MusicRadar

The main panel shows the parameters for the selected effect.

1 of 3 » View in gallery

• Related News
• Review
• Manufacturer's Description

On the face of it, there’s really not so much interesting about Sylenth1: it’s yet another virtual analogue subtractive synth with a few oscillators, a couple of filters and a pretty basic modulation section. We’ve seen dozens of synths with similar feature sets - many of them freeware - so you’re entitled to ask why you should bother with this debut offering from newcomers LennarDigital at all.

The answer becomes obvious within a few seconds of loading it up: Sylenth1 sounds absolutely incredible; it’s rich, detailed and full of analogue-style warmth. While we find that many of the synths we review come with presets that fail to show off the instrument’s true capabilities, Sylenth1’s default bank is superb. A wide variety of sounds are on offer, including some beautiful impersonations of classics such as the TB-303, Alpha Juno and MiniMoog. While we wouldn’t go so far as to claim that these emulative patches are 100% accurate, they’re certainly authentic enough to be of use and - most importantly - they sound simply gorgeous.

Top features

There are plenty more treats in the preset folder too, including an excellent staccato string ensemble, a chunky electro house bass (cheekily titled Exceeder) and a super-smooth evolving pad.

As well as sounding great and being truly inspirational, Sylenth1’s presets also do a great job of showcasing the synth’s more functional side. This instrument just begs to be tweaked, and when you do so, things get even better. The straightforward interface makes working out what’s going on with each patch a doddle, and there are no unnecessary interface elements to confuse matters. This makes tweaking existing presets a breeze and ensures that Sylenth1 is also ideal for the less experienced synthesist.

As well as the presets, you also get a bank full of initialised patches. These are ideal blank starting points for programming your own sounds, and it’s when you do this that Sylenth1 really comes into its own. Four oscillators are on offer, though only two are displayed at any one time. While this is a slight annoyance, toggling the oscillator view is as simple as clicking the Part A or Part B button, and you can at least copy and paste oscillator settings.

Each oscillator gives you a choice of eight waveforms, but the real highlight is the outstanding unison facility. You can independently assign a number of voices per oscillator, from zero (ie, oscillator off) to eight, and the Detune and Stereo knobs make it easy to produce those big, beefy analogue patches. There’s no dedicated pulse width modulation, but the manual tells how you to recreate the same effect using two oscillators and a little phase modulation, with convincing results.

After the oscillators you get a standard ADSR, then the filter. Each of Sylenth1’s Parts has its own filter, and this can be set to receive the output from the other Part’s oscillators too. So, for example, you could have Part A’s filter set to high-pass and Part B’s set to low-pass, and then route the output of both sets of oscillators to both filters. While this might sound quite flexible, it’s sadly not possible to route the filters in series (something for a future update, we hope).

The filters sound terrific. There isn’t exactly a multiplicity of modes - low-pass, high-pass and band-pass are all you get - but there are 12dB and 24dB options for each type (you also get a Drive control for each filter). The global Filter Control panel, meanwhile, features a Cutoff knob for adjusting both filters’ cutoff frequency, a Resonance control that operates in a similar manner, and a handy Keytrack control. Finally, there’s a Warm Drive button to add subtle colouration to the effect of the Drive knobs.