IK Multimedia Uno Drum Ultra-Portable Analogue & PCM Drum Machine

I purchased this from Amazon for £109. That's £36 cheaper than a Volca Keys for much more synth. At this price I don't think there is another product that comes close.The lightweight, plastic case might not be to everyone's taste but if portability is a factor then it can be seen as a plus point. The synth architecture is similar to an old fashioned entry level mono synth such as the Moog Rogue. The sound is good with non-ladder filter delivering a lot of low end frequencies. It sometimes feels weird to hear such beefy tones from a toylike box!PROS - very portable, very affordable, patch memory and a useable keyboard.CONS - susceptible to noise, requires software editor for deep patching, possibly fragile. The factory presets are not great but you can download plenty more via the editor.It took some experimentation with audio and USB cables to eliminate the digital noise from the output. The software provided is Windows or Mac only though the editor runs happily under Wine on Linux.Overall, I'm very pleased with UNO.

Nice and simple to use with great sounds and features. I have a lot of hardware and I don’t feel that you should need a science degree to operate synths to make music they should be just part of the process. The UNO is just that, lightweight easy to use with good sounds. It’s not the best synth I have by a long way but as part of my gigging set up its perfect. The ‘keyboard’ takes some getting used to if you have never used one of these, but is better than the Volca ones as it is slightly more tactile. The only improvements I would like to see would be an internal speaker, like the Volcas and Novation Circuits have and more connectivity options. But for the money, it’s pretty good and a welcome addition to my kit list.

Bit small but packs a big punch. Mess with it and you get some worthwhile sounds.

Had this a couple of weeks now and have barely scratched the surface of what this Synth has to offer. 100 programmable sequences; of which 20 are presets, (which you can’t alter) with multiple options per sequence. It has two independent analog VCOs with a variable wavelength and a noise generator, plus Arpeggio and Sequence buttons.The LFO waveform options include sine, triangle, saw up & down, square, random, sample and hold. It comes with downloadable software and also works with other plugins. It has a 27 key multitouch keyboard and also a dozen scales to choose from. The UnoSynth is impressive and I wish that I’d come across it a couple of years ago, when it first came out. If you can’t utilise USB, it takes 4 x AA batteries, which lasted 3 hours before I had to replace them.

Covers all the basics for getting into analogue synths. Even if you're familiar with subtractive synthesis, it's a great addition to your set-up. Very simple to use with nice layout of controls. Also includes its own sequencer and arpeggiator, a few effects, chorus and delay. Only downside is battery life - they won't last more than a few hours of continuous play. But it can be connected to any PC/laptop via USB for power. You don't need any additional music software although I recommend downloading IK Multimedia's app for the UNO synth for deeper use.

Some elements of this drum machine are amazing. However, I can’t see its full potential as I’ve just been sent a second fault unit that has exactly the same problem as the first unit that I received. It currently will not let me save any kits or patterns that I program in. IK multimedia have so far refused to respond to my request for support and I am not the only person that is either having this problem with units bought recently or is experiencing no support from IK multimedia whatsoever.The only support I have received so far has been from Amazon who have been amazing in taking back the original unit and sending out a replacement, although it looks like this replacement unit is going to need to be returned as well.Honestly, save your money and a massive headache and either wait for IK Multimedia to acknowledge and fix this issue with the units that have recently been shipped out to stores or just buy a different make and model.I really wish they would respond and come up with a fix, because if it wasn’t for the fact that their is a massive fault in recently shipped units, this would be an amazing drum machine.Update... 2 days later...Amazon have kindly replaced the second machine with a third one which will be arriving today.IK customer support have sent me one email during this process asking me what firmware was on the machine. I replied promptly and am still waiting for a response from them over 36 hours later.Other people are starting to get responses from IK customer support stating that they are only now looking into this matter and will get back to them at some point in the future.If it wasn’t for the fact that the sounds on the unit are amazing I honestly really wouldn’t bother wasting money on this product until people start saying that fully functioning units are now being sent out.

cracking piece of kit . great price to . thank you

Easy to use. Head phone socket and it runs on batteries so it's easy to take where you want. Good for messing about with and trying to learn how basic synths work.