Volta wins Keyboard Magazine Key Buy award
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From the day it was first announced, Volta set the analog synth world abuzz. Now that users and reviewers have had a chance to get their hands on it, waves of accolades are rolling in. In their comprehensive review, Keyboard Magazine has given Volta a Key Buy award for technological innovation, concluding: "Volta is so unique that it has no direct competition. If you use analog synth gear with a Mac-based DAW, you need Volta." If you've been thinking about incorporating analog synths into your audio workstation-based studio to add that rich, coveted sound only true analog synths can deliver, there has never been a better time, thanks to Volta.
Below are just a few excerpts from the Keyboard Magazine review. Be sure to read the entire review at keyboardmag.com.
The Concept
"Volta opens a wormhole between the DAW and analog synth universes. It’s an AU (or MAS) plug-in that transforms your mild-mannered audio interfaces into a powerful control voltage converter for use with analog gear."
"Volta is so unique that it has no direct competition."
In use
"The modules are intuitive and invite tweaking. I opened two trigger sequencers and patched their outputs to two oscillators, causing them to play a counterpoint of syncopated sixteenth-note grooves. I then threw a slow LFO on another channel, all in perfect sync with tracks playing back in Logic — awesome!"
"Volta’s ramp generator module easily lets the host DAW’s automation generate CV. As host automation is different from MIDI control, this is something you normally can’t do with MIDI-to-CV converters. Want a 20-minute filter sweep? No sweat. Got a mixing control surface? Use the ramp generators to control a different analog setting with every fader. Sweet!"
"...the more I used Volta, the more I found myself saying 'Wow, I can do this!'"
Conclusion
"Volta is so unique that it has no direct competition. Though some of its functionality can be duplicated with Native Instruments Reaktor or Cycling ’74 Max/MSP, Volta makes it far easier, and it’d be tough to replicate Volta’s oscillator calibration. Of course, to do this with other software, you’d need hardware MIDI-to-CV converters, and Volta blows that approach into the tumbleweeds. For modular synth owners, it’s like getting a great big box of new modules that sync up with your DAW in ways hardware never could, for a fraction of the cost. If you use analog synth gear and a Mac-based DAW, you need Volta. We hereby award it a Key Buy for technological innovation."