# Cherry Audio updates...



## José Herring (Oct 9, 2021)

The latest update of Cherry Audio synths are killer. The funny phasing in the higher harmonics is gone, ample low end on Memorymode and Eight Voice. I always kind of held back on these as they were good but not quite fully up to the competitors but after these updates they are in the same league as any analog emulated synths for 1/10th the price. Amazing!


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## synergy543 (Oct 14, 2021)

I agree with your assessment José. Also, have a look at the latest VM900 Modular Release for only $79 (and read the comments). https://www.synthtopia.com/content/...ion-of-27-classic-moog-modular-synth-modules/ The strange thing is, due to the very low prices, these get absolutely no respect compared to what is being offered (nothing but complaints). I'm afraid, there will be little support in terms of presets developed as well as lack of developer support in the future if there is not a strong user base. How different is a Kontakt Multi of 3 MemoryModes from the MoogOne in terms of sound? As far as I know, no one has made this comparison yet. However, if one were to though, would you bet your life (or even a few bucks) on being able to tell the difference?

So how does this inequity get resolved? Or does it? (DIVA and Zebra get more respect - why though?) Do we need a Wendy Carlos or Tomita of the day to show what might be possible? Or is the synth sound itself out of vogue? I kind of get the attraction towards hot new hybrid products such as Heavyocity's Orchestral Destruction. They sound fresh and organic, yet synthetic and new. Where does the old analog synth stand in this new world?

Maybe my whole question is endemic to the entire plugin synth/sample industry in that offerings are viewed more as products than "instruments", and are thus treated as being more disposable and replaceable. And therefore, few will spend much time with any one of them to develop the type of relationship and musical control that one might achieve with a real physical musical instrument (as you have done with the clarinet). Maybe I need a stiff drink to fend off my negative thoughts. I'm curious what you think about the "bigger picture"?


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## doctoremmet (Oct 14, 2021)

Is VM looked down upon though? It has a pretty large and active user base, and an ever growing eco-system of new AND well respected third party developers. There are literally hundreds of new modules, Mark Barton (MRB) -an outside developer known for the design of the hardware Zeroscillator- has been instrumental in the design of both VM2500 and the new V900. Unfiltered Audio have joined the ranks. I’d argue the “software Eurorack crowd” is very much aware of Cherry Audio and Voltage Modular and I suspect their sales figures are very healthy. Speaking for myself, I have hundreds of modules - mostly by niche developers, as I’m not really looking for emulation of real / old hardware and kind of like the weirder stuff. As a matter of fact a lot of the samplers and sequencers offer functions that aren’t available to me in any other synth.

As far as the other emulations go, they sound very good and are on par with many of Arturia’s offerings in terms of UI and sonically. The pace for releasing new models has been astonishing, but there is a pretty large community of synth users actively speculating (their teaser marketing seems to work) and buying every synth they release.

But apparently there are also places where the Cherry Audio synths “absolutely do not get any respect”? I am a bit surprised I can’t really say I’ve seen those places. KVR? Gear Space? You mention ‘read the comments’ but the web press release article does not have any comments at the time of my posting this?


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## José Herring (Oct 15, 2021)

synergy543 said:


> I agree with your assessment José. Also, have a look at the latest VM900 Modular Release for only $79 (and read the comments). https://www.synthanatomy.com/2021/1...900-series-emulation-for-voltage-modular.html The strange thing is, due to the very low prices, these get absolutely no respect compared to what is being offered (nothing but complaints). I'm afraid, there will be little support in terms of presets developed as well as lack of developer support in the future if there is not a strong user base. How different is a Kontakt Multi of 3 MemoryModes from the MoogOne in terms of sound? As far as I know, no one has made this comparison yet. However, if one were to though, would you bet your life (or even a few bucks) on being able to tell the difference?
> 
> So how does this inequity get resolved? Or does it? (DIVA and Zebra get more respect - why though?) Do we need a Wendy Carlos or Tomita of the day to show what might be possible? Or is the synth sound itself out of vogue? I kind of get the attraction towards hot new hybrid products such as Heavyocity's Orchestral Destruction. They sound fresh and organic, yet synthetic and new. Where does the old analog synth stand in this new world?
> 
> Maybe my whole question is endemic to the entire plugin synth/sample industry in that offerings are viewed more as products than "instruments", and are thus treated as being more disposable and replaceable. And therefore, few will spend much time with any one of them to develop the type of relationship and musical control that one might achieve with a real physical musical instrument (as you have done with the clarinet). Maybe I need a stiff drink to fend off my negative thoughts. I'm curious what you think about the "bigger picture"?


You make some good points. For me, I've had my eye on Cherry Audio but they were just a little behind some other synths that I have but my ears perked up once when I pulled up my freebee Voltage Modular and was like whoa, it has one of the cleanest sounds of any softsynth I've heard. 

I honestly think that they are starting to make waves. I've not heard any real negative about them just as you say a lack of respect. I never paid too much attention to it. 

I don't think synths are out of vogue. I do notice a trend towards the new rompler though. Sample based synthesis using perhaps some of the highest quality samples that ever existed. I mean, OT's new offerings with NI and Heavyocity's stuff. My honest opinion though is I'd rather take the raw samples and orchestral fx and processes them myself. I've been doing that for a decade now, then all of sudden it's all the rage. But back in the day I use to take the FX strings from EWQSLO and mangle the shit out of them in samplers and synths like Alchemy. I'm kind of surprised now that big developers are doing it as a new thing.

Wendy Carlos and Tomita for me are the inspiration. I can't pass that as new synthesis these days but they are the basis imo of creating expressive synth sounds that were just as expressive as acoustic instruments and in many case more expressive. The pitfall of that style of synthesis is that they were trying to replicate real instruments for a majority of their work and that lead them down a certain path I believe that limited what they could do with synths, then samplers came out and that's all she wrote for that style of synthesis. But they laid the groundwork for analog synths and that's where I get interested. 

I have Eurorack setup. I believe you do too. Real analog isn't the same as the emulations. Frankly after a few knob tweaks it becomes pretty obvious but there's a hint of familiarity in synths like Memorymode. It kind of sounds right when other more hybridy digital synths don't. I use analog emulation for bass almost exclusively and my favorite hardware synth the Roland JP-8000 with its supersaw was after all a hybrid synth as well. So I tend to use the emulations like Lush 101 for supersaw pad like sounds and Zebra as well. 

I have a lot to say on the subject and won't put it all in one post. I welcome the conversation because I think about this a lot. At what point do we say, "it's close enough" to the real thing that it doesn't matter? Has music become a series of small sacrifices with the excuse that it's "close enough" that after 100 such sacrifices the music itself is worthless. Samples, "close enough to the real thing" but it isn't. Synth emulations, "close enough" but they aren't. Start stacking up the "close enoughs" and soon that becomes the biggest degrade in quality.


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## José Herring (Oct 15, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> As far as the other emulations go, they sound very good and are on par with many of Arturia’s offerings in terms of UI and sonically. The pace for releasing new models has been astonishing, but there is a pretty large community of synth users actively speculating (their teaser marketing seems to work) and buying every synth they release.


I think so too. At least to my ears for now. I don't actually own any arturia but I did demo a few up against Cherry audio and I found that Cherry held up nice. Now with the new update I find that they are now equal in quality with Cherry being more cost friendly.


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## doctoremmet (Oct 15, 2021)

José Herring said:


> Synth emulations, "close enough" but they aren't


I completely respect your opinion José, but on this we do not agree. As you know I also have a ridiculous hardware collection, and honestly I cannot say that software synths sound worse than their hardware peers. The U-he Bazille synth sounds way better in fact than the SY99. The various DX7 clones sound as good as my real DX7s. And I’d be hard pressed and think I’d likely fail to spot the difference between the OB-Xa in the studio and some of the emulations I own. And I’d argue in any mix, noone would ever be able to spot the difference or perceive a ‘compromise’. More and more I think this is a train of thought, it all happens in the mind, and as long as we’re talking about top tier software synths (apples / apples comparisons) the real differences are hardly there any more and this discussion is largely an academic one.


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## José Herring (Oct 15, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> I completely respect your opinion José, but on this we do not agree. As you know I also have a ridiculous hardware collection, and honestly I cannot say that software synths sound worse than their hardware peers. The U-he Bazille synth sounds way better in fact than the SY99. The various DX7 clones sound as good as my real DX7s. And I’d be hard pressed and think I’d likely fail to spot the difference between the OB-Xa in the studio and some of the emulations I own. And I’d argue in any mix, noone would ever be able to spot the difference or perceive a ‘compromise’. More and more I think this is a train of thought, it all happens in the mind, and as long as we’re talking about top tier software synths (apples / apples comparisons) the real differences are hardly there any more and this discussion is largely an academic one.


My apologies. I shouldn't be as glib as I was. Kind of tired. 

True. I had more in mind the Moog modulars I have heard even the Matriarch. I don't count digital hardware synths because they are just computers. So I fully expect that the software FM synths sound better than the hardware.

It is good to hear about the OBxa. I have never heard a real one live. But I have heard a lot of Moog stuff and I just haven't heard the software be as full and as rich. Just my thoughts. 

But I do fully recognize that software synths are amazing. I love them to bits. I love them more than they love me. Kind of hurts a little.


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## doctoremmet (Oct 15, 2021)

José Herring said:


> It is good to hear about the OBxa. I have never heard a real one live.


Hehe. This specimen came to me in 1991. Fantastic musical instrument. The amount of time spent fixing power supplies, and with a soldering iron in hand MAY have coloured MY perception. So fair enough haha! The truth is like all nuanced and shit bro.


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## Pier (Oct 15, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> The truth is like all nuanced and shit bro


I want a shirt with that written on it!


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## synergy543 (Oct 15, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> But apparently there are also places where the Cherry Audio synths “absolutely do not get any respect”? I am a bit surprised I can’t really say I’ve seen those places. KVR? Gear Space? You mention ‘read the comments’ but the web press release article does not have any comments at the time of my posting this?


Sorry, I posted the wrong link (fixed above).https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2021/10/14/cherry-audio-vm900-collection-a-software-recreation-of-27-classic-moog-modular-synth-modules/. I agree, that Cherry Audio is not giving this the promotion that it deserves and the promotional release seemed rather low-key. It's still hard to find much about it. And there should be some walkthroughs and tutorials as other users commented. It seems like a great product when you consider its capabilities and flexibility. A virtual modular with presets is quite amazing not to mention the incredible price. 

When I explore it I feel spoiled. I used to own a monster-sized real modular synth. Yet, I find myself impatient with patching, limited voices, and the inability to easily stack sounds to create a composite (yeah, I know it can be done, but it's a bit messy if you know what I mean). I feel almost as if I've been stricken with a bad case of ADD. In comparison, I could use the Memory Mode and stack 3 devices into a VE Pro Instance for recall. This works if you need composite sounds that are not individually too complex. 

And yet, I still feel spoiled, by samples. Hybrid samples such as Heavyocity's Orchestral Destruction or Hexeract which use mangled organic samples have a strong attraction when compared with the more static synth-only sounds. For that matter, so does the Ondes Martenot which was built back in 1928! I'm not sure why the modular synth hasn't evolved into something more interesting sounding (it has sonically changed relatively little over the past 50 years despite all of the new Eurorack modules), but my ear gravitates more towards the organic sound of samples. Maybe it's the way people use them? Isao Tomita for example worked extremely hard to create the sounds he achieved using an ordinary Moog modular. He used an amazing amount of layering via tape decks to achieve this sound. Even with today's virtual modular and a DAW, it wouldn't be easy to achieve. 

For example, he used to manually sync up multi-track tape decks with a vari-speed which added a unique pitch-time component that would be hard to replicate with plugins and he didn't work in just stereo but multi-surround including creating strings with left, center and right. He had an immense amount of patience to achieve some of the musical effects that he did. Still, I'm sure he'd smile at this new virtual modular synth with its amazing flexibility and its presets!

But its a brave new world, with lots of new toys and few people who seem to truly listen and appreciate quality sound and real composition craftsmanship anymore. 
We certainly live in interesting times!


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## SupremeFist (Oct 28, 2021)

Wow, I just updated the DCO-106 and it went straight into a track to replace a Massive X patch I had been struggling with. Sounds absolutely top-tier now. I may need to buy more Cherry synths: which one first?


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## José Herring (Oct 30, 2021)

SupremeFist said:


> Wow, I just updated the DCO-106 and it went straight into a track to replace a Massive X patch I had been struggling with. Sounds absolutely top-tier now. I may need to buy more Cherry synths: which one first?


You have to get Memorymode. It's ridiculously good sounding. DCO is so fantastic though it's hard to pick of the ones that I have which one I like best. So far I have DCO, Memorymode and the MS20 emulation and like them all equally well. 

But the Memorymode just gave that instant "wow it really does sound like a Moog" cool factor.


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## doctoremmet (Oct 30, 2021)

José Herring said:


> You have to get Memorymode. It's ridiculously good sounding. DCO is so fantastic though it's hard to pick of the ones that I have which one I like best. So far I have DCO, Memorymode and the MS20 emulation and like them all equally well.
> 
> But the Memorymode just gave that instant "wow it really does sound like a Moog" cool factor.


Agreed. The Jupiter 4 is cool too though! But Memorymood is their coolest.


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## Pier (Oct 30, 2021)

The Cherry Audio guys must be DSP genius. Maybe they've found a novel process to produce emulations since they've been releasing so many emulations so quickly.

Hopefully they will have some BF sales!


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## doctoremmet (Oct 30, 2021)

You want those emulations even cheaper than $29-39???  

Keep an eye out on Plugin Boutique, they’ll get discounted to $19 frequently (one at a time usually).


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## SupremeFist (Oct 30, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Agreed. The Jupiter 4 is cool too though! But Memorymood is their coolest.


Is the Jupiter-4 substantially different in character from the Tal Jupiter-8, which I have and love? (I don't know anything about the history of the respective instruments.)


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## doctoremmet (Oct 30, 2021)

SupremeFist said:


> Is the Jupiter-4 substantially different in character from the Tal Jupiter-8, which I have and love? (I don't know anything about the history of the respective instruments.)


Yes. Completely different tech architectures and ICs. The sound is actually quite different, and the emulated Cherry version comes with the added bonus of a ‘built in’ Roland Space Echo. In terms of sound, here are some examples:



(that famous arpeggio is a J4)


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## SupremeFist (Oct 30, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Yes. Completely different tech architectures and ICs. The sound is actually quite different, and the emulated Cherry version comes with the added bonus of a ‘built in’ Roland Space Echo. In terms of sound, here are some examples:
> 
> 
> 
> (that famous arpeggio is a J4)



Haha OK you had me at Rio. Bought!


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## doctoremmet (Oct 30, 2021)




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## Pier (Oct 30, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> You want those emulations even cheaper than $29-39???
> 
> Keep an eye out on Plugin Boutique, they’ll get discounted to $19 frequently (one at a time usually).


LOL

I hadn't even checked the price and assumed they were more expensive.

How can these guys pump out these emulations so fast and so cheap?

Also, I'm assuming these are the real deal based on positive comments so far.


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## doctoremmet (Oct 30, 2021)

They’re pretty good - yes. In the Voltage Modular branch of their business they’ve developed really good emulations of the ARP 2500 and a Moog system in cooperation with industry veteran Mark Barton. The guy who put the “pjieeeewww” in You Can Ring My Bell 

And his MRB modules are also very good. The software version of his Zeroscillator is great.


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## Marcus Millfield (Nov 2, 2021)

Just saw Cherry Audio sale 40% off at Plugin Boutique, including the Mercury-4:






VST Plugins, Synth Presets, Effects, Virtual Instruments, Music


VST Plugins, Synth Presets, Effects, Virtual Instruments, Music Plugins from Pluginboutique




www.pluginboutique.com


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## doctoremmet (Nov 2, 2021)

These are normal prices though. The ‘real’ deals usually offer one of the standalone emulations for $19.


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## José Herring (Nov 2, 2021)

Marcus Millfield said:


> Just saw Cherry Audio sale 40% off at Plugin Boutique, including the Mercury-4:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


They are a bargain at full price. Not sure saving $4 is worth waiting for a sale. Pick up as many as you can before they get smart and start realizing that these synths are worth a lot more than the asking price.


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## doctoremmet (Nov 4, 2021)




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## rhizomusicosmos (Nov 4, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


>



He says it's fantastic and sounds like a Moog.


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