Will Baby Audio’s fantastic run of releases stall with its most ambitious instrument yet? Atoms ain’t going to bomb, says Andy Jones
Baby Audio has become one of the most exciting plugin developers, often because you can’t predict what it’s going to release next. After a raft of brilliant effects, it brought out BA-1, a VA synth based on a classic Yamaha, but are surprising us yet again with Atoms. It’s a totally new-form synth based on physical modelling, with a ‘living organism’ engine delivering ‘supernatural’ results. Of course it is.
Atomic theory
Physical Modelling synthesis is not by any means new – Yamaha was one of the main drivers of the technology with hardware synths such as the VL1 back in the 1990s. The idea behind it is that you can simulate how sound occurs in the real world: the pluck, vibration, and envelope of a string being a common example.
Atoms, though, leaves such simple string theory behind and, according to Baby Audio, “goes supernatural, with a complex mass spring network, a living organism of interconnected resonant bodies in constant motion”. Which kind of sounds like it has created some kind of sonic monster, but the idea behind the network is based on proper science, with the ability to create atmospheric tones using the laws of physics. So you get ‘masses’ connected by ‘springs’ which can be played with a bow – slightly less exciting than that promised living organism, but we’ll run with it.
You get six main controls around a screen that creates visuals according to what you play. These six options shape the behaviour of your masses and springs and are labelled Chaos, Order, Force, Overtones, Drive and Filter – there’s more on how these work in practice in the box (right). With simple Motion Engines on each – modulation drop-down options – it’s easy to bring movement into each parameter so evolving sounds are never too far away.
Atoms’ sound is often unusual, more about breaking new ground than treading old, which is to its credit
Global controls for adjusting envelope, octave, bow properties, effects and more are at the bottom of the UI. The Profile option is important, determining the number of masses in your network. By decreasing them or adjusting their spread, you can get grittier lo-fi variations in your sound. There’s also a set of smaller function buttons at the top right to adjust polyphony (up to eight voices) and tuning, or disable the processor hungry Chaos, or return you to normality with a Panic button.
Baby Audio has always been good on randomisation – just check out the free Magic Dice for some chance effects – and the random feature on Atoms is a highlight. You get instant new sounds without having to understand anything about the living organism. These are, more often than not, very saveable, mostly because, as BA admits, it��
