All sounds ©2003 by Brian Clevinger
 

Absynth's biggest new feature is probably sampling. However Absynth is not meant to replace your S900, sampling is rather an extension of Absynth's synthesis capability. Sample playback is a new oscil mode, each oscil can playback one sample (aiff or wave), no keygroups. 

However you can do some things with samples in Absynth that you probably can't with an S900. Absy2 has a new type of envelope called "sample jump". At each breakpoint the sample playback position can jump to any point in the sample, so you can shuffle and loop the sample in strange ways. In this example I made an aiff file containing bass drum-type sounds from the Absynth CD's Percussion bank. Each drum sound is separated by a bit of silence. The envelope causes the sample playback position to jump around rhythmically, each beat plays a different "drum" in the sample. In the envelope editor it looks like this:

This is a variant of the previous patch. One held note, moving various sliders to make part of the sound mute and vary individual filter parameters.

A pretty looped sample with a rhythmic filter envelope. Envelope breakpoint amp is being modwheel controlled, making the rhythm more pronounced or disappear into the sky.

A granular sample freeze. One note, moving the mod wheel changes the freeze position in the sample. Absynth's granular algorithm is different from NI's (which is excellent!). It's more "particulate" or grainy.

A frozen cymbal sample. As in the previous example moving the mod wheel changes the freeze position in the sample.

The envelope window has lots and lots of new stuff. My favorite is the new "control-driven" envelope mode. Normal envelopes change as time goes by, they are "time-driven". Control-driven envelopes change as midi controllers change. So if we're talking mod wheel, wheel = 0 means envelope is at the start, wheel = 64 means envelope is right in the middle, wheel = 127 means envelope is at the last breakpoint. Basically the envelope is mapping midi input to new values.

So just one midi controller can change the sound in radical, non-linear ways. 

In this example I took the classic "Tom's vinyl Rap" and set most of the envelopes to control-driven mode. One note held, the patch is scratched/scrubbed with the mod wheel. This is possibly the most insane sound ever made with Absynth!

I took the ever popular Abyss and set the envelopes to control-driven mode. A few notes held, moving the mod wheel changes the sound.

A more conventional patch using control-driven pitch envelopes. Breakpoints have a new "step" mode where there is no curve, the value immediately jumps to the breakpoint value, much like a step sequencer. Moving the wheel causes the 6 oscillators to transpose independently. Held chord, mod wheel moved.

Note the absence of aliasing all the way to Nyquist;-) 

Just a nice bass patch and me showing off my lack of keyboard technique. Better filters and total envelope control of all the patch window parameters make this sound possible.

You're in a loft in NYC in 1973, it's late afternoon and the sun is very bright, and you've got that sleepy hypnogogic feeling. Infinite unsynchronized loops, a short flute sample.

A new feature of Absynth's envelopes is that each breakpoint can be set to "step" where the value immediately jumps rather than slidees along a curve. This can be used to create step-sequence-like patterns.