I’m going to shoot a video for the YouTube channel on this. I downloaded the demo of the Quadra when it first came out, and I spent time with it. From a pragmatic point of view, why would I want this thing? I’ve got the Arturia V9 Collection, which means I’ve got plenty of synths that can run circles around this thing. The controls are basic, it can’t do all that much, and logically there was no reason to buy it. It sounded good, but still.
And yet I kept thinking about it. And thinking about it. And eventually I bought the damn thing, because it wouldn’t stay out of my head. Why? One, it sounds like my prog rock roots. I mean, Tony Banks used one on “Duke.” And two, it’s actually easy AND fun to program it. Simple, yes, but there’s a lot you can do with those sliders.
It’s like a synth education. The bass section gives you just what you need to make a cool bass sound, same with the strings, synth, and lead sections. Or whatever they’re called – I don’t have it in front of me right now. But it’s just plain fun to program, and it sounds really good. The bottom row of effects is super easy to use and super useful.
And finally, some of the presets are pretty fantastic. I think there are some songs in the presets – songs that I haven’t written yet that need to be written. And I’ve got two weeks off, as I type this, to play with this thing, as well as my new Squier Jazz Bass (see the Budget Guitarist YouTube channel for more about that.)
Sometimes a synth is just fun to use. The Cherry Audio Quadra is VERY fun to use.