LINPLUG SOPHISTRY

Aug 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY JIM AIKIN

Click here for an audio demo (128k MP3) of Sophistry by the author, Jim Aikin.

Hardware synthesizers and workstations often have to cover all the sonic bases, but more and more soft synths specialize in certain types of sounds — vintage analog, drums and percussion, etc. If you're looking for big, airy pads, look no further than LinPlug Sophistry. This plug-in is based on LinPlug's CronoX3 engine but ships with a 5.5GB library of new samples, most of which land firmly in the “swirly washes” category. Sophistry will also do very respectable analog-type sounds, but that's not where the instrument's sound designers put their mojo.

The highest-profile competitor in this specialized niche is Spectrasonics Atmosphere, which has more varied and imaginative sounds than Sophistry, but Atmosphere also costs twice as much and is not nearly as programmable. If you're into doing some of your own sound design, especially for electronic styles, Sophistry may be a better choice. Its samples are in a proprietary format and can't be loaded anywhere but into Sophistry. However, Sophistry will load and play any standard audio file (Atmosphere won't).

AIR TIME

Sophistry's lineup of synthesis features is excellent. Four oscillators generate the tones, and two multimode filters process them. For modulation, there are seven envelope generators and four LFOs. As many as six simultaneous effects can massage and animate the output. Also on tap: built-in surround mixing and an arpeggiator with some step-programming features.

As a VST/Audio Units plug-in, Sophistry won't run in stand-alone mode. The user interface is easy to navigate, but in a few spots I noticed things that the synth won't do or that I could do better. For instance, when a large preset is loading, there's no hourglass cursor or progress bar (at least not in the Windows version, which was what I tested); the synth just sits there looking dead until the loading process completes.

The factory sound library contains more than 850 presets, which use more than a 1,000 samples. Included are four folders with “ambient” in the name and another 10 with “pad.” Some of the categorization seemed arbitrary. Not many of the presets in “Ambient — Percussive,” for instance, are percussive, and not all of the presets in “Ambient — Pitched” have easily identifiable pitches.

I noticed a few patches whose notes started late because of badly programmed sample start points. One or two isolated patches, including the aptly named “Horror Scenario,” caused a DSP overload, which LinPlug says it will fix with a library upgrade. I also wish the patches in the Leads folder had been programmed to add vibrato in response to the mod wheel, but those are minor details. In general, I was very impressed with the sound quality.

When I started saving my own patches, Sophistry made fresh copies of all the sample data used in each patch and tucked it away in the folder with the patch. That happens even if you edit a factory patch and save your edited version back into its original folder. Instead of referring to the audio in the Samples directory — as the factory patches do — a newly saved patch has its own copies of the samples. That may be convenient in terms of ensuring that later edits of the drive's file structure won't “break” a patch, but it's doubtful that any sane person would monkey around with the file structure of a huge sound library. Even with data storage being so cheap these days, it seems rude to clutter up your customers' hard drives with hundreds of megabytes of completely unnecessary duplicate data.

ROLLING TONES

The oscillators, which LinPlug calls Generators, have four modes: Oscillator (modeled analog), Loop Sampler, Time Sampler and Schrader. Loop Sampler mode, which is available for only Generators 1 and 2, provides standard sample playback. That is the mode used by the majority of factory presets. As many as 64 samples can be loaded per Generator, each with its own amplitude, Velocity and key-range settings. In a small but capable graphic waveform display, you can adjust the sample start and loop points. Crossfade looping is provided to ensure smooth textural sounds. Even so, it would be a mistake to think of Sophistry as a sampler. Individual samples can be tuned only in half-steps, but the bigger issue is that there's no way to store and load multisample layouts. Want to combine the multisamples used in two factory presets? Whip out a pencil and paper because you'll have to load the samples one at a time, and then duplicate all of the parameter values by hand.

Each Generator has an output balance control — enabling it to be routed through filter 1, filter 2 or a blend — and a spread control for adding extra detuned voices. Generators 1 and 3 can sound off or serve as FM or AM inputs for Generators 2 and 4. (Cranking up the spread uses a lot of CPU power, and due to a DSP bug, spread can't be used on an FM modulator.) The modeled analog oscillators have continuously variable waveform and symmetry controls but lack dedicated sine and triangle waves. Oscillator sync is also not part of the package.

The Time Sampler and Schrader Generators are among Sophistry's more unusual features. They time-stretch and perform wavetable lookup in ways that are hard to describe but can completely transform the source samples. I created a sustaining underwater pad, for instance, using a kick drum and a shaker loop. Designing exotic, gauzy sounds in Sophistry is easy and fun.

PLAYING FOR SWEEPS

The Sophistry filters have a fat, satisfying sound and can self-oscillate at high-resonance settings. There are two main modes. In Standard mode, you have a choice of two lowpass types, bandpass or highpass. Free mode is a state-variable filter that can be set (or modulated) in a continuous fashion from lowpass through notch, highpass and bandpass modes. Each filter has a saturation stage and its own envelope generator.

The outputs of the two filters can be panned independently, producing various kinds of big stereo spreads. The filters are always in parallel, but series routing between filters is generally somewhat less useful for synth voicing, so that is not a big design flaw. The usual keyboard-tracking and envelope-amount controls are included.

MAD MODULATION

Sophistry's envelopes are ADSRFs, with an extra fade stage after the sustain. Negative fade amounts cause the envelope to hit the sustain level and then fall to zero; positive fades cause it to hit the sustain level and then rise back to the maximum. That is a sensible and effective setup. Each filter has its own dedicated envelope, as do the amplitudes for Generators 1 and 2 (but not 3 and 4). A global amp envelope and two modulation envelopes round out the set. Each can be switched to linear or logarithmic curves.

The four LFOs have clock sync, a choice of waveforms and mono/poly switching, as well as some luxury features not found on all synths, including waveform symmetry, phase, delay and attack/decay parameters.

The hard-wired modulation routings include Velocity to amplitude and Velocity to each filter cutoff. In addition, Sophistry has a modulation matrix with 10 routings, 28 sources and 57 destinations. Destinations include the depths of mod routings 1 through 4; LFO 1 and 2 speed; attack, decay and release for the envelopes; and the sample start and loop points for Generators 1 and 2.

That is all great stuff, but I noticed a couple of odd limitations. First, the Velocity input to the matrix is bidirectional, with Velocities less than 64 causing negative modulation. As a result, it's not possible to program a classic-synth Clavinet patch with a slightly upward-moving pitch envelope that increases at high Velocities. Also, attempting to use the mod wheel to control envelope times does nothing.

Effects parameters can't be assigned as modulation destinations in the matrix, but they can all respond to MIDI Control Change messages (as can most other parameters) using a standard MIDI Learn setup.

The arpeggiator is not fancy, but the Velocity outputs for as many as 32 steps can be programmed. Ties and rests are also allowed, so rhythmic patterns can be devised. A special “mod-only” mode allows the arpeggiator's step values to be used as a modulation source without triggering new notes, which is a cool way to set up stepped filter patterns.

BUTTERY TOPPING

Each filter has one effects processor on its output, so parallel effects are possible. The other four processors are in series and receive a mix from the first two. Most of the algorithms are basic: delay, reverb, chorus, EQ and so on. A bit-degrader is included, but there's no overdrive-type distortion.

In theory, the 16-step Gator effect can be used for programmable rhythmic patterns. In my tests, though, the Gator tended to improvise its own patterns rather than using mine. It also tended to push the beat a bit on all gates after the beginning of the pattern. Since Sophistry isn't primarily aimed at dance music, those problems may be less than crucial.

PROFUNDITY

According to Wikipedia, sophistry is rhetoric designed to appeal to the listener without necessarily making logical sense. So maybe the idea behind the odd name is that Sophistry the synth will bathe you in a warm glow of satisfaction and obviate the need to think logically. That's a pretty good description, actually. Certain aspects of the software design can be irksome, but I really like the sound of the instrument. It will add a sparkle to ambient tracks that would be hard to match.