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Back to Earth Wall·E and Eva brought the magic seed safe back home, and now it's finally time for the mattock and shovel. Grass is green and Synplant is waiting for you to plant new sounds in your sequencer. As name already suggests, Synplant has an agricultural approach. Instead of knobs and buttons it has seeds and blurbs preserved in a bulb while all additional parameters for fine tuning are arranged in a DNA helix hiding under a gene manipulation button. All in all, it uses a very original approach upgrading the standard concept of the synthesizer in a very witty way. Under the hood it is still a classic synthesizer; but many of the parameters are not bound up with others in a common way as we are used to; so changing the genome of the sound is not always the predictable route; and talking about standard synthesizers, the closer we get to the surface, the more it differs from the branch. A long time ago, Microsoft started its user friendly story with a newer version of their Windows. The more the product became user friendly the more the user disliked it. Thankfully Magnus, the author of Synplant missed Microsoft's point of user friendliness and programmed an innovative and adorable synthesiser making an user friendly instrument without underestimating the users.
Now, imagine this situation: Synplant comes in town. Users feel a bit anxious and developers suddenly realize that their business is a fragile thing. So, what is all the buzz around Synplant? It doesn't really sound so analog and so punchy aggressive like a Sylenth1; and it doesn't sound so fat in the low end, as does the Arturia Minimoog. Those things are true, but, on the other hand it sounds so beautifully gentle, so versatile and so unique. It sounds like Synplant. Along with Jamstix from Rayzoon it is definitively one of the most original products in the virtual world lately. Its original concept forces users to forget their old “tweak an LFO” habits and brings them back to their roots: using the ears instead of an ordinary palette of knobs and parameters in a preset making process. At least, Synplant Making presets with Synplant is brings back some fun and easiness in simple and funny. Yes, funny. You a world of programming sounds. just need to be a farmer and drag a www.WusikMagazine.com
December 2008
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