SONiVox has announced Stratum, its supersaw and FM synth, which they are touting as “ideal for synthwave, vaporwave and retro electro” productions.
Stratum is a layering of a classic Supersaw synthesizer and a 4-operator FM synthesizer. Originally made famous by the Roland JP-8000, the Supersaw waveform has made a strong comeback in the trance and hardcore musical genres due to its edgy sound, particularly in synth leads and synth basses.
Stratum takes the Supersaw sound a step further by combining this classic waveform with a 4-operator FM synth, a noise generator and sub oscillator to produce a virtual instrument perfect for modern synthwave productions like those found in the recent hit series “Stranger Things” and the movie “Synchronicity OST”.
Using the new struQture audio engine from Qubiq Audio, Stratum also features two low-pass filters, a vocal format filter, and a tube distortion circuit to further enhance its sounds, all controllable by a simple modulation matrix featuring four LFO’s with modwheel control and an 8-step sequencer called the Stepper.
Stratum includes a unique XY Pad which can mix in a Bit Crusher, Dirty Phaser, Wah-Wah, and a Non-Linear Delay. Stratum also boasts two arpeggiators, one for the Supersaw synth and one for the FM synth. As the final polish to its sounds and tracks, Stratum includes built-in Chorus, Phaser, Delay and Reverb effects.
SONiVOX Stratum Features at a Glance:
- Supersaw plus FM Synthesizer with Noise and Sub Oscillators
- Individual arpeggiators for the Supersaw and FM synths
- Dynamic Filters including Low-Pass Filters with Resonance, Vocal Format and Tube Distortion
- Unique XY Effects pad for additional bit crushing, dirty phasing, wah-wah and non-linear delay
effects - Simple but powerful Modulation Matrix featuring 4 LFOs and an 8-step sequencer
- Built in Reverb, Delay, Phaser, and Chorus effects
Pricing and Availability.
SONiVOX’s Stratum transwave synthesizer is available now via the SONiVOX website and dealers worldwide. With an introductory discount through June 30, Stratum is currently available for $99 US, and will retail for $199 US from July 2018 onward.
There generally aren’t any supersaws in synthwave. What a weird advertisement. Sounds very used cars saleman-ish.
The interface….looks like it’s emulating the 90s predicting what GUIs in the 00s would be. Or basically Winamp as a synth.
Software toys… i‘ll pass.
Dont we have enough realy synths by now on the market that we could just exclude thise softsynths from the newsfeed? I mean there are other blogs for these, here we wanna see realy synths! ;-p
actually there are ppl that have work to do and need total recall 😉
I get total recall with sysex from within my DAW.
how does that work for you when you are on the road? 😉
I am beginning to miss your point. If you want to have total recall with hardware in the studio, you can archive all the sysex dumps of your patches within your project file and they will stay there forever, exactly like you do with a software plugin. That is what I do, I program in the synth and store the sysex preset dump with the DAW file. There is no reason to do that live, device memory and patch changes should be enough.
Well, some of us are more interested in software synths than hardware ones. At least I am.
I have a real JP8000. The addition of FM is kind of a cool twist to this, but I have tons of softsynths so i’ll pass.
Who needs another plugin that sounds like 1986? Maybe it’s better than the demo songs, but heard and not flashed ….
Wow. People still use computers to make music? That must be a drag.
Its not the next ultra-thing, but its also a decent enough starter synth with some attractive pluses. I’ve snarked at EDM some, but its more a case of the style becoming too much of the definition of a synthesizer. That’s due to overbearing marketing and uncurious listeners who don’t listen past their core favorites, not the tools. I listen to some trance and semi-industrial that’s really engaging, but there’s more to be had than just that. Stratum is the kind of synth that will lead users to take up more detailed instruments once they’re ready for 16-operator FM and bigger modulation grids. Bryce Kanzer’s piece was especially classy.