Sugar Bytes - Factory

[BoogerSnot]

no, i never got musical results using the transformer with samples, just drones and noise

Yeah, the other sound I can get is a rhythmic grimey bass type sound by slapping on a square LFO to the position knob. Seems like the best way to modulate the position knob is with steps, as opposed to continuous movement which turns it into a garbled grindy mess, with the sequencer providing the best option for that purpose.

[BoogerSnot]

no, i never got musical results using the transformer with samples, just drones and noise

Yeah, the other sound I can get is a rhythmic grimey bass type sound by slapping on a square LFO to the position knob. Seems like the best way to modulate the position knob is with steps, as opposed to continuous movement which turns it into a garbled grindy mess, with the sequencer providing the best option for that purpose.

Getting some nice Transformer results with samples that include multiple monophonic sounds, then modulate the position knob with a sequencer, and have the sequencer run with the host (so that it doesn’t stop on note release, which is one of the downsides of the sequencer in my opinion ). Then on top of all that add some effects and modulation, which is sort of Factory’s bread and butter….

End result is still sort of drone/bass/noise, but with the multiple sounds within the imported sample it gives much more variation and interest.

edit: Forgot to mention, sounds work better if they are monophonic, as stated in the Cyclop manual (Cyclop also uses the Transformer).

[Bavanity]

I may be a bit biased, as Sugar Bytes are my favourite overall plugin developer. I have been a customer for a decade or so and every single email has been answered on the same day and always sorting the issue at hand out, so I have a lot of love for them due to their attitude and of course amazing products. I ended up investing in the Sugar bundle and have zero regrets. The only thing I am truly bummed about is Artillery being discontinued, but that's another story.

Factory is a great product and a very powerful synth. It can sound quite beautiful but also very harsh and digital if that's what is required of it. It's a bit of a complex beast for me to program and although I've had it for ages, most of the time I end up tweaking a preset to fit into a song. That's my only bug bear about it. As lovely as the interface is, I find it a tricky one to tame. It even looks so neat and tidy and perfectly laid out, but under the hood there's a lot going on and I grapple with making it all come together for my own fresh sound. I dunno, does anyone else feel like this? I spent quite a bit of time on it and it's become a fancy preset player for me. I come from an analog hardware background and that probably has a lot to do with it.

Still, love the synth and use it fairly regularly.

[BoogerSnot]

...It's a bit of a complex beast for me to program and although I've had it for ages, most of the time I end up tweaking a preset to fit into a song. That's my only bug bear about it. As lovely as the interface is, I find it a tricky one to tame....

When you break it down I don't think it's especially complicated: 2 main oscillator engines (plus sub and noise) which you can route to either a filter or distortion, then the effects chain with 3 effects, and of course the modulation system.

I find a good way to go about it is to set up the 2 main oscillators first, then the effects, then find a few things you might want to modulate by testing out how they sound first when you move them and then choosing a modulator. That's a fairly standard approach i guess, but it certainly applies here too.

There's obviously quite a bit of stuff to distract from that approach, with the mod matrix, etc. But you can get by without all that, and perhaps maybe even have it work a little better that way.

Another good approach I find to work well is to modulate one or both of the oscillator volume levels, to have one or both of the sounds fade in and out.

[Bavanity]

...It's a bit of a complex beast for me to program and although I've had it for ages, most of the time I end up tweaking a preset to fit into a song. That's my only bug bear about it. As lovely as the interface is, I find it a tricky one to tame....

When you break it down I don't think it's especially complicated: 2 main oscillator engines (plus sub and noise) which you can route to either a filter or distortion, then the effects chain with 3 effects, and of course the modulation system.

I find a good way to go about it is to set up the 2 main oscillators first, then the effects, then find a few things you might want to modulate by testing out how they sound first when you move them and then choosing a modulator. That's a fairly standard approach i guess, but it certainly applies here too.

There's obviously quite a bit of stuff to distract from that approach, with the mod matrix, etc. But you can get by without all that, and perhaps maybe even have it work a little better that way.

Another good approach I find to work well is to modulate one or both of the oscillator volume levels, to have one or both of the sounds fade in and out.

Hi Booger, cheers, I articulated what I wanted to say completely incorrectly, and am thinking how to explain it and I keep coming up blank. You'd have to be next to me to show you what I mean. It's not the complexity per se, it's not the GUI (which is perfect), it's that the "flow" of how all the parts interchange doesn't quite click with my brain. I love it, don't get me wrong, I just don't quite GEL with it from a programming perspective. I hope that makes more sense.