Originally Posted by kvmoore ➡️

Ok, here's an update to my above quote from back in January now that I have seen and played both synths side by side and actually compared the two based solely on the features they both have in common as well as their differences.

I compared the oscillators and was able to dial in a setting to get them both to sound almost indistinguishable. With that said, I think the Poly D has an overall brighter tone to it so I did have to compensate for it by darkening the tone a little with the filter frequency cutoff to get them to closely match. The Matriarch seem to have a stronger output than the Poly D, but after working with the gain staging and output levels on the Poly D, I was able to get the two synths to match volume wise. So yes, it is possible to get the two to sound similar. And yes, you can easily play 4-note chords with both in paraphonic mode. Each of your oscillators need to be tuned correctly (set to the same octave and frequency) and set to the same waveshape though.

With that said, they are otherwise two different beasts. I can't say one is better than the other because both have their own special character tone-wise as well as their own feature set that gives them their own special character. While the stereo filters and stereo delay on the Matriarch are nice, so is the chorus on the Poly D. When the filters are completely open, the Poly D has a brighter tone that's more in your face (upper harmonics) than the Matriarch. It also has 6 selectable waveforms per oscillator whereas the Matriarch only has 4. I do like the additional octave the Matriarch offers in the keyboard, although the 3 octave keyboard of the Poly D is fine for basslines. Speaking of which, I can get some really phat basslines out of both synths in mono mode with all 4 oscillators stacked. However, the Poly D really shines here because the 6 waveshapes offer more variation in tone, plus the addition of the stereo chorus which is the icing on the cake. Then there is the distortion circuit. The Poly D is a bass monster!!!! Then of course, the Matriarch has all of the semi-modular capabilities with the patch points, thus making it very versatile in that respect. I also like the full ASDR envelope on both the VCF and VCA of the Matriarch. The build quality of the plastic knobs on the Matriarch is better too.

I actually like both synths and think they compliment each other well. Although I cannot afford the Matriarch, I was able to swing for the Poly D which I have on order. The Poly D is such an amazing looking and sounding synth, especially for the price. On the other hand, the Matriarch is a very sweet sounding, yet versatile synth that can easily accommodate any modular setup or add modular capabilities or expansion to any non-modular setup.

So there you have it.

Originally Posted by I.R.Baboon ➡️

Hmmmm, i'm a bit worried about the quality of the keyboard on the Poly D.

At 22:26 in the Tim Shoebridge film linked above, he has a hard time playing the gentle arpeggio on the Poly D, whereas every time on the Matriarch he plays it evenly without any notes jumping out. Could be a different velocity curve or velocity on the filter on the Poly D, but yeah, wouldn't be strange to find a crappier keyboard in the Behringer.