Sektor at first glance is a two oscillator wavetable synth with all of the standard features you would expect Like filters, effects envelopes and LFO’s but dig a bit deeper and you will find a lot of really fun stuff to play with.
Now wavetable Synths are quite popular and so there is a pretty big market with some powerful synths to compete with like Massive and Serum two of the most popular synths out there right now.
So does Sektor have what it takes to go up against all of the competition?
Let’s get into the review and find out…
First up the visuals, Sektor is nicely laid out with the oscillators on the left the filters and envelopes to the right a centre screen which you can view the OSC+, Sequences, Preset browser, Effects and settings and tabs along the bottom where you can view your keyboard, Xpression, ADSR, Mod Envelopes, LFO’s and Mod matrix tabs.
Keeping with the visuals we can change the look of Sektor to suit your personal preferences either by modifying one of the skins that come with Sektor or by creating a skin of your own which has been made easy as Initial audio have a Photoshop template for you to download on their webpage.
Sektor comes with over 500 presets, 200 wavetables, 100 multi-sampled instruments and over 250 single samples for you to choose from which can be accessed from the browser page this can be expanded upon by adding your own tables and building your own presets even being able to make your own expansion packs inside the synth itself or just adding expansion packs you buy or find online.
In Sektor we get 2 wavetable oscillators, one sub oscillator and a sample player which can be shaped with the ADSR envelope under the filter section all of these oscillators can be fed into either filter one and filter two allowing you to filter different sections of your sound as is needed with a HP filter, LP filter and a BP filter.
This in turn works together nicely with the effects section where you have 2 Identical effect racks each with a Reverb, Compressor, Phaser, Delay, EQ, Chorus, Panner, Trance Gate and distortion which allows you to feed in either the signals from both filter 1 and 2 or just filter one or just filter two this allows you to really split up your sound and put effects where you want them.
The effects themselves can be put into any order you wish by dragging them in place and are quite nice sonically as well as pleasing to work with and really come alive when you start adding some modulation to the mix.
The two wavetable oscillators in Sektor come with all of the controls you would expect on a wavetable synth like Pitch, Phase, Voices, Detune, Stereo, Pan, Level, Morph and a section to load different wavetables as well as a little FM synthesis sprinkled in on OSC B this is all to be expected but what makes Sektor stand out in my opinion is the OSC+ tab.
When you are utilising multiple voices in OSC A and B the OSC+ tab allows you to control the Pitch, Detune, Stereo, Phase Level and Wavetable position of each voice in your sound this really allows you to really dial in on the exact sound you want or to have a happy accident when you are just playing around figuring out the synth itself, either way, it is a powerful feature to be able to play around with.
In any wavetable synth modulation of parameters is key to producing some great sounds and Sektor does not disappoint here either as almost every single control on this synth is “modulatable” in a variety of ways.
Clicking on the tabs above the keyboard reveals a different mod section like Xpression controls, ADSR 1+2, Three Mod Envelopes, four LFO’s and a Mod matrix which can either be assigned by drag and drop or by assigning the mod destination in a drop-down menu.
All four of the Lfo’s can also be set to oscillator mode giving you 4 more WT osc’s to play with not having as many controls as the original A and B oscillators but nevertheless, 4 more sound sources to play with expanding your sonic pallet quite a bit.
In Sektor Sequencer, your sound is no problem either with a 4 octave 32 steps sequencer built in allowing you to build some really fun sequences or one-note chords.
The sequencer has its own factory presets and can be expanded upon with your own and can play as notes are played, up, down, up down or down up.
Conclusion
Sektor is a really fun synth to play around with it has an exceptional amount of control when it comes to shaping and modulating your own unique sound and with so many ways to manipulate almost every single aspect of the sound you’re are creating you could, in theory, create anything you could want.
The visual control in Sektor is also a fun feature to have because who doesn’t want to pimp their own synth.
With that in mind don’t think it should have any problems claiming its own place amongst the sea of competition in the wavetable world as it is definitely a unique instrument to work with.
Pros
- Fully customizable from a sound standpoint and a visual standpoint.
- Sounds great.
- Not CPU heavy.
Cons
- Some controls are a bit fidgety and could really use a control-click option to reset them.
- Not a lot of filters to play with.
Sektor works on both PC and MAC systems. Formats: VST, AU 32-bit & 64-bit.
Original Source - Producer Spot
