Cycle is the fusion of wave-draw and spectral synthesis techniques. With this instrument, a voice is processed in single-cycle units, starting with the user-drawn wave-shape. Each cycle of the tone is analysed in realtime for its spectral content, producing a harmonic and phase spectrum that are independently filtered or added to by spectral curves.
The geometry that creates wave-shapes and spectral curves has 8 states* to morph between, allowing exquisitely dynamic sounds. Giving these curves many attractive properties is a proprietary, audio-specific curve design.
Cycle's multi-point envelopes, waveshaper, and impulse response convolution effect leverage this curve design, benefiting from its extreme smoothness, flexibility, and ease of use. Envelopes can transform between 4 states*; for example, a volume envelope could morph as a function of note velocity - it could be a slow legato curve for soft notes, tremolo for medium velocity, and a quick decay for loud notes.
As the synthesis process relies on geometry in all areas, Cycle provides an integrated environment to create and edit the geometry, much like a CAD application. Most of the workflow is concentrated on a single page. The robust set of workflow tools includes freehand drawing, curve-fitting, smart line addition, multiple point selection, box selection, x/y-scaling, and full undo.
As you edit any knob or piece of geometry, the UI gives immediate, accurate visual feedback of the updated signal's spectral content and waveform surface. This aids the process of modelling target sounds and helps understand the audible impact of changes you make.
Cycle supports loading audio samples to see their spectral qualities and waveform surface. Importantly, this feature is only for sound design reference; there is no resynthesis (which limits flexibility). All demos of the instrument are hand-crafted presets.
For a more detailed, visual overview, see here.
* More accurately, they have unlimited states, but 2 or 3 dimensions (or degrees of freedom). By default this means 4 and 8 states respectively, like the corners of a square and cube, but the geometry can be subdivided to create more.
User Interface:
Sound Generation:
Editing Workflow:
Curve Design:
Effects:
Presets & Browser:
Installer:
This is a really great product. Its unfortunately that the developer had pressing issues and couldn't continue to work on it. Hopefully he will be back one day. What I like about this synth is that I can literally take any synth patch, and graph the 3D waveform elements and edit them in real time, while recording film ambient textures - this makes for a kind of interaction that isn't available in any other product that I know of. You can also generate a kind of IR file from any waveform, to apply within Cycle to any other waveform - Combine these 2 features and I don't think there will be anything else on this level for quite some time. But again, be forewarned that any issues or bugs will not likely be addressed - and I would send an email to Gavin prior to buying in case you expect refunds should your O/S not like the product. The standalone version is a great feature also.
Read ReviewThis looks fascinating so I immediately grabbed the Win64 demo. Unfortunately, it crashes Cubase 7.5 64-bit on my machine immediately as soon as I load it on an instrument track. After some fiddling, I was able to get the standalone working. To be fair, I use a Roland Quad Capture and it has been notorious from day one for requiring a restart constantly. Although I only spent a short time listening to some presets, I must say that I love the look of the GUI, and there are some interesting sounds on tap, with tremendous potential for creativity. I hope this instrument evolves, as it looks to be off to a good start.
i bought it recently and totally agree in saying it has a tremendeous potential for creativity, though i'm still a bit lost because the concept is truly innovative and needs some serious efforts for correct handling in a sound design purpose...luckily, no problens of stability on my macs (macmini and imac) so far...
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