PPG Infinite (by Wolfgang palm)

[chk071]

That GUI puts me off like the other PPG synths... he should really hire a PROFESSIONAL GUI designer one day...

[Cinebient]

That GUI puts me off like the other PPG synths... he should really hire a PROFESSIONAL GUI designer one day...

But didn´t he even done that here
However, still better than half of my desktop tools.
They still seems didn´t know that high resolution screens exists

[chk071]

That GUI puts me off like the other PPG synths... he should really hire a PROFESSIONAL GUI designer one day...

But didn´t he even done that here

I'm sure the person who does it did the best he/she can, but, that's still not a good GUI for me. Just like the other PPG synths. When the waveform display, and the piano ribbon takes up a bigger space than the actual synth controls, then you know that there is an issue. Not to talk about 4 tabs, which completely change the control, so every page looks vastly different to another. Well, i guess that's an issue owed to the mobile device development. Still, meh, this breaks so many conventions i consider as good style, that i hardly can call that "good".

[aMUSEd]

The piano ribbon needs to be large though, it's actually a good controller for the synth on touchscreen with poly aftertouch and the space it takes is well used - as is having XY controls. I like that he thinks as much about performance as sound design. A visual keyboard is less necessary on desktop perhaps (would be good if it supported MPE there)

[zerocrossing]

Either I don't get how this works or someone left something out of this description:

At the end of the 70s Wolfgang Palm developed wavetable synthesis. This was very successful and used by many synthesizer companies in the 80s and 90s. But this technology has its limitations. The main reason is that all sounds are harmonic. In nature this does not happen very often. Many sounds like a piano string have small offsets from the harmonic frequencies. This is even stronger in sounds like bells or percussion.

Infinite overcomes this limitation. The frequencies of the overtones created by Infinite can be totally freely defined. So the sounds it produces are totally free in the frequencies of their overtones. This means that each partial wave can have an arbitrary frequency. Moreover it is possible to move these overtones independently during the duration of a note.

Aside from the first sentence, it seems to be talking about additive synthesis not wavetable. Not having harmonic partials for additive makes sense to me, though it could be a real PITA to program. I suspect what actually happens is that it's a bit like Tritik's Moodal: the partials start off harmonic but you can apply curves to warp them away from pure harmonics. That might explain the resonator-like sound I've been hearing in the demos.

That's what I was thinking. I can achieve sounds like that in Mpowersynth.

[Shabdahbriah]

I think it sounds excellent... very intriguing range of timbres! For sure some new stuff there with noise.

Insta-buy for me if/when they do a Mac version.

Ditto PC version. I've many things to import into this.

[Cinebient]

Either I don't get how this works or someone left something out of this description:

At the end of the 70s Wolfgang Palm developed wavetable synthesis. This was very successful and used by many synthesizer companies in the 80s and 90s. But this technology has its limitations. The main reason is that all sounds are harmonic. In nature this does not happen very often. Many sounds like a piano string have small offsets from the harmonic frequencies. This is even stronger in sounds like bells or percussion.

Infinite overcomes this limitation. The frequencies of the overtones created by Infinite can be totally freely defined. So the sounds it produces are totally free in the frequencies of their overtones. This means that each partial wave can have an arbitrary frequency. Moreover it is possible to move these overtones independently during the duration of a note.

Aside from the first sentence, it seems to be talking about additive synthesis not wavetable. Not having harmonic partials for additive makes sense to me, though it could be a real PITA to program. I suspect what actually happens is that it's a bit like Tritik's Moodal: the partials start off harmonic but you can apply curves to warp them away from pure harmonics. That might explain the resonator-like sound I've been hearing in the demos.

That's what I was thinking. I can achieve sounds like that in Mpowersynth.

I would like to see how you do this in Mpowersynth.

Of course you can get "similar" sounds with other tools but i think infinite will be unique in many ways. It just annoys me that it's iOS only for now and i have to wait months and pay 10 times more maybe for the plug-in.
With all the nice iOS synths (especially waiting for Zeeon) i consider an iPad again as synth sound module (and midi controller).
Maybe iOS is the test OS?
At least i would hope for more features or better engine options for a more powerful environment so i could accept the much higher price.

[Cinebient]

Looks nice too here:

[Distorted Horizon]

I like the GUI on all of his products

But I'm a bit scared to buy any of his stuff.. He's old as heck, what if he takes he's flight to outer space to meet The Cute and Mighty Synthcat? What will happen to the support?

[chk071]

Well, he doesn't run the company all by himself, does he? Apart from that, i don't think that's something worth considering really. What if he gets 100 years old, and your favorite 30 year old developer who runs a one man company crashes his car into a tree tomorrow?

[dark water]

That video looks fantastic, literally playing with sounds as art.
If I had a hand-held device (with large enough screen, as opposed to this mobile phone) instead of a laptop/desktop PC then I'd be tempted to buy this new software just to play around with making sounds via the interactive screen. I have PPG Wave 3 and PPG Wavegenerator, both which I find easy to manipulate with mouse etc, but I think this new product only really comes into its own on a handheld device (yes, I could use my laptop and mouse with it, but I think that misses out on nearly all the fun of this design).

The ability to tinker with the minutiae of a sound would be very tempting and addictive with this software.
However, and here I think is the counter-argument against me using this product, I don't think it'd be something I used to create arrangements or whole tracks quickly with. Something instead to simply relax with and play around with in my downtime.

Still, it looks great and it looks fun. I believe this is Wolfgang inviting us to physically play around with sound as art.

[Cinebient]

Well, he doesn't run the company all by himself, does he? Apart from that, i don't think that's something worth considering really. What if he gets 100 years old, and your favorite 30 year old developer who runs a one man company crashes his car into a tree tomorrow?

Or will be bought by Apple.......

[chk071]

Yep.

[Cinebient]

That video looks fantastic, literally playing with sounds as art.
If I had a hand-held device (with large enough screen, as opposed to this mobile phone) instead of a laptop/desktop PC then I'd be tempted to buy this new software just to play around with making sounds via the interactive screen. I have PPG Wave 3 and PPG Wavegenerator, both which I find easy to manipulate with mouse etc, but I think this new product only really comes into its own on a handheld device (yes, I could use my laptop and mouse with it, but I think that misses out on nearly all the fun of this design).

The ability to tinker with the minutiae of a sound would be very tempting and addictive with this software.
However, and here I think is the counter-argument against me using this product, I don't think it'd be something I used to create arrangements or whole tracks quickly with. Something instead to simply relax with and play around with in my downtime.

Still, it looks great and it looks fun. I believe this is Wolfgang inviting us to physically play around with sound as art.

Yes. But an iPad 12.9" will be great for this for sure. But as great as multi-touch can be it often annoys the hell out of me, especially for fine editing with fat fingers which are not accurate and will hide the content you edit as well. The Apple pencil or indeed a mouse/trackpad is better in this case. But for live playing and changing multiple parameters on the fly a large multi-touch screen in great. I do wish apple would give me several mouse inputs on those giant trackpads.
F.e. the mod-matrix looks scary small in this app.
Best would be the iOS app as remote control for the plug-in.

[Michael L]

I'm a bit scared to buy any of his stuff.. He's old as heck

He's 8 years younger than Sir Paul who is playing 25 concerts later this year in 6 countries. I think you should wait 8 years to buy Wolfgang's synths because they will be even better then!