PLASMONIC - A new synth from Brian Clevinger

[Echoes in the Attic]

I keep forgetting that this isn't for sale yet and wondering why more people aren't talking about it. And then I remember.

Really great synth, I think everyone will love it. I'm not giving it the attention it deserves what with so much coming out lately (Recently upgrade to Komplete 13, then Equator 2, Vital, J-8...)

[zerocrossing]

I keep forgetting that this isn't for sale yet and wondering why more people aren't talking about it. And then I remember.

Really great synth, I think everyone will love it. I'm not giving it the attention it deserves what with so much coming out lately (Recently upgrade to Komplete 13, then Equator 2, Vital, J-8...)

It’s that for me, plus family stuff for here. (Today we found out my wife’s mom died, another horrible thing in 2020) but I also think it has a lot to do with the interface. The look... layout... it’s not intuitive and it could be. I’m maybe more sensitive than other people because I do UI work, but it seriously looks like first year community college graphic design work. Hard to read, needlessly cyber (and I like cyber). I’d honestly like to help get it up to a professional level but I’ve learned my lesson on offering unsolicited help. It’s like saying, “nice baby, I’m a plastic surgeon, so when you decide to do something about his face, look me up.”

[p1afff]

I keep forgetting that this isn't for sale yet and wondering why more people aren't talking about it. And then I remember.

Really great synth, I think everyone will love it. I'm not giving it the attention it deserves what with so much coming out lately (Recently upgrade to Komplete 13, then Equator 2, Vital, J-8...)

It’s that for me, plus family stuff for here. (Today we found out my wife’s mom died, another horrible thing in 2020) but I also think it has a lot to do with the interface. The look... layout... it’s not intuitive and it could be. I’m maybe more sensitive than other people because I do UI work, but it seriously looks like first year community college graphic design work. Hard to read, needlessly cyber (and I like cyber). I’d honestly like to help get it up to a professional level but I’ve learned my lesson on offering unsolicited help. It’s like saying, “nice baby, I’m a plastic surgeon, so when you decide to do something about his face, look me up.”

First very sorry for your family loss.
Then well, not up to your taste is perfectly OK. But apart aesthetic likes, I really like the horizontal/vertical faders Plasmonic use, really efficient to have immediate access and display to coarse and fine settings for a parameter. And I always found skeuomorphism, like the very standard and "so sexy" knobs of our synths were very badly adapted to digital UX. Trying to translate IRL circular movements of turning a physical knob to a virtual object while using a mouse is really a bad choice IMO. OK, it can be disturbing for some not to see familiar knobs, but I found Plasmonic solution quite effective. And you might be pleased to hear that "hard to read" is an issue on some setups which is acknowledged and should be sorted at launch.

[databroth]

I've only ever seen one or two plugins that actually force you to "turn" the knobs, it general almost every plugin with knobs works by dragging them up and down. knobs look a lot more pleasing in my opinion.

I wasn't a huge fan of plasmonic's slider system, seemed like the fine tune was too slow, and the fast adjust was too fast, something in the middle would be best, with a keybind for fine tuning. Most synths let you hold shift or control to adjust fine tune

I like vector/bitmap ui, just depends how you do them, but plasmonic went with this bloom effect everywhere, which is neat, but kinda already looks outdated. I think a little more care could have gone into how plasmonic controls and looks

but unique sounding synths have unique looking UI sometimes, and UI can dictate choices to a degree, so it's nice to have alternatives that put you in a different head space

plasmonic will not be my go-to synth by any means, but when I want to play with something funky it might be a choice of mine

[p1afff]

I wasn't a huge fan of plasmonic's slider system, seemed like the fine tune was too slow, and the fast adjust was too fast, something in the middle would be best, with a keybind for fine tuning. Most synths let you hold shift or control to adjust fine tune

What I like with them is that on my trackpad I can give a quick swipe to very quickly go to full value. May be different with a mouse or different setting ? And I don’t know how/when you played last time with Plasmonic, but sliders had changed their behavior very recently. Also don’t know if you would feel better with them, just mentioning it.

[zerocrossing]

I keep forgetting that this isn't for sale yet and wondering why more people aren't talking about it. And then I remember.

Really great synth, I think everyone will love it. I'm not giving it the attention it deserves what with so much coming out lately (Recently upgrade to Komplete 13, then Equator 2, Vital, J-8...)

It’s that for me, plus family stuff for here. (Today we found out my wife’s mom died, another horrible thing in 2020) but I also think it has a lot to do with the interface. The look... layout... it’s not intuitive and it could be. I’m maybe more sensitive than other people because I do UI work, but it seriously looks like first year community college graphic design work. Hard to read, needlessly cyber (and I like cyber). I’d honestly like to help get it up to a professional level but I’ve learned my lesson on offering unsolicited help. It’s like saying, “nice baby, I’m a plastic surgeon, so when you decide to do something about his face, look me up.”

First very sorry for your family loss.
Then well, not up to your taste is perfectly OK. But apart aesthetic likes, I really like the horizontal/vertical faders Plasmonic use, really efficient to have immediate access and display to coarse and fine settings for a parameter. And I always found skeuomorphism, like the very standard and "so sexy" knobs of our synths were very badly adapted to digital UX. Trying to translate IRL circular movements of turning a physical knob to a virtual object while using a mouse is really a bad choice IMO. OK, it can be disturbing for some not to see familiar knobs, but I found Plasmonic solution quite effective. And you might be pleased to hear that "hard to read" is an issue on some setups which is acknowledged and should be sorted at launch.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m going to buy it, for sure, and I’m sure some of what bugs me about it will get sorted, but it’s not just the choice of sliders over knobs that bugs me. In fact, it’s not that at all. But more like odd faux 3D shading when it clashes with text and the general layout. Basically, it’s got that rookie mistake of using way too much “eye candy” that’s not in service of the usability. Like futuristic UIs that have polygonal cuts into the corners and whatnot, as if in the future you don’t really want to see the full screen. Don’t get me wrong, some eye candy is nice, and it does help sort of communicate the vibe and purpose of an instrument, but from what I see in the current Plasmonic, it goes way over the line. I’d tone it down 40%. I think the same thing about Absynth too.

[zerocrossing]

I've only ever seen one or two plugins that actually force you to "turn" the knobs, it general almost every plugin with knobs works by dragging them up and down. knobs look a lot more pleasing in my opinion.

I wasn't a huge fan of plasmonic's slider system, seemed like the fine tune was too slow, and the fast adjust was too fast, something in the middle would be best, with a keybind for fine tuning. Most synths let you hold shift or control to adjust fine tune

I like vector/bitmap ui, just depends how you do them, but plasmonic went with this bloom effect everywhere, which is neat, but kinda already looks outdated. I think a little more care could have gone into how plasmonic controls and looks

but unique sounding synths have unique looking UI sometimes, and UI can dictate choices to a degree, so it's nice to have alternatives that put you in a different head space

plasmonic will not be my go-to synth by any means, but when I want to play with something funky it might be a choice of mine

Perfectly stated. Most of my work is in the video game field and it totally reminds me of stuff I’d get out of an intern when asked to make a “futuristic” UI. It’s not like there’s not something cool there... but it’s like he went past cool, pegged the coolometer, broke the peg and the needle went full way around to the not cool part of the meter.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Well it’s certainly toned down from Absynth 1!

[machinesworking]

Well it’s certainly toned down from Absynth 1!

Or any Absynth version really!
Being an HR Geiger fan I liked the original Absynth GUI, the later 3D background that looked like Mac desktop wallpaper circ 2000 not so much.

[pdxindy]

Finally tried Plasmonic - lovely sounding synth! I'm gonna have fun with this one for sure. I decided to leave it be for the moment as it will be painful to keep losing all the great sounds I'm finding! Look forward to when I can buy it and dig into it.

I was disappointed with the new Noisy synth, but Plasmonic took care of that! hehe

[machinesworking]

Finally tried Plasmonic - lovely sounding synth! I'm gonna have fun with this one for sure. I decided to leave it be for the moment as it will be painful to keep losing all the great sounds I'm finding! Look forward to when I can buy it and dig into it.

Yeah, I had to do the same thing, I would come up with a sound I Iike and the demo would be up. Not IMO the best copy protection system for a synth that isn't out yet, especially one where I get the immediate urge to write my own patches.

It's an instant buy for me though. Sound wise it's near perfect for me. I'm not too into the location based slider speed idea, but I recognize that on a Microsoft Surface that's a pretty great thing.

[pdxindy]

Finally tried Plasmonic - lovely sounding synth! I'm gonna have fun with this one for sure. I decided to leave it be for the moment as it will be painful to keep losing all the great sounds I'm finding! Look forward to when I can buy it and dig into it.

Yeah, I had to do the same thing, I would come up with a sound I Iike and the demo would be up. Not IMO the best copy protection system for a synth that isn't out yet, especially one where I get the immediate urge to write my own patches.

It's an instant buy for me though. Sound wise it's near perfect for me. I'm not too into the location based slider speed idea, but I recognize that on a Microsoft Surface that's a pretty great thing.

At this point I am still messing up on the sliders, but I figure it will become second nature soon enough

Overall, not my favorite GUI, but also seems good enough that it will not be a problem or annoying once I am used to it. And my initial impressions are that this will end up a favorite synth. Instant buy for me too.

[svart]

Sounds wonderful. Sure would have liked a gui size in between 100 % and 125 % (like 115). 100 % a bit too small, while 125 % is a bit too big on my screen.

[p1afff]

The wait is over guys, you can go now to Rhizonatic !!!

[gunnar]

Yiiieeephieeeeeee