Product Reviews by KVR Members

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.