I’d like to first say that I absolutley love my S6. Its incredible and mine works just fine for me. That said, it is absolutely bizarre to me that a team capable of producing such an amazing and overengineered device can go on to completly bungle the customer relations and aftersales side of things.
I would be (and this thread seems to indicate that others agree) 100x happier in my ownership and 100x more likely to buy future products if the UDO communication and/or expectation management approach was stepped up. Its frankly un-fun to have to parse youtube video comments by George and try to guess at when or if products will be updated/released. I am a registered owner of a nearly $3k synthesizer, why am I getting news from synth blogs and forum threads instead of the company I supported with my purchase?
Pick a day for a thing. Dont say anything till you’ve picked a day. Tell that day to people, directly, personally and passionately. Deliver the thing on that day.
Also, please pay someone to spend like, what, 2 hours a week here on the forum and reply to people and generate discussion. Its clear to me that no one here wants a miracle, just to be heard and seen. It’d go a loooooong way.
Oh, and people want shirts. They will give you money for this. Just print some shirts already.
Thank You for everything.
I’ll be over here not selling my S6 and hoping the best for UDO.
You’ve made this comment before, but it’s honestly missing the point. The firmware does not do what the manual says it does. There are game-breaking bugs in it that haven’t been addressed for months. There is virtual radio silence from UDO.
The lesson for UDO is 1) not to exaggerate the capabilities of the instrument, 2) to communicate with greater frequency and clarity, and 3) to run down bugs in the firmware before going out to promote a new synth.
All I know is it has worked for me for 2 years, not flawlessly, but admirably for a so called beta.
Only had a few instances of gremlins in that time and certainly nothing deal breaking. Many synths with higher FW numbering perform worse than this one.
The new Gemini synth is an extension of this one, they are closely related and FW is still being developed for both. I am not offended by its existence as a Super 6 owner.
So agree, it really does seem that no one from UDO is paid to look after customer support and update owners with what is planned including providing firm update release dates , if there is someone , please have a look at George’s old company 'Modal Electronics ’ . For those who don’t know of Modal, they are another Bristol UK based synth manufacturer but sell their synths at a much lower price point £500 ish street price for its VA synth and about the same for its wavetable based synth, at such a low cost item you expect almost zero customer support yet, modal customer support is second to none. Hundreds of free sound banks, good upgrades paths plus a free editor which is bug free and fully functional covering all areas of the modal synth range, all downloadable free of charge from the Modal website - worth a look even if you don’t yet own a modal synth.
Modal does in fact offer some really budget-friendly synths, and from what I’ve heard, people are pretty happy with them. George specifically worked on the 008 (and I suppose he could have worked on others, too), which was absolutely not a budget friendly synth ($5K). His involvement with their high-end gear is one of the things that initially interested me about the Super 6, since it was 40% less than the Modal.
I own a Modal Argon, which is one of the budget synths based on one of the first gen mega expensive modals - yes, it is clearly a very flexible budget synth but it really is at the top of its game for build quality (given the price and compared to the completion at the price point) and customer support which is totally amazing at any price, leaves Korg, Roland, Dave Smith and UDO in the dark ages - only Waldorf and Nord come close but are still below Modal support standard - sorry but true.
Feature requests are nice, but there are some lingering issues with the Super 6 that have nothing to do with added functionality. I know UDO is small, so strident support and deadlines may be hard to guarantee… luckily it has always sounded very good, which matters most. But those who invested in this product hoping to exclaim “it just works” based on the knob per function layout, lack of screen, price etc. may feel a little let down by those firmware issues.
To be honest, I’m just glad UDO is still here thru Covid & the resultant shakeup in the synth world. Many larger, more established synth makers have folded, pivoted prosumer or been bought out by VC in the past few years. Here’s to hoping that the Gemini is a success, it seems gnarly.
Sorry but I can’t understand this angry users. For my musically needs … this Instrument works very well. Ok I wait for some features too in the next firmware and it goes a bit long until rease. But every device has his buggie side … also big companies like moog or littler ones like teenage engeniring (horrible midi implementation over years).
Take a big breath und enjoy the sound of synth.
Really cool aggregate patch bank that got released! Its great having them organized by type and the sounds all seem usable and pleasant.
Couple things though, I only know about it cause I happened to be looking at the downloads section to open the manual yesterday. Would be really cool to just get an email when stuff like this comes out. Also, after updating with the new patch bank, on a PC, and following the simple instructions to the letter, about 40 of the 128 patches dont work at all. The numbered button for the patch doesnt light up and the sound doesnt play.
Pretty frustrating. How many times should I try reloading the patches from my PC before I just accept the broken nature of things? Anyone else have this issue?
I can confirm the issue you described. It looks like some files got corrupted during the export, compression or upload process. We will try to get this resolved as soon as possible and then re-upload the patch pack.
File corruption seems to be an ever present risk with UDO downloads, do wonder if it is something amiss with the hardware / memory side of the S6 or the actual software itself . What ever it is clearly , it needs to be addressed before the much promised major upgrade is released to users. Last thing I want is my very expensive S6 crashing / freezing or worse whist loading in a new system .
I wouldnt say its a broader issue at all, I’ve never had any corruption at any stage in nearly 3 years of ownership and numerous firmware updates. Its just an issue with the patch pack they made available, and they probably fixed it already.
There has been no ever present risk regarding corrupted files. The issue with the above mentioned patch pack was fixed. It also didn’t cause the instrument to freeze or crash. What happened was that certain patches couldn’t be loaded.
Frankly, reading this whole post has been a deal breaker in the purchase of a new super 6 it’s too bad: it’s versatile and great sounding and seems to be the best compromise.
Franco, its a pity that you feel that the S6 is not for you, its a great synth with lots of potential as well as having really great build quality however, reading the forum it is very easy to get the feel that something is really wrong with the synth, I know I did, you have to remind yourself that generally forums are used by people who have issues with the product and not the hundreds of users who are happy with their synth. From my point of view , I started to believe the complaints regarding loading updates, wavetables and sounds to the synth - most of these complaints seem to relate to Apple computers , S6 Buffer areas and the strange process required to load / update software etc, actually - tried it myself yesterday and found it to be a bit ‘clunky and strange’ but it worked OK (MacBook user) . I do still stand by what I said about customer support pages , look at Modal’s site, fully functional editor , hundreds of patches and banks all free plus the latest software is very easy it install. In my mind it’s lightyears ahead of its nearest completion (Nord and Waldorf ) and leaves the big boys (Yamaha, Korg, Roland etc) way behind.
I certainly won’t have any luck in buying something as versatile and good sounding as the UDO, well aware of that. I will buy a top of the line synth by a staple company, well conscious that it will have certain limitations, even if it will sound gorgeous. I was ready to invest in the UDO (both a used unit, or a new one)…but after reading all of this topic, I got cold feet. I can’t justify buying a used unit (how can I throughly test it, until I’m at home?) and can’t justify 3k of a new unit when there’s a 98 messages thread online full of people ranting about hidden problems and little customer feedback.
To be honest, I have had my issues but I think passing it up is a mistake. The thing sounds incredible. I A/B’ed it against everything I have and I prefer it over all the other stuff I have. The sound quality is next to none. I think if you do buy one, you just have to be aware UDO is a small company. Problems may not be addressed right away. It does not do everything. But for what it does do, it is among the best in synth history. I have personally had several issues with mine and I am sticking with it. UDO has proven to me they care about customers because I asked for a feature it didn’t have and they came through with a fix.
I love it because of the way it sounds and feels to play. There will always be people unhappy with a unit no matter the name on the box. I bought an S6 because I believed in the vision and it ticked all the boxes for my use case scenario except one which has since been resolved. And it just sounds great. I’m still waiting on a few things to make it perfect but I believe they’ll come through. Don’t pass it up! It’s a future classic.
In the meantime I have a Novation Peak module that does everything I need it to do in a functional way and it sounds good. But if I had to choose between that and the S6? S6 all day.
it’s too bad: it’s versatile and great sounding and seems to be the best compromise.