Westwood Instruments Lost Synth

Westwood re‑imagine some classic instruments to take familiar sounds to new places.

Virtual instruments come in many forms. Some might be classified as predominantly sample‑based (for example, many acoustic drum or orchestral libraries). In contrast, others are synthesis‑based (many software recreations of classic hardware synths fall into this type). Others, however, fall somewhere in between and Westwood Instruments’ Lost Synth is an interesting example of that.

As a Kontakt‑based instrument, it does have an underlying sample base, drawn from a collection of vintage synths including the Juno‑60, Polysix and ARP Odyssey. However, while these samples undoubtedly shape the sound, it’s the sound manipulation engine Westwood have built within Kontakt that defines what Lost Synth is really about. And, as that engine does — in parts at least — contain some rather unconventional elements, the sonic end result is also unconventional. If you like your synth sounds to be atmospheric, quirky, textural and possible with an added rhythmic element, Lost Synth might be right up your street.

Lost Synths Found

Designed for Kontakt 6.6.1 or later (free or paid version), Lost Synth features 80 underlying sample‑based sounds. This comes in at a fairly compact 3.7GB in total, can be downloaded via Pulse and is authorised through NI’s Native Access. The UI is nicely styled and the default Sounds page, as well as providing access to all of the 200+ Kontakt Snapshot presets, also hints at the twin layer nature of the sound design. As we will see in a minute, that’s not quite the whole story, but the Sounds page is where you select sounds for the A and B slots from the underlying sample sources. It also provides a set of fairly conventional controls for activating each slot, setting level, pan, attack, release and two different tuning options. The large Blend knob adjusts the balance between the two sound slots and, if you activate the Motion option, this lets you automate the Blend based upon different LFO shapes, with sync to host or time‑based speed control. MIDI Learn can also be used for hands‑on control of any of Lost Synth’s parameters.

If all you do is load one of the presets and tweak using the controls described so far, there is still plenty of sonic character to be explored. The presets category and sub‑category labels hint at the somewhat leftfield sonics — Dirt, Dusk, Glow, Shrt (short for ‘short and using shorter sounds) and Warp, for example — and while there are some conventional(ish) sounds within the collection (for example, within the ‘4ths, 5ths’ category), that’s not really what Lost Synth is about.

The effects options include some great options for ‘degrading’ your sound palette in some very cool ways, as shown here for the Places page.

Engine Mechanics

That’s where the three other pages of controls come in. The Processes page provides a selection of effects processing options including a full ADSR, Compressor, Overdrive, Filter (with LFO control), Chorus, Sample (bit depth and sample rate), Wow (pitch flutter) and a very effective Sub section. Most of these can be set to operate globally (the same settings are applied to both A and B sound slots) or independently for each sound slot.

The Places page offers various ‘spatial’ processing options with Ambience, Noise, Reverb and Delay. These are all well featured but it’s worth noting the lo‑fi‑esque nature of the background sound elements you can add via the Ambience and Noise sections, and the options for some degraded delay effects. Add in some Wow from the Processes page, and things can get very nicely degraded and retro sounding. All of which then leads us back to the Sounds page because the Mood option found there essentially offers a number of preset configurations (Temper, Muse, Awe, Void, Blur and Yearn) of the Process and Places pages that you can blend into your selected sounds via the Level knob. It’s like a macro‑based multi‑effects option and capable of totally transforming your sound in all sorts of unusual ways.

So far, so nicely quirky, but I’ve saved what I think is the most interesting element until last; the Memories page. The online documentation describes this as an arpeggiator and delay engine, but it serves those functions through a pretty unconventional control set. However, before getting into the controls, the key thing to note is that this page lets you add a third sound source into your overall preset. The underlying Shrt (short) sounds have been created with this page in mind, but all the different sound types can be used here. The page includes both full Memories presets and Pattern presets (the latter seem to change the underlying arpeggiation patten).

The Memories page provides a third sound source that adds a sense of rhythm to your sound with a very intriguing arpeggiator/delay style engine.

The two branches of controls are both weird and wonderful and I’m still not sure I fully understand how they all interact. What I am sure of, however, is that the results can be very inspiring. You can tweak the attack/decay of the Memories sound component, add damping (reduces the high‑end content) and random damping variations, use the Density control to adjust the amount of notes generated by the engine, adjust the sync of the arpeggiator to your host tempo, adjust the pitch range over which the arpeggiator generates notes, and then add a combination of Mist (something akin to delay and reverb) or Echo (a tape delay) with control over the time, depth, feedback and sync.

If you chose to add this third sound element, the additional Blend control on the Memories page then becomes an important part of your sound design. This adjusts the overall balance between what’s generated via the Sounds page (from slots A and B) and the Memories page. Rotate fully left and you just hear the Sounds page, rotate fully right and you just hear the Memories page, or sit somewhere between (and adjust the setting via a suitable MIDI controller), and you can blend in just the right amount of the rhythmic element to your overall sound.

The final element of the engine is the Get Lost option located bottom‑right of the UI. This provides access to the randomisation system that can generate a full preset at the click of the mouse. Rather sensibly, Westwood seem to have placed some useful constraints on some of the generated settings so that things don’t get out of hand. As a result, this is capable of generating some very cool — and very usable — sounds. Just keep clicking and something inspiring will soon come along.

Lost In Sound

Once you have your head around the basic concept, the Lost Synth engine provides a super‑intuitive performance platform, whether you want to create melodic parts, complex evolving textures, rhythmic patterns or some changing blend of all of these. The sounds themselves provide a starting point that undoubtedly has something of a retro feel, and you can take that lo‑fi ethic some considerable distance further courtesy of the effects and processing options provided. I suspect that might mean that those looking for raging EDM synths could find more obvious choices elsewhere. However, if your music requires a more experimental element, Westwood Instruments have provided a really interesting sound palette and sound design engine for more ambient or textural electronica styles.

The other obvious audience for Lost Synth will be media composers and I can see it being an excellent choice for the sorts of (often subtle) textural underscore that lots of modern drama, sci‑fi, or horror (the bits before the gore actually happens) might require. Lost Synth’s sounds would make it easy to create anything from the mystical or magical to the unsettling and unnerving, and a whole lot more besides. And, when you need to up the tension level, you gradually dial in that rhythmic element to add a pulse or a sense of time running out.

Lost Synth is cool, quirky, relatively compact and delivers some fabulous sound design options in a (mostly) intuitive UI.

Conclusions

This is the first product from Westwood that I’ve had the chance to explore, and I suspect they may be a new name to many SOS readers. However, I have to say that I’m very impressed. Lost Synth is cool, quirky, relatively compact and delivers some fabulous sound design options in a (mostly) intuitive UI. Yes, the sounds favour a more experimental type of music creation using retro, dusty, tones but, within that musical ballpark, this really is very good.

While not in the pocket money range, it’s very sensibly and competitively priced. Even if Westwood are new to you, I’d encourage media composers and electronic musicians with a love of textural/ambient styles to check out the audio demos available on company’s website. They may be all you need to take the plunge and get lost in a little Lost Synth exploration.