Sampleson Akoustic Spectral Synthesizer

[HiEnergy]

Did anyone here yet try this out?
https://sampleson.com/akoustic-spectral ... sizer.html

Opinions?

[ztrauq]

After working with it for a short while, I think that the opinion is going to hinge on what you're looking to get out of it. There are seven acoustic instrument models listed in the presets: Bassoon, Flute, Marimba, Pianet, Rhodes, Steel Guitar, and Viola. The only ones I personally felt came close to capturing the relevant sounds were the Marimba and Pianet. Some of the percussion-type presets sound good as well, but a lot of the other standard presets to me sounded more like a synth or GM soundset approximating the instruments, and didn't measure up well to my physically-modeled AAS plugins. That being said, some of the "mutations" presets do hint at some of the more creative things this plugin can do.

However, if you set the included models aside, you are left with a very easy and intuitive to use additive synth (at least out of the ones I've tried so far), especially being able to use the graphical panel to adjust all the different parameters per partial and see everything at a glance. Plus, add in the "noise generators" at the bottom and you can get some pretty decent percussion sounds and sort of physical-model-sounding impacts when combined with the additive section.

So far, overall the plugin seems to sound best with fast-attack sounds like percussion, plucks, etc. and tends to sound more plastic/synthetic on more sustained sounds, at least in the included presets, although the sounds I've tried building have also been better as fast-attack. Admittedly, this is all from a fairly quick experimentation with it, and I'll probably try to see if I can so something more interesting with pad sounds as I work with it some more.

Two things I would suggest adding: the ability to "paint" values across the entire partial settings pane at once, rather than needing to click to adjust them one by one, and some modulation operators that could modulate some of the partial settings over time for more evolving sounds (which may make the longer sustains sound less static/synthetic).

[Gamma-UT]

I've got it, largely because of the piano-like sounds. I didn't go for the earlier model-specific instruments (like the Pianet) but fancied tweaking some e-pianos out of this one.

So far, the main positive is that it doesn't suffer from the glassiness you normally get from additive synths, possibly because you get to mess with the phase of the partials and get reasonable control over the envelopes. The flip side of that is that editing sounds is a long-winded process but inevitable. I'm completely with ztrauq on the need to paint in values. It's really tedious having to grab each slider before moving it. Maybe an edit switch to avoid accidentally painting settings when you've got a decent profile set up.

The sound quality is good overall - it's very playable if you like piano sounds, which you'd expect given the other instruments they've done.

The big problem is that the support for CC modulation is rudimentary at best. If you want to do anything bowed, you've really only got MIDI mapping to volume to play with. However, that does work well enough to be usable and I have got results I liked just from that. But it's limited. Without some more sophisticated modulation scheme it's going to be stuck making things that sound like they've been hit, to be honest. I think, ideally, you want some modifier layers that amplifie/attenuate partials by a programmed ratio and which responds to breath, modwheel, velocity or whatever. Without more sophisticated modulation, the mutation sounds are pretty limited.

I think it would also be helpful to have the ring modulation effect done so that it only affects certain partials, otherwise too little is not enough and then it crosses over into too much.

At the current into price, it's a reasonable deal if you like the sound of things being hit that sound vaguely physically modelled and bell-like e-pianos. It's probably not going to get far beyond that without some more control over the sound. Additive is a problem because of the sheer number of parameters but if they could do something that lets you draw in filters or transfer functions (and make it possible to adjust how much effect you get from them by MIDI CC or automation) I think it would make the synth a lot more useful generally.

[Spitfire31]

I just bought Akoustic on impulse, since I do appreciate Sampleson's electric pianos. A contributing reason was the promise of a full refund if I didn't like it, since there's no demo.

I haven't been digging deep in Akoustic yet, but after running through the presets and tweaking partials in a few of them, I have yet to find a sound that really excites me. While the partials may be derived from acoustic instruments, the resulting sounds don't really have much of an evocative acoustic character to my ears.

A major letdown is the lack of useful modulation targets, apart from overall volume – you can't even add a simple LFO vibrato to the woodwinds.

My gut feeling so far is more of an interesting technology demonstrator than a finished, inspiring and playable instrument. In order to compete in today's tough and crowded market, I think that Sampleson will have to develop their basic concept to something much more sophisticated, as Gamma-UT points out above.

I'll explore some more, but I may have to take Sampleson up on that promise…

/Joachim

EDIT: After some further exploration, I decided to return Akoustic and I'm happy to report that my refund was instantaneous, along with a friendly message. So, top marks for support from Sampleson!

PS Currently, Akoustic doesn't seem to play nice with Live 10 – two crashes when changing presets on my Mac OS 10.14.5 system…

[HiEnergy]

I just purchased Akoustic and hope it lives up to my expectations.
Will give it a spin in my studio tomorrow.
The piano presets in the YouTube demo sound promising indeed.

[v1o]

So it's not as realistic as their other e-Piano instruments?

[tim.benetonn]

So guys, any changes in plugin after more than a year? (thinking of buying it)