Chromaphone. Any competitors?

[David]

I've just revisited Chromophone 2, and feel I was quite wrong to say it's "limited" as a sound design tool, without a bit more opinionating, fwiw:

First, my overall opinion of the AAS stuff comes mostly from noticing that I rarely return to them as often as to my many other modeling tools, for whatever reasons, which does seem to be the functional bottom line after all.

On revisiting, I can see that there are certainly a ton of widely varied sounds available, plenty of knobs, and that plenty of excellent sound designers have done cool things with it. But for my uses, I find that comparatively, there's very little modulation variety available, so the sounds very often seem static and quickly wearying, no matter how varied. Adding a handful of external modulators to slightly or slowly jiggle timbre-related parameters can add hugely to my sense that the device isn't just a fixed-tone music box not played by a human. That's still sounding too harsh a critique to me, but it's not far off as a description of my reactions. Obviously, YMMV!

Also I guess that my favorite sort of modeling results are much more likely to come from sampled impulses than from timbre controls in the first place, which AFAIK, none of the AAS tool offer.

[Ploki]

I've just revisited Chromophone 2, and feel I was quite wrong to say it's "limited" as a sound design tool, without a bit more opinionating, fwiw:

First, my overall opinion of the AAS stuff comes mostly from noticing that I rarely return to them as often as to my many other modeling tools, for whatever reasons, which does seem to be the functional bottom line after all.

On revisiting, I can see that there are certainly a ton of widely varied sounds available, plenty of knobs, and that plenty of excellent sound designers have done cool things with it. But for my uses, I find that comparatively, there's very little modulation variety available, so the sounds very often seem static and quickly wearying, no matter how varied. Adding a handful of external modulators to slightly or slowly jiggle timbre-related parameters can add hugely to my sense that the device isn't just a fixed-tone music box not played by a human. That's still sounding too harsh a critique to me, but it's not far off as a description of my reactions. Obviously, YMMV!

Also I guess that my favorite sort of modeling results are much more likely to come from sampled impulses than from timbre controls in the first place, which AFAIK, none of the AAS tool offer.

decent and balanced review. I'm a sucker for PM synths as well
I own it, and like it, and it finds its way to my tracks from time to time, two preset packs I really like - Synth City and Turmoil District.
But i don't use it all that much compared to my other synths, or Sculpture for that matter.

[David]

I've just revisited Chromophone 2, and feel I was quite wrong to say it's "limited" as a sound design tool, without a bit more opinionating, fwiw:

First, my overall opinion of the AAS stuff comes mostly from noticing that I rarely return to them as often as to my many other modeling tools, for whatever reasons, which does seem to be the functional bottom line after all.

On revisiting, I can see that there are certainly a ton of widely varied sounds available, plenty of knobs, and that plenty of excellent sound designers have done cool things with it. But for my uses, I find that comparatively, there's very little modulation variety available, so the sounds very often seem static and quickly wearying, no matter how varied. Adding a handful of external modulators to slightly or slowly jiggle timbre-related parameters can add hugely to my sense that the device isn't just a fixed-tone music box not played by a human. That's still sounding too harsh a critique to me, but it's not far off as a description of my reactions. Obviously, YMMV!

Also I guess that my favorite sort of modeling results are much more likely to come from sampled impulses than from timbre controls in the first place, which AFAIK, none of the AAS tool offer.

decent and balanced review. I'm a sucker for PM synths as well
I own it, and like it, and it finds its way to my tracks from time to time, two preset packs I really like - Synth City and Turmoil District.
But i don't use it all that much compared to my other synths, or Sculpture for that matter.

I will admit to having just found a few Chromo2 sounds that I really am enjoying…and that I've been under-appreciating the mod options a bit, so, all in all, thanks for forcing me to revisit:)

[peterdh]

NI Prism is a modal resonator, which can be used either as an instrument or effect plugin. Has some additive-style controls for mode manipulation...

...plus Prism,...

...Otherwise Reaktor Prism is my next choice. This thing sounds really good, not expensive really and also usable as FX version.

Got Prism. Heard some nice tuned percussion presets. Although I know something about synthesis, this sort of synthesis is kind of new to me. Not getting the hang of it yet.

By the way, really appreciate your contributions to this topic. Thanks!

[peterdh]

Substantia http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2020/ ... k-preview/ . Just released. Just what I'm looking for...but Mac only, so not for me

[aMUSEd]

Substantia http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2020/ ... k-preview/ . Just released. Just what I'm looking for...but Mac only, so not for me

Looks great thanks

[VariKusBrainZ]

https://www.xhun-audio.com/site/xhun.ph ... resonheart

[aMUSEd]

I've just revisited Chromophone 2, and feel I was quite wrong to say it's "limited" as a sound design tool, without a bit more opinionating, fwiw:

First, my overall opinion of the AAS stuff comes mostly from noticing that I rarely return to them as often as to my many other modeling tools, for whatever reasons, which does seem to be the functional bottom line after all.

On revisiting, I can see that there are certainly a ton of widely varied sounds available, plenty of knobs, and that plenty of excellent sound designers have done cool things with it. But for my uses, I find that comparatively, there's very little modulation variety available, so the sounds very often seem static and quickly wearying, no matter how varied. Adding a handful of external modulators to slightly or slowly jiggle timbre-related parameters can add hugely to my sense that the device isn't just a fixed-tone music box not played by a human. That's still sounding too harsh a critique to me, but it's not far off as a description of my reactions. Obviously, YMMV!

Also I guess that my favorite sort of modeling results are much more likely to come from sampled impulses than from timbre controls in the first place, which AFAIK, none of the AAS tool offer.

decent and balanced review. I'm a sucker for PM synths as well
I own it, and like it, and it finds its way to my tracks from time to time, two preset packs I really like - Synth City and Turmoil District.
But i don't use it all that much compared to my other synths, or Sculpture for that matter.

I will admit to having just found a few Chromo2 sounds that I really am enjoying…and that I've been under-appreciating the mod options a bit, so, all in all, thanks for forcing me to revisit:)

There's a bunch of diverse sounds for free in my Chromatones bank if you want to try that https://www.dropbox.com/s/vp58ejxxdibac ... p.zip?dl=0

[VariKusBrainZ]

Of course Yamaha's old "virtual acoustic" synthesizers like VL-1 or VP-1 come to mind. Reduced versions of this technology were implemented in other synthesizers too, like EX5 etc. I own a VL-1m and it sounds fantastic, but is very hard to program. Chromaphone, which I use a lot, is a very good sounding plug in but not as deep. AAS String Studio is also very capable.

Yamaha's VL algos are also in their S-YXG100 series software for desktop

[Ploki]

Substantia http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2020/ ... k-preview/ . Just released. Just what I'm looking for...but Mac only, so not for me

seems it's a Max/MSP app (would recognise that meters anywhere). They're generally crossplatform unless he's using some externals that are macOS only, in which case you'd need to find alternatives for those and just find a windows machine to compile it on

[Cinebient]

Substantia http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2020/ ... k-preview/ . Just released. Just what I'm looking for...but Mac only, so not for me

Looks great thanks

+1
Edit: Workaround needed to use it inside a DAW
-1

[David]

Substantia http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2020/ ... k-preview/ . Just released. Just what I'm looking for...but Mac only, so not for me

Looks great thanks

+1
Edit: Workaround needed to use it inside a DAW
-1

Well, that's an instant buy for me, given the price and uniqueness, even given that it's not useable as a plugin, as is.

But I was a bit underwhelmed by the variety of sounds the dev was able to coax out of it in his video. Also surprised to see no wooden or leather or similar models, and very few non-metallic, stone, or crystal materials. I'd expected a really wide materials range given the very name of the device. Much the same list of materials is already present in his Gleetchlab device IIRC…which I admit to finding pretty much impenetrable. Though not as opaque as Berna!

I certainly hope Substantia responds to MIDI note input at least.

[jeez, sorry if I'm coming across as the grump in the crowd! I really do love all these PM devices, even my AAS ones:)]

[focusrite]

I'm looking forward to seeing how plasmonic will stack up against other physical modeling synths.

This

[Ploki]

I'm looking forward to seeing how plasmonic will stack up against other physical modeling synths.

I didn't know this one!
looks kinda cool. on the other hand, string videos on the indiegogo page sound so typically karplus-strong i'm not sure there's anything i can't already do with sculpture.
kinda cool, but also kinda underwhelming

[David]

…
There's a bunch of diverse sounds for free in my Chromatones bank if you want to try that https://www.dropbox.com/s/vp58ejxxdibac ... p.zip?dl=0

Thank you—looking forward to checking these out:)