Sonic LAB: Uno Synth - IK Multimedia 

Full ASDR control via the front panel is now possible in the latest firmware. 1.1.1. • Hold ENV to assign full Amp ADSR to the 4 knobs of the matrix • Hold FILTER to assign full Filter ADSR to the 4 knobs of the matrix

I bought this synth on a whim last year, along with a few other well-thought hardware purchases. I won't go into technical things, just want to share a nice story. Since I had the fortune of buying multiple synths in 2018, I decided to give my UNO to my good friend Danny. He's nine years younger than I, and we first bonded over his use of a cracked version of Reason. A quiet and reserved type but with exemplary technical skill, I feel honored to show him what I can, and watch him work his magic. On Christmas eve, I gave him the UNO, and last week he asked me to visit to tutor him. What a way to start the year! He pulled out his dab rig, and we had the best time figuring the synth out between the two of us, not once consulting the manual. Between hits of thc wax and a thorough exploration of the UNO, we had one of those moments I live for, contributing to the younger generation. I see people and their gripes about the UNO, but what many forget in the fervor of their self-righteous opinions is that there are others out there who WILL indeed be grateful, who WILL indeed make good tunes with UNO, and who WILL gain valuable experience from it. All the thousands some spend on their modulars and overpriced moog (Big Brair) will never buy a cold, rainy afternoon between two homies, getting faded and making noise. That's priceless. A heartwarming memory I hope to carry always.

Brilliant, in-depth coverage as always Nick! You're a pleasure to watch in action.

not even 5min worth of video and Nick is already into nasty PWM, it means it's a good synth XD

Thanks for the video, really shows off another side to this synth.

Learned a lot in this video. Very helpful and well thought out.

This slots in nicely between the volcas and the Monologue. I like the portability aspect it being battery powered. However the Monologue has more personality and character to my ears. Great to see they have an editor for it.

I think it sounds fantastic and looks good too.

My friend Rob just got this little monster & yes, it sounds HUGE in a mix so get one! Thank for the detailed look! A+++++++++++++++++++

Great review and demo, cheers!!!

Great review. Bought one off the back of this

just makes me appreciate how much they got right in the tiny volcas for what was a pretty limiting interface they really made it very functional.

Great run through! Thank you!

Portability makes it a possible sketching/doodling option, I think the limitations can sometimes be helpful forcing you to be creative. Nice budget price compared to other 2 osc desktop synths (except volca)

This synth sounds incredible. Such high fidelity.

Nick, you make the Uno sound much better than most of the other reviewers! Really like what you are doing @14:32 Glad the Editor runs on iOS.

I love my UNO Synth!... Has a slight learning curve for navigating the menus but it's very satisfying and plays very well with my Volca/Pocket operator setup. Alot of bang for the buck... I hope IK adds the ability to go 32 or 64 steps with future updates however

Great review as always Nick. Thank you.

Good for a first synthesizer for this company, nothing is ever perfect the first time around but there are some quality features to this synthesizer as well as an interesting character to it's sound. Great review as always.

Thanks Nick!

I got one yesterday.. I have collected synths for decades... this synth blew me away! seriously! a feckn amazing machine!! over the moon with this italian spicey meata balla!! #nomnomnom x

God I love these review vids, can never wait for the next. Can you start a retro review series as well, put your J6 as first vid :) pleeeeeeaseeeee

This little mono synth, sounds very good for that price :)

I just mine....on my way home...on the tube...of course I’ve opened it already...but I got my Bluetooth headphones on...damn ...can’t wait to get home

Outstanding to visit Ibiza...

Nice review thanks, great for the price I'd say.

Great Review! God Bless u! :)

I bought this synth with a Deepmind 12 and I'm very happy with that combination and it's under $1000 dollars for both, pull out a Korg DW-8000 two drum machines DR. 550 mk2, DR.660 and my beloved Simmons SDSV that I have for years plus the softsynths. For $199 you get a really good synth with a lot of potencial.

A dedicated WAH parameter? Oh yeah baby!

For all its limitations it sounds great, costs very little, and has a pretty straightforward interface. It's interesting how the minilogue is the only full-size (sort of) synth whose sequencer also has modulation lanes. Even Minibrute 2S if I understand correctly doesn't have that in the sense that you are limited to the per-step parameters you can tweak with the per-step knobs.

I think this Uno can sound pretty damn good from what i hear, 20 track of motion sequencing makes it 200 times better than volca Bass. And i just adore my volca bass. The price of Uno is just right also. With right marketing this should sell like crazy. Thanks Nick. We wait for that Erebus 3 review and demo :)

I like the ringtone effect at 12:24

FYI: The 2.5mm TRS connection is the recommended size according to the TRS MMA Spec. So they actually have it right going for 2.5mm :)

Cheers for the review Nick, sounds pretty good, wonder if the 16step seq could be firmware updated, 32steps and 10 lanes, or 64 and 5 would make it more useful for me.

thanks sensei

this is a cool DAW companion analog mono. It sounds really good, and it would be ideal to record into the DAW and use it for jamming as well. Less control for the live jams but enough to have fun. Serious analog sound and control when producing DAW tracks. I like it. EDIT: its not a synth to sit down and do sound design on using the front panel. I don't think any low-cost small form factor mono is. Mostly, the small form factor mono's are for jamming with other gear without futzing with the params too much. This one has some serious professional sound which also makes it ideal to use with a DAW.

I don't need this but the filter does sound pretty nice.

Looks a bit inspired by the Volca style synths in design. Pretty interesting. That drive is pretty beefy :o

So I could sequence this with the digitakt via CC's ?

Some powerful juju at 15 mins with the osc detune

The fact that you need an editor for the ADSR is a deal breaker...but side note, Nick can make any synth sound good.

Does anyone remember the Red Sound DarkStar? This sounds like the synth that would have eventually become if Red Sound were still around.

ok, i love it.

Re: the auto preset change late in the video, they did fix that with a firmware update, right? Thx guys!

tempo knob snuggly mounted right beside the cutoff knob..interesting design choice :)

Can you connect audio speakers through The mono input and output jacks? I’m sorry if this is a stupid question. I just don’t want to use only the pre amp and I’m glad the usb mini can work for power source instead of using batteries

i really hope you do the UNO Synth Pro

the cutoff knob placement next to the tempo knob wasn't well thought out.

Actually Nick, the MMA standard for midi over 3 contact jacks does specify 2.5mm, not 3.5mm. So this is compliant with the new Midi standard.

Just picked up a floor model for $120 impulse buy and im having a ton of fun with it. Plays nicely with volcas too. Might pick up the UNO drum and see what the 2 can do together with some reverb etc.

Best bitcrushed "full analog path" synth on market. Allways that waveform "crest", no way you can filter that out. Kind of imperfect synth with lots of modulation possibilities. Good for creativity and garage oriented kids, respectively, the design of a housing should look more the way synth sounds. MIDI implementation is nearly total. I value that so much. No posibilities to chain patterns, external midi sequencer is necessary, but than you can't recall patterns, meaning changing "gate" parameter makes no difference if you are not in a pattern mode. Small thing that would make big difference for live DAW-less performances. Maybe that can be fixed via firmware update? Finally, self resonating feature of a filter as a mark of analog synth is absent. Uno can behave oddly, be weird, do what you don't expect, ...which is a value afterall.

My favorite lowcost Mono! Thanks Nick for the review!

Haha.. by complete randomness in pausing the video at the 18:18 time mark, you can see a funny expression on Nik's face, like he's sleeping or perhaps sitting on the toilet... :-D A good one for a calendar...lol

Did you get a new camera? Looks more HD than usual.

Sounds good but I bought a Circuit Mono Station before this came out. Don't think I need both.

if I am reading the manual correct, the AUDIO IN does NOT give u access to the filter. Can anyone confirm this ? On my uno drum, the audio in gives u access to the compressor which is not bad at all-electric

The lack of hard sync is a deal breaker for me. They could release an Uno 2, adressing those shortcomings you mentioned in the video.

i need this keybord

Heard Come to Daddy in first demo part!

You mention "incoming clock" can I synch this with my Volca Bass?

I LOVE the sound of this synth, but would it be a good synth to play live or would it break too easily?

Do the Prologue

@12:21 when you press down on one of the knobs there, the other knob sinks in...

Just managed to pick it up for a penny under £160... making the most of the Black Friday deals; mostly iOS treats, but have had my eye on this pre-release ✌🏽😎

Nick gets some serious sounds out of this, and frankly it seems like it's got a lot going for it. That much parameter-locking is damn cool, perhaps even overkill for this amount of parameters, and overall it seems to pack in plenty of features for something this size and price. But there's also some bits I just don't get. Like why, if they're already doing a parameter matrix, not include as many parameters as possible? They could easily have fit more lanes of parameters without sacrificing userfriendliness. As it is, one of the lanes already have a double, why don't they all? From where I'm standing it would be a miniscule difference in development, and NO additional production cost. So why not? And a software editor just isn't an acceptable "excuse". We might as well get software, if we're forced to sit mouse in hand yet again. MIDI on 3.5mm jacks is sometimes a necessary evil, which would make more sense if they all stuck to a standard, as was the whole point of MIDI to begin with. But those 2.5mm jacks are just completely pointless, it's like they're intentionally trying to be difficult! It's not cheaper to make, and the difference in space taken internally is practically the same. So I can't see any other reason than to annoy customers! I will never understand that notion of intentionally gimping a product. Why aren't they trying to make it everything it could be? Normally this would be right up my alley, but I think it would just annoy me every time, knowing it could've been better. I suppose I should just be glad it doesn't have a built in speaker...

Hey, what is "sing song harmonics"? If I'm hearing that correctly. You also said it in your Minilogue video when displaying the filter's resonance. I tried to Google it but found nothing

I think they should be very happy with this start to synth production. It sounds a bit Korg Poly but with all those motion sequence layers, its certainly more interesting than the Korg Volca Bass. Especially when the Volcas have a silly small number of programs. If they look to make a slightly bigger version with envelope control, custom CC edit on a knob, 32 steps, sub bass. sequence transpose via key or somehow manage to do that with a firmware that would be great. This currently is like a limited version of an Evolver+Volca love child. It could grow to be much better. You know if you also made a 4 voice version with either 4 unison or 4 each midi channel with some FM thrown in, it would be superb!

How did you make the oscillators play two different melodies, around at the end of the video?

they where so close.... not enough front control but for 150 this is a great first synth for a hardware curious producer

this is a synthesizer that you have to work at to get the sounds that you want a lot of people don't have patience for that. Plus a lot of people knocking how it looks it's not about how the synthesizer looks it's about how it sounds and this sounds incredible you have to play with it a little bit but it will produce some incredible sales

In 2014 I picked up a Casio XW-P1 synthesizer for just £170 bran new, and this is £200...? Humm... I wonder what I'd choose if I saw both of these on display.... what would be your choice if you could only pick one ?

Wish i could understand what he said about the 20 lines at the end of the video. I must learn a little more. 😳

Can it sync with midi

man is kewl,,, got it down man

so bad the VST version of the sw doesn't work :(

Can you save more than one 16 step sequence and have them play in the order you choose?

I gave this one a shot. Didn’t need another monosynth but I grabbed it on an impulse because I was curious and I have a soft spot in my heart for little, budget synths. Long story short, I returned it the very next day. I fiddled with it for a couple of hours and just couldn’t really get it to do much more than a few slight variations of the same basic sound. I know I could use an editor but to me, life’s too short. Couple that with the limited 16 step sequencer and it really didn’t inspire me. The 2.5mm midi breakouts also just annoyed me. I really didn’t get the point of that variation. Now I’m not a hater. I truly believe that somebody can make nice music with just about anything (this included) but personally, I find a Volca Bass, Keys or FM to be a more versatile and fun synth for a little less money. Just my .02

16:47 It sounds quite a lot better than the Volcas! YiKes!!

Good review Nick but I have one question about this little synth.....why?

Це музика??

05:50 I's not because an ocillato rcan be controlled over midi it's a DCO

Damn it, I’ve only just paid off my credit card. 🙄

I think their aim was an "analog" softsynth. The lack of control and usability along with the software makes me think that it was intended to be a hardware plugin for a software DAW

The synth sounds pretty good and has a pretty decent feature set for the price. It is pretty obvious that corners were cut to keep the price down, but it seems attractive as an entry-level device or something cheap to toss into a laptop bag for a trip. The biggest turnoff for me at that level is the nonstandard MIDI jacks. For someone who spends more money on gear it is sort of a yawner, though... just another mono-synth with a reduced feature set.

UNO got a major upgrade today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1w_uJbLOUAw.html

I'm disappointed in the reliance on software. I'm looking for things that get away from computers.

the osc sound fatter than anything i heard from medusa. really curious about the upcoming review

Mmm maybe just maybe,,,,sounds kind of good.

Sounds good. But it looks like a till from the 1990s. I like knobs a switches on my synths. Touch pads have no feeling. If it looked better and it didn’t need a pc or Mac to get the most out of it this would sell really well. Having said that if you have ableton and want a cheap way to add real analog sound to your setup this may be the way to go. Thanks for the review nick:) really great as usual.

Does this IK Multimedia Unosynth go out of tune as you play it?

A synth you need a computer or midi CC knob controller to get the most out of is an instant turn off. I had enough of that with the Microkorg XL and on that you could at least menu dive and get every single parameter on the unit itself. Maybe it'd be good for someone to edit and create presets at home that they won't tinker with when using in a live situation.

Oh Gaawd Nick, you STILL don't know the difference between VCO and DCO..,,. :) OK,. quick lesson. VCO is VCO. Voltage Controlled Oscillator. The pitch is controlled by a voltage. Higher voltage, higher pitch. This synth is a VCO synth. The incoming midi is simply converted to the correct voltage and that voltage is fed into the VCO. DCO is a little different. You need to consider how an analog oscillator works. Let's consider a saw wave oscillator. You know how it rises and then suddenly resets all the way to the beginning before rising again? Well, in a DCO this reset is triggered from an external clock. So there is no incoming voltage that decides how fast the oscillator will reset (like in a VCO). The speed at which it resets, and thus what pitch the saw wave will have, is forced by an external pulse (usually down-converted from a very fast clock). Conversely, in a VCO you feed in a certain voltage and that voltage (through an internal mechanism involving the charging of a capacitor) will decide how fast the saw wave will rise. So the voltage ultimately decides how steep the saw wave will rise. It rises until it hits a threshold and then a reset is triggered internally. There is a problem with DCO's because the actual rise time doesn't change when you apply a different clock. So the faster you clock it (for a higher pitch) the lower the amplitude. So in practice a lot of DCO designs will change the slope as well when doing the aforementioned clocking. Another option is for the synth to adjust the level afterwards according to pitch so that the waveform stays more or less the same level. Anyway, have a nice holiday season break!

£149 Black Friday deal from Gear4Music. I dipped into my new camera fund to order one as it would have been churlish not to ;)

*checks playback speed*

I own this and my only complaint is the control pots/rheostats are flimsy cheap plastic. I'm pretty sure those will be the first things to break. Pots on toys are better than these.

I don't need it, but I want it. 🎹👈😉👍

Be nice if it had drum kits

A good sounding synth, great price...but....I am willing to spend another $100.00 to get a one knob per function synth such as a MicroBrut / Monolog / Roland Boutique....

£156 amazonUK blackfriday deal 22-11-18

Yet more proprietary IK Multimedia cables? Smh. I need an editor to access parameters? Jfc. I’d rather have shift functions. Another UI fail, I don’t want to be dependent on editors that won’t be supported or MIDI CC. Stop ✋ making hardware that requires software.