First of all, I want to mention that I’m opening this thread as a synth player/performer who’s probably older than many of you. (Age is never wisdom, of course—I just wanted to point out that I’ve had the chance to work with many synths throughout synth history)
Also, this is the first time I’ve ever bought a synth without trying it first. And honestly, the Super 8 blew me away in terms of its interface—it’s by far the most impressive synth I’ve used, both in looks and usability. (I’ve used synths from the Roland D-70 / Korg M1 era up to modern ones like Prophet 6, MatrixBrute, Teo 5, Matriarch, Korg Prologue, and OB-6 module.)
As I mentioned above, the Super 8 is far more user-friendly than all these synths in terms of its interface. However, when it comes to presets….
I have to say I’m very very disappointed. Especially with the sheer number of high-frequency, bell-based synth sounds. And please don’t come with the usual “make your own patches” advice—I know my way around modular synths like the Matriarch.
What surprised me was that for a synth at this price point, the presets feel so similar and lack unique character. After turning it on (especially live), there are very few presets that make you think, “Yes! I’ll use this one too.” Most of the arpeggio-based, bright sounds just similar to eachoter (sonic wise), and honestly, I don’t get the point. And for the first time ever, I’m giving a new synth a few extra days to test before deciding if I’ll keep it or send it back.
I really hope UDO thinks about this for their high-end synths because these presets don’t quite match what you’d expect at this level. Curious to hear what you all think!
I own the S6 so my thoughts are based on several years of ownership of this synth, yes the presets do tend to be quite similar with an emphasis on glassy bell type ambient type sounds however the synth is capable a wide range of both new and ‘classic’ synth tones, that said I feel that UDO synths are primarily programmed by George Hearn so suspect the presets reflect his own musical taste. Looking at the synths you mentioned, the Korg M1 was the first synth programmed by a multinational sound design team , the Roland D70 and its more famous brothers D50 /JV1020 were all programmed by two of the worlds ‘greatest’ sound designers Eric Persing and Adrian Scott , the Moogs , Dave Smith instruments and other synths mentioned just had to bang out classic analogue synth tones in order to sell . The UDO synths have a unique sound which add to the colours available from other synths without being simple ‘wannabe clones’ of the classic analogue / digital synths mentioned. As such the UDO range really offers something new in a very crowded but mega small high end hardware synth market , that said , I really do feel that UDO need to engage a team of professional sound designers to develop banks of presets for those owners who do not want to programme their own sounds .
I absolutely love my Super 8. I use it all the time in the studio and pretty much the only factory presets I have used are their lush pads and their wurli sound. Mostly I’m using all original sounds that I built from scratch. Building sounds on this synth is a dream. So playful and effortless.
Also, a fun study / way to come up with alternate preset sounds on it is to open up Jupiter 8 presets in Arturia V and try to remake them, since the super 8 has a lot of the same parameters. I will say the super 8 has a huge range and sounds so good. And I agree the factory presets are underwhelming. No offense intended George. But they aren’t that practical I think for most players. Most of them are very soft and gentle. It’s nice to have a synth that can make such gentle sounds, and I do like some of them, but they aren’t very practical I imagine for most users. I’ve seen a lot of people who don’t know synthesis that well express frustration with how ambient nearly all the presets are.
That said, this synth is super capable of very present bass and lead sounds, in addition to being just a killer poly synth. I’ve also managed to get some pretty radical noise out of it from time to time. For me it’s a total dream synth, especially in the studio. Everything sounds so expensive and finished.