New synth: Aparillo by Sugar Bytes

[Julien Unison]

Do you think it's going to be on sale during christmas period ?

[elassi]

Do you think it's going to be on sale during christmas period ?

Unlikely, imho. AFAIR Factory has been excluded from sales when it was brand new.

[spektralisk]

I don't think so. They've just had their BF sale and I think they deliberately waited to release this afterwards at full price. I think we'll have to wait till spring for the next sale or hunt for used license. Hopefully I'm wrong

[egbert101]

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[Julien Unison]

[himalaya]

I like that Sugarbytes innovates a lot if the GUI department and not just in the visual aspect but implementing stuff that departs from the standard conventions and makes for a differen experience.

What you call innovation, I call weird and confusing. I like plugins that use familiar UI conventions so I immediately understand them. This thing looks like it was designed by aliens.

It would be weird and confusing if it indeed departed from the norm by offering only some inscrutable parameters, with a diffucult to use user interface. But that's not the case.

The main synth page, should be very familiar, at least to any one who has used FM synths. There are only 8 faders, some of which are standard fare for an FM synth: ratio, FM (amount), Operator balance, level...standard stuff. The only new bits are 'Shift', 'Jitter', 'Form'...but it only takes a second to know what they do, simply move the fader! It's all very simple, easy to follow stuff.
However, what is very cool is the range of timbres possible with just these 8 faders. It's child's play to obtain a huge range of sounds in no time.

The new graphic interaction in the Orbit page is also easy to use - at least for mangling existing presets that use this page - simply wiggle the red ball, or any of the icons to get drastic or subtle changes to the sound. Again, easy stuff.

What could be difficult ( but yet again isn't) would be how to assign stuff to those graphic elements in the Orbit page, however, all it takes is a right click to assign parameters. At least as far as I can see in my initial overview.

The only bits that need some understanding, maybe by having a glance at the manual, are the graphics just above the keyboard. The grey icons. I think this would be my only criticism so far, in that the GUI does not help to identify what all the icons here do. These seem to be modulation destinations and by clicking on one, it is possible to assign a mod source. But assign to what? Maybe this is one area where a tooltip or something in the mod source pop up window would help.

I also have to say how much I like the graphic design and the attention to detail. On a practical level, the colours are spot on, crisp, with colour used to separate various segments ( each envelope has it's own colour for the fader levels, but the colours are well matched, same with the faders on the 'Synth' page).

All in all, this is one of the most fun FM synths I've ever seen. It's a pleasure to use and in many examples, unique sounding.

[elassi]

What could be difficult ( but yet again isn't) would be how to assign stuff to those graphic elements in the Orbit page, however, all it takes is a right click to assign parameters. At least as far as I can see in my initial overview.

The objects in the Orbiter are fixed. You can't assign them freely (though a couple of them allow to set various targets in that context, e.g. the "OP-I & OP-II Ratio". It's indicated by a small triangle to the right.)

I think this would be my only criticism so far, in that the GUI does not help to identify what all the icons here do. These seem to be modulation destinations and by clicking on one, it is possible to assign a mod source. But assign to what?

They belong to the control/feature in the column above of each icon. So there's actually no need to "learn" the meaning of them. The only one's that are not following this rule are the LFOs but, ok, they're labelled with their name.

edit: addition

[elassi]

[fun, erm, fanboy] The Orbiter is a 'Macro Controller' on steroids. Simply brilliant. Just imagine how much time and fiddling it'd cost you to set up those connections with the usual method... let's say in a Ableton Live rack. And once you did this, it'd take the same amount of time to change the macro's influence and relations in case you want to try something else. With Aparillo, it just needs a bit of dragging icons around. Wow. [/fanboy]

[himalaya]

They belong to the control/feature in the column above of each icon. So there's actually no need to "learn" the meaning of them. The only one's that are not following this rule are the LFOs but, ok, they're labelled with their

Ah, I see, makes sense. Thank you for the clarification.

I wrongly assumed that these are additional parameters, not connected to the faders (not the LFOs, though).
Maybe there ought to be some graphic element which ties the fader and the grey icon together to be more obvious? I think the GUI does not help to identify this, since the faders are divided from the top and bottom panes by this light grey line. So this line separates the faders from the top options (Algo, Clock, etc..) where the faders and the top button are not connected as such, and one may conclude that the same line, as used at the bottom, also separates the faders from those grey icons at the bottom, which is not the case, as these are indeed connected. I think something is missing here in order to tie the grey icons and the faders. It's a fine point, since once you know what these do (RTFM! - note to self ), you know. But The GUI is so lovely and well thought out, that it's a shame tthis has not bee better designed. No biggie though.

[himalaya]

What could be difficult ( but yet again isn't) would be how to assign stuff to those graphic elements in the Orbit page, however, all it takes is a right click to assign parameters. At least as far as I can see in my initial overview.

The objects in the Orbiter are fixed. You can't assign them freely (though a couple of them allow to set various targets in that context, e.g. the "OP-I & OP-II Ratio". It's indicated by a small triangle to the right.)

What I meant is that, it's easy to assign parameter ranges to these icons/objects (by right click). Each one has up to 4 parameters that can edited.

[elassi]

Maybe there ought to be some graphic element which ties the fader and the grey icon together to be more obvious?

Honestly, first I've been confused too.

But I watched Tom Cosm's overview vid and then it was clear.

That said, you are right with the visual separation.

[himalaya]

This is synth is just unique. In places it sounds like Physical Modelling!

audio!!

I think I know what gives this synth a tint of physical modelling...it's one of the effects, the Spacialiser, which according to the manual can "work as a delay, reverb or tuned comb filter".

[BRoySound]

This is synth is just unique. In places it sounds like Physical Modelling!

audio!!

I think I know what gives this synth a tint of physical modelling...it's one of the effects, the Spacialiser, which according to the manual can "work as a delay, reverb or tuned comb filter".

Spacialiser Yes.....but the Real Magic happens in the Brain Algorithm, the 3 X 3 Algos...
Algo 1 Algo 2 Algo 3
Algo 1 Q Algo 2 Q Algo 3 Q
Algo 1 H Algo 2 H Algo 3 H

All these Algos have a lot of Secret Routing Techniques Inside, which is the Main Reason for all the Epic, Organic, Atonal and all kinds that is beyond a Regular FM Synthesis.....

[lnikj]

I will definitely be adding this in the next sale. Factory was probably the most interesting synth I bought in the last year. This is just as fascinating.

[wagtunes]

Just purchased. Thing is out of a sci fi movie.