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Roadie
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Cherry Audio released their SH-Max soft synth today. I tried it, loved it, and immediately bought the license for it.
Inexplicably, it's $59, yet it's one of the nicest sounding, and most capable, soft synths I've ever come across. I'd have expected to pay considerably more.
I've spent a lot of time with Cherry's GX-80 (their take on the CS-80), my favorite plugin version of the Yamaha CS-80 made famous by Vangelis and others (the SH series was also one of his faves, as with numerous bands of that era that we've all heard a bazillion times).
I also own the Arturia and XILS Lab versions of the CS80 and have spent time with the CS80 hardware synth, so the concept isn't unfamiliar; Cherry does a wonderful job with their emulations. I find that Cherry's sound quality is more my style than Arturia or XILS (though the XILS model is also quite good and I haven't taken it off my SSD).
Anyway, I was very interested in trying the SH-Max out.
It's based on the Roland SH-7, 5 and 3A monosynths of the '70s, but is capable of as much as 16 voice polyphony, as well as polyphonic aftertouch and other stuff only the software version can do.
It has some incredibly good tricks up its sleeve. One of the more interesting things is the pannable oscillator mixer, unavailable on the hardware. The effects are also really good! I have a lot of respect for Cherry Audio. They really do a nice job.
cherryaudio.com
I'm well aware that BehringX makes a hardware copy of the SH-5. It's $559, and for the money it's a good-sounding piece of hardware, but I've A/B'd BehringX's other copies of hardware synths in my studio with some of the better soft synths, and only found the hardware versions distinguishable from the software at the most extreme settings; for example, self-oscillation of the resonant filters, etc.
These extreme settings aren't things I generally use, but if you need them, the hardware is cheap enough to make them a good investment.
Since Cherry's soft synth actually does more stuff, and sounds pretty amazing, it's unlikely I'd consider buying the BehringX version.
Cherry has links to demos on the product page, and a walk through of the synth's features and capabilities. It's easy to understand, the demos are quite good, and I even like the presets that came with it. For ten more bucks you can get an extra preset pack; once I get more used to the plugin I'll probably do that.
There's a free trial of the software; seems like a no-brainer to download it and give it a go.
I'm glad I bought it.
Inexplicably, it's $59, yet it's one of the nicest sounding, and most capable, soft synths I've ever come across. I'd have expected to pay considerably more.
I've spent a lot of time with Cherry's GX-80 (their take on the CS-80), my favorite plugin version of the Yamaha CS-80 made famous by Vangelis and others (the SH series was also one of his faves, as with numerous bands of that era that we've all heard a bazillion times).
I also own the Arturia and XILS Lab versions of the CS80 and have spent time with the CS80 hardware synth, so the concept isn't unfamiliar; Cherry does a wonderful job with their emulations. I find that Cherry's sound quality is more my style than Arturia or XILS (though the XILS model is also quite good and I haven't taken it off my SSD).
Anyway, I was very interested in trying the SH-Max out.
It's based on the Roland SH-7, 5 and 3A monosynths of the '70s, but is capable of as much as 16 voice polyphony, as well as polyphonic aftertouch and other stuff only the software version can do.
It has some incredibly good tricks up its sleeve. One of the more interesting things is the pannable oscillator mixer, unavailable on the hardware. The effects are also really good! I have a lot of respect for Cherry Audio. They really do a nice job.
SH-MAX
SH-MAX is Cherry Audio's fantastic fusion of three remarkable SH-series synthesizers from the 1970s: the SH-5, SH-7, and SH-3A. But SH-MAX is far from a simple first-time emulation of these classic instruments in software. We took the undeniably bold sound of the SH-5, combined it with the best...
cherryaudio.com
I'm well aware that BehringX makes a hardware copy of the SH-5. It's $559, and for the money it's a good-sounding piece of hardware, but I've A/B'd BehringX's other copies of hardware synths in my studio with some of the better soft synths, and only found the hardware versions distinguishable from the software at the most extreme settings; for example, self-oscillation of the resonant filters, etc.
These extreme settings aren't things I generally use, but if you need them, the hardware is cheap enough to make them a good investment.
Since Cherry's soft synth actually does more stuff, and sounds pretty amazing, it's unlikely I'd consider buying the BehringX version.
Cherry has links to demos on the product page, and a walk through of the synth's features and capabilities. It's easy to understand, the demos are quite good, and I even like the presets that came with it. For ten more bucks you can get an extra preset pack; once I get more used to the plugin I'll probably do that.
There's a free trial of the software; seems like a no-brainer to download it and give it a go.
I'm glad I bought it.
