Imaginando has announced its COLAPSO atomic synth plugin, so called because it models what happens when an excited atom collapses — an electron falls to a lower energy level and releases the difference as light, one sharp line at a wavelength only that element produces.
This synth effectively plays the periodic table (or a small portion of it). You pick one of 22 elements and its emission spectrum becomes the timbre. Elements in the same column sound related, and mix can morph from one to another.
The Observation control works on the principle that a sound can be precise in time or pitch, but not both at once. It moves from clicks to a pure stable tone, with everything in-between.
Partials fade at their own rate, so you end up with sounds that have movement.
The synth has three oscillators per voice with up to 16 partials each, up to 8 voices in poly, mono or unison, nine filter circuits, four LFOs and four envelopes you draw rather than pick, built in effects, and over 200 presets.
The synth has plenty of help files, and fortunately you don’t need a degree in physics to begin producing interesting and unusual sounds with it.
Features
- Up to 8 voices · Poly, Mono and Unison, with detune, glide and legato
- 3 oscillators per voice, each up to 16 partials
- 22 elements to build each oscillator from, and a second one to morph it into
- 9 filter circuits per voice, from SVF and ladders to comb and formant, with drive and keytracking
- 4 envelopes you draw: attack, decay and release from 1 ms to 8 s each · EG 1 on the amp, EG 2 on the filter
- 4 LFOs you draw or start from a preset, 0.01 to 40 Hz or tempo-synced, with quantise, smooth, one-shot and key trigger
- 2 insert effects in series, in either order, from 8 types · 1 send fed by each oscillator: chorus, phaser, delay or reverb
- Glue compressor on the master bus
- MIDI learn · host sync, MIDI clock or Ableton Link
Runs as VST/VST3/AU and standalone on macOS/Windows. €69.
