Brainworx acquiring PPG Synths!

[lotus2035]

So.....it's been nearly 3 years and...nothing. Does anyone else think they took a look at the code and said...yeah, no.....?

It's a shame. I love WaveMapper and WaveGenerator.

Goddammit I started reading this thread thinking it was current news.

[masterhiggins]

Sorry about that. I was hoping someone had some inside knowledge about it.

Shit. Completely forgot it was 2024. Nearly 4 years. Wtf?

[gaggle of hermits]

So.....it's been nearly 3 years and...nothing. Does anyone else think they took a look at the code and said...yeah, no.....?

probably not immediately but...

march '20: buys the code off Wolfgang
also...global pandemic

June '20: apple silicon transition announced

April '22: soundwide/Francisco partners acquisition

and if you look at the portfolio, all their attention goes on emulations of boutique analog mixing gear. the launches suggest they don't make much off things like thorn and they kept knocking unfiltered audio stuff out dirt cheap just weeks after launch. diversion 2 is MIA. so I doubt they see any money in the ppg stuff.

now, private equity is in charge and they don't sell ip to anyone unless they can find a sucker who will pay top dollar for it. they'd rather see it go down with the ship.

so I don't hold out much hope. which is a shame.

[Introspective]

Well put, Gaggle. I agree, sadly. RIP

[plexuss]

Highly unfortunate to lose the PPG products. But... that's software for you.

[Introspective]

Highly unfortunate to lose the PPG products. But... that's software for you.

<camera pans to the GS users at the other side of the room, scowling and shouting:>

WE WARNED YOU!!!

[masterhiggins]

With their history of mismanagement I’m surprised they didn’t buy fxpansion before roli.

This has me wondering who will be the next dev to be enticed by their siren song.

It really sucks when unique software gets euthanized because of shitty management. In addition to PPG I’m still bummed about tremor, etch, and bloom.

Angus, Wolfgang, Michael (Carnes)… I hope the money was worth them killing your work.

[yul]

What a big loss

[Echoes in the Attic]

I was really hoping these would become part of NI komplete by now like the other synths.

[zerocrossing]

I was really hoping these would become part of NI komplete by now like the other synths.

For whatever reason, I never found them particularly interesting. What about them makes them something special that can’t be had in other synthesizers?

[pdxindy]

I was really hoping these would become part of NI komplete by now like the other synths.

For whatever reason, I never found them particularly interesting. What about them makes them something special that can’t be had in other synthesizers?

Wavemapper and Phonem are both unique. There is nothing else like them.

[c0nsilience]

Very happy to have Wavemapper, WaveGenerator, and Infinite on macOS.

Does anyone have Linplug Spectral that they might like to part with?

[Introspective]

I was really hoping these would become part of NI komplete by now like the other synths.

For whatever reason, I never found them particularly interesting. What about them makes them something special that can’t be had in other synthesizers?

Well, the GUIs sucked, which made them easy to hate, but I did like the fact that it "modernized" the PPG sound in a satisfyingly crunchy and authentically digital way (unlike modern wavetable synths), and the way that you could "map" how the sound progressed through the table was also interesting, allllllllmost akin to the way Hydrasynth lets you pick waveforms to create your wavetable from. It was unique in that sense.

They needed a lot of work, though, which is why I am sad to see them go.

[zerocrossing]

I was really hoping these would become part of NI komplete by now like the other synths.

For whatever reason, I never found them particularly interesting. What about them makes them something special that can’t be had in other synthesizers?

Well, the GUIs sucked, which made them easy to hate, but I did like the fact that it "modernized" the PPG sound in a satisfyingly crunchy and authentically digital way (unlike modern wavetable synths), and the way that you could "map" how the sound progressed through the table was also interesting, allllllllmost akin to the way Hydrasynth lets you pick waveforms to create your wavetable from. It was unique in that sense.

They needed a lot of work, though, which is why I am sad to see them go.

Maybe it was the UIs that put me off... I can't really remember much about them, other than I passed on them without too much regret. I do feel like any time a plugin like these is abandoned it's a shame. If Brainworx doesn't really want to do anything with them, they should just open source them and move on.

[Korg Supporter]

I was really hoping these would become part of NI komplete by now like the other synths.

What about them makes them something special that can’t be had in other synthesizers?

The other guy was right about the modernized PPG sound. When I first had WaveGenerator on the iPad, I was disappointed that it didn't sound like a classic PPG in addition to horrible aliasing. Then I realized that it wasn't supposed to be an emulation but rather a modern continuation of the PPG sound (and sounds crunchier when you turn the filter off). Now for what made each one special!

WaveGenerator was extremely powerful for an iOS synth at the time. It had 4 LFOs and a whopping 13 envelopes! Most of the envelopes could be looped, and all of them had velocity and curve settings, something that every softsynth needs. WaveGenerator also had 2 noise modulators, and it had cool oscillator FM (that sounds crappy today but still interesting). The wavetable editor was also cool, as it let you draw waves, use additive drawbars, and import pictures for wavetable conversion. You could even set up points to change the order of waves! I recently tried importing WaveGenerator wavetables or sounds into Tone2 Icarus, and it sounded nothing like a modern PPG synth.

WaveMapper was a direct continuation of the WG engine but with adjustable filter drive, independent wavetable oscillators, and ring modulation (which was also added to the desktop version of WaveGenerator). Its gimmick was letting you modulate samples, play them back, and convert them into wavetables. It also let you use a preset map that would let you create new sounds by adding traits from other patches.

Phonem was the only synth I never understood. It was a cool European version of Vocaloid with an alias-free wavetable/sample-based oscillator and an extensive mdoulation matrix. That was it.

Infinite was the final synth by Wolfgang Palm. It had a main additive oscillator with up to 214 partials. You could resynthesize samples and wavetables, and the additive oscillator had a vector-like map where two spectra altered the main sound's partial frequencies while two spectra modulated the amplitude. You also had a suboscillator that really was a secondary oscillator, a detune effect, a bitcrusher, a digital filter with vowel features, a lpf, a noise generator with its own spectra, and a modulation matrix with 4 envelopes and 4 LFOs.