Sonic Charge Synplant 2

Synplant 2 takes a more horticultural approach to synthesis than you may be used to...

There can’t be many products with a 15‑year update cycle, but that’s how long fans of the original Synplant software synth have had to wait for v2. I have to admit, it was not a product I was familiar with, but the new release has caused a bit of a buzz amongst both users of the original and those with an interest in synth‑based sound design. So, what exactly is Synplant and, 15 years after the original, what’s new in v2?

Biological Science

Under the hood, Synplant is essentially a twin‑oscillator synth with FM and a flexible system for envelopes and modulation, a rather nice filter section, plus reverb, saturation, EQ and panning effects. The core elements of this engine have been brought up to date in v2 in order to improve the overall sound.

However, as with the original release, Synplant 2’s UI and sound‑design controls are somewhat unconventional. With concepts such as planting seeds, growing branches, and DNA editing, designing sounds within Synplant might seem to have more in common with a biological research lab than a synthesizer. The original’s Bulb and DNA Editor pages have been refined but, by deliberately sidestepping a more conventional graphical representation of the knobs, sliders and buttons found on a typical hardware synth, the UI was created to make experimental sound design accessible to any user.

Sonic Charge have not undermined that ethos in any way, but a more conventional graphical representation of the synth’s controls within the DNA Editor is now available if you want it. And, with the addition of the very intriguing Genopatch system, there is now a whole new (AI‑fuelled) method of starting the sound‑design process. So, if you have got your wellies on, and a suitable spade to dig with, let’s plant some (sonic) seeds...

Sound Gardening

Designing a new sound within Synplant requires you to plant a ‘seed’ at the centre of the Bulb display (for example, by simply holding Cmd/Ctrl and clicking on the seed icon). This triggers a randomisation process to provide some initial synth settings. By default, new branches then appear, growing outwards from that seed, each arranged upon one of the 12 notes laid out around the circumference of the surrounding circle. If you click and drag on one of these branches, it will ‘grow’ and, the further it grows from the centre, the more the sound changes relative to the original seed. You can also drag back towards the centre if you wish to reverse the process. The changing sound will audition as you drag, but you can also audition a branch by triggering the associated note from a MIDI keyboard. If you drag a second branch, its sound will ‘evolve’ in a different way, and you can repeat this process to see which branch produces the most promising sonic evolution. Find something you like, and the main menu then lets you create a patch from the currently selected branch.

There are various other neat options available within the Bulb window. For example, by default, you can grow all the branches together by moving the mod wheel. If you like the way a particular branch has evolved, you can take that sound and ‘replant’ it as the main seed and then start evolving away from that. Equally, holding Alt and clicking the central seed will clone the sound of the selected branch to every other branch, essentially giving you the same playable sound mapped across the full MIDI note range.

Alongside the DNA strand, the DNA Editor page now includes the option for conventional rotary controls for all the synth’s parameters.The Bulb page now also includes four different bulb ‘modes’ to control how the branches respond to MIDI notes (this includes an impressive new option for layering sounds), as well as the main sliders for tuning, overall effect level, volume and release (which interacts with the amplitude envelope controls). When growing new sounds, the Atonality control influences whether you get more conventional playable sounds with an obvious pitch (at lower settings) or more abstract/experimental sounds (at higher settings).

Once you have grown a suitable sonic starting point, switching to the DNA Editor page lets you dig a little deeper. This can be done via the rather beautiful — if somewhat abstract — DNA strand graphic, where each of the ‘genes’ (horizontal lines within the strand) acts as a synth parameter control. These are organised into three sections from top to bottom; envelope and LFO, oscillators, and filter and effects. However, new for Synplant 2, if you select one of these three sections, a full set of more conventional rotary controls for that section are then shown on the right side of the display. A very useful text description is shown at the base of the window as you hover over a specific control.

Whether or not you fully understand what’s going on within the nuts and bolts of the synth engine, the sound‑design workflow is fascinating and intuitive. The results of this sound evolution process can be beautiful or bonkers, from playable sounds to weird sound effects. It’s both fun and inspiring to use.

Genetic (Sound) Cloning

Refinements and additions elsewhere aside, perhaps the headline new feature of Synplant 2 is the Genopatch process. This allows the user to import an audio sample of their choice and, based upon up to two seconds of that sample, Synplant 2 applies its in‑built AI capabilities (and not an inconsiderable amount of your computer’s CPU grunt during this phase of the process) to attempt to find a combination of synth engine settings to match the sound of the audio sample.

Via the new Genopatch feature, Synplant 2 will attempt to match the sound within an imported audio file as a starting point for your sound designing.Once you trigger the process, the engine grows four different strands, each of which offers multiple versions of this sound matching process. Each possible match is represented by a small coloured dot within the display and clicking on any of these will audition the specific version of the synthesized sound. The toolbar’s Save button lets you save the currently selected sound match as a user patch, and you can also select the Plant Seed option from a drop‑down menu; your matched sound then becomes a new seed for further evolution.

This is a fascinating process to watch unfold. Yes, it is unrealistic to load a two‑second sample from one note (for example, from a guitar) and expect Synplant 2 to then generate a fully playable, totally realistic patch that both spans the full range of MIDI keys and offers the dynamic response of the original instrument. That said, in practice, while the results are very source‑sample dependent, they can be both very good and very usable. That’s particularly the case if your starting point is a short sound such as a pluck or short bass tone, or perhaps a percussive sound such as a kick, snare, hi‑hat or clap; it’s very impressive stuff. You can, of course, then do additional tweaking within the DNA Editor to finesse the ‘genetically cloned’ starting point that Genopatch has provided.

Synth Evolution

Space precludes a discussion of all the refinements and additions to be found, but v2 certainly moves the Synplant concept forwards with its improved sound engine, the conventional controls option within the DNA Editor and the new ‘sound cloning’ process offered by the Genopatch. The first two are impressive in their own right and would be enough for many long‑standing users considering upgrading. For potential new users, Synplant 2 might not be an obvious choice as a ‘first serious virtual synth purchase’, but if you already own a few ‘standard’ synth emulations, this is a very cool curveball. Biological concepts within the UI aside, the sound can certainly get ‘organic’.

However, it’s probably the Genopatch sound cloning that most obviously grabs the attention. This is a really interesting concept. Surely other developers will soon bring their own take on this kind of process given just how quickly AI is finding its way into music technology software? An obvious next step might be to allow the user to import two or more samples at different pitches or dynamics levels and then let the AI create appropriate synth engine settings that interpolate between these multiple starting points. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait a further 15 years for Sonic Charge to offer that in Synplant. With AI moving at such a pace, my money would be on something closer to 15 months... Fingers crossed.

Synplant 2 is a great‑sounding synth that’s also a very accessible and downright fun to use sound‑design tool.

Synplant 2 is a great‑sounding synth that’s also a very accessible and downright fun to use sound‑design tool for folks that don’t usually spend their time doing sound design. OK, so the pricing might deter the more causal user, but the free three‑week trial is well worth giving a spin. Is it perfect? No. Is it cool, quirky, interesting, inspiring, and capable of some great sounds? Yes. When it comes to a ‘grow your own’ approach to creating synth sounds, Synplant 2 can supply endless sonic seeds to get you started. Very interesting stuff.