Published 1/7/08
The shape of things to come?
Circle is a modular software synthesizer that’s been developed to make life easy for the computer-based musician. Developers Future Audio Workshop (FAW) look at musical creativity in terms of ‘flow’, and say that “staying in flow becomes increasingly difficult when dealing with the complexities of modern software synthesizers”.
FAW say that, by giving Circle a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is uncluttered, with all of its virtual knobs and sliders easy to see and large enough for precise parameter tweaking, musicians can quickly sculpt and fine-tune the sounds they need.
But it’s not just an easy-on-the-eye GUI that makes Circle simple to use. Instead of using virtual cables or a matrix of drop-down menus to route modulation assignments (from an LFO to a filter, for example), Circle has colour-coded blobs that identify the routing assignments between modules. What’s more, if you click and drag a coloured blob from a modulation output to a potential destination, and hover the blob over the virtual socket, you will hear a preview of how the resulting assignment will sound.
Other neat features include an easily accessible MIDI learn feature that enables users to set up controller assignments in a jiffy. The bottom third of the GUI can be set to display different information panels, including one that shows the keyboard alongside an arpeggiator, one that displays the settings for effects, and others for more general controls that govern the behaviour of the synth.
Circle is out now, costing 149 Euros, which was just under £120 at the time of writing. You can download a free demo from FAW’s web site, where you’ll also find templates for the Jazzmutant Lemur hardware controller. Circle works as a VST, Audio Units or RTAS plug-in, but can also work in stand-alone mode without any additional software.
Future Audio Workshop +353 933 2698
www.futureaudioworkshop.com
Circle is a modular software synthesizer that’s been developed to make life easy for the computer-based musician. Developers Future Audio Workshop (FAW) look at musical creativity in terms of ‘flow’, and say that “staying in flow becomes increasingly difficult when dealing with the complexities of modern software synthesizers”.
FAW say that, by giving Circle a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is uncluttered, with all of its virtual knobs and sliders easy to see and large enough for precise parameter tweaking, musicians can quickly sculpt and fine-tune the sounds they need.
But it’s not just an easy-on-the-eye GUI that makes Circle simple to use. Instead of using virtual cables or a matrix of drop-down menus to route modulation assignments (from an LFO to a filter, for example), Circle has colour-coded blobs that identify the routing assignments between modules. What’s more, if you click and drag a coloured blob from a modulation output to a potential destination, and hover the blob over the virtual socket, you will hear a preview of how the resulting assignment will sound.
Other neat features include an easily accessible MIDI learn feature that enables users to set up controller assignments in a jiffy. The bottom third of the GUI can be set to display different information panels, including one that shows the keyboard alongside an arpeggiator, one that displays the settings for effects, and others for more general controls that govern the behaviour of the synth.
Circle is out now, costing 149 Euros, which was just under £120 at the time of writing. You can download a free demo from FAW’s web site, where you’ll also find templates for the Jazzmutant Lemur hardware controller. Circle works as a VST, Audio Units or RTAS plug-in, but can also work in stand-alone mode without any additional software.
Future Audio Workshop +353 933 2698
www.futureaudioworkshop.com
