Plugins with a plastic texture?

[Transfigurationsofbeing]

I find the typical phase smeared psytrance bass to sound more rubbery than plastic which I guess goes to show how unhelpful such descriptions actually are.

You assume wrong. You got it right that it's for a psytrance bass; and I know what you're talking about and I also agree with your description. But I'm looking for the plastic sound. Alien Art have some track (can't remember the name) that sounds like that; I'm sure they achieved it with SplitEQ. However, I want a more subtle sound than that. I knew when I asked the question that I wouldn't make it easy to find this sound, but there certainly are; I mentioned some plugins before, add them. I hope you can hear what I'm saying.

[Transfigurationsofbeing]

There's a definite plasticcy-ness to the Tone2 synths and fx. And not in a bad way!

You could download the free BiFilter to try the sound. If any of the filter fx were mac I'd be straight on them!
https://www.tone2.com/bifilter2.html

And the AcustiX has a Phase-Enhance thing which sounds a lot like the plasticcy-ness of his synths and filter.
Maybe demo that?
https://www.tone2.com/akustix.html

Thank you, I will try the demo. That's a good point that I hadn't thought of. Many older plugins have a –kind of– plastic sound; it has become audible like that through the difference with the sound of recent times. I'll look further back than in the current stuff.

[TIMT]

There's a definite plasticcy-ness to the Tone2 synths and fx. And not in a bad way!

You could download the free BiFilter to try the sound. If any of the filter fx were mac I'd be straight on them!
https://www.tone2.com/bifilter2.html

And the AcustiX has a Phase-Enhance thing which sounds a lot like the plasticcy-ness of his synths and filter.
Maybe demo that?
https://www.tone2.com/akustix.html

Only 2 of the sound engines have that sound "scientific" and "psychoacoustic"i think its called. On most of them you can switch this off now, so it's not a hallmark of Tone2 outside of things like Gladiator(it's baked in) and maybe Rayblaster. Electra and all the rest though it is optional

As for the OP it seems like you might be talking about some kind of artefacts of FFT based on the fact you attribute the sound to Spiff which is basically the inverse of what Soothe does over a shorter time window

[swilow11]

I find the typical phase smeared psytrance bass to sound more rubbery than plastic which I guess goes to show how unhelpful such descriptions actually are.

You assume wrong. You got it right that it's for a psytrance bass; and I know what you're talking about and I also agree with your description. But I'm looking for the plastic sound. Alien Art have some track (can't remember the name) that sounds like that; I'm sure they achieved it with SplitEQ. However, I want a more subtle sound than that. I knew when I asked the question that I wouldn't make it easy to find this sound, but there certainly are; I mentioned some plugins before, add them. I hope you can hear what I'm saying.

My point above that you quoted was the sort of analogy you're drawing between sound and texture isn't universally shared. Just post a link to a track with the sound you're after.

[zerocrossing]

I've never really understood what people mean when they say a plugin sounds "plastic," but I can tell you ones that I remember being called that by people on KVR. U-he's ACE, NI's Massive. (not X) and NI's Absynth, come to mind. I also remember when the Casio CZ line came out, people called it "plasticy," while the DX line was "glassy." I've heard some analog synths called "wooly," and I kind of get that. I think the Melbourne Instruments Nina is a "wooly," sounding synth.

[zerocrossing]

There's a definite plasticcy-ness to the Tone2 synths and fx. And not in a bad way!

You could download the free BiFilter to try the sound. If any of the filter fx were mac I'd be straight on them!
https://www.tone2.com/bifilter2.html

And the AcustiX has a Phase-Enhance thing which sounds a lot like the plasticcy-ness of his synths and filter.
Maybe demo that?
https://www.tone2.com/akustix.html

Thank you, I will try the demo. That's a good point that I hadn't thought of. Many older plugins have a –kind of– plastic sound; it has become audible like that through the difference with the sound of recent times. I'll look further back than in the current stuff.

Maybe you're thinking of older synths with filters and amps that didn't model the kind of sound that over driving them makes. That bit of distortion you get in an analog synthesizer gives some "grit" to the sound, and I can see how without it, some would call it glassy or plasticy. Dune has all the legacy filters still built in, so I might try that, especially with one of the really steep filter models and no drive applied.

[Tone2 Synthesizers]

You can try Nemesis. It's the most 'plastic' sounding Tone2 synth. It can do a vast range of digital synthesis types including phase distortion.
https://www.tone2.com/nemesis.html
Free demo download: https://www.tone2.com/download.html

[kraster]

Some forms of multiband processing give you that kind of sound.

Kind of suppressed and artificial.

Hyperpop like Sophie has a very sheeny sound like there’s a veneer over it. Extreme transient processing, multiband distortion, recursive re sampling.

Sophie’s has often had the adjective “plastic” used to describe her music. Now her music is deliberately on the extreme end but those techniques could get you to where you want to be.

[Gamma-UT]

Alien Art have some track (can't remember the name) that sounds like that; I'm sure they achieved it with SplitEQ. However, I want a more subtle sound than that.

steamedplastic.jpg

[BackInCheck]

When I tried them, I found the HY-Plugins quite "plasticly" sounding. Not necessarily in a negative way, they were just not making any attempt to sound like analog hardware.

Same is true for most Kilohearts "snapins", which sound like bread and butter effects without analog coloration.

And basically any older fx plugins from 10+ years ago, especially Synthmaker / Synthedit stuff

[vurt]

I've never really understood what people mean when they say a plugin sounds "plastic," but I can tell you ones that I remember being called that by people on KVR. U-he's ACE, NI's Massive. (not X) and NI's Absynth, come to mind. I also remember when the Casio CZ line came out, people called it "plasticy," while the DX line was "glassy." I've heard some analog synths called "wooly," and I kind of get that. I think the Melbourne Instruments Nina is a "wooly," sounding synth.

id say absynth is more of a liquid than plastic, sort of, you know when you spill gloss paint, that just as its forming a film around it, still liquid but just turning.
the casio was plastic, and id definitely say wooly for the nina, id even be specific with angora

[zerocrossing]

I've never really understood what people mean when they say a plugin sounds "plastic," but I can tell you ones that I remember being called that by people on KVR. U-he's ACE, NI's Massive. (not X) and NI's Absynth, come to mind. I also remember when the Casio CZ line came out, people called it "plasticy," while the DX line was "glassy." I've heard some analog synths called "wooly," and I kind of get that. I think the Melbourne Instruments Nina is a "wooly," sounding synth.

id say absynth is more of a liquid than plastic, sort of, you know when you spill gloss paint, that just as its forming a film around it, still liquid but just turning.
the casio was plastic, and id definitely say wooly for the nina, id even be specific with angora

Acrylic paint is plastic... so...

[vurt]

I've never really understood what people mean when they say a plugin sounds "plastic," but I can tell you ones that I remember being called that by people on KVR. U-he's ACE, NI's Massive. (not X) and NI's Absynth, come to mind. I also remember when the Casio CZ line came out, people called it "plasticy," while the DX line was "glassy." I've heard some analog synths called "wooly," and I kind of get that. I think the Melbourne Instruments Nina is a "wooly," sounding synth.

id say absynth is more of a liquid than plastic, sort of, you know when you spill gloss paint, that just as its forming a film around it, still liquid but just turning.
the casio was plastic, and id definitely say wooly for the nina, id even be specific with angora

Acrylic paint is plastic... so...

yeah, but in a liquid form is what i meant.
and i said gloss! (which may or may not be plastic, im not the paint expert )

[zerocrossing]

I've never really understood what people mean when they say a plugin sounds "plastic," but I can tell you ones that I remember being called that by people on KVR. U-he's ACE, NI's Massive. (not X) and NI's Absynth, come to mind. I also remember when the Casio CZ line came out, people called it "plasticy," while the DX line was "glassy." I've heard some analog synths called "wooly," and I kind of get that. I think the Melbourne Instruments Nina is a "wooly," sounding synth.

id say absynth is more of a liquid than plastic, sort of, you know when you spill gloss paint, that just as its forming a film around it, still liquid but just turning.
the casio was plastic, and id definitely say wooly for the nina, id even be specific with angora

Acrylic paint is plastic... so...

yeah, but in a liquid form is what i meant.
and i said gloss! (which may or may not be plastic, im not the paint expert )

The problem we're having is that "plastic" is a pretty wide range of materials. Tupperware is plastic, but so is the chassis of my Ambika, and they're very different materials. So what is the OP asking? We don't know. What is "gloss" when it comes to a sound? I mean, I think of it in terms of material emulation in a render engine and we call it specular highlight, and something very glossy will have hot and defined highlights, where a more matte finish will have more of a gradient as the light is dispersed in an uneven manner. None of that says "bass" sound, but maybe we can infer that they're talking about a very uniform and defined type of sound. Like the difference between a sawtooth from an old analog synth that might be distorting the filter or amp, or both, and an additive oscillator doing a sawtooth by doing clearly defined partials and no noise. The envelope probably has a lot to do with it too. A very mathematically precise ADSR might give a sound a "plastic" vibe, where something more sloppy, with a nonlinear curve, is going to sound less plastic.

Of course, I'm really just guessing.

[tumface]

Don't worry everyone, I found exactly what OP is looking for in the Icarus 3 factory library

FL64_ZBqp2fQdzB.png