Chromaphone

As most of you know there is a current deal on Chromaphone from AAS.

I used to use Live a lot until I ran into 32-bit memory issues and switched to Sonar. Live has a built-in from AAS called Collision which is just about identical to Chromaphone as far as I can tell, but it is customized to run in the Ableton GUI and can't be used outside of Live.

So I snarfed up this deal because I really like the sound of the tool.

Chromaphone is a great physical model of two interacting parts struck by a mallet. The parts could be beams, tubes, plates, strings, etc. The mallet can have a noise source added to the strike.

The modeled mallet provides an impulse to the objects and they respond and interact in a very detailed way.

What makes it so special for me is the clean sound. When you use things like subtractive synths to get these sounds - you end up with a lot of mid-range tone build-up. If you use FM synth you can get some things closer, but then you may get some high frequency build-up.

But with the physical model, you just get a 'natural' sound spectrum and having so many things to control lets you build some great percussive sounds (and with some settings you can get soundscapes, pads, and special effects).

So I encourage all of you to check out the demos and see if this is something you can use.

I enjoy the process of using these types of sounds as sources for further effects, sometimes making them entirely different. Having clean and clear starting points lets me add my own sort of grunge more easily.