's on the Waldorf Q. I am still wrapping my head around the depth of the Q's on-board step sequencer and cool thing about the Q is it will ALWAYS be 16 voices/parts, no matter how complicated you make modulation routings or use of dual multi filters, all 4 eight stage envelopes, et al....however, use the Virus for effects as seems to be Waldorf's Achilles Heal! Hope that better answers you and oh....did I mention *resistance was futile* and my Elektron Analog Four just arrived? Yeah, I should just have my headphones surgically attached!!!

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by namnibor

On the Blo's large screen you of course could select from many patterns and also user patterns and actually is shy of being a full-on sequencer...certainly easier and less of headache to set-up that on my Virus KC.

How are the user patterns created? Imported midi file?

On the ultranova it just seems like a dumb limitation. Especially since there is a proper visual gate pattern editor, with stereo editing.

Originally Posted by namnibor

With that said, have learned using the DAW as work around for both Virus and Blofeld is simply faster, if anything else.

There was a time when I would just do everything in the DAW because a lot of arp situations lend themselves to that. Lately though, I've been using the arp + latch feature of the Ultranova as more of a composition tool to find some catchy melodies before I go too far with the DAW. For example, left hand on the UN, right hand on the MKII controlling a softsynth like Dune, where the Ultranova is doing a rolling/arpy bassline and Dune is doing a lead. Then map a couple of touch knobs to things like subtle osc pitch tweaks, a little sync or distortion etc to make it easy to make the bassline really dynamic. It's just a really fast way of getting inspiration. But I can't quite take it exactly where I want with the UN, because I've only got a choice of the few-dozen preset patterns, and to really change them I have to do things like change timing and add delay's to change up the groove. Something like one of the aforementioned arp editors on the UN would add tremendous value.

[namnibor]

They are entered by playing an actual note and of course you can adjust the octave range, length of note, time sig, and various latch/hold and ability to add new notes in real time, essentially "playing the arp" just as DSI Mono Evolver Keyboard has. Of course there's the high/low note priority, et al that you would expect as well as random. I have the Blofeld Keyboard but the Blofeld Desktop operates same way with attached midi controller but the Desktop does NOT have a 5-pin DIN Midi Out, only the Midi IN so on THAT NOTE, although I do not use USB 2.0 with Blofeld Keyboard and would actually recommend the Keyboard over the Module because MOST of the "bugs" on Blofeld seem to be USB related because as a 'cost-saving measure', Waldorf did not properly 'shield' the USB, at least definitely on the Desktop Blo, meaning dependence on MIDI over USB 2.0 for a live set-up for two way communication could prove cumbersome. The work-around is some sort of 'Ferrite isolator for USB', and that's all I honestly know regarding that and was determining factor on getting the Blofeld Synth after also realizing same exact Fatar keys I love on Virus KC and DSI MEK, as the after touch is so damn responsive. What is it with **some companies** skimping on their implementation of USB when the aforementioned module version would DEPEND on such for efficient and trouble free communication? Kind of akin to Access finding it somehow more logical rather than pragmatic, to use USB 1 for the Ti series, which again, VC **DEPENDS** upon full efficient use of bandwidth???
What I have read thus far and watched, the Analog Four's ARP grid/note editor is the way it should be in that it's very visual on the screen, providing people understand how to read notes as they appear on sheet music and the destination of number representing it's octave position.
Elektron made a POINT to mention they cut no corners and their USB port IS fully isolated electrically and shielded EFI/EMI. Sorry, sent this prematurely as studio cat decided my arm was something to apparently be stalking for last few minutes!!

[namnibor]

Do realize the King Korg essentially has 98% of very same MMT Sound Engine the Korg Radias has...and am sure the filters may be better on the King Korg, but also realize Korg did NOT implement After Touch on YET another synth...and I did mention my Korg Radias is being officially grounded and disowned due to THAT MMT Sound Engine...sounds way to HAPPY! Korg Forums have even enough info of speculation that amidst Korg's recent great releases down analog patch again, the King Korg has been alluded to Korg's Pink Elephant, with ebay rife with people selling them for like $800-$950. of late...something to consider.
Have learned as primarily a piano trained person, that after touch is so damn dynamically handy when taken time to set-up each program with what you want to modulate with it...King Korg is bit of a JOKER rather than a KING IMO without AT.