Baby Audio ATOMS -Unusual Physical Modeling Synth - Sonic LAB Review

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We take a look at the brand new Baby Audio ATOMS - a physical modeling synth based on the Mass-Spring concept.
At a basic level: The specific physical model has been turned into an instrument by Silvin Willemsen and Baby Audio. There are masses (usually balls) connected by springs (virtually of course). These are excited by a bowing action and so the masses move and the springs react.
In its simplest form these are sine waves, but with additional parameters thrown in the algorithm they become more complex.
Weird, yes and sonically pretty pleasing when process by the rest of the ATOMS voice architecture - namely, a filter and a reverberator.
What you'll find are atmospheric, organic and certainly unusual sounds that share a common ground. Its an early release, with a couple of missing things - MIDI mapping for instance, but these we suspect will soon be added.
Available now priced at $59 intro offer from babyaud.io/atoms
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#soniclab #babyaudio #atoms
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[@Eightball69]

21:54 is really nice. I mean really nice! 😍

[@BreakSpace]

That pluck at 5:00 shows the true power of this synth. 🤩 Thank you for the demonstration.

[@dominiccramp]

Unreal tone! And love the Fawlty Towers reference! lol 🙂

[@amphora8321]

Said this before, but NB is very good at VST reviews. Him and Soundtestroom are about the only two I can watch on VSTs

[@cornerliston]

What about AUs and AAXs? ; )

[@allkeyspro6606]

???

[@cornerliston]

​@@allkeyspro6606 VST is a plugin format, not a soft synth by itself. Therefore reviewing VSTs excludes reviewing AUs and AAXs. : )

[@patriciaoudart1508]

As I saw your Head, on the announcing picture, I thought, "oh certainly something very musical and unusual for a software❤" And it is. Thanks for that, I have a thousand of VSTI, and other free instruments, some also I paid , this one is a need for me, a four stars in my collection, so I would pay the price , it gives matter in a soundscape, lot harmonics, in complement to analog synths, like perhaps having an old magnetic recorder, used in the 60' / 70' in modeling daily environment sounds, reverting, slowing, speeding...

[@Wagoo]

Props to BABY AUDIO for supporting MacOS 10.11 and above. Some lovely sounding patches in there. I think there's still so much to explore with physical modeling

[@jonbirchartist]

Reminds me of the kind of 'physics' I use when animating. It's a nice approach to making noise. More importantly it sounds really nice and with the Osmose it seems to be a really coherent instrument. I love physical modelling. This'll be great when it's finished! 🙂

[@stephencrane561]

I genuinely like the harmonically-rich sounds and the clear direction of travel suggested by this instrument; however, the current lack of overall performance controls on the underlying parameters (meaning it's akin to a novel Rompler SFX playback engine in practice) and the fact everything seemingly has to be drenched in effects (reverb?) to produce something usable - coupled to what I think is the need for some characterful, highly-resonant filters to help shape the output - leaves me awaiting an update ... or version 2! It's just a tad too expensive for a niche instrument I'm only likely to employ once or twice ... if Omnisphere hasn't got something suitable squirrelled away. Either that or a price cut to make it more of an affordable impulse purchase, IMO. Thanks for the review, Nick.

[@ayisa001]

great review as usual.... and nice to see we lost Nick for a short time on the plains roaming with the wildebeasts, hahaha

[@randomancy]

Quick question: Does it connect plug and play with the Osmose Expressive E? Did you have to do anything to make them work together?

[@deadmanwalking6342]

Entrenched in gobs of reverb!

[@3tree]

Hey Nick, thanks for the video, sounds really good. The intro offer link doesn't work.

[@alexgrunde6682]

The dot should go after the d, not the y in the url

[@sonicstate]

fixed, thanks

[@amphora8321]

A Zebedee synth ! Magic Soundabout. Hello Doogle.

[@michaelbulls5872]

My dear friend those chords you played around 2min. together with that preset are hauntingly beautiful. I like it so much that I want to make a song with them, is that OK?

[@sub-jec-tiv]

Cool but niche. Seems like most of the character is based upon drive and reverb, which is never a good sign. I love the harmonic overtone stuff, but somehow it’s not really bringing those overtones, which seem to be its strength, that far forward. And sounding a bit samey. So close to being a must-have for me, but, alas.

[@NamelessSmile]

Curious that in no demos of this physical modelling synth does it sound like a physical modelling synth

[@sonicstate]

It is a physical model but of springs and masses 😀

[@MrBigbangbuzz]

Seems like a really nice scoring composing tool

[@sonicstate]

Yeah I would agree, much of the sound is very evocative

[@MrBigbangbuzz]

@@sonicstate I just bought all of Baby Audio’s stuff .. I have just the track for this instrument

[@BevisFriend2010]

I can't wait to get the Roli Seaboard 2 all over this... It's similar in layout to the Meris LVX. I've just installed it onto a touchscreen Dell XPS 15. I'm about to see if I can manually move the spring-tops by touching the screen. The pre-sets are phenomenal, esp for MPE.

[@soupforare]

Really really wish Yamaha would take a gander at Roland and get jealous enough to release VL tech in a VST. I haven't heard much that comes close, decades later

[@boimesa8190]

YES

[@asynchronicity]

So, Spring Theory for synths. Cool😅

[@StolTechInc]

I get Black Celebration album from this.

[@MrDschiesus]

maaaaybe after years... i buy a vst instrument again. maybe. like it.

[@inperfectsequence7840]

I have Tracktion Software Novum and Daweson Kult and Abbys, also Osbsurium sugarbytes, Aparillo Sugarbytes... I think physical modeling is not that important. It is simply a technology that does the same thing as anything else that makes esoteric sounds. I suppose a synth like Pigments 5 could do even more, but without FX, I think the ones mentioned earlier in this comment really produce the same sounds. It is interesting that it is a plugin that only occupies 122 MB, I hope Arturia learns a little from all this, because Pigments without being physically modeled is better than a DAW like Logic Pro or Steinberg Nuendo. So if the problem of disk space and CPU consumption is better in this plugin, other synths could be removed to gain space, I think this is the best part for me, I keep the same sounds with another more optimized plugin without taking up thousands of megabytes. Thanks for the video and the very precise information. 👍🔥

[@16914]

Love it. Enjoy the synthesis. And pitch training for sure futuristic. On this note the future. From know to the next. A star system rogue what ends life on the surface but many civilizations live in the the earth deep and hidden. The nuclear war will be a baby compared to this black star that travels every 3600 years has a size of 1 6th of the sun shoot between 46 million miles between half distance 95 million miles is distance of full distance. Everyone talks about the ice age. Well the traveling wave of this system is called the shadow of death freezing blast on earth. Working personally with synthesis has changed frequencies in brain activities to effect electric true story.

[@straighttalk2069]

Nice synth, nice sound, nice intro price but not for me. I would want more control of the internal engine, the few macro controls, make it feel like a rompler.

[@eneimusique]

yo whats the midi keyboard u using?

[@jj4l]

Osmose

[@muzikman2008]

Sounds like opsix with all that drive and reverb.. Its different 🤔

[@LowrollerWTF]

Ok how hard does it PWM though

[@sonicstate]

Not in the slightest 😉

[@eddy_sonik]

👍i LoVe ! 💙⚪❤

[@eddy_sonik]

kzbin.infoRzhjdT5k1xw?si=lv7Ak9scJ58Iu57h

[@thomasyon4332]

Great. We are in UFO territory. It makes think about osmose, hydrasynth, and the one with drone dics... I mean : where are we in the synth whole story? And in fact, I still would like to have the anyma fi, because of textural elements.

[@GroomLakeAll-stars]

It’s a dog.

[@boimesa8190]

🤮