Sonic Charge has intoduced a new software synth, Synplant, that’s great looking but offers a bizarre interface.
Instead of creating patches the conventional way by turning dials and knobs, Synplant lets you explore a world of organic sounds by planting seeds that grow into synth patches. The purpose of this product is “to move focus away from the sometimes intricate and difficult process of sound synthesis and instead let you develop sounds by simply using your ears”.
In other words, it randomly generates patches, hides the complex bits and then lets you tweak the sounds using a simple interface.
If you want to dig deeper into shaping the sound, there’s an option to dig into each sounds “genetic code”. I’ve included a screen capture of this below.
I downloaded the free demo to check it out, and it’s a very nice sounding synth, but I think it will appeal to a limited audience because of the way everything is hidden within the interface.
I could see it finding an audience with people with limited synth background, though, because you can make unique sounds without needing to know what you’re doing.
Give the free demo download a try and let me know what you think!
I was expecting more of the usual random, boring sounds & computerness when seeing the DNA screen there, but it’s actually pretty impressive sounding from the radio demo on their site.
I gave this a download and think it’s worth checking out. They need to get rid of the DNA graphic thing, though, and just present a list of all the parameters you can change. That would make it easier to see what was going on and to make changes.
If its possible it seems like they would be smart to offer a “pro mode” or whatever- an option to switch the display to a more traditional UI. That way they could “move the focus…”etc but still take care of those of us who know right away what parameter we want to grab.
It seems like a good idea generator, I usually don’t like random generators because they always feel computerized & this seems to go right against that, at least in theory. I have to admit though I was disappointed when I opened this up, because at first I was picturing actual seeds in actual soil that they were somehow sending signal through (which would be waaaay more awesomer.) Oh well.