Synplant 2 with AI patch regenesis

#1

So Synplant always looked interesting to me but I never got around to buying it, partly because the synth architecture seemed a bit limited in terms of options to me. Now they have a new version with an AI system to create pacthes based on samples. For stuff like that (especially for vocals) I have been using wavetable synthesis, especially in Icarus so far, but I like the idea of doing that in a non-wavetable synth because it opens up different possibilities.

Also, Ai is always interesting to me even though I donā€™t like the idea of machines replacing humans in general and see lots of problems with that, but on the other hand itā€™s just interesting to me, probably partly because I have a background in data analysis and the concept of machines analyzing data and generating optimized regression systems and ā€œneuralā€ connections based on data is fascinating to me. That might change when 99% of people are out of work because AI does everything better in a few years, but anywaysā€¦

Of course, most of the fun of sound design is making your own sounds by hand and trying to get close to sounds can also be fun and challenging, but having AI do it for you might be interesting, possibly saving some time for quick experiments (ā€œletā€™s quickly try this melody with the lead sound from X and the pad from Yā€¦ā€) and spawning some differnet ideas, too.

The samples that get recreated have to be short, so longer vocals like in wavetable synthesis is not an option and among a lot of positive feedback I read some comments about problems with certain sounds (even some short sounds such as Amen hits or guitar plucks). Also, the synth architecture still seems to be limited compared to my go-to synths, but it still seems very interesting. Gonna check the demo out in the coming days and weeks and see how I get along with it. I mgiht update to the full Sonic Charge bundle since I always wanted to get Microtonic and already have Bitspeek and Permut8ā€¦

Any thoughts or experiences with it?

#2

I remember demoing it many years ago ( over 10 easily ) and I thought it was a fresh unique approach and was really elegantly done.
Not sure why I didnā€™t buy it back then, but Iā€™ve since bought their talkbox and itā€™s great.
Definitely interested in trying a demo to see if itā€™s capable of a diverse range of sounds or if itā€™s fine tuning minor variations that donā€™t really constitute the kind of diversity Iā€™d like.

Iā€™m a vst collector an basically own anything out there thatā€™s good, so I donā€™t actually need this when I have things like Falcon, Phaseplant, Pigments and hundreds of others, but I do love the uniqueness and thatā€™s its unique selling point.

Iā€™m patiently waiting for U-He to drop Zebra 3

#3

I bought a license for the original synplant years ago and use it from time to time. I always got some wild sounds out of it and really cool layers for pads and plucks. I bought the upgrade to 2 earlier today and have been messing around with the AI tab. Itā€™s really cool so far, been making alien sounding drums. I need some more time to dig deeper though.

#4

Itā€™s scary to me that I copy and pasted ā€˜Synplanā€™ from the OP by accident and it gave me some other AI shit, too.

The UI looks like someone took a piss on Autogun and it definitely doesnā€™t look inspiring on first glance, but Iā€™d be down for starting up their timed demo whenever I think I might want to delve into it. I canā€™t even imagine what might be gained from something like this so maybe itā€™s a good idea to take a deeper look and try to understand it.

I think I saw Weaver Beats or someone using this recently and I still didnā€™t understand the idea behind it, because Iā€™m just that dense. All of the fun buttons are gone :cry:

#5

in a nutshell, itā€™s their take on evolution, and how sounds branch off other sounds and create hybrids, which then hybridize further and further away from the original.
I like the novel concept of it, but Iā€™m not gonna pay $149 for a novel concept. Iā€™ll wait till itā€™s in a sale in black friday 2024 or something, as I have more than enough to entertain me till then =)

#6

I think they donā€™t do the usual sales, kinda like Xfer.
I might have some time later to check Synplant 2 and Microtonic out in depth, gonna report backā€¦

#7

So, I had some time to test Synplant 2. Itā€™s an interesting approach to synth UIs and I like the resynthesis stuff in general, but my first impression years back that the synth engine itself is a bit limited still holds true. Because of this, the AI resynthesis is also very limited, even though interesting and not bad, especially in combination with the Synplant patch growth process. But overall, because of the underlying synth restrictions, the resynthesis results are not that great for more interesting sounds imho. It didnā€™t do well with vocals in general in the limited tests I made. I will def stick to wavetable synthesis for this kind of stuff.

#9

I completely forgot to share a track I made using primarily the Synplant 2, I made this just to try it out. I donā€™t know if Iā€™d actually release it, so Iā€™m only sharing it here to show what I did with it. Enjoy!

#10

Hey, thanks for the share! Nice composition and arrangement, very solid work. I also like the lead synths, but thereā€™s nothing really unexpected in terms of sounds.

What is your impression of the synth and itā€™s features and limitations? Did you like to use the resynth feature or make patches from scratch?

#11

So I tried several things with it. The drums were all created using the ā€˜sample to patchā€™ tab. I would pick a kick, snare, hh, etc. at random from my one shot library, then I would listen to the mangled bits that Synplant did, finally I went back and listen to the original to see how close or far it was. I did like how gritty and dirty the drums sound, I also really like the variety of choices you get, but they all felt somehow flat and one demential.
I also used the Synplant for the melody and lead.
For that I used the original Synplant, Itā€™s super fascinating how this section works; I would just keep pulling branches and replanting the seeds and just went down a rabbit hole of different sounds. Although a lot of the sounds felt so alien, I didnā€™t really have a hard time finding what I wanted.
Overall, itā€™s a really cool vst to have in my arsenal, I donā€™t think I would pull it out for every track I do, but I would definitely break it out if Iā€™m feeling uninspired, it can just produce so many strange sounds so quickly, something would definitely spark an idea.

One last thing: The sample section was great with percussion/one hits, sucked for longer samples though!

#12

I used Synplant 2 for the melody in my recent submission. I like plucky sounds, so I used a guitar sample for the AI to learn from, listened to the re-gen, picked what i liked and varied it from there. Overall, I liked what it added to the track in terms of a somewhat atonal melody. @Gadfly enjoyed your track, thanks for sharing!

#13

I think I deleted my post because I didnā€™t want to sound like a negative Nancy, but I got a good 5 minutes out of my 30-day trial (pretty sure it lapsed by now, but I donā€™t care). I guess I just prefer the deep-dive and this didnā€™t seem interesting to me whatsoever, and the sounds it generated from samples were so horrible.

I did get one cool sound out of it, though ā€“ just recording a flick-through of the randomly-generated and newly-spawning sounds for about 5 minutes provided me with some resampling fodder. I get this feeling you can only really do it once, as their own sounds started repeating each other quite a lot, but thereā€™s that.

I really donā€™t get the hype, but I kind of wish I did

#14

And thatā€™s ok!
Youā€™re not gonna love every new plugin, vst, or synth that comes out. I can see why someone wouldnā€™t like this, it almost feels like a toy, just hitting random until something good comes out. The deep dive function is kind of convoluted and easy to ignore.

#15

I also was kinda disappointed. I think the devs are great, Permut8 is a great effect, Bitspeek is good and Microtonic seems nice, too, and Synplant is still very original. But it felt like they spent most of the upgrading time on the AI feature while leaving the synth pretty basic, making all of it feel like a proof of concept for me.

I think I just expected something very different.

Yeah, and I get the appeal of musical toys and randomization (for instance I bought Sugarbytes Cyclop in the past lol), but I also get bored by results I donā€™t like very fast these days. I think the randomization features I like most are either simple probability-based stuff or wavetable generation like in Icarus, since you can generate so many different sounds with any wavetable.