Comments on: Teaser: Synplant, a Genetic, Morphing Soft Synth from Magnus Lidström

By: foosnark

foosnark — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:06:49 +0000

This thing is fantastic, inspiring, innovative, and doesn’t sound bad either. :)

I bought it within about half an hour of trying the demo, and I’d have bought it sooner if I could have torn myself away from playing with it long enough to switch to my web browser.

By: Palle Dahlstedt

Palle Dahlstedt — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:02:54 +0000

It is really nice to see a tool like this emerging. Interactive evolution is a great way to explore a sound space, and can definitely be so much more than just another randomizer. But the real power of this approach is evident when you start creating your own sound engines, and then explore them. That is a whole new compositional paradigm – available for example in the Nord Modular G2’s Patch Mutator (already mentioned above).

Anyone interested in this approach can read this article by yours truly, discussing the whole issue in detail:

http://www.ituniv.se/~palle/publications/Dahlstedt2006_EvolCrea-longversion.pdf

It is nice how SynPlant lets you gradually bring in mutations to the mother sound, but I think this approach can also be further developed. See for example this article:

http://www.ituniv.se/~palle/publications/FreeFlightEvoMUSART.pdf

I really look forward to how SynPlant can grow .-) into something really powerful in a few upgrades from now.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:15:28 +0000

@Chris asking about other examples of something similar:
There are several Reaktor ensembles that feel similarly “random” in that one doesn’t often know how one went about getting the sound that one is playing and likely could not repeat. I don’t think Synplant is supposed to be “random” as much as it is just a way of working that is so far new and weird and bizarre. I spent the day just dialing in settings and recording the result and I’m pleased. I’d think that Gaugear is very similar in this aspect, and in some ways NewSkool and the new Spiral sequencer fit this description. They are tools that I don’t quite GET yet the same way that I get Oki Computer and Reason’s Thor, and they seem random mainly because the interface is so different. There are also several Reaktor ensembles that just seem TOTALLY random and really are meant to be a complete surprise. Sometimes these are fun and inspiring and sometimes just annoying.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:25:49 +0000

There’s a plug out there called modismaster that does fractal LFOs for MIDI CCs, check it out.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=139788

By: leo cavallo

leo cavallo — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:27:38 +0000

Just wondering… is this any better than Clavia Patch Mutator?

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:21:40 +0000

There’s another randomizer that does that, Antelope … host I’m forgetting at the moment (not Brainspawn Forte, a different one). But I think it also randomizes *everything*.

Yeah, it’d be really interesting to take this interface and actually make it a vst *host*. :)

Then again, you can get something a bit like that just chaining together parameters / assigning them to a macro — then you have a degree of control, but of what you want — and even assigning a bunch of stuff to one macro could just about fake the randomization.

I would like to do a roundup of similar instrument designs, though — I’ve even asked Magnus about ones he found inspiring. Keep the ideas coming.

By: Hungry Antelope

Hungry Antelope — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:19:19 +0000

Is there a plug in randomizer for the PC that gives you some basic controls over which parameters are randomized?

Minihost has a randomizer, the trouble is that I tend to not want to randomize a few parameters (such as the pitch… I want notes to be in tune).

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:13:20 +0000

I’m really interested this product, controlled randomization has a special place in my heart. Are there any other products out there that can closely compare?

By: Planting Seeds… | digital lofi

Planting Seeds… | digital lofi — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:44:05 +0000

[...] and, bang, it’s out, and the music tech blogs have weighed in, more or less (here, here and here, as well as others I’m [...]

By: Puffer

Puffer — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:36:21 +0000

Actually, to further what Peter said, an example of a brute-force randomizer would be Ugo’s freebie Element of Surprise (http://www.ugoaudio.com/). If you’re PC it’s definitely worth a look, if only to read the manual which is a nice little mediation on getting work done.

Great write up on this, Peter.