It's not a deal breaker, and in most cases the VariPhrase engine sounds fine, but some tweaking is necessary. But it starts to fail on more harmonic content, where it shows its digital face boldly and adds some artifacting that sounded “off” to our ears.

For rhythmic loops and somewhat atonal material, it works beautifully, and produces fantastic and very playable results. Our only issue with the V-Synth is some questionable sound quality in the VariPhrase engine. It would definitely be a worthy addition to a production studio alongside another sequencer or digital audio workstation. The V-Synth isn’t really a keyboard for the workstation crowd, but its arpeggiator, Multi-step Modulator and ability to lock VariPhrase’d loops to a master tempo make it a great tool for loop making and rhythmic pad sequences. Categoryģ.6 stars or better: Outstanding, WIHO AwardĢ stars or better: Suited to specific needs There’s a lot of depth to this synth – while you’ll have no problems coming to grips with its basic features, there’s a lot of power that will unfold even more after some long late-night sessions. Sampling is straightforward, and the USB functionality makes it painless to transfer pre-edited content from your computer to the internal sample memory. The engine is a joy to program, and there are numerous options for sound shaping and synthesis. Overall, the V-Synth excels as a performance synthesizer, giving you HUGE bang-for-the-buck in terms of immediate tweakability and interaction.

With an easy to learn interface and rich sound shaping control, it’s an axe and a sound design machine all in one big metal package. Getting to know the V-Synth is a lot like the game Othello® – “A minute to learn, a lifetime to master”.

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