Dawesome Kontrast. Wavetable synth. Coming Autumn 2025.

[fidox]

Just purchased plugin. So far I love it.

About purchase tips recommendations : (for EU)
I purchased it at Audiodeluxe site.
Kontrast Plugin + 10% discount coupon + free plugin = 80$, that's approx. 68eur

[swilow11]

Still trialling it but really getting my head around it now. I am still finding that changing out wavetables in presets doesn't always make a big difference, but what I am finding interesting is how I'm often not actually really thinking of using the filter. This is a very different workflow to other wavetable synths which sort of draw you inexorably into the filter section.

Some really nice FX too, and the modal filter is fun especially when dropping in a rendered wavetable from Kontrast.

[Caine123]

Still trialling it but really getting my head around it now. I am still finding that changing out wavetables in presets doesn't always make a big difference, but what I am finding interesting is how I'm often not actually really thinking of using the filter. This is a very different workflow to other wavetable synths which sort of draw you inexorably into the filter section.

Some really nice FX too, and the modal filter is fun especially when dropping in a rendered wavetable from Kontrast.

yes i also need to dive in to it more cause i took some presets, exchanged the wavetable and the sound was mostly the same, pretty strange. i only drag and dropped a new file to the wavetable, i might do a video to show.

[PetVor]

[...] exchanged the wavetable and the sound was mostly the same, pretty strange [...]

There are presets that ...
* ... use the wavetable only to create harsh tones that are then heavily filtered
* ... create sound by using filters with high resonance
* ... do a lot of sound shaping in the FX section
* ... use the wavetable only as de-luxe noise gen to feed the modal filter
* ... mainly rely on excessive motion in the scanline shape
Or a combination of all these.
In all these cases the original wavetable indeed has little influence, obviously.

[PietW.]

No matter what you do, whether you import an image or a sample, it all sounds the same. Even if you load the patches and then import something, nothing new comes out. There was a lot of advertising for it, but the plugin doesn't make sense to me as it is.

[foosnark]

No matter what you do, whether you import an image or a sample, it all sounds the same. Even if you load the patches and then import something, nothing new comes out.

That's what I kind of thought in my first few minutes of using it. But after more exploration: no, not really. It's more that you have to learn how to work with it to get different timbres.

As in all synthesis, the exact contents of the waveform matter less than how spiky/abrupt the changes are. This is *especially* true with more complex shapes. But very often a tiny shift in the positioning of the path can radically alter the sound, because you're crossing some new threshold or clipping against the side etc. Very often, the shape of the path is much more important than the image (unless you use a radically different image in terms of the patterns of light/dark... that one with a few bright dots doesn't behave very much like the rest for instance.) Sometimes the oscillator options (vibe, fat, 8-bit etc.) can make a huge difference in timbre. Sometimes most of the character is coming from the filter section rather than the specifics of what the oscillator's doing.

I really don't use presets, so I don't know what they're like. But also remember there's a second, more convnentional oscillator and if its mix is strong enough, the wavetable is going to have less (or no) influence anyway. It's perfectly valid to just use a regular sawtooth and play with that filter section.

[foosnark]

One thing to add is, it can be very instructive to just play with wavetables and scanning, no vibe settings or filter or FX etc., and watch the results on an oscilloscope to see the resulting waveforms.

And think especially about the endpoints of the line (if it's not a closed circle). If one end is on a bright pixel and the other end is on a dark pixel, you're going to have a sawtooth-like discontinuity at each cycle (if you don't turn on that "M" switch which smoothes it out, which has its own consequences), and that's going to be one of the most noticeable characteristics of the timbre.

(Crossing over at the top/bottom can also have a similar effect if it results in a sharp jump in brightness.)

[Dr.Gunjah]

Like Peter already said I think it depends a lot on the preset design. The first thing I did after loading it up was to browse through presets, then change the wavetable for that preset and listen how the sound changes. On some presets you hear basically no difference while others change drastically. Sometimes you also have to move the position around to hear a difference.
I mean a pluck probably won't transform into a pad or something but if you're looking for a pluck and a certain preset is 80 % there, cycling through wavetables can give you different flavors of that pluck that may fit the track better

[p1afff]

No matter what you do, whether you import an image or a sample, it all sounds the same. Even if you load the patches and then import something, nothing new comes out. There was a lot of advertising for it, but the plugin doesn't make sense to me as it is.

mmm, if you don't have much experience with Kontrast yet, changing wavetables in existing presets might not be the most obvious way. It can work but for example if you load a wavetable full of high harmonics in a preset in which Filter is set to a low value, you won't probably hear them. Or other example, if you load a preset using Modal filter in full mix, you won't hear the wave(able. etc
You'd better start from Init preset and manually scan the wavetable by dragging the scanline in the horizontal direction (you can even change Size and drag vertically, or both). You can also activate the Path switch to automatically have a basic animation of the scanline, which should help you hear the wavetable more efficiently. Later, you will use modulator to animate the wavetable in a more personal way, if desired
I can garantee you will hear differences
And if "everything sounds the same", how did people create all these different presets ?

[PetVor]

No matter what you do, whether you import an image or a sample, it all sounds the same. [...]

Hmm ... is it clear to you that when you click INIT, choose any wavetable and then just scan from left to right with the X - this gives you plain traditional wavetable synthesis - so you will hear the actual wavetable

[Sound Author]

Very important: This is a NEW type of wavetable synthesis. Even pro sound designers are still learning and discovering new ways to use it. Non-local, non-linear wavetable scanning, as far as I know, hasn't been done before. So, we're still very much in the "Wild Wild West". There are things you can do along both X and Y coordinates that never even occurred to me to try. Image noise becomes audible noise. Simple waveforms become impossibly complex, or the opposite happens, and impossibly complex sounds suddenly become very simple in different scanning scenarios. So, experiment, explore, and most importantly...

"Open your mind, Quaid." -- Kuato

[aMUSEd]

No matter what you do, whether you import an image or a sample, it all sounds the same. Even if you load the patches and then import something, nothing new comes out. There was a lot of advertising for it, but the plugin doesn't make sense to me as it is.

mmm, if you don't have much experience with Kontrast yet, changing wavetables in existing presets might not be the most obvious way. It can work but for example if you load a wavetable full of high harmonics in a preset in which Filter is set to a low value, you won't probably hear them. Or other example, if you load a preset using Modal filter in full mix, you won't hear the wave(able. etc
You'd better start from Init preset and manually scan the wavetable by dragging the scanline in the horizontal direction (you can even change Size and drag vertically, or both). You can also activate the Path switch to automatically have a basic animation of the scanline, which should help you hear the wavetable more efficiently. Later, you will use modulator to animate the wavetable in a more personal way, if desired
I can garantee you will hear differences
And if "everything sounds the same", how did people create all these different presets ?

Instead of just changing wavetables play around with the Scan section controls - unlike other wavetables you can change the shape and size of the 'play' head as well as its position in 3 axes, and combined with the circular, phase, rose, noise and form controls you can get huge variations in the sound.

[Sound Author]

I never thought of the Size parameter as a 3rd axis, but now that I think of it, yes, it is very much a 3rd dimension.

[kraster]

One wavetable can yield a lot more variety with the controls in contrast.

I also feel that certain synthesis types if they are used in a particular way can sound quite samey due to the process rather than the raw materials of the oscillators.

A very obvious example is that in subtractive synthesis if you have a low pass filter low enough then the different wave forms you put through it become more alike. Granular can often sound pretty samey when you have the same processing applied.

I find that things like size and y position in a wavetable in Kontrast can really alter the sound on their own when coupled with the classic X axis scanning.

If you go full bore on the circles and petals you are trending more towards inharmonicity and noise. (which is fine if you need it) but the source will have less of an impact over the processing.

A big part of the use of images in Kontrast for me is having something like a starfield or white dots with noise to act as an exciter for the modal filter.

I also use samples quite a bit as a starting point. You get something approximating the timbral character of the sample. (shortish sounds like plucked instruments or piano/guitar notes can be really interesting). Speech is also a great source of weirdness.

What I like about Kontrast (maybe over other Dawesome synths) is that it's quite easy to go conventional or slightly outside conventional or go way out there with very little effort.

[kraster]

Keith Crosley, who knows more than a thing or two about wavetables puts Kontrast through its paces.

Lots of great insight in here.

His wavetables work great in Kontrast: