Universal Audio Freebie: The Most Excellent Polymax

[László]

UA's in-house designed synths are excellent. So much so that my son and I compared his real, analog minimoog to the UA emulation on my computer when he was in town. We quite literally could not hear a difference. We were both surprised.

One nice thing about a synth, of course, is that it's not like modeling a real amp, a synth is artificial sounding in the first place. So if it's good, it can sound authentic.

The Polymax is an analog style synth similar to the Roland Juno synths of the '80s. Having had one, I'm quite familiar with that sound.

This is a very analog-sounding synth. It's easy to get sounds on, it sounds great, it's free, and you don't need a UAD machine to run it, the plugin runs in any computer DAW.

Free through June, I think. If you like analog synth sounds, getting this is truly a no-brainer.

 

[Herr Squid]

UAD are killing it with their current product lineup, aren't they?

I have few of the Oberheim soft synths from GForce, and they sound pretty darn great. Funny thing about soft synths though, is that I don't treat them as being as "real" (stupid term, I know) as the physical thing. I'll often play the physical OB-X8 module in preference over the soft synth, even though it sounds as good and can do more tricks. Not to harsh on anyone's buzz about soft synths. They are pretty great.

 

[Prina]

Thanks for the heads up.

The UA Hammond B3 plug in is great so looking forward to trying this one.

 

[Moondog Wily]

Here is a link: https://www.uaudio.com/products/polymax-synth

 

[László]

UAD are killing it with their current product lineup, aren't they?

Yup. I've owned a number of their hardware units over the years, and they never disappoint.

I have few of the Oberheim soft synths from GForce, and they sound pretty darn great.

Those are good ones; I use the Plugin Alliance version and it sounds great.

Funny thing about soft synths though, is that I don't treat them as being as "real" (stupid term, I know) as the physical thing. I'll often play the physical OB-X8 module in preference over the soft synth, even though it sounds as good and can do more tricks.

I would actually do, and have done, the same thing.

Most soft synths are very good, and work just fine in a mix until you put in one of the better sounding hardware synths and realize the software lacks the weight and complexity of a good hardware synth. I've gotten a different vibe from most hardware synths, and still do.

Still, there are soft synths worth having because many of them do very different things than anything on the market in hardware.

This is particularly the case with the more recent wavetable soft synths, like Serum, Synthmaster 2, Pigments, Massive X - and there are others.

My last hardware synth was Dave Smith's Sequential Prophet 12. It had a richness and weight I wasn't getting from the soft synths. Probably its nonlinearities and analog filters mattered a great deal.

The minimoog and 80s Roland polyphonic synths are far less complex beasts, and duplicating them is probably less. challenging. The soft synths UA has does them justice.

This UA Polymax sounds very much like my old Roland stuff. It surprised me in a good way. But I should point out that the Roland synths always sounded thinner to me than some of the competition.

I recently got XILs Lab's version of the Yamaha CS80 that was recently introduced. It's far and away the best sounding software version of that synth I've heard (I've had 'em all), but again, the CS80 hardware still has a bigger, more vibey sound. But try and buy a CS80 these days in good condition. They're a fortune.

Not to harsh on anyone's buzz about soft synths. They are pretty great.

Well, I agree with you. Most soft synths leave something on the table compared to hardware.

Thanks for the heads up.

The UA Hammond B3 plug in is great so looking forward to trying this one.

I have it too. I think it's the best B3 plugin yet, but it comes with a caveat:

The weight and 3D quality of a real Hammond (I've owned one, and my parents also owned one) is missing, particularly the doppler effect of the rotating Leslie speaker that I don't think anyone's truly nailed yet.

Nonetheless, for me the days of struggling with a hardware Hammond were over in the early 1970s. I'm very happy that UA made a good plugin I can get away with using on most projects, though I have booked studios simply to use their well maintained B3s if the budget allows.

 

[Herr Squid]

Admittedly, I'm just a dilettante, but I've especially enjoyed the GForce OB-E soft synth. It models the Oberheim SEM 8-voice synth, which is really 8 little independent 2-oscillator synths strapped to a common keyboard/arp/sequencer setup, each with their own envelopes, filters, amps, and LFOs. Nothing else sounds quite like it. The soft implementation adds a 3rd oscillator to each module, control over (de)tuning, some more modulation options, and reverb and delay, which is pretty cool. The real 8-voice was big, finicky, complicated and monstrously expensive. I may never see a real one in my life, and would never be able to buy one. So the soft version of it for under $200 is a total win-win.

 

[László]

I may never see a real one in my life, and would never be able to buy one. So the soft version of it for under $200 is a total win-win.

My former production partner (and still close friend) has one, and I've used it.

G-Force makes a nice emulation. Is it perfect? Maybe not, but it's damn good.

 

[László]

I'm revisiting the thread because I've been fussing around with this plugin for a couple of weeks now. I have one more observation:

Most plugin synths lack sonic weight compared to a real hardware synth. This one has some weight.

UA's minimoog emulation also has it, and so does their Opal synth. One thing about UA's in-house plugins (as opposed to plugins they license from others) is that they tend to sound more realistic. I'm very fond of these UA-developed plugins, including other hardware they work on, and have used them ever since going "in the box".