Rhizomatic has announced Plasmonic, a software synthesizer that combines the resonant depth of physical modeling with subtractive synthesis.
Developed by NI Absynth creator Brian Clevinger, Plasmonic aims to approach the depth and detail of an acoustic instrument, while making it easy to shape the sound into anything you want. Its deep modulation capability and MPE support make it very playable and expressive.
The heart of Plasmonic is a self-oscillating delay-based waveguide/multimode ladder filter pair, which can be configured in parallel or in series. Each filter can take any combination of the audio sources as input. This creates some very interesting interactions between the audio source and feedback loop of the waveguide.
Audio sources include two wavetable oscillators, a sample-based impulse generator, and a filtered noise generator. Both oscillators have waveform transformations which nicely complement the waveguide. The impulse generator is especially suited for making the waveguide ring.
Modulation is deep and makes it easy to add detail and life to the sound. Each parameter has a popup panel displaying the depth, polarity and inversion of each modulation source, allowing unprecedented control.
The master section contains a 3-band EQ, a saturator which can be polyphonic or monophonic, modulated delay effects and a final resonator effect. Like the waveguide, the delay effects are capable of self-oscillation, which can lead to all kinds of sonic mayhem.
Currently under development, Plasmonic will be available spring 2020. You can already preorder now at a 33% discount at the Indiegogo campaign, priced 89 EUR / $99 USD.
The synth comes in VST/VST3, AU and AAX plugin formats and standalone software for Windows and macOS.
More information: Rhizomatic Software Synthesis
