{"id":111,"date":"2021-08-12T01:58:16","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T01:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/?page_id=111"},"modified":"2025-12-11T05:29:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T05:29:45","slug":"absynth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/absynth\/","title":{"rendered":"NI Absynth \ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Hippies Won’t Come Back You Say – then suddenly…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Do you remember the 00’s? The hippy revival? When people started saying ‘man’ at the end of sentences again man? Do you remember Koblo<\/a><\/em> and Rhizomatic <\/a>Absynth?<\/em> I mean the first version with the groove tube graphics.Trippy!<\/strong> I remember trying to teach it at the University of Western Sydney back whenever, and the students rebelling and wanting the familiar interface of Reason<\/a><\/em> instead. But anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The good old psychedelic daze…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That cryptic interface has kept Absynth’s<\/em> mystique all these years, because if it ever used a simpler, more modern layout the cat would be out of the bag. It’s a three oscillator virtual analogue with cross modulation, two filters and wafty effects. It’s expansive – but not really that weird once you grok it. A bit like Synthmaster<\/a><\/em> in some ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Version 1 had single cycle waveforms. Version 2 added samples (and if you look carefully at the presets, the provided samples hold a lot of the strangeness that people thought was in the synthesis). Granular playback of these samples gave Absynth<\/em> its cloudy pot head texture. Version 3 added surround sound, frequency shifting and ‘fractal’ waveshaping. A resonator joins the pipe effect. Version 4 was more aligned with other NI plugins. Finally v5 added a mutator for easier patch creation and the ‘aetherizer’ effect. (And now there’s version 6 … scroll down!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these processes are well chosen and executed but not entirely unique. The expectation that Absynth<\/em> has a particular sound comes more from the examples provided and the final effects than any innate limitation of the synthesis. So over time it has become a particular use machine, cinematic, compared to Omnisphere<\/a><\/em> and Alchemy<\/a><\/em> mostly based on the preset sample library and the surround outputs. But if you really wanted you could make the same kinds of sounds that Massive<\/em> <\/a>is supposed to be for – and vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lesson being that perception, as guided by interface, is a major part of the synthesis<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind the Mask<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

UPDATE – Native Instruments dumped Absynth<\/em>, but then suddenly produced version 6. One reason could be that NI’s recent offerings are worthy but increasingly dull. I rarely reach for an NI instrument because I don’t make generic soundtracks. They need to remind people that they once were the one of the leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There’s two main new interfaces. Firstly a map that presents all the preset patches across an X\/Y space. Once you filter the intended type to e.g. “Vocal”, you can quite quickly pick out a sound to reform. Finding sounds on the old word-based interface was painful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second is a much cleaned up synthesis path which you can learn reasonably quickly. I was however flummoxed for quite some time in trying start a blank patch. It’s almost hidden, just three tiny dots next to the logo opens up a menu. Really? C’mon<\/em> surely making your own sounds isn’t that bad?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you do make your own sounds you confirm your suspicion that Absynth<\/em> was never really that spacey – it was always that the interface (dare I say) sucked. When laid out in modern interface rules you’ll very quickly see it as a high quality subtractive synthesiser … but not nearly as odd or unusual as the legend would suggest. For that you should look at Zebralette<\/em><\/a> or Myth.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you do own Absynth<\/em> from the old days – upgrade. It’s worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s encourage Native Instruments to follow this path. Yes! Good! You made something that wasn’t a sample library! Woof! We missed you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hippies Won’t Come Back You Say – then suddenly… Do you remember the 00’s? The hippy revival? When people started saying ‘man’ at the end of sentences again man? Do you remember Koblo and Rhizomatic Absynth? I mean the first version with the groove tube graphics.Trippy! I remember trying to teach it at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[13,4],"class_list":["post-111","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-spectral","tag-virtual-analogue"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2728,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111\/revisions\/2728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}