D16 Lush 2

One of the most hotly-anticipated softsynths of a decade ago gets an update. But after ten years, is D16's Lush 2 still relevant in 2023? Oh yes

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£145 PC MAC

The original D16 LuSH-101 was released in 2012, then the 30th anniversary of the synth it was emulating, the original Roland SH-101. That instrument has gone down in history as not the most powerful of Roland synths, but a big-sounding mono, with a cute approach – you could strap it on and play it like a synth guitar – and now fetches up to a grand secondhand (although even that is still fairly cheap for an original early ’80s Roland). The 2012 D16 was a hotly anticipated release, then, but actually turned out to be eight SH-101s stacked on top of one another – so it could act like a multitimbral synth – each with double the number of envelopes and LFOs, effects and a total voice count of 32. Mm, SH-101? SH-10001 more like…

You could argue then…

…that the original D16 LuSH-101 was way more than a simple SH-101 rehash, and we did. We also said that it took other cues, like its modulation matrix, from classic Roland fare like the JP-8000 and JD-800. But we also loved it: “It combines the design philosophy of the SH-101 with the power of modern synths, sounds beautiful, and proves that great ideas don’t go out of fashion. A classic taken to dazzling new heights.”