AAS Intros Chromaphone 2 Acoustic Object Synthesizer

Applied Acoustics Systems has released Chromaphone 2 – a major update to its ‘acoustic object synthesizer’ for Mac OS X and Windows.

Chromaphone 2 uses virtual acoustic resonators to create drum, percussion, mallet, string, and other unique instruments. The update features a new streamlined interface, a new equalizer and compressor module, a new multi-effect processor, a new drumhead resonator and more.

Here’s the official demo video:

Here’s what’s new:

  • 600 production-ready sounds
  • Drumhead resonator – This new model reproduces precisely how a real drumhead vibrates resulting in super realistic and responsive drums and percussions.
  • Envelope mode – The envelope generator for the noise source is now equipped with an AHD mode for carving precise one-shots.
  • Noise filter bank – The noise source spectrum can now be tailored with a 10-band filter bank for fine control of the tone.
  • Low-cut filter – Resonators have been complemented with a low-cut filter to control the clarity of an instrument response.
  • Arpeggiator – Add motion and give a new perspective to sounds with the new built-in arpeggiator module.
  • Source mixer – Fine control of the mallet and noise sources to shape the attack and sustain phase of sounds with precision.
  • Compressor and equalizer – These new additions are designed to add punch and definition to your sound, letting you cut through any dense mix or stage.
  • Limiter – The new output limiter protects your ears and monitors during experimentation with the synth’s parameters while providing a maximum of distortion-free dynamics.
  • Streamlined interface – Redesigned from the ground up, the new interface now divides Chromaphone 2 into three panels: Play presents shortcuts to the performance and effect parameters including bypass switches for quick edits; Edit lets you tweak and create your sound; while FX supplies equalizer, compressor, multi-effect, and reverb processors for a final sheen.
  • Microtonal tunings via Scala scale files – Chromaphone 2 now supports the Scala scale file format for microtonal music making.
  • Overhauled effects – chorus, delay, phaser, flanger, distortion, notch filter, wah-wah, auto-wah, and reverb
  • Backward compatible with Chromaphone 1 presets

Chromaphone 2 runs on both Mac OS X and Windows in 32- and 64-bit host sequencers supporting the VST, Audio Units, RTAS, and AAX Native plug-in formats.

Pricing and Availability

Chromaphone 2 is available now at a suggested retail price of US$199. Until April 11, 2016, it is offered at the introductory price of $149.A free demo version is also available. See the AAS site for details.

15 thoughts on “AAS Intros Chromaphone 2 Acoustic Object Synthesizer”

  1. SO PSYCHED. I’ve really enjoyed V1. This is a very cool update!!!

    I’ll report back after I’ve had some time to mess with it.

  2. Yes it’s 50 dollars off the intro price – but i’ve just ruined my trousers! I’ll probably wash them instead of throwing them away but still…

    1. The V2 appears to squeeze a few more controls into the same sized space. Yea, I agree, controls and readouts are a bit too small. On a retina display it’s readable. I’d like the ability to choose between its normal size and a bigger UI in settings.

      The tones are quite nice as you can tell from the above demos.

      1. I like the sound of their UltraAnalog, but it’s entirely too small to be usable on a 27 inch monitor. I found it super strange that they updated the instrument a year or so back, including a new interface, but it’s super tiny.

    1. You can only do this by hosting Chromaphone (V1 or V2) as a plugin in a DAW and having multiple instantiations; one sound per channel (all polyphonic).

      Unrelated, but right-clicking on a control in the editor lets you link a MIDI controller to that parameter. It’s unclear whether you can do something like link Polyphonic AT, velocity or release velocity (our only three per-note control sources) but it would be cool if that was the case.

      As a pure synthesizer (when it is not trying to emulate something else) this thing is capable of producing some very nice electronic drums, pants-poopin’ kicks, sick bass, and nice attacky sounds.

      Props to AAS for rolling out a new version with some significant sonic changes, and giving current users a break on the upgrade price. $29 to upgrade is pretty painless.

  8. Sounds amazing and seems to be able to provide a lot ofthe tones that FM and additive can but it looks way easier to use.

    Also, the keyboard player on the demo vid slays.

    1. Weird. I do NOT hear that. Perhaps because you are hearing lots of “metallic” tones, that is evoking the FM thing.

      Physical modeling is so much nicer sounding than FM to me.

      There was some thing that had some kind of big crushed effect going on, that seemed pretty FM-ish.

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