Um… excuse me. I’ll see you in February or so.
Simple, lightweight, minimal.
No, not really.
This is a total monster, the grandest synth yet from plug-in maestro Urs Heckmann, aka u-he. ACE, aka “Any Cable Everywhere,” already introduced us to computer plug-ins with massive tangles of virtual cables – in a good way. Bazille, then, is the plug-in that ate the plug-in that ate Chicago.
And after first making an appearance in 2009, it’s finally here, like a beast foretold in legend.
Its oscillators are digital, with FM (frequency modulation) and phase distortion and the wild-sounding fractal resonance. And then it has analog-style filters. And then it has effects and processors up the wazoo. But, most importantly, it has insane parallel outputs all over the place and the ability to patch anything to anything without ever running out of cables.
It’s not just a bunch of connections and oscillators and effects, though. There are clever wave shapers called mapping generators with drawing tools and the like. There’s a 8x 16-step “morphing” sequencer. When you combine all those oscillators and filters and wave shapers and effects and sequencers, you really have a complete modular sound design environment. There’s not a whole lot of software I want to test at the moment – just being plenty busy with what I’ve got – but this just made the short list. You can test it, too; there’s a free demo download for Mac and Windows.
It’s also on sale for US$89 (before VAT, Europe), which I think is about a third of what users of physical modulars pay for their cabinet, if they’re lucky. (Or, perhaps the IKEA desk it sits on.) Yes, there are advantages to digital and software (ducks). After the intro, it rises to $129.
Watch:
The specs alone will make your eyes bleed:
4 digital oscillators with simultaneous FM (frequency modulation), PD (phase distortion) and FR (fractal resonance)
4 multimode analogue type filters with up to 6 parallel outputs each
4 modelled effects: stereo delay, distortion, phaser, spring reverb
2 LFOs with 3 parallel outputs each
4 ADS(S)R type envelope generators
signal processors: Inverter, rectifier, sample & hold, lag generators and quantizer
2 mapping generators (waveshapers) with a variety of drawing tools and controls
8 x 16-step morphing sequencer
multiplex modules for signal mixing, RM (ring modulation), AM (amplitude modulation)
single-page alternative skin included
microtuning support (.tun files)
multichannel MIDI support
user interface zoom in 10% steps
over 1700 presets…
