Recording - October 2017 - 36
Soundware Showcase
Spitfire Audio BT Phobos
By Mike Metlay
Spitfire Audio is well known to our readers as a purveyor
of beautifully-realized sound sets based around the Native
Instruments Kontakt sample engine. We've reviewed all kinds
of Spitfire libraries covering everything from compositional
inspiration to full-on orchestral cues; most recently, we covered
Albion V Tundra in June 2017, and in an upcoming issue we'll
be presenting a full walkthrough and in-depth analysis of the
stunning Spitfire Symphony Orchestra.
Today, however, this Kontakt-celibate Editor finally gets to
do the happy dance-Spitfire has released its first standalone
virtual instrument, the BT Phobos polyconvolution synthesizer.
It was developed in conjunction with recording artist, film and
game composer, and technology advocate BT (Brian Transeau),
best known for popularizing the dance-centric "stutter
edit" technique.
any sound into a convolution reverb as an IR; some companies
even specialize in unusual IRs for sound design. The secret sauce
in BT Phobos is what Spitfire Audio calls polyconvolution-the
spontaneous generation of multiple IRs to process every note
the user plays, as they happen.
The next bit of magic is what happens if the IR being used
contains rhythmic content like drum loops or beats. By
convolving rhythmic material, basic sounds take on a rhythmic
character of their own that evolves and changes with the IR
in time; essentially everything can have a pulse if you want
it to. And such a pulse is more organic and integral to the
structure of the sound than a simple LFO or arpeggiator; it
exists internally rather than being externally imposed. Yes,
that makes a difference, just like the order in which one places
effects in a chain makes a difference, and it's the key to the
BT Phobos tonality.
Putting the poly in convolution
Looking around
Most readers should be familiar with the idea of convolution
reverbs, which use recordings of spaces-called impulse
responses (IRs)-to apply those spaces to a user's music. Because an IR is basically a sound file, one could theoretically put
36
RECORDING October 2017
BT Phobos has a lot going on. A look at the main screen
(which gets props for its cool and eye-friendly color palette and
easy resizability) gives the basic sound structure, and pop-up
windows let the user dive deeper.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2017
Contents
Recording - October 2017 - Intro
Recording - October 2017 - Cover1
Recording - October 2017 - Cover2
Recording - October 2017 - 1
Recording - October 2017 - 2
Recording - October 2017 - 3
Recording - October 2017 - 4
Recording - October 2017 - 5
Recording - October 2017 - Contents
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Recording - October 2017 - Cover3
Recording - October 2017 - Cover4
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