Released in 2007, Admiral Quality’s monstrous Poly-Ana was widely acclaimed as one of the most anally modeled analog modeled soft synths to date. L’il Poly-Ana is the ‘preset player’ version with the same sound engine as her big sister. One might think she’s a bit limited as a result, but a little can sometimes go a long way, especially when the factory presets are practically a history lesson in “Sounds Made Famous By Analog Synthesizers.”
Additionally, and more crucially, you have access to dual filter cutoff/resonance, unison, polyphony, detune, portamento, and even analog drift (has to be heard to be believed), making this a fairly tweakable instrument (that’s what she said).
This really is a performer’s synthesizer; the modulation wheel features prominently in the presets, often in interesting ways, and multiple trigger options are included for funky fingered keyboardists. There are also five selectable sample rates that offer a good compromise between quality and CPU consumption.
While she can take up a bit of juice, particularly if you use a lot of voices, it’s absolutely worth it! The sounds that come out of L’il Poly are so rich and positively chubby (remind you of anyone?) that it’s easy to forget you’re playing a combination of zeros and ones.
She’s capable of emulating a wide range of your uncle’s analogs, from Moog to Prophet 5, and does a superb string synth impression! This really is an achievement in software synth engineering. Of course, while the porcine Poly-Ana can do so much more (and I might have a go at big momma in the near future), her little sister will do just fine for now! 😉
And now, let’s hear her sing:
100% Poly Ana with no fx. The track at the end (Release Me) uses a little delay and limiting.
Thickness!
This concludes Chapter One of the Synth Odyssey!
Here’s what we’ve covered so far:
What is the point of this ‘Synth Odyssey’?
Next up in the series: Korg’s software Wavestation makes a po’ boy’s dreams come true at last!
Thanks for reading!
(c) Programmed and Performed by P Brown.
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Phatso Brown-Straight From The Gut... 
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ray Brown, Mike Humphrey. Mike Humphrey said: Review & demo video of L'il Poly-Ana virtual analog synthesizer http://bit.ly/7ik6tO […]
Been looking for something with a more analog sound and wondered about Poly-Ana, this demo convinced me to give her a try. Impressive sound sample – that track at the end could stand alone. What other synths will be reviewed?
Glad you enjoyed the article. She certainly is a beast of a synth. I’m basically going to pick and choose from the synths in my collection, so it’s gonna be a surprise to all of us, including me!
[…] Admiral Quality Poly-Ana […]