[MBTC]

I picked one of these up because:

1. I'm a former hardware guy turned software guy, but I still have gear lust and wanted to start dabbling in hardware again without quite yet blowing a wad on more expensive synths that I've been eyeballing
2. It was cheap ($600 new) / good specs for the price
3. Everyone that has one of these seems to love it
4. The software integration was intriguing, and unlike the virus VC software everyone seems thrilled with the software plugin.
5. I always liked the Supernova sound. I'm a weirdo that actually likes VA as much or more than true analog
6. I had listened to one at a music store and it seemed like a lot of synth for the money
7. The touch - knobs were interesting
8. I use a Novation MIDI controller already and a Focusrite audio interface, and think fondly of their gear

For a couple of days I just plugged it in worked through patches and programming using headphones. There is definately an "instantaneous" feel to a hardware synth that takes some fiddling to duplicate in a purely software environment. It could be mostly psychological, but when you play through factory patches on a hardware synth, most of them have been tweaked to take advantage of that board, with regard to mod wheel, aftertouch etc.

One of my "tests" of a synth is to create some sort of resource draining wet supersaw-type unison patch (or sometimes a string pad-like sound with a very long release) and then play a bunch of notes to get a feel for when polyphony starts dropping out (or in the case of some soft-synths, when the CPU meter gets rediculously high). I have to say here that the Ultranova fared better with this than I expected. I literally A/B'd it up against Zebra, which can be a monstrous supersaw beast if you don't mind parting with some CPU to get there. I put the Ultranova's 3 oscillators (unison x 4), fattented with some chorus and delay against Zebra's 4 oscillators running in "Eleven" mode (44 osc!), and tried to get the detune settings about the same on each. They were almost indistinguishable! With a long release envelope (which would not be typical for a patch like this anyway), there was a point where of course the Ultranova started dropping notes but it was at a point where Zebra2 would have been using an inordinate amount of CPU if used in a real track with other things going on, and would have most likely needed to be bounced down to an audio clip anyway.

Now the shocker? This was phenomenally better than the Virus Ti2 Desktop did in my very unscientific benchmarking experiments with polyphony a few years ago when I briefly had my hands on one. I did not perform the exact same steps, so this is an admittedly subjective evaluation, and thus nobody should quote me as saying the Ultranova is more powerful than the Virus Ti2. Also, there was so much wrestling with the VirusControl software and the driver at that time, that I did not have as much time to spend learning how to program the Virus as I already learned in a matter of hours with the trouble-free Ultranova, so it is by no means a fair comparison. I'm just saying that for a 3 osc synth with limited capabilities on paper, it can sound surprisingly fat and hold its own with polyphony.

Now shocker #2. The editor, running as a plug-in in FLStudio, just friggin works. No latency, no crashes, no excuses, it just seems to work and communicate beautifully with the synth over USB. Although again this is not quite an apples-to-apples comparison with Virus Control because I'm not using the Ultranova's built in audio interface like I was with the Virus, and I also am sending audio from the outs over 1/4 to the interface. The comparison here is not really to say the Ultranova software works and Virus Control doesn't, it's just that the out of box experience, comparing the Ultranova in 2013 to my experience with VC in 2009 is like night and day different. From what I've read, the VC problems still exist for most folks... what's going on, Access?

I've really only messed with this synth on the surface, but the editor is REALLY nice, and where things stand right now I'm quite happy with the purchase.

About the only negative thing I could say about it yet is that 37 keys really cramps my style for all but a few one-handed type uses. Just having another octave on my Novation remote makes a big difference in terms of actually putting down an arrangement. If I do get another Virus, I don't think I will get a desktop like I did before, but rather splurge for a 61-key.

{updating with new information... I did eventually upgrade my main controller to an MKII 61-key after this thread}

Back to the only negative, with a 37-key synth like this, you sometimes find that some patches sound good only within the limited number of octaves offered by the synth, maybe one up and one down. It is harder to make sounds sound great across more octaves, and most folks don't bother with a synth with this many keys.

I still have a lot to learn about it but if anyone has specific questions I'd be glad to try to answer.