Fantastic Virtual Synth

Software instruments are rare on the Mac App Store. Most developers sell their instruments online. So when I saw the NLogPoly Synth on the Mac App Store, I was both surprised and intrigued. I have the NLog MIDI Synth for my iPod Touch, and it is definitely the best synth available for iOS. But what of the Mac version? Is it worth the $25 I would pay for it? My answer is yes.

If you arent familiar with virtual synthesizers, I can tell you straight off that they are commonly very expensive. An "original" synth, designed completely by the developer, usually goes for $60+, while modeling synths, which look and sound like real-world analog synths such as the famous MiniMoog or Prophet, usually go for $200+. So when you compare it, NLogPoly is quite a bargain. But is it a good sounding, high-quality synth? My answer is, again, yes.

NLogPoly does have a great sound to it that can be morphed into virtually anything using the four oscillators, two filters, four LFOs, four envelopes, and a nice set of effects. Also, it has a very cool and unique feature - you can layer up to eight completely different synth sounds onto one MIDI channel, giving you a HUGE phat sound. Now, I wont say that the NLogPoly sounds exactly like a vintage analog Moog, but I if youre good with synths and understand how they work and how to shape a great sound, then you can get pretty close.

The actual app is a synth for performance mostly, but has a very basic recorder that you can loop or export to your DAW or just to a folder or media player. But once youve bought the synth, you can go to temporubato.com/audiounit and get the audio unit for use in the DAW of your choice for free.

One of the best things about this synth, to me at least, is the user interface. The UI really is beatiful, and has that nice wood look of a vintage synth. It is full of parameters, but theyre all organized in an orderly fashion. NLogPoly comes ready with several great sound libraries, but Tempo Rubato gives you 108 blank spaces to save your own sounds. It also includes a great arp. As for use with a MIDI controller, NLogPoly works well with my Akai MPK Mini. It allows you to choose any four parameters for use as your "perf" controls, and then choose CC commands for them. This is nice because I dont need to create a whole new preset on my MPK Mini - I can just choose what CC command controls what.

Now, as great as NLogPoly is, there are a few things Id like to see in an update. One big one for me is a full screen mode. Its not that the window is small, its just that it seems small on my 13" MBPs screen. It looks kind of unprofessional when you can still see the edges of my desktop and my dock. One other thing that isnt so important, but Id still kind of like, is some sort of automap thing. Sure, the ability to choose CCs for four knobs and the XY pad is nice, but Id like to see more MIDI controls and an easier way to program them.

Overall though, NLogPoly is a great all-around synth and I highly recommend it.

al-naafiysh about NLogPoly Synth