Cherry Audio Pro Soloist is a new Synthesizer plugin that emulates ARP’s 1972 present synth and is part of the new Synth Stack 4 bundle.
Developing plugins not only costs money but also time. Developments can take years; see U-he Zebra 3. A massive opposite is Cherry Audio. The developers release new plugins onto the market all year round. Five this year alone.
The Pro Soloist, a sixth, will now make the final for 2023 unless they have another surprise for us.
Cherry Audio Pro Soloist
The Pro Soloist is an authentic emulation of the ARP Pro Soloist. This vintage synth from 1972 was one of the first commercially successful preset-based synthesizers. They had ready-made presets as the core to select at the touch of a button. This technology was seen as the ancestor of today’s preset browsers.
It may not be the most legendary or iconic vintage synth, but it was used by many famous musicians, including Tangerine Dream, Gary Numan, Herbie Hancock, Prince, and many more. An often forgotten synth gem as some say.
According to Cherry Audio, the plugin features were created using the precision-crafted and circuit-modeled DSP design by the developer Mart Barton. Cherry Audio’s take on the Pro Soloist features everything you know from the original: all 30 presets, the unique architecture, and the expressive controls.
But they didn’t leave it at that. They brought the whole engine into the modern age, making it programmable with full polyphony, splits, layers, an arpeggiator, and more. As you know from past plugins from the Cherry team.
Dual Layer ARP Pro Soloist
As a reminder, the original ARP Pro Soloist had a single oscillator, a 24dB/oct lowpass filter with 14 fixed filters acting as resonators, and more. A very simple subtractive engine that Cherry Audio has now completely taken to a new level.
The developers have added a dual-layer voicing architecture, with 16 polyphonic voices per layer, giving you in total a synth with 32 voices. Plus with the ability to play two different presets simultaneously, with independent panning.
There is also a new split keyboard mode and a last note function that simulates polyphonic aftertouch using mono aftertouch controllers. Cherry Audio ships the Pro Soloist with three distinct UIs: performance mode à la ARP Pro Soloist, an edit mode with all the in-depth synth parameters, and an ARP/FX panel.
The most exciting one is the edit page where you can find all knobs of the subtractive engine, including the five-parallel bandpass filter resonator bank, LFO, and ADSR/AR envelopes, and a new super wave oscillator. Then, it also hosts a six-slot modulation matrix.
On the Arp/FX panel, you can find a syncable multimode arpeggiator and a multi-FX processor with distortion, phaser. flanger/chorus, echo, and reverb. Not to forget, it is fully playable and controllable with MIDI.
Further, Pro Soloist also features 450 presets created by professional sound designers, including INHALT, Drew Schlesinger, and more. More captivating sounds are available in the Vintage Vibes Preset Pack (sold separately) by James Dyson.
Synth Stack 4
At the same time, Cherry Audio released the Synth Stack 4 bundle, which includes all 22 Synthesizer and virtual instrument plugins.
It includes the latest releases, including the Pro Soloist, the mighty PS-3300, Harmonia, or the Octave Cat emulation. Synth Stack 4 is like the Arturia V Collection only from Cherry Audio and for a more attractive price.
First Impression
An excellent emulation of a not-so-well-known vintage Synthesizer. I have to admit that I haven’t dealt much with the ARP Soloist so far. But the original sounds very special to me. The emulation captures the character of the original what I hear in the demos very good.
I like, particularly, that you have access to the complete synth engine for the first time. Yes and of course, everything with massive polyphony and not just in monophonic like the original hardware. Bravo Cherries!
Cherry Audio Pro Soloist is available now for an introductory price of $49 instead of $69. It runs as a VST, VST3, AU, AAX plugin, and standalone formats on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows. The new Synth Stack 4 is available for an intro price of $299 instead of $399. A free 30-day demo is available
More information here: Cherry Audio
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