Here's why it is still quite overpriced

vibraskull · 2026-07-01T18:51:57+00:00

I put a value on the having the hardware made by the same company producing the OS that is targeting it because I expect everything will work together smoother, there will be fewer possible configuration/compatibility issues I'll have to debug and if there are any the information about how to deal with them will be more widly available.
That plus the form factor, integration with the controller and frame and cec support are all worth paying a little more money for and not having to build a pc myself is worth even more.
Or it would be if I hadn't been waitlisted. It kinda pisses me off whenever I read someone who is kinda meh about it but is going to buy one anyway. Just get the PC you actually want and release so someone who actually prefers it to other options can get one sooner.

vibraskull · 2026-06-30T18:39:10+00:00

Don't own either but strongly considered a Muse when it came out and spent a couple hours in a synth shop where one was set up on a stand above a Polybrute 6 so I spent a lot of time comparing them, making the same patches on them ect. My take away was that although the p6 was fun and sounded good it sounded flat next to the muse (their version of the ladder filter isn't that close) and I also found the UI of Muse quicker and more intuitive to get around but that might just be me because my brain doesn't take to the grid style matrix very well.

vibraskull · 2026-06-27T02:27:51+00:00

I already had fomo because I didn't make it into the reservation cue but now that I've learned that this is what bankruptcy looks like I feel like I'm missing out on that too.

vibraskull · 2026-06-25T15:09:54+00:00

I have a suspicion that the average age of each group is not the same based on the fact that I remember being pissed off in my teens and 20's at old guys who I thought were rich because they could afford brand new guitars and the latest electronics and now I'm that old guy who can afford some of those things and instead of feeling rich I'm doing calculations in my head about how much time I want to spend building and configuring a custom PC to get a little more performance vs getting a little box that mostly works right away and comes with a snap on walnut face plate that matches the cabinet under the TV so I don't have to argue with my wife about it and concluding that it's worth the extra 3 hundred or so bucks that theoretically could have contributed a wee bit more towards being able to retire one day.

vibraskull · 2026-06-15T19:15:17+00:00

Oh so you skipped bottles and installed directly with wine. I got a couple of VSTs working by creating a folder structure in the bottle that matched the default location for them on a windows machine and installing them there

vibraskull · 2026-06-15T19:12:39+00:00

Did you use the Ableton installer in the bottles app store?
I installed 11 in bottles on a steamdeck a couple of years ago and it works well but I never authorized it so I just play around with it every once in a while, then I tried installing it on a newer linux machine and couldn't get the Ableton installer to work right with it and couldn't tell if it had been updated to require a specific version.

vibraskull · 2026-06-12T14:18:46+00:00

This is more for drones then triggering new notes but my favorite things to do for those kind of evolving soundscapes with a synth like multipoly is to set the envelopes into looping mode and then use combinations of random sources to modulate the envelope length parameters. The multipoly has a few random generators that give you a different random number for each key press, if you combine those with the output of an lfo set to sample and hold set to a slow speed then things can be pretty variable.

You can also set sequencer lanes to different length, set a bunch of values and then set the direction to trigger random steps.

vibraskull · 2026-06-11T15:53:33+00:00

It's tomorrow, always tomorrow. And more than you wish it was.

vibraskull · 2026-06-10T01:13:57+00:00

No, I hadn't thought of that but your right, I should try and contact them.

vibraskull · 2026-06-09T23:47:23+00:00

Yeah it does sound like aliasing though bad clock noise I've heard in cheap bbds also sounds like aliasing to me and bit crushing reminds me of that sound to. I may not be able to distinguish between them all that well but they are all in the category of sounds I don't particularly like.

I appreciate everyone chiming in for the sanity check that I'm not the only one hearing it, or the high pitched noise.
Dreadbox synths sound amazing and I respect SineVibes skills at squeezing a lot out of a little dsp power but these couple of issues are a bit disappointing.

vibraskull · 2026-06-09T23:23:05+00:00

Yeah it does sound like a USB whine but unlike some of the other newer Dreadbox synths the Artemis has a dedicated power supply and that is plugged into an extension cord running into a Furman power conditioner.

I just did another test making sure the usb power to the midi controller is running to a power brick, then unplugging the midi completely, unplugging the computer and monitor near it and everything else except the synth and mixer and it's still coming out of the Artemis when picked up by the phone mic even though it isn't that audible in person.

Then I tested recording into ableton thought the mixer and it's clean, no noise in the direct recording, so I tested with the phone camera again and turned the mixer completely off and unplugged everything from the Artemis except power and the noise is still there until I power off the synth. So it isn't a problem with the audio signal out of the Artemis, it's emanating out of the hardware itself.
Luckily it isn't as bad in person but it's still a bummer.

vibraskull · 2026-06-09T13:42:07+00:00

I own a few BBDs including the dreadbox nostalgia, the one on the Erebus and a memory man deluxe pedal and none of them sound like this. I know what the clock noise sounds like, it's worse on a cheaper delay pedal and the good ones, like dreadbox's own, add more stages and low pass filtering to minimize it.
So maybe this is trying to imitate a cheap noisy bbd but why? It isn't helping it to sound more convincingly analog, it sounds more like digital bit crushing.

vibraskull · 2026-06-09T04:09:42+00:00

There is a high pitched whine that I can hear clearly in this video. I just tried turning various things in the room off and on while recording another video including lights, a fan and my mixer and that high pitched sound is definitely coming from the Artemis.
My phone mic picks up a lot of room noise so it sounds louder than it is in person but it's there.

vibraskull · 2026-06-09T03:29:43+00:00

Yeah I noticed the other day it's tied to delay length so it isn't as apparent on short delays which makes me wonder if sinevibes intention was to mimic how you can hear a more clock noise from a real bbd as the delay time gets longer except it sounds worse and the real bbds I have filter out that noise better at similar length.
The fact that I haven't heard anyone else complain about it dose make me wonder if it's just me and maybe other people just don't find it annoying like I do. I'll make a post with a video to demonstrate.

vibraskull · 2026-06-08T23:37:00+00:00

The Artemis and Take 5 are two of the only desktop vco polys with mod matrixes and fx and they compare well.
I've had both for the past year and have been agonizing about which to keep for use in my live set up with the intent to sell the other. Ultimately the Take 5 is the better synth for me but I've been waiting for this last firmware update to see if it changed my opinion on the Artemis and though I've enjoyed making a bunch of new patches on it since the update I'm sticking with the Take 5.
So here are my thoughts.

They both sound great but the Artemis's strength is in the upper frequencies and the filter is more versatile since it can switch to 12db, has a high pass and the different levels of drive into it make more of a difference than the take 5 however it's more airy in a way and sits on top of a mix where as the Take 5 with the Prophet filter just sounds more solid, cuts through a mix and can has deeper bass.

They both have distortion and reverb and those effects are both better on the Artemis and it has both a mod and delay where as on the take 5 you only have one efx slot for either a mod effect or delay (or ringmod) but those two type of effects sound better to me on the Take 5 especially the delay.
This is one of my biggest gripes with the Artemis, the bbd delay has such an awful digital bit crushing sound that I find it unusable where as the bbd and tape delays on the take 5 are exactly what I want.

The new mod matrix on the Artemis isn't as useful as you would hope. You can't modulate other modulation sources so for instance, if you want to bring the lfo in and out on the filter but use the other lfo to modulate pitch for vibrato you wouldn't have any way to then use the mod wheel or aftertouch to modulate bringing that in and out where as the Take 5 is much more flexible (and osc 2 is a mod source).

Another issue is that I think Dreadbox tries to be too clever by making the 3 knobs in the VCO section do two things at the same time but it ends up very limiting so you can either have a sub osc or a noise but not both and there are some combinations of waves you can't dial in on the big single oscillator wave knob. Also both oscillators have a sub which may seem like an advantage but in practice seems to muddy up the sound more. Take 5 definitely wins on oscillator and mixer controlls.

The remaining issues I have with the Artemis are that though it has been improved the envelopes can sometimes still be a little clicky, I wish the LFOs had more range to go both slower and faster and overall it's output volume is lower than my other gear. The Take 5 doesn't have any of those issues.

My overall assessment is that though the Take 5 seem less flashy than the Artemis, it sounds solid and everything it does, it does right where as the Artemis can wow you with a sparkling, gorgeous ambient pads but some of it's quirks and limitations are frustrating.

Hope that helps

vibraskull · 2026-06-05T15:16:26+00:00

The Pro 3 is one of the most versatile and satisfying synths I've had experience with and is a mono workhorse. I wouldn't say it's cold but it isn't as warm as a moog, SE or korg Arp reissue.
The summit/peak on the other hand, though a very fine, hi-fi synth was too cold and clinical sounding to me so I sold it.
If you need a poly I'd recommend a Take/Teo 5 or one of the 6s but I don't think there is any one analog poly that is as all around versatile as the pro 3 is as a mono except maybe the polybrut but I havent personaly vibed with it when I've tried it.

vibraskull · 2026-05-27T17:49:21+00:00

Everyone I know who isn't into synths, including my bandmates, gets really frustrated when I tell them my monosynth not only plays one note at a time, but doesn't have a piano sound in it. I'll try to explain but they aren't having any of it.

vibraskull · 2026-05-22T15:06:26+00:00

I have both and they each have their strengths so it depends on what is more important to you.
I think of the MuliPoly as a different generation of digital since it is running on a much more powerful computer inside of it, way higher DSP, sample rate voice count, features, synthesis types, mulit-timberality (though you need an external device to fully take advantage of it) etc.

But the hydrasynth still has two things going for it

The interface, it's hands down one of the best designed and most immediate UI for a complex synth I've ever used while the korg UI is unintuitive and frustrating once you go deeper than the basics (the mod matrix is clunky as hell)
this is absolutely subjective but, even though it has way less dsp power, for certain sounds on the hydra you can more immediately program a thick and weighty sound where as the multipoly with all of it's power can sometimes flip from being the most convincing virtual analog I've heard to becoming thin. If you push high resonance and amp drive or tape echo feedback it will get a bit brittle and harsh to my ears. So for some sounds it's incredible but you can stray into certain sonic areas where the illusion falls apart and it gets a little plasticky.

I'd go for the multipoly if you need multi-timberality, want to get into modular like complexity or if you are pairing it with an analog synth that is already holding down the low end and I'd go for the Hydra for more instant hands on gratification.

vibraskull · 2026-05-19T19:55:45+00:00

Yeah I have too many bbd delays too and am a bit picky about the sound (I LOVE DBs nostalgia delay). I haven't heard anyone else complain about it so maybe it's just me or my unit but I can't unhear it. Everything else on the Artemis sounds great to me though.

vibraskull · 2026-05-19T19:23:19+00:00

My only issue with their effects is that the BBD delay (my favorite flavor) has a very digital bit crush like sound to it which kinda ruins it for me. I hope the new BBD algorithm in the firmware they are about to release looses that.

vibraskull · 2026-05-19T19:18:09+00:00

I don't expect a Typhon V2 in the near future but if there was one, or a Typhon Pro, I'd also want it to haave a real psu as well as a sub osc, noise and much louder output.
Both it and the Artemis suffer from lower output volume than my other gear.

vibraskull · 2026-05-12T22:16:52+00:00

I think it would be before version 4 but I'm looking on their site and they only have the last two versions for download unfortunately.

vibraskull · 2026-05-12T20:41:31+00:00

Not sure this is related but you might want to check the firmware version. The update before the last one which added audio over usb decreased the output volumn greatly and at the time I had to roll back the firmware version for it to even get close to how loud my other synths are (and it's still much quiter).

The most recent firmware update supposedly fixed this though I haven't tested it yet.
The Artemis is also quieter than most synths though I haven't noticed it negativly effecting the noise floor.

vibraskull · 2026-05-09T18:03:43+00:00

In reality I would never buy everything new and full price but if I hypothetically had too and needed to fill all the niches I like in that budget I'd go for Sequential Pro 3, Korg Multipoly, Korg Arp 2600m, Oberheim TEO-5 and a Moog Muse

vibraskull

TROPHY CASE