BAZILLE CM
We show you how to patch the heck out of your awesome new modular synth,
Yes! You did it! You’ve only gone and got yourself a copy of Computer Music 232, and in doing so, you’ve instantly boosted the power of your virtual studio. It all comes down to one super-charged plugin – and if you don’t know its name by now, you’d better take another look at the magazine cover.
Built for by soft synth legends u-he, Bazille CM is yours for free this month, and it’s a giveaway so outrageously overpowered that it easily blows away many paid-for synths. And no wonder, as it’s based on the full Bazille, which we gushed over in 212 due to its “superb, utterly convincing analogue sound,” branding it a “genuinely viable alternative to a hardware modular system” and awarding it a 10/10 score and our Editor’s Choice, Performance and Innovation awards. We simply could not get over its supreme flexibility and superior sonics, and we feel exactly the same way about Bazille CM.
Bazille CM is a modular synth (in VST/AU/AAX formats for PC and Mac), meaning that u-he give you the modules, and you connect them however you like, using virtual patch cables. Its twin digital oscillators will amaze you with their breadth of tone and expression, and the six-mode filter overflows with analogue flavour. Modulation and signal processing is extensive, and there’s a beautiful tape-style delay and over 200 presets.
Being such a deep synth, though, we’d hate to think you only ever scratched its surface. To ensure that doesn’t happen, we’ve prepared an in-depth course of tutorials that makes it easy to master Bazille CM’s modular synthesis. It’s our most extensive Plugins guide ever, ranging from the very basics to advanced synthesis and sound design, including all the tutorial files and videos you need. By the end of it, your brain will be buzzing with patching trickery!
But what if your synthesis schemes need even more modules and voices? Then it’s time to get serious with the full Bazille (£110), which sports extra oscillators, filters, envelopes and modulators; more effects; high-quality and multicore processing; 16-voice polyphony; and eight-voice unison. You’ll find it at www.u-he.com.
Meet the modules
Bazille CM is one deep synth, but before we dive right into it, let’s run through what every module and section is for. The Patches/Synth 1 selector on the left switches between the main synth screen (shown here) and the preset patch browser. The Top Bar 2 , meanwhile, has indicators for MIDI input and signal level output, undo/redo, a master volume control, and previous/next patch arrows. Giving visual feedback of the synth’s final output is the Oscilloscope 3 . The Voice 4 panel offers four modes: polyphonic (for chords), monophonic (one note at a time), legato (like monophonic but doesn’t retrigger when notes overlap) and duo (oscillator 1 plays the lowest note; oscillator 2 plays the highest). Set the global tuning and vibrato in the Pitch 5 panel, and enable swooping portamento in the Glide 6 section.
Oscillators and filters
Now let’s get into the synthesis modules, which feature red connections for output, and grey nodes for input. If you want a module to be heard, don’t forget to connect it to one of the synth’s outputs, Out 1/Out 2 7 – like the other modules, the arrows give you an idea of signal flow, so we can see that each has two inputs that are mixed together before Volume and Pan are applied.
Oscillators 1 & 2 8 are your main sound sources, featuring phase distortion, FM and fractal resonance – while designed mainly to produce audio-rate signals in the range of human hearing (20Hz-20kHz), they can be slowed right down to function as LFOs too.
The Filter 9 sculpts audio signals further, with six simultaneous modes and tasty overdrive. Multiplex 10 is a signal mixer with modulatable level control, which makes it way more powerful than you might think.
Modulation and effects
To bring more interest to the signal, there’s an LFO 11 or low-frequency oscillator, two ADSR envelopes – Envelope 1 & 2 12 – and a totally loopy Sequencer 13 . The Mapping Generator 14 offers custom remapping and shaping of modulation sources, and can also be used as a user-definable waveform generator. To quantise, resample, invert, rectify and smooth signals, turn to the Processors 15 . The MIDI & More 16 panel offers a selection of MIDI sources for adding expression to patches, noise generation, and other ‘utilities’. Finally, the FX: Delay 17 section is a lush tape-style delay applied to Bazille CM’s overall output.