A Modern Synth with Vintage Sensibility
Keyboardists and synthesists alike will appreciate how Universal Audio has blended old and new elements in the UAD PolyMAX Synth Plug-in. First, UA modeled multiple analog filters and oscillators based on vintage SSM and CEM chips. The resulting sounds pay loving tribute to early Oberheims, Jupiters, and Prophets. The PolyMAX Synth’s UI also has a classic left-to-right layout that should look familiar to anyone who’s spent time with vintage analog synths. Modern touches include an analog/digital hybrid approach to frequency modulation that allows you to get stable pitch control even with linear FM-based analog oscillators! There are also onboard UA effects, such as the classic “Hall B” digital reverb, analog phasers and flangers, tape delay, and more. Finally, production-ready presets and an intuitive knob-based control scheme mean that synthesis pros and novices can get great sounds immediately.
Note: Do you own Apollo hardware? By purchasing this plug-in, you will receive two licenses: one license allows you to run the plug-in via your computer’s CPU and the other allows you to run it via your Apollo hardware. Please contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer if you have any questions.
Related Videos: PolyMAX Synth Plug-in
Everything old is new again
Given SSM and CEM chips served as the foundations of many classic polysynths, it only makes sense that Universal Audio began by modeling oscillators, filters, and envelopes derived from these chips. You definitely know their sounds even if you don’t know their names. PolyMAX isn’t a mere “Frankenstein’s monster” synth, however. UA deliberately matched the best-sounding elements of each component they modeled, and the result is an incredibly musical synth that breathes new life into retro sounds.
Analog FM with stable pitch?!
Sweetwater synth heads find a lot to love in PolyMAX, but one thing that stood out, in particular, was how its analog oscillators have such stable pitch even when modulated. PolyMAX uses a hybrid approach of applying linear FM to its incredibly well-modeled analog oscillators. The digital domain enables the representation of frequencies with negative numbers, thus enabling musical, pitch-accurate linear FM even on PolyMAX’s analog-modeled oscillators.
Universal Audio UAD PolyMAX Synth Plug-in Features:
- Analog-modeled filters and oscillators derived from classic synth chips give you deep and complex synth sounds for a wide range of genres
- Stable pitch tunings even when applying linear FM to analog oscillators
- Classic left-to-right layout of analog synths
- Studio-quality UA effects like digital “Hall B” reverb, tape delay, analog phasers, and more
- Production-ready presets plus simple color-schemed knob-based controls let you start playing and tweaking right away
- Runs natively on virtually any DAW, no Universal Audio hardware required
