Version 2.5 reviewed by Alex Mouton - 12/16/99

In the growing ranks of software synthesizers, possessing a unique characteristic becomes increasingly difficult. Many applications still seem too firmly adhered to the paradigm of tb-303/tb-909. This soft synth does well in following a model other than the 303, as well as developing its own character.

First Impressions

My first impressions of SimSynth start at the time of first execution. (Installation, before that, proceeds as quickly and simply as might be expected. Certainly thats GOOD, but I'm trying to take that on faith now days.) First up is a simple control panel. Select Driver. Adjust latency. Simple. The synth is making noise from the instant it comes up, a raspy preset appropriately named "old grouch". Perhaps a conscious effort to show off SimSynth as a true noise maker.

Interface

Searching for ways to cease/subdue the initial old grouch riff shows the user interface to be fairly straightforward. The functional segments of the synthesizer are well separated, and well labeled, which makes the whole thing painless to explore from time 0. The SimSynth window has been given a bit of a graphical treatment, faux wood edging, and a bit of dimension inside the face of the synth; Not overdone, but still seen as unnecessary for an audio purist. Some buttons serve multiple purposes, and some knobs do not fit a knob paradigm perfectly, but you can get the general idea right away. It's a synth after all. Tweaking and throbbing knobs is the whole point, right?

The best part of this interface is the envelope display. The author, David Billen, has created an amazingly useful graphical display of envelopes which lets you draw in more than 100 points on an envelope! Adding and removing points from the envelope is simple too. An envelope with this many points is certainly overkill, but this gives you an amazing degree of control over the shape of your sound. See the "Decibus' Bass" preset for an example of the envelope control.

Decibus' Bass Amplitude Envelope

Engine

At the largest granularity, SimSynth is a 3 oscillator, 1 LFO, unit. Each oscillator can be of triangle, saw, pulse, noise, or sine shape. Each shape has its own flexibility. Most unique is the adjustment of a triangle towards sine, and the harmonic adjustment of the sine waveform which gives you mixing control of the first 16 harmonics above a fundamental! Each oscillator may also be warmed by the addition of a first and second harmonic, and a slight detune. SimSynth also offers FM synthesis strengths by allowing the oscillators to modulate each other.

David Billen alleges that the SimSynth filter module closely resembles an Oberheim filter. I don't own any Oberheim to compare the sound character of the two, but the design seems similar. The filter generates LP, BP, and HP simultaneously, which can be mixed to create any type of filter you desire (low cut, notch, hi cut, or any odd combination there of). The filter algorithm has a soft slope, which I understand to be a similarity to Oberheim's implementation. I found myself using the "x2" option which increased the cutoff slope significantly (by a certain factor of 2, perhaps?) David has also left in the possibility to use the filter algorithms from the previous SimSynth version, which give another option in the sound of the filters. Most importantly, the SimSynth filter section offers gaining pre and post filtering, which gives you ample opportunity for overdriving the sound. Maybe I'm in a phase right now, but I enjoy this the most. distort > filter > distort > distort > distort.

The effect section of SimSynth is fairly robust. Not necessarily something amazing, but useful. This implementation offers a delay, and a stereo modulator. I did not experiment too much with the stereo modulator, but I found the delay to be clean enough, though nothing amazing, for my purposes.

Control

At the logical top of SimSynth is its MIDI/pattern implementation. I found the MIDI implementation easy to work with in sequencing from another program. Notes come across fine, and you have the ability to use 8 MIDI controllers to adjust SimSynth as you play. The sequencer built into SimSynth offers 8 bars of 16th notes, with slides and accents, to use to develop a sound. Some presets depend on these "riffs" and do not work very well as stand alone sounds. During my MIDI work, I had the opportunity to study the effects of MIDI feedback loops on Hubis Loopback Device during the trial, but this isn't a review of Hubi is it.

Riff Sequencer

Verdict

I found SimSynth to be very useful! It operates very smoothly, and never broke the audio stream (latency set to 40ms, not horrible). I was able to balance out for the delay using my sequencer, so the net result was a synth that played right along with my MIDI gear: Sweet! Once again, I found SimSynth to be a nice little tool in my kit. And definitely worth more than what you pay for it!

Pros

• Extensive Envelope Control
• Good Distortion
• Built-in Sequencer

Cons

• UI Inconsistency