Fact: using Retrologue 2 to show how to do synthesis works

I have often friends in my home studio who want to do music at home themselves.

While Cubase is a “household name” here, Retrologue 2 is often a source of fascination because it is SO easy to work with - which is astonishing to me as well, when I open it.

So what I do now when I get asked how to create personal sounds this is has become my “go to” synthesizer.

Everytime again, it’s always the Retrologue 2.

There is a lot to learn from a synthesizer like this for other areas in software development (I’m a developer myself).

Hi,

I’ve just upgraded to Cubase Pro 9 from Pro 8 and of all the good new features I think I’m most enjoying working with Retrologue 2. Let’s talk about it and share ideas about how to use it. I’m not so much interested in trading actual patches, but rather, we should talk about interesting modulation matrix patterns, effects chains, arpeggio patterns and useage and anything else along those lines.

I find I like to start with the default, initialized instance and then begin to build sounds and patterns. I found the operation manual to be good and not confusing, However, there should be more examples of Matrix set-ups and there are a few little errors and it’s thin on information on a few items. I suppose we could say that the excellent libraries are the examples, and the manual does give important suggestions about how to apply things like panning, volume, shape, and so on. I’d say the Manual is a good Quick Start and clearly organized.

I don’t know if I’m just getting better at working with Synths or if it is that Retrologue is just very well done. I think it’s both, but the instrument is very well designed. A similar Synth I have is called Hybrid from Air Music. It’s a great instrument, but highly complex and was a daunting learn. Retro2’s drag and drop assignments to the Matrix method is an efficient, fast way of creating sounds – from wild FX to very colorful and appealing synth tones – leads, pads, comps, basses, plucked and strummed, and so on – retrologue 2 does it all.

Retrologue’s arpeggio player puts the instrument into a whole new category, it does a lot. It’s great to have access to what can be done with flexphraser technology since the arpeggio output can be recorded! :exclamation: and then edited in MIDI tracks.

In general, I think Steinberg and all the companies, not just them, tend to over sell and over hype a bit about their products, but, in this case, I think Steinberg should trumpet Retrologue 2. They really got it right and it’s a pleasure to work with.

So, good post and good luck making interesting music with the instrument. I’m still just learning the instrument and have some questions, but I’ll post on those separately. Take care.

Stephen