Sinevibes has built a ground-up successor to its past Switch and Strobe step sequence gate effects. Everything from classic trance gates to precise polyrhythms is elegant and straightforward in this major update.
Switch combines high-precision, host-synced tempo division with gated steps – on/off mutes for each part of the pattern. That’s possible with other tools, but Switch sets itself apart with excellent performance, a beautiful and easy-to-grok UI, and wide timing range options.
I’ve been using it for the last few days and – mmmm. It’s funny how much easier Switch is to use than other takes on this idea – you get a ton of mileage out of that simplicity. You get a bank of eight patterns per preset slot, each with an adjustable number of steps. Just program in the patterns you want, and then trigger them – done. You can tie steps, and adjust lag, swing, and rate parameters, plus the intensity of the gating. (I used the intensity setting to make some subtle animation in an ambient track as I played around with this.)
There’s also a nice set of one-click operations, tucked away behind the “…” button at the bottom left:
Switch v3 is a free update for all existing owners of Switch (any version), or its predecessor Strobe. That means Sinevibes is giving away this update to software that was first released 12 years ago. And it’s a big update; Artemiy from Sinevibes tells CDM there’s not a “single line of code” from the past versions.
The new code base means some new features. Again, from Artemiy:
- This updates the plug-in to use the current Sinevibes dev framework, so it now supports AAX/AU/VST on macOS and Windows, the current open XML-based preset manager across the Sinevibes line, and resizable UI.
- The step sequencer is “all-new” and swing works rhythmically correctly regardless of pattern length. “In most sequencers, it’s an issue when the sequence length is an odd number; not here,” says Artemiy.
- Sequencer rate can be set to any arbitrary fraction from 1/16 to 16/1 – for any time signature or polyrhythms.
Gating is cool, but I would love those kinds of features in other tools, too. Fortunately, it sounds like I’ll get my wish. Artemiy tells CDM, “this is the start of a new sequencer-based plugin lineup, with the likes of Array, Inertia, Sequential etc. making a loud-and-proud comeback.”
Oh, yes, indeed. Bring it on.
https://www.sinevibes.com/switch/
And if you like other “vintage” Sinevibes software, it seems they’re working through the back catalog with similar updates. Watch this space.
Demo videos from Artemiy: