I have to ask: have you shut down the company, or are you planning to? Because it sure feels like you’ve taken our money and then just disappeared.
It’s really frustrating to see no preset packs or expansions for the Super Gemini — an instrument many of us invested over €4000 in. Do you even care about your customers’ feedback anymore?
In today’s fast-paced world, loving sound design isn’t enough. We need speed and inspiration at our fingertips — presets that push us forward right here, right now. Turning endless knobs only gets you so far; what we truly want are new, quality sounds crafted by skilled sound designers to fuel our creativity.
Please understand that this silence and lack of support is disappointing, and many users are feeling ignored. It’s time to wake up and listen.
I have the sense that George and company monitor the forum and regularly respond where pertinent and possible. Remember they are a small company and don’t have a dedicated team of people sitting about to reply to forums…but then again, I’d rather the occasional response directly from the people who are crafting the instruments than some kind of canned PR language regardless. Also, I don’t think the general expectation for an instrument like the Super Gemini is that it’s a ‘preset machine’. It requires or invites a deep level of commitment and understanding of synthesis to get the most reward from it. I think if you take the time, you’ll more readily be able to generate something much more satisfying to your own work and music than anything that you can buy in a bundle of presets.
First of all, thank you for your thoughtful message — I really appreciate it. I fully agree with what you said about George and the team being directly involved on the forum. It’s great to hear from the actual creators rather than just a PR front, and I value that kind of authenticity.
That being said, I want to share an honest observation. No matter what anyone says, from what I’ve personally experienced — and also from listening to demos and tutorials from others — the Super Gemini sounds, at least 75% of the time, like a pad machine. It works well for cinematic and electronic music, sure, but I haven’t really heard any tones beyond synth effects and pads. I’ve gone through every knob and parameter on my SG, tried to push it in all directions… and the “juice” is still in the same area.
So either I’m missing something entirely… or there’s something odd going on with my unit. But I also don’t understand why everyone’s demos seem to gravitate toward the same kind of sounds. Why do all the tones come out sounding like pads or ambient textures?
Anyway — just wanted to put that out there, and again, thanks for taking the time to write your message.
It’s true that the whole binaural thing really lends itself to rich evolving pads in the main, but the synth isn’t a one trick pony by any means. One suggestion for inspiration that I found useful when I first got my Super 6: I used Arturia’s Analog Lab as a guide for single layer analog sounds I could attempt to replicate as creative start points, and the Roland Juno / Jupiter series appear to be the closest in architecture which means fat brasses, loads of basses - both juicy and gnarly - and a whole host of bell textures are possible. ENV1 is self modulating so you can vary the attack and decay profiles to create both extreme plucky / percussive sounds and very rounded subs. All this before you start applying the spatial effects or the sequencer.
I’ve found that the Super 6 is my ‘goto’ synth when I feel like sketching a sound out quickly as it is really inviting to work with. And when I do create something I like, I very often wish I had another layer on my Super 6 to work with as you do on the Super Gemini, to add counterpoint or contrast.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply — it really helped clarify some things for me and gave me a fresh perspective on the Super 6. I completely agree that it’s far from a one-trick pony. Your tip about using Analog Lab as a reference is golden — it’s such a practical way to start shaping sounds and better understand the architecture. Also, your breakdown of ENV1’s modulation capabilities was super insightful. I’ve already started playing around with plucky and sub-heavy textures based on what you said, and it’s opened up new creative directions I hadn’t explored before. Totally with you on the extra layer idea too — that feeling of wanting to build contrast or counterpoint once you hit a good sound is something I’m running into more and more. Really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. It definitely helped — and inspired. All the best,
I guess some of this relates to expectations, which vary from user to user. I don’t think I’ve ever bought an instrument based on the hope of preset packs or expansion packs but I guess some people do and maybe there are better options out there. It’s not an area I have experience with… so why am I piping up, you probably wonder?
I buy based on UI, features and sound and what I can, therefore, make myself. UDO make instruments ideal for that approach and with my Super 6 I rarely even store patches. It’s quicker to get what I want at any particular time by making it with all those fabulous sliders and knobs. I’m old though and have always worked this way, so please take this into account. In the meantime, I hope someone makes some sounds for you.
Don’t get me wrong, I chose to buy the Super Gemini precisely because I love sound design… But again, I still believe there are others much better than me at sound design, and I would sometimes like to have access to other tones for the Super Gemini as well. I bet the ones who smirked ironically while reading my question and suggestion about presets and expansions… none of them have a hit, and their productions barely get a few dozen likes or any real appreciation. And guess why? Because they use weird, weak tones — too abstract and too bland to stand out — yet they consider themselves sound design ‘gurus’, even though their custom tones don’t convey anything. I’m not trying to offend anyone; it’s just that all I hear are tones meant for cinematic or electronica music. And yes, I did buy the product for that too, but still, when I get a production request for a different genre, I would’ve loved to at least find a masterclass or a detailed, professional tutorial on how to create tones for commercial music genres as well.
Hey man, no disrespect meant. I’m old so not understanding of yours ways. A lot of my production work has used sample libraries, Omnisphere, Kontakt and all kinds of things suitable for the job, Here I’m making music for my pleasure so would not consider hardware to be part of that world. Anyway, please ignore me, just my feeble explanation of what I consider to be UDO’s USP.
I think I might have a problem — I’ve spent several hours on Super Gemini and noticed that I can generate any kind of sound I want, but the issue comes down to this question: why don’t all the functions work in certain situations? I mean, sometimes I tweak certain functions on the S.G. and absolutely nothing happens, no change in the sound at all. I can’t explain this, and maybe that’s part of my frustration. Still, I’m left thinking that what I really need is a proper tutorial — a well-structured masterclass with detailed examples of tones and how to reproduce them. Not weird stuff, pads, effects, or ambient sounds, but actual tones for mainstream music.
Obviously it has its own peculiarities but ultimately the SG is a subtractive synth, so if you understand the fundamentals then with a little lateral thinking any tutorial from the vast range of other subtractive synths can be recreated on the SG. Dan Carr, for example, has loads of excellent mainstream focused synth tutorials that could serve as a good starting point.
Also, due to the similarity across the Super range, any tutorials you find for the Super 6 are applicable to the SG as well. There is a stuff out there. UDO’s own patchwork videos (@udo-audio more of these, please!) are a great resource:
Can you give any specific examples of this? I’m curious to better understand what you’re struggling with here.
@ozvena Thanks a lot, ozvena, for your help and your response—I really appreciate it!, for example. Ex: Today I found a tone that inspired me and I couldn’t reduce its sustain—no matter what I tried, it wouldn’t respond to anything. I wanted to shorten the sound from Envelopes 1 and 2, and I couldn’t manage it. I was trying to create a short sound, a pluck, something with low sustain and short release, and it just wouldn’t work. And note—I was on the Lower zone of the Super Gemini, and it behaved very strangely, especially when I exit ‘Local’ (Shift + Local), because I was trying to record the MIDI notes I played into Ableton…
So in Ableton, sometimes the Super Gemini gets ‘stuck’—it stops responding entirely. Only the tone and bank buttons on the S.G. still work; everything else is frozen. So I can’t really compose anything in MIDI mode using Ableton. And automation? Forget it. If I hit record in Ableton and tweak something on the S.G.—attack, release, LPF, RES, HPF… nothing gets drawn in Ableton, and it doesn’t even function. Everything seems stuck—no matter how much I turn knobs or switch functions on the S.G., nothing changes.
On the Super 6 (not sure if the Gemini is the same), next to the amp mod sliders (ie the envelope amount and lfo amount to the amp) is a switch that changes the amp from envelope to gated mode. This makes the sustain stay at maximum no matter what you do with the envelope so that the envelope can be routed elsewhere without affecting the loudness or length of the sound. If the envelope isn’t doing anything to your amp, it sounds like the preset is using one of the gated modes for the amp and you would need to move the switch into the envelope position to have any effect on the sustain loudness with the envelope. Be warned, doing so will likely also affect other parts of the sound if both envelopes are already being used for something else.
I haven’t bought any of them, but I have really enjoyed j3po’s presets for other synths, so if you want some more presets that could be a good place to start. It’s only $30 so why not just try it? J3PO Super 6 Presets — Julian J3PO Pollack
Personally I’ve been using my UDO almost always in live panel mode, without presets. I learned a ton from watching George Hearn play and thinking about how he’s using the instrument. For me personally, on this type of instrument, that is worth more than any number of presets.
Wow … I. Blown away , the thought of someone owning a top synth like this and , being so upset about what presets come with it ..
Why didn’t you get a Roland Fantom or a workstation yamaha motif ? If it’s presets you want , or save your self some bucks , and use a soft synth , if your not happy creating your own presets , you do t need all those lovely knobs and sliders ..
“ I never went for the package holiday “ , I much preferred to hire a car , and explore , staying away from the touristy areas ..
