When released in 2011, this was the future of additive synthesis. In 2017, no other developer has improved on what Image-Line achieved in this synth. The key of mastering Harmor as exceptionally powerful sound design tool is understanding how sound is formed from partials. After that, it can be used to make majority of harmonic and inharmonic sound types, from drums to plucks to strings and so on, all in one device.
On the surface, Harmor is notable for its "filter" modules, which go beyond filter curve paradigms of conventional synthesizers. Under the hood, this synth also realizes many other things which electronic musicians have dreamed about for decades. Harmor's graphical envelopes allow control of additive synthesis parameters in ways more convenient than any synth before it, including legendary devices such as Fairlight CMI and Technos Axcel.
When used with external image editors and image generators, Harmor's image function enables extensive control of gain and frequency of oscillator's harmonic partials. Compared to MetaSynth and other similar tools, it achieves good balance between complexity and usability.
If Image-Line ever decides to improve on this, one big possibility is expanding modules which are now called "filters" into "frames" that can animate sound. At the moment, changing parameters of "filters" and morphing between them allows 2 "frames of animation", but there is potential to expand the paradigm much further. Synths such as Image-Line's own Morphine and former Camel Audio's (now Apple's) Alchemy provide good points of comparison.
Read ReviewAgreed - this sucka turns samples into patches, instantly! That is schweet. The one downside is that it's a 32-bit program, so if your're running a 64-bit DAW that doesn't have bridging (I'm lookin' at YOU, Studio One V2!), then you are out of luck.
i simply used jBridge to get Harmor (32-bit) working in my Presonus Studio One (64-bit) ...
but of course i agree that image-line should come up with a real 64-bit version .
maybe this helps :).
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The 64-bit version is out ;-) And it's at version 1.3.
Spot on review, FarleyCZ. A great but somewhat confused (or confusing) synth, which I mainly use for it's powerful and transparent resynthesis abilities, it can turn voices and other samples into sonic taffy with a minimum of fuss. Creating synth patches on it? That hasn't really happened for me, but I'm sure others would gel with that part of it.
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Yes, no doubt, Harmor is a wonderful synth. Image-line updated to 64-bit most of it's synths a few years ago. On my system I run both the 32 and 64-bit versions with Sonar Platinum. Thanks, aumordia for a very concise, well thought out, review.
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Need help with presets. A bunch of FXP format Harmor presets I made will not load into a newer version of Harmor! I have noticed that .FST presets load fine! H.E.L.P.
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