Cherry Audio is becoming quite the player in the vintage synth plugin game. Having already emulated the ARP 2600, Roland Juno-106 and Realistic Concertmate MG-1, it’s now turned its attention to the notoriously tricksy Moog Polymoog and released the Polymode
Offering organ-style divide-down polyphony and just eight presets, the Polymoog was an early attempt to create a polyphonic synth. It was certainly powerful, and capable of creating beautifully lush sounds, but became known for its difficult interface and poor reliability record.
Cherry Audio’s reboot takes what was great about the Polymoog - its unique oscillator ranks and multiple parallel filter configuration, for example - but simplifies the interface. Oh, and it shouldn’t break down, either.
There are new features, too, such as an enhanced Resonators section. On the Polymoog, this offered three state-variable filters for dealing with low, mid and high frequencies, but was limited by its shallow filter slopes and the lack of any modulation capabilities.
Polymode takes things further by adding a steeper and more pronounced 24dB/oct mode and a dedicated LFO, so that all three cutoff frequencies can be modulated. All Resonator parameter sliders can also be modulated via the new mod matrix, and there’s an additional Notch mode, too.
In fact, all Polymode’s parameter sliders can be modulated, with sources including syncable LFOs, VCF and amplifier envelopes, white and pink noise.
There are also new effects. The ensemble processor can do flanging and chorus, while the ‘tri-chorus’ mode is inspired by the Solina string synthesizer. You get a vintage-style phaser and a reverb, too.
More than 150 presets are onboard, including the Vox Humana string/choral patch (which actually came from the pared-down Moog Polymoog Keyboard) that was made famous by Gary Numan. The synth uses 64-bit processing and promises to be light on CPU usage.
Polymode runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats. It’s currently available for the introductory price of $29, down from the regular price of $49.
Find out more and download a 30-day demo on the Cherry Audio website.
