Composer-developer Giorgio Sancristoforo continues to deliver complete hardware sound laboratory experiences in standalone software form for your Mac or PC. The latest provides some 1000 oscillators, 200 filters, and 200 LFOs in a massively epic synthesis experience. (Or even 2000 oscillators.) Get ready for a wall of sound unlike any other.
It’s as if someone fed an AI a prompt to imagine an over-engineered synthesis laboratory, then brought laboratory to life. The specs are astonishing:
- 1000 oscillators
- 200 filters
- 200 LFOs
- 8 track recorder (which means you can double up and record as many as 2000 oscillators)
- Surround spatialization in either stereo or 4-channel
I can’t really describe how huge this is. Here’s what happens when you just start switching banks of oscillators on and messing with detuning:
The download comes with a manual and walks you through all you can do here. Correction: I accidentally unzipped a prerelease version and missed that the manual was now available! I will say, be prepared for this thing to be really hard to see unless you have some massive display, even at 120% zoom. But if you can squint at the controls, they’re fairly straightforward.
There are eight sections of oscillators, with numbers at the top switching on each bank – meaning to boot up and just make some sound, your first step is to toggle the numbers, unmute individual oscillators, and start tuning. Note the beautiful detune option for each – and immediately the modulation section and its FM options gives you great results. There’s a gorgeous, lush reverb built-in, as well, plus global filter and saturation.
Giorgio’s software as always is focused on hardware-style workflows, where you create sounds and record with a dedicated recorder – a nice alternative to getting lost in endless options and edits. Here, that recorder is deep, including the stereophonic and quadraphonic surround options:
I’ll see you on the other side. But before you buy, you can see if your computer – and your brain – can handle this much at once by trying the free demo (with sound interruptions):
https://www.giorgiosancristoforo.net/
Previously:
And be sure to read David Abravanel’s interview with the artist: