IK Multimedia Syntronik Review
Syntronik includes 99 – a take on Yamaha SY99, Blau – the PPG Wave, an early digital synthesizer, Bully – Moog Taurus, DCO-X – a take on a few Roland synths, Galaxy – Alesis Andromeda, a synth the early 90s, Harpy 260 – the ARP 2600, J-60 – Roland Juno, J-8 – Jupiter 8, Minimod – mini Moog, the model D, Noir, OXa – OBXa, a classic polysynth, Polymorph, Pro-V, which we believe is the Prophet, SAM – the SEM, String Box – which is like the String Machine, T-03 – Roland TB303, V-80 which is the Yamaha CS80.
A wonderful selection of the 80s, 90s synths, even some from the 70s. A great collection of analogue and digital synths.
The closest thing to this collection would be the Arturia V-Collection, which will be our main point of comparison. But, like with most IK Multimedia products, Syntronik is not somewhat unique, it is also really cheap in comparison, coming at around $200, depending on the deal you can get.
In this IK Multimedia Syntronik review, we will go over the intricacies of Syntronik. One of the main differences between Syntronik and V-Collection is that offering from IK Multimedia is a host application and you don’t get separate plugins for the synths included.
IK Multimedia Syntronik has a bunch of different descriptive filters to find presets for the synths, making it really fun to navigate the sounds you want to discover. And these filters are non-plugin-based, meaning you can explore for a sound you want to hear and it will find the best option for you and switch to the plugin that has it.
The actual UI is not direct replications of the instruments, but it maps itself on a square window that looks rather nice and simplistic. Once again, there is way too much to look at to include all of it in this Syntronik review, but we go around showing you the main functionality of the suit.
A cool thing about Syntronik is the ability to load FX plugins from the T-Rax 5, which we really like. And the format is quite nice, it looks like a nice little mixer rack and you get quite a few options. IK Multimedia once again comes through with an affordable high-quality product. It is a decently simplistic, intuitively laid out plugin that allows you to build some really great patches.
And when it comes to the actual patches, in general, it sounds pretty good. The more expensive V-Collection from Arturia sound a bit better and crafted, but the price really makes it hard to compete. The Syntronik has a niche collection of synths that might be the right pick for you, that V-Collection does not even have.
This is a bit more of a modern selection in comparison and if you do acidy stuff, this is definitely a better collection to take a look at and it really boils down to preference.
The sound engine is also up for debate, someone might think the sound engine of Syntronik sound better than the offering from Arturia, the V-Collection and some might think that Arturia has a more authentic sounding sound engine, but once again, it really is up to your preference.
But, we have to say, some of these synths are not really that useful, some of the patches are masterfully made but are not that great to actually use as they sound rather generic and don’t really spark the fire to create something wonderful that some of the other suites do, but presets aren’t everything, as the plugins themselves are great, but the presets overall are kind of lacking.
And the GUI will come down to preference once again, we believe that the interface of Syntronik is not really that inspired, but that is not for us to say.
