Great demos. Check out the full review on Audio Cookbook. According to the review the DarkStar was the "Internet's most reviled synth". I don't recall this, but then I didn't spend too much time in the forums after launching MATRIXSYNTH. I have an XP2 myself and love it, although the interface does take a little getting used to. It appears John Keston is pro Darkstar as well:
"For me the DarkStar fulfills a spectrum of features that I’ve been looking for in a desktop poly. It has a low profile so I can use it along side a collection of other devices while performing. It has eight voice polyphony allowing me to produce dense harmonies. It has a bloody joystick to control the filter and resonance! The joystick can also be configured to control ring modulation and oscillator mix. Many knobs make sculpting the sound in realtime possible. The LFOs have ramp, triangle, square, sine, pulse, sample & hold, and “random” waveforms. What random does is pretty remarkable. Similar to slew on the Novation Bass Station II, it interpolates or slides between random values instead of jumping to them like sample & hold does. This is especially nice for panning and one of the things that distinguishes the DarkStar from other VAs of the time."
I admit to a little hyperbole with the "most reviled" designation, but I did come across more negative posts than I have ever seen directed to a particular instrument.
ReplyDeletei remember it being reviled
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