An esoteric classic gets an AI-powered update. Si Truss plants a seed to see what grows…
CONTACT WHO: Sonic Charge WEB: soniccharge.com KEY FEATURES ‘Genetic’ synthesiser with Genopatch AI-based patch generator. FORMATS: PC/Mac, VST/AU
Sonic Charge’s Synplant launched in 2008, and even 15 years later it remains unmatched in its eccentric originality. In an era where most virtual synthesisers were either looking to emulate analogue classics or making use of wavetables, Synplant offered something genuinely different with its ‘genetic’ synthesis approach. The broad concept was fairly simple, if unusual; users started with a sonic ‘seed’ in the centre of Synplant’s circular UI, which could then grow ‘branches’ out, aligned to different notes, with each branch altering and developing the synthesiser sound by increasing amounts the further it strayed from the central seed. It was a workflow that encouraged sonic exploration more than precise sound-shaping, but could be capable of some genuinely unique and inspiring sounds. Now Sonic Charge has released a version 2 update, which builds on this core concept with some even more adventurous features.
The central concept, and much of the UI, is largely unchanged from version 1. The main window of Synplant 2 is based around the same ‘seed’ concept. Again the central UI is surrounded by sliders that control broad parameter changes across all branches. These are labelled Volume, Atonality, which can be used to make the sound more or less tonal, Detune, Release, and Effect, which increase the level of both master reverb and a stereo panning effect. This main panel also lets users set the voice count, control glide, engage tempo sync and adjust how the mod wheel affects the synth engine.
As with Synplant 1, more detailed adjustments to the synth sound can be made in a secondary window, where a double helix representing the patch’s ‘DNA’ is accompanied by some more traditional parameter options such as modulation envelopes, oscillator controls and filters. These parameters can be a touch fiddly, but realistically they’re better used for making tweaks to patches generated in the main UI than building a sound from scratch, which suits Synplant’s workflow.
Genopatch gets close to bang-on, after a bit of time
The biggest addition for version 2 is what Sonic Charge calls the ‘Genopatch’ function. T
