Synth Anthology 2 by UVI
I have been using Synth Anthology 2 for some time now and I am really impressed with many of the included synthesizers. I really did fall in love with some RLD Jup 8 pads and to be honest I could not remember when I did smile so much when I played recently a virtual instrument. With UVI’s Synth Anthology 2 you get selected patches created from 77 classic synthesizers, more than 2500 presets all based on more than 20,000 samples. Synth Anthology 2 has been released by UVI in late 2016.
There are different sections included, for example, the pads which provide a lot of value and vibe from those old gear. I was really impressed of the pads in their great variety and great sounding synthesizer that has been included. Other sections are Atmosphere, Bass, Bellish, Flutes, FX, Guitar, Keyboards, Leads, Organs, Pads, Polysynth, Shorts, Strings, Sweeps, Synth Brass, and Vocals.
The included patches from hardware synthesizers and samplers are sorted by their hardware style. You get Classic Analog, Modern Analog, Analog Modeling, FM and Formant, Wavetable and Digital, Vector Synthesis, Additive, PCM Synth, and Samplers machines/keyboards.
UVI did enhance the captured original sound with different effects including reverb, delay, chorus, arpeggiators. Some effects are baked in by UVI are not available on the original hardware. UVI created with this treatment new pleasant instruments. When using UVI Workstation and Falcon you can control and turn down those effects for a more original sound.
The player: You have the choice to use the free UVI Workstation or Falcon which comes at additional costs.
Synth Anthology 2 is based on UVI own player software/VST. You can use either the free UVI Workstation or the Falcon which is a powerful player and hybrid instrument which can be used to further shape and manipulate loaded Instruments. The Interface is a clean and modern UI which allows you to easy select, change and play a captured synthesizers. You can use Falcon or UVI’s Workstation standalone or as a VST plugin in your DAW.
Where Synth Anthology 2 stands out are the straight forward easy to use controls, UVI has done a great job in designing the User Interface. That is in these days of many available libraries and that a composer user many different ones an very important factor as it allows you to work faster and more efficient.
On the UI you have six pages: Oscillators (OSC), Edit, Step Modulator (Step), LFO, Effex (FX), and Arpeggiator (Arp). Synth Anthology 2 includes 2 oscillators controller for what UVI calls MAIN and SUB. The MAIN oscillators represent the sampled synth. The SUB oscillators is a phase distortion-type oscillator.
Each of the two oscillators has a controller for ADSR, volume, monophonic & stereophonic, pan, filters, vibrato, tremolo, filter, drive and envelope generators for amplitude and filter.
The UVI is beside the included presets one of the strong points of this tool, it allows you to get things done in an easy way, it enables you to get the sound you want fast.
https://soundcloud.com/uvi-official/sets/synth-anthology-ii
UVI with the help of specialized sound engineers and in post the talented developer team did sample and recreate selected patches based and inspired by these fine machines and synthesizers: Access Virus C, Akai AX80, Alesis Andromeda, Alesis Fusion, ARP Chroma Polaris, ARP Odyssey , ARP Quadra, Casio CZ-1, Casio VZ-1, Clavia NordLead , Dave Smith Prophet 6 , Elka EK44, Elka Synthex , Emu Emax, E-MU Emulator 2, Ensoniq ESQ-M, Ensoniq Fizmo, Ensoniq SQ80, Ensoniq VFX, Fairlight CMI IIx, Formanta Polivoks, Kawai K3, Kawai K4R, Kawai K5000, Korg DS8, Korg DSS1 , Korg DW8000, Korg Minilogue, Korg MS20, Korg M1 , Korg PS-3200, Korg Triton, Korg Wavestation, Mellotron M400, M-Memory, M-Mini, M-Poly, M-Source, M-37, NED Synclavier 2, Novation Basstation 2, Novation Nova, Novation Ultranova, Oberheim Matrix 6, Oberheim OB6, Oberheim OB-X, Oberheim Xpander, OSC OSCar, PPG Wave 2.3, RLD D-Fifty, RLD JD800, RLD J 60, RLD J 106, RLD Jup 4, RLD Jup 8, RLD JX8P, RLD 3o3, RLD VP330, RSF Kobol, SCI Prophet 5, SCI Prophet VS, Seiko DS301, Siel DK80, Studio Electronics ATC, Studio Electronics Boomstar 5089, Yamaha AN1X, Yamaha CS-80, Yamaha CS20m, Yamaha DX7, Yamaha DX100, Yamaha FS1R, Yamaha SY77, Yamaha SY22, Vermona Tiracon 6V, Waldorf MicrowaveXT, Waldorf Pulse, and Waldorf Q
Rating: Five out of five stars
UVI’s Synth Anthology 2 is a great patch collection of machines and synthesizers which provide you with many sounds and instruments that can be used over the next years to come. Synth Anthology 2 is a pleasure to use. The sound of the vintage and modern classics synths is warm, lovely, and if needed crunchy and you get access to many synths you always wanted to get your hands on.
As many do use Kontakt for many other libraries I can report that the user interface UVI designed is intuitive and easy to use – it has a modern interface design.
Areas of improvement: the included manual could be enhanced and is a bit basic.
Comments on the installations of UVIs products either be used with the Workstation or Falcon. You want to copy the UFS ( UVI File System) to a common place where you can access the files at a fast speed. I copy my UFS files to an external USB3 disk and have no issue with the performance.
