Redshift 6: The Midlife Synthesist Unleashes a Polyphonic Street Weapon

The Redshift 6 has been on a wild ride since it first crashed onto the scene. Back then, it looked promising but half its buttons threw up ‘coming soon’ messages—a bit like a club night where the DJ hasn’t shown up yet. Fast-forward to firmware 1.7, and according to The Midlife Synthesist, this synth is finally ‘officially complete.’ All the promised features have landed, and the empty placeholders are now real, working tools. No more vaporware vibes—just raw synth muscle.

Supercritical clearly had a plan and, to their credit, actually delivered. Fans and early adopters who rolled their eyes at the missing sequencer and effects can now relax (or start tweaking). The Redshift 6 now feels like a fully realised machine, ready to take on any set or studio session. It’s not just done—it’s dangerous.

The latest updates bring a polyphonic sequencer that’s more than just a tick-box feature. Each of the Redshift’s six parts gets its own independent sequencer, meaning you can layer, diverge, and generally cause utter chaos—each part with its own step count and chord voicings. It’s not quite Elektron or OXI-ONE territory yet, but the sheer flexibility means you can build a full rave set without ever leaving the machine. The Midlife Synthesist demos six independent patterns running at once, and the results are as massive as a warehouse sound system.

Macros are the other big slice of the update cake. Hit the macro button and suddenly those eight screen encoders turn into a mod matrix on steroids, with up to 14 destinations per knob. Assign, twist, destroy—whatever your patch needs. The workflow’s quick and dirty, just how we like it. It’s the kind of setup that lets you mangle a patch live, chuck it through a filter storm, and land somewhere completely unexpected. If you’re after static presets, look elsewhere—this is for improv junkies and livewire sound tweakers.

Even though the Redshift 6 now feels complete, Supercritical isn’t done. They’re already teasing fresh DCO models and more features in the pipeline. So if you thought this synth was running out of surprises, think again. The next round of firmware could turn this street weapon into a full-on sonic arms race. Watch this space—and maybe keep a fire extinguisher handy.