Sonic Academy ANA 2

If the original version of this ambitious hybrid synth was a diamond in the rough, the five-years-in-the-making follow-up is the Koh-i-Noor…

Despite falling rather short of the mark, the original ANA (8/10, 182) made it clear that Sonic Academy had their sights set on membership of the power synth club. Now hellbent on joining the likes of Serum, VPS-Avenger, Dune 2, SynthMaster 2 et al at the top table of synthesis, the sequel is a far more ambitious instrument – but does it do enough to earn itself a seat among such illustrious company?

Starting again

Rebuilt from the ground up, ANA 2 is, to most intents and purposes, a completely new thing. For a start, the number of oscillators has been increased from four to six. Oscillators 1-3 still offer the (sampled) analogue waveforms of the original ANA, plus a very healthy stock of new single-cycle options. That’s only the beginning, though, as they also now feature the de rigeur wavetable mode, with 52 “3D” wavetables onboard (they’re just wavetables), plus the ability to import external ones, including those made by Serum. The ‘analogue’ oscillator’s Phase knob becomes the Morph (wavetable index) knob in wavetable mode, but other than that, the two modes share the same controls for making adjustments to PWM, FM, Sync, Volume, Pan, Filter 1/2 balance, tuning, sub oscillator wave and volume, and up to nine unison voices.