It's not a synthesizer.

reFX Nexus4 is the new super rompler for modern pop music and EDM.

reFX introduces Nexus4, a sample player with synthesis functions. Romplers like to call such sound generators, for which there are usually always some extensions. This also applies to this plug-in, 159 expansions are currently available. The complete package then devours 150 GB of hard disk space. The selection should be a celebration for all fans of modern electronic music and pop.

reFX Nexus4 This plug-in seems to be successful, otherwise it would hardly have made it to the fourth version. I am a bit surprised because the manufacturer reFX does a bit of a strange marketing from my point of view. Instead of first explaining what this plug-in is actually about, the website starts right away and reports on the new features. Isn't reFX alienating potential new customers?

Anyway - our introduction already says: Nexus is a rompler, so it works with samples and presets. Several layers of these sample oscillators can be stacked and combined to form large sound structures. Individual settings and splits of the layers are also possible. Macro controls and up to 20 slots for modulation destinations offer enough options for bending the sounds.

You get three editions of Nexus 4. Starter costs 249 euros and contains over 2750 presets and 18 GB of sample material. Value 10 with 10 expansions, over 4000 presets and over 25 GB of sample material is currently available for 399 euros (instead of 499 euros). For 2199 euros (instead of 4429 euros) with Complete you get all 159 expansions currently available, over 20,000 presets and 150 GB of sample material.

www.gearnews.de/refx-nexus4-rompler-synthesizer-samples-layer-effekte-presets/

 

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Last edited by a moderator: Jun 7, 2024

Noizey, your prayers are heard.
Madrona Labs new semi-modular synth Sumu combines advanced additive synthesis with FM synthesis
https://madronalabs.com/topics/8469-sumu-preview

 

Wow, this does look way more interesting than a lot of other options! But I guess you can't quite tell how good it is until you hear it.

Hope the price isn't too steep when it comes out.

 

Enjoyed some of the expertise in this thread, but surprised DS Thorn hasn't been mentioned as it is one of my favourite new synths and the way you can play with the harmonic filter and balance is really intuitive and special. Also you can pick it up for next to nothing from PA if you wait for a 40 dollar sale with 25 dollar voucher.

Also Steinberg Backbone, which is not an additive synth per se, but has become my default drum template (with 8 track instances of backbone fed by a track of HY-RPE2 in REAPER). Drop a sample in and you can decompose it into tonal and noise elements, and resynthesise it, which breaks it down to partials and allows you to shape and modulate it in very interesting ways using the purity, inharmonicity and formant controls, which are all additive operations and unlike anything you could do with a typical sampler.

 

You can get a very good Computer Music version of Thorn. It does all I want anyway. I really don't need another synth. I like the sound of it, but it doesn't wow me. You can find copies of the CM mag on line (sis site) and then you log in to the vault and click on that issue that contains it, which is a load of them iirc. It will ask you for certain words from certain pages so you can log in. This is for those that don't already know.

As for additive, I'm a massive Harmor fan, owning both the vst version of it and Harmless, which is a nice little synth by itself. It's an incredible sampler to all intents and purposes as it reconstructs the sound via its partials or wtf they call them. It's very accurate. More accurate than Camel's offering, most people tend to say, but Alchemy is good all the same. I recently installed the full version with all the libraries that I found on line. I own a load of them already anyway, but I just wanted to check them out. I plan on buying the ones that are still available and being sold if they take my fancy. It was quite a feat to get that working perfectly. I had to try several versions and find bits and pieces from other installs to double check everything. Took me a solid 3 days of work! I even wrote some installation notes as I would never remember how to do that again. As it stands, with those notes, the full Alchemy could be installed in a matter of a couple of hours, depending on how long it takes to install via your HDD/SSD. You have to do things in a very certain order. I even have mine displaying the text I want on its screen instead of the 'team'. I also made up a skin for it a few years back and that works quite nicely as well. It comes with half a dozen skins anyway. It's great being able to edit any sound spectrally and all the rest. Just a couple of clicks and you are in to edit mode and painting away like a madman. You can radically (but in a good way) change any sound within seconds. It's an extremely powerful form of synthesis. If you don't like a particular 'brush stroke' you just undo and try it again. But you get a feel of how to bring out certain frequencies after a while and what will work and what won't. Got something like 5000 presets as well, but I already bought a couple of thousand before.

[Another great thing about Alchemy and this goes for the Player version you can get as well, is that it loads SFZ sample files very well. From there you can manipulate them more. A very easy SFZ player that is often overlooked because of the wealth of its other features. And it shouldn't be.]

Talking of painting in spectrally, one of my all time favorite synths is LinPlug's Spectral. I've made up a load of patches for that. And while it's not a bread and butter synth, it can do that as well. But it's a waste really, because it does those glossy, glassy ambient shifting pads with chaos built in, like no other. It's very stable and it also takes SCALA tunings. Plus it comes with nearly a thousand presets. You can find more around the place. It's very fun as well as you can draw on a couple of screens to paint sounds. It doesn't 'sample' like Alchemy and Harmor and you could even argue it's not a strictly 'additive' synth, but it's pretty closely related in my book.

I also still use Octopus by LinPlug as well, that is another keeper where you can draw in waveshapes or wtf they are called. It's very powerful and does FM brilliantly.

I also have the VST of Sytrus, but I really don't like it's new vector interface. I demo'd Morphine by Image-Line as well, but like others have said, it sounds quite bad for some reason.

There are others, and this is a pretty deep subject, but those are kind of the major players that most people will know I would say.

 

Free Soundbank Bundle for Alchemy www.kvraudio.com/product/free-soundbank-bundle-for-alchemy-by-sonic-sirius

 

Wouldn't it makes more sense to actually edit Razor ? Like to give it a whirl as a v2 ? it's an amazing synth and I'm curious why no one tried to build onto it. Increasing partials, adding fx or maybe more oscillators ?
Can't wait for madrona labs to do something I love his work.

back to using razor for now

 

Since its first release a few years ago, my preferred is by far Syne, from MusicDevelopments. This, yes, is really the next step in additive synthesis. It's a big modular synth based only on additive wavetables. The sounds are incredible.

 

discoDSP - Vertigo updated to 4.3 - January 5, 2023

Vertigo is a 256 oscillator additive synth with resynthesis and sound morphing. Imports WAV and BMP files and reproduces complex musical phrases, drum loops, speech, and simple tones very accurately. The demo and full versions both include 128 presets.



What's new

• Major framework update.
• Multi-threaded GUI rendering.
• Pre-rendered GUI graphics for faster response.
• Fixed envelope reset, copy, paste button behavior.
• Standalone fixes.
• Improved stability.
• Native Apple Silicon support compiled with Xcode 14.

www.discodsp.com/vertigo/

 

Most people who have been around long enough using vst's, aax's and au's know that there are only so many plugins you will use.
It is like a guitar player or bass player with footpedals that have hundreds of presets and user definable presets.
MOST people will have their "Go-to's" - these are not in the 100s - This leads to...
Will there ever be a new generation of Additive synths?

Yes and no in my opinion - They will build on what exists for a while until they find something that redefines what exists. As to whether this will be massive advancements on what already exists or something completely new is speculation. There will certainly be something new, but whether this is in the way it is done, how it is laid out, how it functions/operates, what it affects and what it can import, change, what it is compatible with and more, I would not attempt to try and see into the future. Other than it will develop in one way or another.

In summary - there are only so many plugins and synths any composer in any style will use. They will always choose the ones that have the least amount of farting around to get what they want when it is time-sensitive. It's great having a lot to choose from but at some point 'old reliable' steps in.

 

The Loom sounds really good!

www.airmusictech.com/virtual-instruments/loom-ii.html

 

There is only one question any SERIOUS musician and engineer needs to ask - How many do you need of the latest and greatest? One or two of each that does what you want with maybe one backup of each that is very similar (or unique). Having 10x additive synths is not about "OH but it has these three sounds" - then sample the fucking thing if it has limited usage. There are plenty of sample instruments you can save your own or favourite sounds into:- Sampletank, KONTAKT etc etc etc...... If people are spending their time collecting plugins and instruments, it's pretty fricking obvious they are not doing much music. Not meaning to be offensive - just stating what is moderately obvious.
If you have a DAW or recording mechanism, you can sample.

e.g... if you are not a sound designer as your main focus like BEAT16, then having 100 synths is wasted space.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 27, 2023

Specially if your a serious sound designer having 100 synths is wasted space, time and energy.
When you know sound design, you also recognize the right tools / synths, easily.
Like if you're a professional driver, you don't need to try every cars to know which ones are good for a task.

If you're a professional sound designer, by looking at specific aspects of a synth you know very fast if it can go far enough or not.
And by working on maybe 5 very different synths, but learning each one perfectly, you do a better work, more creative in less time (opposed to recreating the same sound on 30 different synth lol).

About additive synths, given the actual versatility of synths, there will not be a "new generation of additive synths" as synths are no more so specialized.
Most synths today include several synthesis technology.
There is one interesting synth that have gone a little bit more complex into additive synthesis, it's KV331 Synthmaster. It allows to change the waveform for different group of harmonics. This is not exactly additive synthesis, even if they call it like this because the harmonics are not detailed enough (8 groups only). Even so, it's a good tool for creating sounds.

Here is a video about this:

 

Last edited: Jan 27, 2023

I like Pigments and Harmor approaches

 

Oh I agree - However - the search for the 'right' ones can take a while. Each one might have something of value. So while I certainly agree it is wasted space at the end, the 'during' as in the testing them all, is likely necessary. I know of a few people who gather them all then disappear for a few months and whittle them down to under 20...then down to less than ten.

Additive synths are great for what it allows... expanding on it... I think it will go further, then there will be the next generation of synthesizers, whatever that will be? Being able to add anything in to be synthesized is great... as is combining.. but I would be surprised if someone does not try and take it to the next level.

 

Additive synthesis is even worse than FM to master.
When all those additive synths came out more than 10 years ago, i tested them ALL ... and trashed them all

The same way, i stopped using most "complex" FM synths like FM8
I prefer phase distortion or "simpler" FM synths like Sytrus or Blue II

Additive always sound bland to me, whatever implementation

 

You can edit Razor I went behind to try to see what was up so its doable. Its not so bad but I lack 600% the knowledge to do anything serious

Can't wait for Sumu. Madrona Labs is delivering amazing sound design synths usually

 

I didn't now about this project.
It sounds interesting.

Form Madronalabs site https://madronalabs.com/products/sumu?locale=us