CreamWare Miniscope MKII

Like all Pulsar/SCOPE synths/effects/etc., the Miniscope MKII is very easy to use. Of course, it's a software synth, so it may not be easy to use for those people who don't like making music with a mouse. But I'm a very fast and skillful mouse user, so I have no problem at all interacting with it.

The presets sound good for the most part, but the beauty of an analog synth like this (even though it's "virtual") is the real-time control via KNOBS! Hurrah! It's very easy to come up with all kinds of cool sounds -- much easier than any other type of synthesis.

Polyphony is limited by the DSP power you have on your Pulsar/SCOPE card(s). But who really needs much polyphony with a synth like this -- after all, it's a MiniMoog rip-off, and the MiniMoog was only monophonic (correct me if I'm wrong here, I don't have one, unfortunately).

The sound structure is very straightforward: you'll find three oscillators, all of which can be turned on and off independently, and all of which feature independent volume controls. Each oscillator can be a sine wave, triangle wave, saw (forward, backward, or straight up) wave, and pulse wave (with controllable pulse width). There's also a noise oscillator, which can be white or tuned noise. All of the oscillator pitches can be controlled by independent LFOs. Then there's the obligatory low pass filter with resonance, which can be controlled by a filter envelope and/or an LFO. Then there's an amp envelope, which can also be controlled by an LFO. The modulation wheel MIDI controllor controls a separate pitch LFO, and there's also a nice glide function. There must be some other perks, but they escape me at the moment.

Remember, you'll need an external MIDI controller to be able to play this, as it's a software synth (even though it runs on the Pulsar hardware DSPs). You might want to get a fader box to automate some controls via MIDI as well.

Beautiful sound, very expressive, millions of possibilities. I don't know how it compares to a real MiniMoog, but I sure can get sounds I love from hearing classic Moog synths on various albums. Filter sweeps via mouse or MIDI control can sometimes have a slight "digital" or steppy quality, but that hasn't become a serious issue so far. Hopefully a future version of the Pulsar software will correct this.

The range of sounds possible with this thing is quite amazing. I've come up with sounds like everything from flutes or recorders to harpsichords to electric basses to guitars to classic fat Moog bases and sequencer-type instruments. Prepare to go wild with this thing -- it's not a tame beast!

Pulsar has a tendency to crash every so often with heavy computer use. If it's just sitting there being played, though, it should offer no problems (unless your computer itself goes ballistic!).

I've never had a big enough problem that I felt compelled to contact Creamware about. I'm on the Pulsar/SCOPE mailing list, though, and there are several representatives from Creamware helping people on the list. Seems like a pretty good company to deal with, if you do have problems. BTW, I don't know if I'm supposed to say this, but I highly recommend getting Pulsar from www.soundchaser.com, if you decide to get it. They have teriffic prices and AWESOME service!

I love the entire Pulsar system, so the Miniscope MKII is just another great aspect of it. Considering you can get hardware synths less full-featured than this for more than THE ENTIRE PULSAR SYSTEM, it's a STEAL. Just for your information, the Miniscope MKII is much better sounding than the original Miniscope on the Pulsar, although you might use the original Miniscope sometimes because of the different preset list.

I'd buy the Pulsar again in a flash, and the Miniscope MKII is a big reason for that. It's one of the reasons I wanted to get Pulsar in the first place. I'd been frantically searching for the most Moog-like new virtual analog synth, and when I found information about this on the Net, I was hooked immediately. Get the Pulsar system -- you can't go wrong!