PLASMONIC - A new synth from Brian Clevinger

[machinesworking]

It's a physical modelling synth - neither 'digital' or 'analog' really (except in the sense of everything that is software being digital)

Personally I will never get the argument to only use the most analog sounding plug ins. Digital has been around since the late 70's, none of your hero's only used analog.

Yes some plug ins and sampling techniques are harsh sounding, no, analog is not automagically superior.

Granular synthesis, physical modeling, and sampling in general are all fantastic. None of those things are "analog".

[p1afff]

I dared studying the very regretted Ryuichi Sakamoto's Bibo No Aozora song (from Iñárritu's. Babel movie, Dad comes home scene).These are (hopefully right) the first measures, played on Plasmonic for the keys sound and the stringish one. Part is a mix between the soundtrack title but also includes notes played in a live version. To get some sound animation, I used again the LFO to MPE Slide and Velocity Ableton trick because I was not able to play it well enough live. TBC
Would you look for new Plasmonic banks, I can find the Decoherence and the EmptyRooms banks here https://trajectoirex.gumroad.com
Philippe for Trajectoire

[zvenx]

....

Personally I will never get ......
Granular synthesis, physical modeling, and sampling in general are all fantastic. None of those things are "analog".

And therein lies what it is.. Personally.
Same way for me personally I love the sound of warm, which I associate with analog which I grew up with... the only granular synth I like the sound of is Quanta 2, I think because the filters sound very 'analog/warm' to me.
But indeed Sampling is part of my arsenal used in my daily work, though I tend to prefer samples from very analogy sounding outboard gear (tube mics, ribbon mics, classic preamps etc).

Different Strokes for Different Folks.
rsp

[machinesworking]

And therein lies what it is.. Personally.
Same way for me personally I love the sound of warm, which I associate with analog which I grew up with... the only granular synth I like the sound of is Quanta 2, I think because the filters sound very 'analog/warm' to me.
But indeed Sampling is part of the repertoire used in my daily work, though you know I tend to prefer samples from very analogy sounding outboard gear (tube mics, ribbon mics, classic preamps etc).

Different Strokes for Different Folks.
rsp

I'm not going after you personally here, get that out of the way.
The problem isn't that you've made hard choices to limit your workflow, I applaud that, one of the issues with modern times is too many choices. It absolutely helps to know what you want when approaching songwriting. The problem is the awkwardness of this constant deluge of people lauding their choice as some sort of sound quality choice. It's not, it's a "time in history" choice, and a sound pallet choice, and if you're doing any sort of electronic music, it's not even an accurate representation of that time since sampling and digital aren't exactly new technologies.

Plus, the sheer number of analog emulations of the Minimoog, Prophet 5 etc. we're drowned in mediocre because somehow the idea of analog gets associated with warm, quality, and frankly our childhoods. Nothing, absolutely nothing about any of this has anything to do with Plasmonic or Brian's original synths. There isn't a shred of attempt to emulate analog gear here, and considering Brian made Absynth previously I'm curious as to why anyone would assume that in the slightest Plasmonic is about analog sounds?

Here's the gist, why are you doing this? You could take two seconds to look at who Brian is and what he's done to figure out it's not "for you". Brian explicitly said that Plasmonic was made to be a physical modeling synth that incorporates the techniques of physical modeling to make new sounds, not emulate old ones. In a world where there are literally dozens of physically modeled acoustic and electric pianos, strings etc. there's one person wanting us to explore sound without attempting to recreate some 70's vibe.

If we were talking about Arturia V Collection, Roland Cloud, Most U-He synths, Cherry Audio, SWAM etc. I would be right there with you, but we're talking about Plasmonic, which is a modern synth with MPE and modern sounds, not unlike Falcon, Pigments, Hive, Reaktor etc. etc. It's a bit like dating a dark haired woman then telling people you're more into blonds and that's why you dumped her.

[zvenx]

Ooh that isn't how I interpreted personal at all. I just meant your taste.

Firstly I have GAS, so I buy a lot of stuff, including Plasmonic, and end up not using many of them. But have them just in case a particular project comes along that they would be perfect in.

Secondly to Physical modeling, Expressive E has a product called Imagine, not sure if you are familiar with it, it is primarily (but may not be solely) based on physical modeling. To my ears it doesn't sound as cold and digital as plasmonic to me, therefore to me it sounds much better than Plasmonic, it is just sadly buggy and a cpu hog so I never use it either, but primarily for those reasons.
rsp

[p1afff]

« Secondly to Physical modeling, Expressive E has a product called Imagine,« . They share the same AAS engine though

[martiu]

can someone explain to me the physical modeling thing, is it just a noise burst to specially tuned filters?

[machinesworking]

can someone explain to me the physical modeling thing, is it just a noise burst to specially tuned filters?

You’re the Reaktor genius but yeah, From what I know physical modeling synths all have some sort of noise section for strike or breath, and sophisticated delay/reverb setups for things like modeling the body of various instruments. Plasmonic has multiple resonator and feedback parts etc.

[martiu]

can someone explain to me the physical modeling thing, is it just a noise burst to specially tuned filters?

You’re the Reaktor genius

haha, i only connect stuff , people who code and build blocks from the ground up are the big brains

[zvenx]

« Secondly to Physical modeling, Expressive E has a product called Imagine,« . They share the same AAS engine though

Is that a bad thing?
rsp

[p1afff]

« Secondly to Physical modeling, Expressive E has a product called Imagine,« . They share the same AAS engine though

Is that a bad thing?
rsp

Not at all. I got confused. But I did not like the fact that Expressive released Noisy not so long ago, already with AAS engine, then release a very similar product Imagine again with AAS, without any update to Noisy. Noisy is even not ARM64 compatible at this time

[zvenx]

Are you sure Noisy has an AAS engine? I believe they had announced when Imagine was released it was a joint venture with AAS, but I don't recall ever seeing that with Noisy and looking at their GUI's Imagine has an AAS logo on it but Noisy doesn't.

Screen Shot 2023-08-05 at 6.41.12 AM.jpg

But yeah, don't start me on their support with regards to updates etc .


Anyway back to Plasmonic.
rsp

[p1afff]

I’m 99% sure

[zvenx]

Got ya .
Sounds like you have inside info which I don't.
rsp

[p1afff]

No, it’s just something I remember, quite sure, but yeah, after looking, I can’t find it yet..But Noisy has almost disappeared already May be I’m wrong so…