Virtual Instrument of the Year

Described in our review as “a new classic in waiting”, Dmitry Sches’ stunning synth plugin innovates in its use of spectral editing and shaping, and sounds quite unlike anything else. The raw signal is produced by three Harmonic Oscillators (plus a noise oscillator), each generating its own wavetable-style series of up to 16 harmonic tables, each table formed by 128 harmonics that can be freely and easily edited in a bar graph-style interface. Every oscillator also gets up to eight unison voices, a sub oscillator, and a broad selection of crazy spectral and modulation FX, and all three feed into the Harmonic Filter, which offsets their amplitudes and phases via its own 8192-harmonic editor.

After that out-there initial signal-generating and processing stage, the rest of Thorn is reassuringly familiar. Two beautiful analoguemodelled multimode resonant filters with overdrive bring the bite, while the usual array of modulation sources is spearheaded by a couple of excellent multi-stage envelopes/step sequencers. Then there are nine very capable effects modules, a nifty arpeggiator and – last but by no means least – the acrobatic Glitch Sequencer. This last is a separate multieffects section unto itself, housing a gate, filters, repeater, bitcrusher and sample rate reducer, and driven by a six-lane modulation step sequencer. Without it, Thorn would still be a wicked synth, but combine the Glitch Sequencer with those extraordinary oscillators and you have a wild, wonderfully unpredictable sonic beast with endless sound design potential.

A worthy addition to the ‘supersynth’ pantheon, where it sits alongside the likes of Massive, Serum and Dune 2, Thorn specialises in big, animated noises that really grab the attention. It demands to be tried by every electronic producer, and there’s no better way than to grab our exclusive version of it, Thorn CM, from Plugins, on the DVD and FileSilo.

253 » 9/10