I just received mine and have had a few hours to play with it. My first impression is that it sounds gorgeous. The high end has a magic quality to it that sounds like the best vintage synths, and I find the bass to be massive. There are sounds on here that may be similar to sounds on other synths but something about the sound of them here makes me want to play them. Then it makes other sounds that I have not heard anywhere else. While I am not thrilled with some of the factory patches, I do find some of them quite nice.
The thing is, this is a synth that is all about immediate control - so if you don’t (or for that matter also if you do) like the patches then start grabbing sliders, switches and knobs. I have made some patches of my own which I love and I only know half of what I am doing. There seem to be many sweet spots in the range and happy accidents occur. Many moves of a slider change the sound far more than I expected and bring cool things.
My only complaint on the first day would be patch storage. Wish there was a rocker switch with 4 positions next to the patch select buttons. That would expand things to 512 voices easily. Perhaps another bank of 64 with a different blinking interval could be done.
I am aware of some remaining issues that are due to be fixed with the upcoming firmware, and went into this knowing about them, so they aren’t bothering me. If someone wasn’t aware of them I can understand some frustration. But they are on the case and also have some nice new features coming.
So overall I love it and hope it lasts for decades. I will certainly be interested in what UDO comes up with next. Excellent job UDO!