MESSE: Natives are still restless – Absynth 2.0

How wrong we were!
Hardly pausing to draw breath, they announced the release of version 2.0 of Absynth, their acclaimed soft-synth, which is now so feature-laden it seems it be having a crisis of identity.

As they say themselves:-

It’s Sympler!
Is it a synth, or a sampler? Both. ABSYNTH 2.0’s intuitive patch window makes it easy to mix sampling, granular sampling, subtractive, wavetable, FM, AM, ring modulation, and wave shaping synthesis. Each voice has six synth oscillators (or three sampling oscillators), four filters, three ring modulators, and a wave shaping distortion function. Waveforms can be drawn by hand or created by sketching harmonics. A built in context-menu library of waveforms, envelopes, and even entire oscillator channels enables the quick construction of complex, evolving sounds with just a few clicks.

Driven by Control
Nearly every synthesis, sampling, and effect parameter can be controlled by ABSYNTH’s envelopes. Each envelope can contain up to sixty-eight breakpoints and can be synced to the tempo. It’s now possible to dynamically control an envelope (or a group of envelopes!) with a MIDI controller to morph and twist the sound with a single gesture. Each envelope can be modulated with its own variable speed LFO for creating living, breathing sounds. A new link mode allows multiple envelopes to be chained together, with adjustable time, amplitude, and slope scaling – perfect for detuned chords, phasing filters, or for mirroring the sample playback position with filter resonance, for instance.

Great Integration
Plug-in operation of ABSYNTH has been greatly enhanced in version 2.0. Each plug-in can open its own bank of sounds, and editing is easier than ever before. Available for OS X, OS 9, Windows, and nearly every plug-in format, ABSYNTH 2.0 sounds great and plays well with others.

Features