WhiteNoise Additive

Available for Windows

2003 was a good year for additive synthesizers. No less than five came out, four of them reviewed by musicFAQ.net in high detail with discussions of every part of the synthesizer. Unfortunately some synths have been lost in the shuffle between additive synthesizers and the amazing number of quality soft synths that came out in 2003.

Consider this; ConcreteFX Adder, WhiteNoise Additive, Camel Audio Cameleon, and VirSyn CUBE, all reviewed in detail along with discoDSP Vertigo 2 which did not wish to participate in this additive synthesis discussion plus so many other wonderful synthesizers that inundated potential buyers with choices also made it hard to find some of the best synths available. To a degree WhiteNoise Additve is one of these synths.

BRIEF IMPRESSIONS

WhiteNoiseAdditive follows the theme of all the new additive synths in that it accoplishes it's sound in unique ways. Taking a page out of programs like the Mac only Metasynth and PC only Coagula which enable sound to be interpolated and synthesized through the use of drawing and reading of bitmaps. WhiteNoise came through with a unique interface for sound creation with a real-time graphic to sound interpreter. Unlike previous programs that attempt this on the Windows platform, Additive does a fine job of implementing a fun to use, easy interface.

It basically means that inside the synth and part of it's sound engine the user draws and edits images with a small toolkit for editing and import of 128 x 128k bitmaps that generate the sound spectrum. Paired to this spectrum graphic is a filter box that offers a formant filter, noise generator or can be turned off.

Let this sink in for a bit, you edit pictures to make spectral, filter or noise information. It may sound a bit like science fiction to some and one of the questions many users will be asking is, "how does it sound?"

Great. Absolutely great!

Add to drawing pictures, including waveforms if you choose, you are able to load samples for resynthesis. Like all other additive synths not only can you resynthesize but you can edit using several graphical ways inicluding simply drawing in a colorful field that represents the resynthesized waveform or you can switch to the partials many are used to. WhiteNoise Additive uses 128 partials per oscillator of which there are two paired to formant filtering, noise or no means of futher editing. The graphic editing is identical between the spectral and filter windows.

THE INTERFACE AND HOW IT WORKS

The Additive interface, about 50% smaller than full size

There is a natural breathy and wine (as in running your finger across a wine glass) type sound that Additive excels in. On WNA there's a bit more bite to the sound. It's aggressive to a degree and can be made more aggressive by working with the FM knob, more on that in a bit.

The screen size of WNA is modest by today's standards for such a powerful synth. Best of all, WhiteNoise has designed an interface that does everything right on it's single page interface.

Here's what you get.

Two pairs of spectrum and filter/noise graphic windows. Each graphic window has tools for opening and saving, targeting morphs, setting the existing spectrum or filter as source and destinaton, editing with blur, squarify, noise reduce, and scale up visual editing processes. The main editing tools are a brush that goes as small as a line to a small box size and similar tool that works the same but for shading, in WNA the color spectrum is represented by black to white, however, depending on your settngs and the colors in the graphics window colors may be in the red through yellow range. There are a couple dozen graphics that come with WNA and several banks of patches with the full version's 128 patch bank.

Note, there are well over 1000 online graphics freely distributed. Try http://dspevo.com/Harmony_Counterpoint/ The vast majority are developed to work well with WhiteNoise Additive.

There is also a phase button per pair and three modes, waveform, vertical bars representing frequency and graphic section previously mentioned. There is an analyze drop down menu to keep sample data in it's correct position. You can use it for synthesis purposes although things can get messy when working with some resynthesized samples.

You will notice that full color mode is quite easy to work with while spectral mode is more precise. The thing that makes Additive special is how fun it is to play. This might seems a low-brow thing to say about a powerful and evocative synthesizer but it is the truth. Should those that expect every interface look and act the same have concerns with the new synths hitting the market, additive and otherwise, it is the typical fear based response to anything threatening, in this case alternative means of operating a synthesizer. If you fit the profile just written, try playing around anyway and see if you don't find charm in the instant gratification of making useful sound with just a few edits, even if you aren't fully aware of what you are doing. And better, once you understand what you are doing you will  be amazed how quickly you learn to program WhiteNoise's Additive.

You get a lot of bang for the buck out of the harmonics drop down. As you change from the four harmonics available you change the pitch but also pitch relations, as you have two of them this is important as you find enormous ways to change the fundemental sound. There is a semitone and detune for the second oscillator. These come in handy for obvious things like FM but also when designing soundscape type sounds or even slightly missmatched tonal information on the second spectrum/filter. This would be more likely working with resampled data in different keys although with a bit of thinking that can be turned to an advantage.

The WhiteNoise Additive sound engine

A very important feature is the bias and emphasis controls on each oscillator pair. They are excellent for some frequency ranges and create the difference between delicate and deadly sound. On others the use is less pronounced. The most important feature besides the oscillators is the Mix control between oscillators. This throwback to many a great analog synth functions a bit differently here. It is easy to program each spectrum/filter to it's own entirely functional timbre while doing a completely different one in the other pair. As you mix you can change simple timbres that can interact with the other in stylish ways. Sometimes just by adding a bit of the other oscillator to the existing one the timbre can add sonic overtones from the other oscillator. This can be a thick midrange with "oomph" to coexisting patterns of intense complexity that intertwine between one another, making for complex timbres you might not expect from a two oscillator synthesizer that hasn't discussed it's LFO or modulation effects. They are in Additive in abundance via the modulation matrix.

Below the array of graphic boxes are two envelopes and amplitude controls. Each has velociy modulation, a nice touch. The envelopes are the classic attack-decay-sustain-release type. The attack phase seem a bit loose, that is the difference between full attack and waiting for release is not as long as one might suspect but is tailored to WNA's envelope sections in general making this small complaint mostly negligible.

Below the envelops are the two LFOs, each with reset and sync. There is a rate control and the following waveforms,(sine, saw, triange, sample & hold, SG, Ramp, VibSine and arpeggiations 1 through 5) a substantial number of LFO waveforms comes in handy when automating and creating phrase-like modulation. And with the yet discussed modulation matrix you can do many exciting changes to the initial sounds from the oscillaors. To be blunt, some synths don't sound as good as the basic oscillators. Considering that most sections can be bypassed this is good news.

There is also a small XY pad for real time expression and some mind bending timbral changes.

As you can see this is a jam packed interface yet at the same time there is no sense of clutter. Controls are set in their places in a logical way and in all the interface makes you want to try things. It is inviting for exploration. Speaking of which, we have considerably more synth to talk about.

To the right of the oscillator section are the "basic" controls including volume, pan, even/odd which has to do with which set of partials are accentuated, this is nice to have as it changes the sound substantialy while keeping the sound source intact. Think of it like this, the even/odd control is like a spectral filter. At the left most the sounds are in the even range and sound smoother with less change between frequencies while the right most become more digital sounding and richer in overtones. The FM (Frequency Modulation) control and RM (Ring Modulation) control work with the second LFO and can make the sound absolutely filthy and nasty in the best sense of the word. They can also create timbres more associated with FM style synthesis. Keep in mind there is no kind of FM Synthesis involved and the term FM dealth with in Additive goes back to early synthesis days, literally meaning modulating the frequency, for example, getting the frequency to start changing timbre while the FM control is moved while retaining the fundemental structure of the oscillators. Limit effects the amount of partials used and Drive controls the volume of the oscillators.

EFFECTS

WhiteNoise Additive has a dual banks of effects, some are fairly high in CPU but if you tailor you playing style quite frequently you can get the offensive amount of CPU use down to a reasonable amount. This is true of almost all internal effects of synthesizers, not just WNA's.

The Effects engine

Effects include a built in Delay and modulation module. The time conroller controls the length of delay, the offset button changes the time offest response between left and right channels. Along with these are the amount, feedback, modulation frequency and modulation density. These controls are pretty much similar to all delay and modulation units. There is a drop down menu for the type of effect in use. They include: (flange/chorus, medium, ping pong, long delays and BeatSync a great effect for setting up rhythmic delay within a patch and last, phaser).

While neither short on effects or filled all are musical and do not require much of the effect to make complimentary sounds. That leaves room for the experimentalists and patch designers that consider effects in the same league as oscillators. Whatever your philosophy, the effects are there.

Below this section are distortion and compression buttons, reverb length and level sliders, a portimento control, a drop down box with polyphonic, mono (fingered), mono 2 (retriggered) and 3 mono mode). A cool feature are the unison voices and detuned controls. In essence you can add whatever amount of voices your CPU can handle and WNA will additional copies of a voice played. The sound is fat and great with mono modes and of course, bass and leads.

One particularly nice element of WhiteNoise's Additive synth is how good it sounds without effects. WNA is fat, thin, wild, simple, outrageous or tightly formatted rhythmic and undulating in it's sounds without the need for effects. Should you use them the effects will sound good and in some cases really do complete a good patch to a great one.

MORE ON THE INTERFACE & SYNTH ENGINE

Finally we see the infamous modulation matrix. There is a small control to change pages. With each page having four modulation routings there is a total of eight per synth patch. The modulation routings are sliders with the left side being low value to the right side's high value.

The Modulation Matrix

There are 12 routings for source, (off, Env. 1, Env.2, LFO 1, LFO 2, Velocity, Amp, Keyscale, Random, Pax X, Pad Y, aftertouch and channel pressure) and 24 Destination routings (off, osc 1 frame, osc 2 frame, amp, osc 1, osc 2, pitch, mix, phrase 1, phrase 2, FFBias 1, FFBias 2, pan, fm level, rm level, formant frame 1, formant frame 2,LFO Frequency 1, LFO Frequency 2, next mod amount, both osc frame, both FF frame, both FF bias, even/odd)

As you can see, quite a bit of control in the matrix. To help explain a bit, FF means formant filters which like the oscillators have 128 frequency bands.

The synth engine design is a near perfect example of how a complex system can be made much easier than one might think. Compared to Adder the amount of controls may seem slim but to some Adder might seem too complex. It seems similar in the higher priced additive synths which also pair up with Cameleon being the "easy" one and CUBE seemingly more complex. But a more fair analogy would be to say there are two approaches to how interfaces are used in additive synths. The compact and hearty versus the large scale synth with tremendous amounts of controls. The truth is all of these synths have a learning curve. Except for the simplest of synths any powerful synth will have some concepts to learn in order to get the most out of the particular synthesizer.

HOW DOES IT SOUND?

Almost any additive synth is a natural for organic voices, organs and analog style synths. WhiteNoise Additive can do these sounds, and do them well. It can make FM synthesis style electric pianos and basses along with analog styled filter sweep sounds.

WNA is as clean and clear as you would expect from a additive synth although, there are several areas where WNA lives up to the company name. If you are into noise and grunge in your sounds you'll love WNA. With it's FM and ring modulation typically found on subtractive (most synthesizers on the virtual market - some examples Pro-53, Pentagon, moog modular V, Albino 2, impOSCar, and Oddity - all based on traditional synthesis from the '60s through today) you can have some of the best controlled squealing and...well, white noise along with a bunch of other noise sounds that can do neat tricks like change over time or scale across the keyboard in unique ways. While noise is fun it's certainly not necessarily everyone's favorite sound. For the majority of synth players WNA is a natural at synth voice sounds and evolving pads. Areas that stuck out as WNA's strongest suite were leads and basses. The sound engine is excellent and really, there's not much WhiteNoise Additive can't do. Earlier the oscillator mix slider was mentioned. It's nice to have because WNA is superb at setting up two completely different timbres, easily useful on their own and if programmed properly equally useful as the mix slider is moved around and morphing to find yet more interesting and unique sounds in real time.

If you like the sound of the PPG Wave 2.v VST instrument you'll be surpised by the similarity found in WNA. Sweeping across two formant filters at once can create some dynamic sounds and in general the PPG sound is quite easy to attain.

Another area well worth exploring are the harmonics section of the oscillators. The changes in ratio bring on all kinds of rich overtones which combined with changes in the spectrum and filter/noise section can yield FM synth sounds that are particularly evolving and capable of some excellent rhythmic abilities when using the LFO and the beat synch effect.

The graphical oscillators (spectrum and filter) mentioned earlier in this review are one of the most powerful features in WNA. Using the modulation matrix can yield very expressive sounds, and that is the special part of WNA's design. You need so little to make a great sound and yet you have so much to work with. WNA is a sound designer's secret weapon although it should be a public treasure considering it's price and highly capable synthesis engine.

It is especially fun to create your own visual spectrums and oscillators. If you use the draw tool and draw black over all other colors you will find that indeed no sound comes out of WhiteNoise Additive Synth. But it doesn't take much to create simple and rich harmonics. Remember, you can always use the traditional graphic style method using the very capable resynthesis engine that is part of Additive.

You have many choices, starting from a blank slate you can have a rich sound in no time. Taking in account the LFOs, modulation matrix and other synthesis controls it is easy to make a reasonable synth sound with no filter. But what a waste that would be! Using noise you can shape it similarly to the formant filter. This is teriffic for electronic drum sounds, cloudbursts, animated wind or screaming industrial timbres. For such a deceptively small interface and reasonable price White Noise Audio's Additive is a killer synth, one worth considering for everything from effects to lovely electric pianos and beautiful, moving pads.

VERDICT

At $99 WNA is well worth parting with your cash. WhiteNoise has taken a technique that had previously been played with or available for several hundred dollar synths that didn't have a tenth of the quality Additive has, and improved upon it. It's timbral stucture makes it suitable for colder sounding leads that say a Pro 53 or Pentagon 1 might make but WNA has them dead to rights in terms of powerful pads and leads. When compared to previous standard bearers like FM-7 or Rhino there is competition. Pads and effects style timbres are excellent and compare to most anything available. In terms of overall sound character it is on the harsher side. By no means is it a poor sound, it's just a different character. If I was making hard sounding music I'd go to WNA before CUBE or Cameleon. It has a style that lends itself to electronic music production rather than in rock ensemble work although it would hold its own in that sort of genre as well. WNA might not be great for New Age or certain types of ambient music, but for everything else it gets as high an endorsement as musicFAQ would give.

The negatives are few. WNA needs CPU power. On the test computer, Athlon XP1700 it drew anywhere from 15% to 50% CPU. This is highly dependent - as in all virtual synths - on length of release in envelopes. For example, playing a triad (3 note chord) and changing to a new chord doubles the CPU use with long releases. This is imporant as many times the release section can be reduced or the sound processed by the excellent sounding delay which uses much less CPU.  One area that could use rethinking are the increment/decrement controls which currently requre a mouse click per use. Being able to hold down the mouse button seems a better solution as does being able to enter the information in the provided area for reading numbers.

Additive synthesis was the big story for 2003 and looks promising for 2004. WhiteNoise Additive Synth plays a major role in additive synthesis as it combines high quality with a low price. At $99 it is the most realistic way to get the most out of you money when going additive, and of importance to a good deal or users, it is fun to use.

An absolutely worthy synth for all users. Get it!

Available online at White Noise Audio.

http://www.whitenoiseaudio.com/additive/

Review by Bruce Satinover