Expressive E and AAS in synth mind meld
Expressive E, makers of the rather fine and actually very expressive touché hardware controller, have just announced a new softsynth by the name of Imagine. It was developed with Applied Acoustic Systems who bring much of their physical modelling expertise – of which they have a lot – to the drawing board to create some crazy, imaginary sounds from the actual physical properties of real instruments.
“Imagine digs deep inside the body of real life instruments, modifies and combines their acoustic characteristics to create an imaginary acoustic landscape,” they say, putting it much better than we did.
The resulting sound, then, can start off as something vaguely recognisable, acoustic, maybe a little orchestral, but can then be quickly twisted into something new: dark, detuned, bright, warped or whatever. It quickly feels like the better the controller you have, the more parameters you can modulate so it really becomes the perfect partner for some of the new breeds of controllers out there, although you don’t need an MPE based one to get the most out of Imagine just yet.
You can see Imagine demoed on video with hardware like Ableton’s Push and
Native Instruments’ Komplete Kontrol on the company’s website. But we’re pretty sure it works best – and they’ll want you to match it – with Touche. Indeed the video demo shows the two in action and it’s an impressive partnership. That said Imagine seems to offer a distinct set of dynamic morphing tones, no matter what controller you match it with and we’re looking forward to getting it in for review. Expressive E’s Imagine is out now and retails for €139.
expressivee.com