David Emm Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 Baby Audio's ATOMS is a new physical modeling synth based on the Mass-Spring concept. Nick Batt's review made sense, but not such that the approach sounds sufficiently musical to me. AAS's Chromaphone offers far less exotic models and they hit the mark well. ATOMS is so avant-garde-y that it strikes me as a swing-&-a-miss. There's usably esoteric and then there's just plain weird. It has both a general patch randomizer and then a Recycle feature that begins from your current patch. Those are smart features for such an odd beast. PM has all but taken over the areas where I once struggled with FM. I can hear the distinction between the two methods, but aside from those unique FM patches that can cut like a laser, the trade-off makes my musical life easier & more productive. I'll gladly take my samples of some unique FM keepers and leave the rest to PM. Anyone else make a similar procedural/compositional decision about your chosen rig members? Quote As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life- so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls. ~ Matt Cartmill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokely Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 By "rig" if you mean live, I definitely would have only a few instruments for live (if I used mainstage, which so far I haven't). Probably Diva and/or Repro, something for rhodes/piano/organ/clav and that's about it. For home studio use, something avante garde might just find a spot My own music is quite far from the classic rock my band plays. Speaking of new and cutting edge, check out this Zebralette 3 live stream. This thing acts and sounds crazy, I've never heard anything quite like it though there are FM-sounding aspects. Another vid I saw strongly reminded me of Tangerine Dream's Exit but more hifi (I think that was mostly a PPG?). Those bells at 47 minutes sound like physical modeling to me, it's just very expressive and I can't wait to mess with this (and I get Z3 for $30 as I own Z2!) Keep in mind this is but one oscillator from Zebra 3. No envelopes, no filter (other than one on the oscillator, not sure how that works), no mod matrix etc (all that will be in Zebra 3 of course). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Emm Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 I did mean "home rig." There's only so much crossover between that and a stage system unless you have Toto's roadies. Zebralette is scary-impressive. If the full instrument is going to be like several of these in a final form, it'll make quite a splash. Urs always has an element of crispness going, so yes, I hear some PM-like movement going on. I'm also fond of Bezier curves, which seem very natural in use, even when the sound at hand is weird. I may not be a candidate for this one, because I basically live in a ring of slab synths and Spitfire sections. I also cheat by tweezing three instances of Logic's Sampler featuring modular sounds that are clearly from the Subotnick end of the pool. Full disclosure. I only rarely sweat bullets over micro-differences in LFO speeds. Quote As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life- so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls. ~ Matt Cartmill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfD Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 On 2/26/2024 at 6:13 PM, David Emm said: I'll gladly take my samples of some unique FM keepers and leave the rest to PM. Anyone else make a similar procedural/compositional decision about your chosen rig members? Sampling and FX processing satisfies my sound design fix.😎 Quote PD "The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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