Modal Argon8

LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP

So, the build quality of this thing is solid, you get a lot of nice features, it's digital but most parameters are accessible by some combination of knobs+buttons and it comes with a lot of goodies (fatar keybed with aftertouch, a nice xy knob, good connectivity).

The wavetables are interesting, they have some character but most of them cannot be modulated easily. Still the sound palette they cover is quite diverse, i think the people at modal did a great job in designing them!

It has been updated quite frequently since i bought this, and every update came with something exciting (new wavetables, filters, effects, etc), although i'm afraid it won't get many more features, since most key+knob combinations are taken :D )

Now, the part i'm less happy about:

1) the synthesis engine is quite shallow and you soon reach a limit in the types of sound you can design. The modulation possibilities are limited (2 lfos with barebone capabilities and shapes, one of them global for all voices + 1 additional mod envelope). You can only do so much with this.

Finally, the encoders: while they are great for many reasons (infinite scrolling, smooth feel and everything).

Problem: they are super delicate, and if they get dirt inside they will lose responsiveness and start behaving sluggish.

Would buy again? Maybe, i would consider the full sized keyboard though to maximize expressivenes.

No words can describe the feeling when working with little beast. Needs hours to learn as any other similar instrument but in the end you get a lot from it.

Just amazing

There are many synths in the world, who knows which one you will really like the functions as of firmware 2.0 are quite amazing , make your own patches, sequences , sounds, and save them to the machine is easy , record your music to a computer, easy via a mixer or interface, amazing build and sound, as the makers are listening to users , i suspect this will become a trusted tool for composers and performers, plug in a sustain and effects pedal and really get some raw emotion. great keybed ,solid performance , i cant fault it buy one today and dont look back .

Great wavetable synthesiser for an amazing price

Quality sound!

Easy to to understand the the functions.

Only issue I have with the argon 8 is the save feature. Two ways to save, quicksave & normal save, neither of them seem to work for me even though the process of saving is done correctly, which is unfortunate, I can not save anything, unless recorded straight into a computer. Other than this problem, I'd still give it 5 stars it truly is a great synth.