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Favorite Physical Modeling VSTi in 2021... and Beyond!

Baby Audio x physcial modelling is 2 areas of interest for me smashed together, so will at least give this a run. I passed on Transit and it looked to me like they were going to something resembling a mainstream vibe. So this isn’t something I was expecting. Cool they've gone back into the weeds for this release and happy to see it.
 
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muratkayi said:
You know, ever since I have been reading through all the exciting reports on the newest synth for PM, I started to wonder if there actually is something that these newer models can do that NI Reaktor Prism can't.
Because what this thread does, it has me going back to Prism over and over and I love that thing!

Actually, (Mikro) Prism is kinda my first love when it comes to anything newer than subtractive synthesis and I was so blown away by it a few years ago, I bought the full model and started tweaking and all.

Now, here's a thesis: Prism can do it all, except switching to monophonic (but as it is Reaktor, people have found a way to get it to do that also). It is fairly complete. But it is very much an engineer's product (Stephan Schmitt). Everything is accessible and the full signal path is laid out on just one panel, which is ingenious, actually - but it just won't do user friendly, let alone beginner friendly.

I wonder if there's a physical modelling sound which Prism conceptually can not do. Has anyone ever hit the limits on Prism's sound engine and can talk about that? I would be delighted to hear about it.
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Hi, can you share the mono patch for orism please?
 
Unfortunately, I can't, because IIRC the discussion about how to do that was on the old NI user forum and NI made the curious decision to delete decades worth of Reaktor user knowledge once they had the new forum running. It's kinda sad
 
First impression of Atoms is... a bit disappointing.

Playing vibrato via pitchbend isn't as bad as Friktion, but it doesn't seem as good as SWAM strings. But I'll try adjusting my technique and playing with the settings some more.

Aside from pitchbend, MPE controls within the plugin are limited to Pressure. For all other midi cc, "MIDI mapping is expected to be handled via a DAW" (from the manual).

That is also going to limit what preset designers can do in terms of expressive playability in their upcoming official preset packs.

FX are much more limited than I was expecting. No delays or compressors. Reverb sounds okay, but not as impressive as Spaced Out or Crystalline, and the only parameters are "Size" and "Dry/wet".

OTOH some of the presets sound more like realistic strings than I was expecting. But that's really not what I was hoping for. However playing in vibrato via MPE pitchbend on these realistic presets introduces harsh, unpleasant noise for some reason.

So in terms of "MPE expressiveness" and "reverb/FX", my first impression is I'm not impressed....
 
Also, in terms of sound design or generating interesting sounds, Atoms suffers from the controls being much too simple and from not having enough modulation options.

The timbres are generally okay, but not great---they could probably be vastly improved with EQ. But the only EQ in the plugin is the single low pass filter (frequently already being used for filter sweeps), which is again going to greatly limit what preset designers can do for the upcoming expansion packs (unless the synth is expanded). In Profiles, I think the default Standard profile is my least favorite in terms of timbre---I guess I'd rank them 1. alternative, 2. inharmonic, 3. lofi.

It seems like the pitchbend is just tacked on to the output rather than being incorporated into the physical model. So I don't think there's much advantage to using this over non-physically modeled bowed-string-like sounds or samples for playable vibrato.
 
keepitsimple said:
Aside from SWAM (which are a very exciting exception), I have yet to find a physically modeled acoustic instrument that my ears can digest....
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I have played True Piano's diamond module (not in the 40 day free trial) for 15 years now as my goto. I have yet to find any sampled (or any modelled) piano with it's depth of expression. It's a crystaline grand sound a "perfect" grand.
 
ZeroZero said:
I have played True Piano's diamond module (not in the 40 day free trial) for 15 years now as my goto. I have yet to find any sampled (or any modelled) piano with it's depth of expression. It's a crystaline grand sound a "perfect" grand.
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There's currently 50% off True Pianos until the release of version 2.0; which apparently will be a free update to existing customers. I listened to a demo of Diamond, which certainly sounds lovely. But in this case I imagine how it responds to your playing is very important too.
 
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Looking at Atom: there was me thinking the MIDI implementation of Outersect was poorly thought out (though I've learned to live with it). But Atom? I don't think I've lost interest in a physical modelling* synth quite so quickly.

I think their target market of wonky lofi, trap etc is well chosen, however. It has a sound that's very much along the same lines as some of the NI Play instruments like Melted Vibes. The trouble is you can get there pretty well with regular sampled instruments and a few well-placed LFOs.

* I'm not sure this is PM as such. The overall timbre seems to be in the ballpark of scanned synthesis a la Enzyme, which also had the concept of tethered springs that were excited by a sample. It might explain why there's very little control over the model in the synth as scanned synthesis doesn't have many sweet spots. It also tends to have quite a grainy texture.
 
Count me in as being disappointed with Atoms. The MPE support is just not there, it's just polyphonic aftertouch. The fact the pitch isn't even supported really disappointed me, I've liked pretty much everything else they did but unless this gets updated with actual MPE support, and maybe exposes more controls, it's a pass. Here's hoping for an amazing v2.
 
To add to my last post, contacting them, they already plan on upgraded MPE support for a V2, so I'll keep an eye on this in the future.
 
I tried Atoms all day today and went pretty deep and...it just isn't doing for me. It's a combination of the sound and the GUI...in general it sounds good but not great IMO, and I didn't enjoy using it. I love Baby Audio too, was hoping I'd be blown away like their others plugins, but this one isn't there, at least for me.
 
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