MINIMAL AUDIO’S “CURRENT” ORIGINAL REVIEW

PLEASE READ*
This was recorded both before the subscription pricing reveal and the recent change to the new perpetual pricing model offering a perpetual license for $200 US.
This video is not intended to sway or influence a purchase, rather inform you on what this software offers.
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[@Alckemy]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5fQipqHa5t6b9Usi=NDeO0GlfYrn3u0uY Minimal Audio’s Apology/Price revision

[@apoplexiamusic]

I can’t believe that they think it’s ok to charge $200 for it without the effects included in that price. They require you to buy the effects at $49 on top of the $200 price tag.

[@Alckemy]

@@apoplexiamusic the effects are included, not the stream

[@andrewmaclean9810]

Its a solid synth no doubt but to me its just missing the wow factor to justify that price tag. When Serum first released it blew me away, Phaseplant even more so. This is cool, but it doesn't offer much more than the aforementioned, just kind of feels like Serum/Vital+. The only "wow factor" for me is Morph EQ but that's been out for a bit. Great video as always!

[@Alckemy]

there’s no comparison with phase plant. it’s kind of the end all be all, but, the effects are really high quality and you can do some cool stuff. I have a neuro bass video waiting to drop. probably will wait till tomorrow to make it public

[@whizmakesmusic1522]

@@Alckemy this synth seems to have a lot of QoL features that make the process much more efficient than Serum. I don't find PP and Serum comparable at all, some of the things I do in PP are impossible to do in Serum, while some of the sounds I design in Serum would take me 3x the amount of time to create in PP.

[@Alckemy]

@@whizmakesmusic1522 I can’t think of a single thing pp takes longer than serum to do other than resample to new table but pp doesn’t need to resample. Everyone’s different though. Imo current shines in the effect quality department

[@Beatsbasteln]

this synth is sick :) i'm glad they found a way to make this a perpetual purchase. the price is too high for me, but i'd still rather buy at that price than subbing a synth, so it's an improvement

[@joechapman8208]

I think there are definitely a few notes Kilohearts can take from this, though (and vice versa, obviously). Great to see more competition for Phase Plant and Pigments. And of course, a lot of finding each person's ideal tool is finding an interface that they click with, so there are bound to be people who just can't vibe with Phase Plant but find their path to becoming a sound designer via this instead.

[@lawinter1949]

Im a fan! fast workflow to make cool sounds. I would love to have auto pitch detaction in the granular engine and sampler.

[@Alckemy]

That would be nice. Bitwig tries… lol almost never works though

[@josipkokot8227]

They put a lot hard work in this synth... It seems a good one. But as somebody mentioned, I don't go wwoooow... There was hiccup in start in PR and pricing, so actual product fall behind that. And price now.. Is quite high for me. So, if there was good presentation in beginig...and adequate price tag... The sales would be much much higher... Great video tho.

[@westoncogswell8656]

Yeah this thing is absolutely bricked! We definitely could use a wavetable editor and also I wish they would get rid of that “empty” node, maybe add a minimal flanger or something idk it’s just drives my brain crazy to see that haha. 10/10 synth overall. I didn’t realize it also has MPE and soft clippers though! I’m really glad to see they are fixing the whole subscription issue, hopefully now companies will stop trying to do that stuff because clearly it doesn’t work at least in the music space

[@Alckemy]

A flanger is built into the delay^^ also a frequency shifter and some other things. but yeah I agree, the wavetable editor would be the most important thing to me for them to add. They may do it now that the sub model and stream is being changed

[@DashGlitch]

empty is to clear the FX slot ;)

[@isomatic]

Great review. This synth is super dope. I love how the effects are their standalone plugins that they sell. That alone makes this synth unique enough. Once they implement the wavetable editor it's gg.

[@Alckemy]

Also hoping they add that! Maybe a waveshaper in rift

[@mugatu8732]

only 4 macros again?

[@adamarmstrong9408]

Those effects ❤ im really impressed with this

[@joefiorini]

Threw together a few presets in this tonight, bass, pad and lead. All of them sound sick. My only issue is there doesn’t seem to be a way to turn off retriggering so switching between chords or notes in the arp always causes the envelope to start over. Bitwig’s arp doesn’t do this, but it also doesn’t have all the fancy cool modes Current has. Hopefully either I missed an option or they’ll add it in the future.

[@Alckemy]

Yeah I think the arp was just meant to be a basic sketchpad but they could do a lot with it. I like that you can make your own chords for it

[@cachelesssociety5187]

I own Morph EQ. I also own Bitwig 5, and they learned there own lesson on this inflammatory Subscription model thing - fast way to sink your good will as a company I guess. Minimal Audio was wise to make a quick calculation and at least partially fix it - although the wavetable thing still bugs me. But for $200 I'm not wanting this, as I just bought Luftrum's Phase Plant preset pack, and I continue to be blown away by the sound of that - wish more Neuro & Dubstep guys would make packs. I still have things about Phase Plant that I would like updated - for instance I'd love to see more of a capability to work with sequencing and aprs, the manual drawing of sequences is a slow process. (I would love to see attention on this by them, especially at a level of Ana 2 with chord & key awareness/filtering. ) Phase Plant always had a sound and response I vibed with, even more so than with Vital. Can you sell me on what all the features are where "Current" blows Phase Plant out of the water?

[@Alckemy]

Nope. I can’t- primarily as it’s not my prerogative or job to sell anything other than my own content:) I just want to provide information so people can make a decision for themselves when considering purchasing third party software. If you do want to be swayed to buy something, check out my presets for phaseplant lol. They’re pretty unique and will always give you something new

[@fallenleaf24]

!00% with you on wanting them to have a wavetable editor! I still use Vital as I like that one better than serum. then I take it into Phaseplant for tweaking & load that into Current xD

[@friendlyfire9788]

Ngl this is my fave synth since serum

[@noisehead]

Keep it up man! Your channel is growing!

[@birdsiview6845]

The 20:00 minute mark sounded like a back spin. And freaking amazing. Would be cool to see what shaper box might do to that sound using the Time function. My bad, it was actually 21:35 when you were pitching up/down.

[@Alckemy]

That trick is a mimicry of how samplers behave. Setting an lfo speed to match the pitch will do it for you:) higher the pitch, faster the lfo oscillates

[@daviHuggMonster]

now that they will release it as a rent to own I will probably get it next month. I own a few of their plugins already so this will be a nice synth for my collection.

[@sonfx]

Synth aside, it's likely your earlier video pushed them in the right direction. Thanks for that!

[@Alckemy]

I can’t take credit for the community effort. That was all of us saying what we were and weren’t willing to do^^

[@joechapman8208]

11:30 you: "this is more for doing sine-folding" my brain: **slap bass riff plays** what is the deal with sine-folding

[@aerrowqueing]

In a way, I am glad this all happened the way it did. I was sure I would buy the synth, but I don't think I will anymore. It's a dope synth, very much, especially the sub engine is great! But let's be real here, PhasePlant is still great for my usual patches because I am fastest with it and I am now in the process of figuring Vital out and do more with that and it's such a cool and deep synth (although it's bugged for me in Bitwig, it's really weird, because it locks the whole screen on itself and doesn't let me see the DAW anymore) and I really don't think I need another one similar. And I still got Serum, but barely use it. So, all in all, I am really happy about the new pricing model and still think about getting Rift and/or Fuse Compressor. Current just is...fine, honestly. But for a similar price, I'd rather get Synplant 2 honestly, and that's even cheaper.

[@Alckemy]

It’s no phaseplant, but I do think it sounds great. And it has better effects, even though not as many. I do like it though, definitely think it’s worth demoing and like to use it when I’m sick of looking at phaseplant

[@Ibbys_space]

so glad they fixed this, i knew minimal were human so i found all of this odd, glad this has been resolved

[@Alckemy]

there should be a free demo. definitely give it a try

[@Lordxfx]

It's dope AF.

[@DjangoZa]

Maybe a hot take: do we need another wavetable editor? Many of us have three of them already. I feel like there's other stuff they could be innovating.

[@Alckemy]

Imo an innovative table editor is exactly what this could use and exactly where synths could use some love. Shaping harmonics- to me is like the key fundamental in making any synth as versatile as possible. I don’t like having to open up something else only to drag a wavetable back into another synth. I don’t think it’s a hot take, but if anything a standard feature every table synth should have. This was the same flack massive x got if you recall. Same complaint I have for bitwig and abletons wavetable. Also, vital, serum and phaseplants table editors all have very unique features that set them apart

[@mugatu8732]

do we need another eq? another compressor? its about the workflow and features.

[@rogercawkwell5413]

This seems like a tasty bit of kit (which a whopping price tag to boot) but since I've already bought all of MA's FX units, I reckon I could do without it by quickly lashing together some patches in bitwig.

[@hooch8395]

I may seem thick asking this but I can't fid a way to do classic PWM? could somebody point me in the right direction pls

[@Alckemy]

I don’t know if there’s dedicated pwm but there are two wavetable warp modes that are the smaller knobs next to main one. Those have a lot of settings to morph your waveform in tons of ways 👍

[@sfisodlamini54]

No, I'm sticking with Khs Phaseplant, I'll buy the effects separately.

[@Alckemy]

Good strategy!

[@markkent8436]

Nice vid, appreciate the vid b'y

[@Alckemy]

Thanks for watching!

[@ethnicalbert]

Is it unlimited modular set up like Phaseplant?

[@Alckemy]

No, you have a set number of effect slots but you can have multiple instances

[@SirLowhamHat]

Cool video. Did they relent in the subscription model?

[@Alckemy]

yes, I left a link to their apology/change video

[@WS.187]

This or phaseplant?

[@Alckemy]

I can’t live without my PP. that being said, I enjoy using current a lot as it offers a switch up in workflow and the effects are obviously much more high quality

[@dungalunga2116]

Wow nice to know this synth comes with a built in background fan noise

[@Alckemy]

I believe that was the car alarm you heard

[@Numocron]

I love how this plugin has a pitch bend & modulation wheel. I think all synth plugins should have this particular feature.

[@Aona_Music]

Uh.. Most synths do? And why would you need a separate modulation wheel when everything can be mapped to macros and automated separately anyway

[@Numocron]

@@Aona_Music Because every synthesizer is made differently. That's why they should always require a pitch bend & modulation wheel.

[@EdoardoMarcora]

#1 feature request... no monthly/yearly subscription!!!

[@Alckemy]

They changed. Please read the description*

[@DeeDeeCHAUNCEY]

Subscription only. Lame. No.

[@Alckemy]

read the description, goofball

[@Mclennnan]

save up your money and buy hardware. a perpetual licence is bs imho

[@Alckemy]

Hard ware is cool, but it can break. It’s also an extra thing you have to consider outside your rig. A perpetual license means you will always have it even when you move on to new computers. Did you mean subscription? That’s what’s not the business