I had to rewind and hear it again, I didn't expect the mention! Cheers to you Nick, Sonicstate is an OG, paves the way for people like me to talk gear on RU-vid. Appreciate the acknowledgement, here's the video on Juno vs Nymphes : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sOjDo6SrhH0.html
I wish they'd have done this at full 19" rack width so we could have less confusing controls. I'd love a "Nymphes Pro" or such to come out. It does sound lovely though.. and some monstrous unison modes
This sits on your desktop powered over USB taking up barely any room - a worthy trade off for the interface IMO. Eventually there will be a software editor to let you check the second level settings.
Yeh I mean the ui obviously has had alot of thought put into it. Its just one of those things I guess, like your new car , it eventually becomes second nature. Still kudos to dreadbox for doing things different and uniquely.
Not sure why everyone is complaining about the UI. In the Superbooth vids, Yannis explains that sacrifices had to be made in order to make this low cost for the consumer. You are getting a great sounding, space saving, 6 voice poly for £500! The UI doesn’t seem overly complicated and parameters can be accessed via CC if you have a midi controller.
Yiannis himself was getting confused by all the modes during Superbooth :P But yeah, of course they were targeting a low price here.. and sounds great. I was planning on waiting for Abyss V2 but may have to nab one of these in the interim
yeah. i can feel his pain. mine was in various stages of disarray for a while. luckily once you get them back to snuff, and actually fix everything, they should be good for another 30 or so years.
@@Michael_Smith-Red_No.5 Sad times. Juno voice chips are like little sperms that didn't make it. Anyway, I have an SH-2, a Voyager and a Polysix that all need to go to the docs, so I feel ya pain
@@sixxdb luckily there are aftermarket chips now that are supposed to sound identical to the originals, and it's really driving down the price of used OEM returned chips. It might not be a good time to try and buy a Juno right now, but it's a good time to own one.
Lovely sounding. It can go from harsh to sweet easily, marrying the Dreadbox character with the Juno-esque vibes. It does indeed benefit from external effects. Try a chorus /phaser combo and you'll soon be in "the place". Its UI is no worse than any boutique pedal with a combo of buttons and sliders. Thanks for this in-depth review, Nick & team!
I believe dreadbox themselves commented elsewhere that they are planning to add both poly AT and mpe in future firmware updates, which should make it massively more appealing. It will actually be the only affordable mpe analogue poly on the market if that happens. I've got the MFB, which also does that, but it was more than twice the price and they seem to have stopped making any gear since Manfred's sad passing last year...
Man, I'm missing the little screen like on the Typhon. Being able to see what you're doing ups the UX by like 1000%. This seems a pretty niche synth. Which means the target market is your basic gearhead with a bunch of synths. Which, in turn, means less time invested in any particular synth - including this one. Chances are the UI limitation will be such a buzzkill to some, they'll end up keeping it in a cupboard "because it has some nice sounds" until they eventually sell it off "because they just weren't using it enough". Had that with my MFB Tanzmaus. Sweet drum machine, but the interface is hellish and arcane. It really can spoil an otherwise excellent machine.
cheers to the guy who did exactly that and sold it to me a few days ago then; because this is a gem; and honestly with a few added CC controls the UI is barely an issue. (also you can have midi feedback so get all the fader positions if that's an issue). The limitations of the architecture are not a big deal when there's already so much life in a raw saw. Provided I take some notes on the presets I make I see this thing as one of the main tool of my studio; and the size is exactly what I needed. I'll stay on the lookout for a "Abyss 2" but I feel like this project has been buried because there's less demand for hardware synths so they refocused on pedals.
The only thing about Dreadbox devices bad is the damn paint that falls off and wears off quickly!!! Please do something about it! Everything else is great.
Personally, I can't wait to get one. Exactly what I've wanted for years. You'll see these in tons of studios and especially being used live due to the size. I think the controls are fine and am surprised by all the grumbles. Set up a program on any decent midi keyboard, save it, and you'll be cranking away at patches all day. Any analog poly requires a day making patches before a day spent recording... Weird how many seem to want to do a bunch of on the fly tweaking. Thats not really the point of poly synths imo.
Why would you be happy to limit on the fly tweakbility?! . It depends what kind of music you wish to make but surely that's limiting creativity. You could sense a little frustration from nick in the video
@@annother3350 You can tweak the oscillators, filter, reverb and envelopes from the front panel in a live setting. Also, as many other settings as you have knobs for on your midi controller/keyboard. For me personally, that's plenty for something I will have already made patches for at home in the studio. I'm into serge/buchla synths, so I know all about tweaking. This thing is pad machine not a 303. If I want to tweak out a bass line, I would do it on a more suitable synth and let this one stay where it shines. I just feel like people have unreasonable expectations when it comes to poly synths. Nick did a great job showing that just like all of them, you will have to learn it and plan ahead for the best results. If you are an improv only head, pay the big bucks for a knob per function monster.
Hi, Nick! In 20:40 - you've mentioned about "high pitched whine". If it's a "USB whine" then it can be removed by separating the USB control voltages and 5v power. Arturia puts a little white box with KeyStep 37 (maybe with other controllers too, IDK). You insert a controlling cable to "PC" and a power cable to "Power". Important that the power cable _must_ be going to a separate AC-DC USB adapter. Thus you get that separation. I suspect that my radio mouse gives this unpleasant whining but once you do this separation the whine is gone! I've didn't checked with more synths though. Not every synth gives that whine. Don't know the reason. Behringer Model D, Keystep 37 and MicroFreak gives this "effect" as I've found. Neutron, Volca Modular doesn't. But need to re-check. P.S. this separation is very simple and I've seen a video where guy does the trick with just some borrowed USB wires. He just literally separates the red wire from others and connects it to the 5v power separately. I can find this if interested.
For those w/ interface complaints - you are wanting the goodness of digital AND the goodness of analog. At the price of chinese, but with german quality. Stop it! And enjoy whats on the truck.
So … Nick discovers there is a high-pitched noise. To my ears it was quite severe - i had already stopped the video a few times to check my system. “Maybe it’s the dirty USB power.” How about taking five minutes to find the cause and share with your viewers? As far as we know, maybe it’s nothing to do with the power. Maybe it is inherent in the reverb. Maybe it’s something else. To my ears it is a showstopper if it can’t be fixed.
Doing some testing on mine, it is very sensitive to the power supply and other connections. When using a very clean USB PSU and an isolator for the audio, this synth sounds way way better. Also, there is some feedback of the noise in the reverb, so that if you have USB noise, it can resonate in the reverb making a horrible sound. It looks like they have some sub-par PSU filtering and circuit design. Maybe due to cost reductions. For low noise, you typically need to reserve at least one layer of the PCB (and maybe 2 ) for power, which can add a bit to the cost. But, to be honest, this thing is so sensitive to noise that I am curious how they managed it. On a clean PSU, however, it's amazing.
@@mrgsfc Nice. Is it true what Sonic State say. Can they be reminiscent of an old Juno? Just wondering does it have the split delay function like the Typhon please? Would really love to see a teardown on your new machine, heh. See if I recognise any chip codes, eccetera. Oops I already said that oh well. Apart from some of the fancy new functions. I'm quite happy with my original keystep. I'm planning to buy another one. Do you use one those? lol Cheers :-)
@@mrgsfc and if this has similar effects to my machine. Also hope they introduce effects editing like they do in the Korgs. Synthvibes, yeah, that's the one. Oh, and sorry for bugging you. Heh
I really appreciated the creative approach to this. Rather than just presenting the basic features, you went above and beyond to explore what else is possible. In particular that chord modulation trick was really smart. I really think they did something special given global constraints.
1. you can get it for 500€ (not 600) in the EU, e.g. Thomann is selling it for 499€ 2. I don't care about Juno, but 1 VCO plus Sub: has anybody compared it to a 101? Would love to get rid of my MS-1
Stimming said he was getting rid of his SH01A and relacing it with this. Jorb shows that the saw/pulse mix is not the same as on the Rolands though (due to how the wave align) and my feel is that it is one step removed from 'that' sound. I tried a 101 patch I know well and couldn't quite get there.
Interesting that everyone is comparing the sounds with the Juno 106. The oscillator and filter chips are the same ones as are in the new Prophets I believe, and to my ears, mine sounds very Prophet-y, albeit with just one oscillator, rather than two.
I also wonder if there is any discernible difference in the tri and duo voice modes, considering each oscillator will have its own filter, rather than two or three oscillators going through one filter? I do know that some filters react differently depending on the level of audio going through them, so maybe there would be a difference in sound? Of course, maybe it doesn't matter.
I just ordered a Cobalt 8x and the reason I bought it is because of all these modules that keep coming out with that space to the right it just fits perfect to use that as a controller sense plus as a killer synth anyway so you have the best of both worlds depending on what you got or use.
Great sounding synth...just wish it had few more controls/screen so wasn’t so awkward to navigate. Telling that you used a BCR to facilitate the demo! Btw like your IKEA stand 😁 use them myself..great budget way to support little desktop synths.
For the last 6 months YT has not been notifying me about sonicstate posts... I don't know why, since these synth reviews are some of my favorite content.
Very nice thank you very much. I have the Typhon. I know it's mono so don't worry about that. But I have noticed some crossover in sounds. Would you agree with me sir? Because I really need another polyphonic synthesizer even if it's 4 notes, whatever. Do you think this versatile enough to be used as your main polysynth or do you think you would go elsewhere? Any Insights would be great. Sorry guys one more thing , have you ever made a video on looking after your gear, like I chronically test my power suppliers and cables almost every time I use them? Thanking you guys for helping keep us company. I wonder why the considering moving to Germany?🤔 Namaste 🙏
highly creative approach w/ a powerful endresult to a very affordableprice. as to be expected from Dreadbox. they really advance to be my fav synthdesigners. goodjob well done again!
I also have a sick 106, which is sadly beyond repair. I've been looking for ideally a rackmountable replacement like a deepmind. I've even considered a boutique, but nothing has really grabbed me. The dreadbox is DEFINITELY on my shopping list! Love it. Thanks for the demo.
Great presentation! Yeah, the UI does have an initial learning curve, but it's not hard to get over with a bit of effort. It really does become more intuitive the more you work with it. Minus a few deeper functions, the muscle memory isn't so hard to build.
Sounds rich and great! But that clumsy, and to quite Nick "complex and convoluted", UI is awful. Why is 25% of the front panel taken up with the name/logo and space?! When its so compact every space should be utilised efficiently, much like the Volcas are. Typhon looks better for less.
There's a pretty constant audible high pitch sound present. Is it something unavoidable or is it perhaps due to USB power supply? Does it draw current from an adapter or a computer in this video?
@ghost mall yeah I'm actually in the market for a poly don't really require it to be analog so stuff like the hydrasynth explorer or modal synths really jump out in a similar price range. The main appeal of this thing is really the form factor, but I would have loved for it to have UI and modulation possibilities similar to the Typhon (which is fantastic IMO).
Great presentation, thank you! Of course, you are right pointing out that some of the functions seem a bit convoluted and not very intuitive. But I have to say that it does have my deepest respect how much the packed into this little box and how, nevertheless, they managed to make the functions accessible with what they had in terms of controls on this tiny unit. I think it is not too much to ask one memorize these few moves or grab the card every now and then, because you are rewarded with this fantastic form factor at the end of the day ...
sorry but this aint my taste in synthesizers, i like more sophisticated synths, and if i want something "simple" i take the Arturia products or something a little more featured, curently own the Korg Minilogue (1), happy with it i must say, it is great value for price only that i would pay a little more for 8 voices instead of 4
@@marike1100 Nick felt the need to hook up an external controller to configure it. It was easier to assign midi CCs from other devices than it was to edit parameters natively. He had to keep the documentation nearby to look things up during use, and cut out a bunch of parts where he was editing sounds. He also mentioned repeatedly that the UI was obscure or compromised. Loopop wasn't able to operate it reliably either, even with the reference cards handy. It's not a good sign when experienced reviewers have difficulty.
@@mim9556 ... says the person whose account was born yesterday, to the embedded device interface designer and firmware engineer. Even the founder of Dreadbox had difficulties with the Nymphes interface. He was tripping over it when he demoed his own product at trade shows. It's a nice synth, but there are reasons why so many people have expressed concerns about the interface. The main point of using hardware synths is because they can provide a good interface with lots of hands-on controls. The point is that it's a tactile, playable instrument. Hardware is typically less powerful than software, and less convenient and more expensive, but that's okay because it has a much better interface. So it's very unusual when hardware makes interface sacrifices.
@@ToyKeeper first, i'm flattered you checked the age of my channel, yes, i just opened it, so? your point is that i'm one day old? second, your "work" will never make you right. it's called authority biased and will only makes other think your point is not strong enough to defend. third, yiannis said he was stressed in front of the camera at the show. have you ever been to this shows? you can barely hear yourself talk. clearly it's a compromised programing and something new you need to learn, but i understand you didn't use it and got to know it in person. if you did you may learn it's a short learning curve, you get use to it after a couple of days. anyway, my point was there are dozens of well known machines with a much stiffer learning curve and things you need to remember but people still use them just fine. if pressing a button and moving a knob twice is not intuitive enough, good luck programing any modern machines without a screen or any classic tr.
The Dreadbox Nymphes and Waldorf Pulse 2 are very similar in price (less than $50 USD difference). Do you have any thoughts regarding the relative strengths and weaknesses of each?
The assignments of the nymphes are fixed, so you need something you can assign specific midi controllers with. Not sure if the launch key does that? There will probably be an editor if so
Is there any static noise coming from the Nymphes? I hear some high frequencies, i remember there was some high bgn going on with the Typhon aswell. In this video i also hear some high frequency noise but i don't know if that's the mic. It's not a huge deal, but i remember the bgn getting pushed up alot when adding some compression to the typhon, and dealing with it than is not a whole lot of fun [edit] it got covered later in the video
The dreaded USB whine can be heard from USB power. Will this go away, if not passing audio through USB? Great synth, but I’m not interested if that noise is unavoidable.
It is but you need to make sure the power is from an isolated USB power source, rather than a power hub where you may also have other USB devices connected
The thing I don't get with these non-infinite interface elements with shift function: As I see it, either the knob/slider doesn't represent the value of at least one of the two settings (and one and of the spectrum can be unaccessable), or the two sttings can't be fully independent.
For example with sub and detune. Let's say I have the slider 50%, so the SUB level is corresponding to 50%. I go into shift mode, and push the slider to 80%, so DTN amount is corresponding to 80%. Then I exit shift mode. What value will the SUB level correspond to? Will it stay at 50%, so the slider's visual indication is off, or will it suddenly jump to 80%? What of I move it up by 5%? Will it trigger the SUB to move, so it will be just above 80% when I start moving, ending at 85%, or will it move relatively, ending at 55%? If the latter, then how can I go above 70%, if the slider caps (without going back to shift mode, and lowering the slider changing the DTN amount)?
for those wondering you can choose either jump/catch and they added scale in a recent update. The only way to have feedback is to hookup a software editor and the synth will feedback CC through USB.
@@DayflightTrok but it's much less "digitally controlled", and no presets. this one have almost 80 cc's and can modulate most parameters. they are both great
Hi Nick - I bought this unit and I really love the sound but I'm getting a ton of ground noise that's impossible to deal with. Do you mind explaining how you're able to power this and not have any ground noise in your demo? Perhaps my unit is a little busted?