MusicRadar

Absynth remains a sound designer's dream.

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• Review

Ever since its debut in 2002, Absynth has been lauded as one of the most versatile and powerful soft synths on the market. Native Instruments' semi-modular beast is truly feature-packed, boasting oscillators into which you can draw your own waveforms, definable multipoint envelopes, deep modulation capabilities, and some of the most 'out there' sounds you're ever likely to hear.

The LFOs, vast array of filter types and assignable performance controls are worth a mention, too, while a quick flick through the generous preset library reveals scorching leads, mind-boggling hybrid instruments and evolving pads that almost seem to be alive. A sound designer's dream, then – so what's new in v5?

Mutator

First up is the Mutator. This offers a new way of quickly creating new sounds by taking an existing preset and morphing it towards the sound characteristics of a group of others. Want that spacey electric piano sound to be darker and more percussive? Just select 'Dark' and 'Percussive' in the browser window, choose the degree of change and hit the big Mutate button – that's the idea, anyway.

Unfortunately, because good Absynth patches are often so involved and considered, with each and every module set up to perfectly complement the others, Mutator isn't massively useful in practice: mutated patches just aren't nearly as perfectly crafted as the originals.

Furthermore, such is the diversity of the preset library that once you've used the browser to select a specific set of aural characteristics, you'll often be left with patches that sound almost nothing like each other. Mutator will then try to morph towards the overall 'feel' of these patches, often giving hugely unpredictable results, and sometimes having none of the attributes that you selected in the first place.

"Mutator isn't massively useful in practice: mutated patches just aren't nearly as perfectly crafted as the originals."

You can, however, mutate just a part of your patch; The Mutator control features a handy little box that enables you to select which modules you want to mutate and which should be left alone. While this can certainly help make mutations less unwieldy once you've isolated the correct modules, again, Absynth patches are often so involved that it might take you a few minutes just to work out which modules are doing what, thus defeating the point of a feature that's supposed to allow you to create new sounds "in seconds".

We think that the patch overview box would be put to far better use as a master module activate/deactivate control, so that you could switch modules in and out on the fly – rather than having to dive into the patch screen – as you navigate Absynth's library of dense and complex sounds.

In fact, it would be worth it for the addition of a master FX disable switch alone, which is still inexplicably missing from the browser screen (and this despite a Mutate button being added to every one of Absynth's eight tabs, nice touch though that may be).

Speaking of the Browser, a simple set of eight rotaries to dial in basic sound qualities such as distortion, resonance, bass and treble now occupies the bottom part of this tab and provides the most instantly usable addition in this area.