Arturia V Collection 7

The last time that we tested Arturia’s suite of virtual classic keyboards, we named it “Best Old Skool Soft Synth Collection” in The Technofile Awards. That was version 5, which included the ARP 2600 V, B3 V, CS-80V, Farfisa V, Jup-8V, Matrix-12 V, Mini V, Modular V, SEM V, Piano V, Prophet-V & Prophet VS, Solina V, Stage 73 V, Synclavier V, Vox Continental V, Wurli-V, and Analog Lab (which houses all 6000 plus patches from these synths/keyboards and enables you to quickly sort, filter & combine them). Much has happened since then. Let’s review…

V Collection 6.0 added Buchla Easel V, Clavinet V, CMI V, DX7 V; and upgraded Analog Lab and Piano V, the latter becoming Piano V2.

Buchla Easel V

Buchla Easel V

If you want 1970s West Coast weirdness, you need look no further than Arturia’s Buchla Easel V, which recreates Don Buchla’s legendary semi-modular synth. Easier to programme than one might imagine, it includes a wealth of presets that show it to be so much more than merely a weird noise generator, though it unquestionably excels at generating weird noises.

Clavinet V

Clavinet V

The Honer Clavinet is one of the funkiest keyboard instruments of all time and Arturia’s Clavinet V does a fine job of recreating it on the 0’s and 1’s. However, instead of merely modelling a Clavinet, Arturia includes a Fenderesque amp and a pedalboard’s worth of the sort of stomp boxes that would typically have been used with a Clav during the ’60s & ’70s. These include a compressor, chorus, flanger, phaser, analogue delay, wah, and most importantly auto-wah. Together this combo enables you to recreate a variety of era defining tones.

DX7 V

DX7 V

Love it or loath it, the Yamaha DX7 left an indelible mark, some would say stain, on the 1980s, with its perfect storm of obtuse interface, alien synthesis, and preset for every occasion (and indeed every function band). Instead of recreating the DX7 as was, Arturia has significantly expanded its feature set and combined it with a user friendly interface that serves to unlock the potential of FM synthesis and make the most of these new features.

Piano V2

Piano V2

Piano V is Arturia’s collection of modelled (mostly) grand and upright pianos. V2 adds three new piano models – a Japanese Grand, a Plucked Grand, and a Tack Upright; and offers enhanced mic positioning, improved EQ, and a new stereo delay and compressor. If pianos are your thing, Piano V 2 offers an excellent selection, all of which are customisable.

CMI V

CMI V

CMI V takes an accurately modelled Fairlight CMI as its starting point, then considerably enhances it functionality. Its library of approximately 300 presets includes both the Fairlight’s original library and new presets. However, unlike other virtual Fairlights we’ve seen, Arturia’s CMI V is not merely a ROMpler…it lets you import and edit your own samples…and change their bit depths and sample rates to give them that authentic Fairlight sound. The only restriction is that each sample cannot exceed 30 seconds, which means that if you want to cut up longer samples you’ll need to pre-edit them in another app. But that’s all just the tip of the iceberg, as CMI V adds an additive synth engine with resynthesis, and a spectral synth engine. Furthermore, it allows you to mix, layer, split and sequence up to ten sounds from any combination of these three engines, which, in conjunction with its user friendly interface (in Fairlight green of course) enables you to quickly come up with unique and powerful sounds that are exponential to what could be achieved with the original Fairlight.

V Collection 6.1 & 6.2

V Collection 6.1 introduced NKS compatibility and brought Analog Lab 3’s preset browser to everything in the suite, whilst V Collection 6.2 added resynthesis & playback of user samples to Arturia’s truly excellent Synclavier V…all of which brings us to V Collection 7.

Synclavier V

V Collection 7

V Collection 7 adds three new instruments – Mellotron V, Synthi V, and CZ V, updates B3 V to B-3 V2 and Analog Lab from 3 to 4 and adds over 800 new presets to the various instruments in the collection.

Mellotron V

Mellotron V

The Mellotron was, in essence, the progenitor of the ROMpler. However, unlike the Fairlight that it obviously inspired and all of the digital samplers than followed in its wake, the Mellotron was distinctly analogue. Every time you played a key it triggered a motor to play a tape containing a recording of an instrument at the corresponding pitch. There was a tape for every key and these tapes were held in a frame. In later models the frame could be changed to give different sounds, whereas early models had a fixed number of sounds. It was a beast of a machine that, like all the best analogues, was notoriously sensitive to voltage fluctuations and ambient conditions. Nevertheless, Mellotrons were far cheaper and more compact than an orchestra. Consequently they saw extensive studio use during the ’60s and ’70s by, amongst others, The Beatles, miscellaneous prog rockers, and even a certain Monsieur Jarre.

Arturia’s Mellotron V includes the best of the original Mellotron tape library, up to three sounds of which can be combined as layers/splits. The amplitude envelope of the result can be altered and flutter, tape saturation, and mechanical noise can be dialled in. The resultant patches sound superb, delivering the unique character of a Mellotron, with pristine clarity. Unexpectedly though, and presumably as a result of its developments with the Synclavier V and CMI V, you have the option to import your own samples. Oh Arturia, if you’re trying to seduce us, you’ve succeeded.

Synthi V

Synthi V

Uniquely British, the 3 oscillator semi-modular AKS Synthi and its sonically identical counterpart, the VCS3, are as unique, distinctive and eccentric as it gets. Still used to this day by Jean Michel Jarre and throughout its heyday by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, there is even a VCS3 on permanent exhibition at the Science Museum in London, so Arturia’s Synthi V has much to live up to. Not only does it do so, it goes way beyond the ‘limitations’ of the original by including a modern step sequencer, dedicated beat-syncable LFO, additional effects and…wait for it…four voice polyphony! Naturally there’s a huge variety of eminently useable presets on offer that show off this synth to its full potential, but the real fun comes with creating patches that you never could or would think of making with anything else. If you make electronic music, the Synthi V is a synth you simply can’t afford to be without.

CZ V

CZ V

When you think of the ’80s, the diminutive Casio CZ-101 may not be the synth that immediately springs to mind. At the time, Casio’s answer to Yamaha’s DX7 was snobbishly seen by many as no more than a toy and the appearance of its big brother in an Episode of EastEnders featuring a rehearsal by ‘The Banned’ (don’t ask) did little to add to the credibility of the CZ line. However, the assumption that the CZs were little more than home keyboards was manifestly unfounded. In addition to offering DX like tones, their Phase Distortion (PD) synthesis could do surprisingly warm, almost, dare we say it, Junoesque pads. What’s more, unlike Yamaha’s FM, PD was incredibly easy to understand and program. Consequently the CZs were a bridge between analogue and digital synthesis, at a price almost everyone could afford. Notable ’80s users included Vince Clarke and Salt-N-Pepa, whilst during the ’90s, the CZ-101/1000 provided the de facto organ sound for a multiplicity of house music.

Arturia’s CZ V offers all of the CZ-101’s/1000’s original parameters and even supports importing of CZ SysEx data. However, like the other instruments in V Collection, CZ V goes much further than the original, as it includes additional envelopes, filters, LFOs, effects, and extensive beat-sync-to-host parameters, all of which are interconectable via a modulation matrix. What’s more, it quadruples the polyphony of the CZ-101/1000. Programming is a breeze thanks to its intuitive GUI and there’s a multitude of presets that run the gamut from warm and brassy to cold FM-like FX. How does the CZ V sound? Completely authentic, right down to its modelled DAC.

B-3 V2

B3 V2

Arturia have totally overhauled the B-3 V’s sound engine, making B-3 V2 better than ever, as its library of 50 presets, that run the gamut from gospel, jazz, and blues, to prog, aptly demonstrate.

Synthopedia

Synthopedia

Synthopedia is a library of over 800 brand new “modern sounds” created for V Collection’s various instruments and accessed via Analog Lab 4. Although these sounds are not fully editable, they can be tweaked, resaved and exported. Like everything else in V collection 7, they sound fantastic.

Conclusion

Arturia V Collection 7 is an absolute must have. It puts realistic recreations of some of the world’s most lusted after synths, samplers and keyboard instruments, at your finger tips, for a bargain price. With these latest additions and updates, the best just got even better.

5 bagels

More info: https://www.arturia.com/v-collection/details#en

© 2019, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.

Korg Collection

Although we loved Korg Gadget when we reviewed it, we thought that Korg had missed a trick by not offering users the full programmability of the classic Korg synths upon which some of its Gadgets are based. Enter ‘Korg Collection’ (stage right), which offers faithful recreations of 6 of Korg’s best loved analogue and digital synths, all classics in their own right.

If you think this sounds familiar, that’s because Korg Collection started life back in 2004 as ‘Korg Legacy Collection’ and went through various editions before being being updated to this modern 64 bit version, which is augmented with the Korg Arp Odyssey, and had dropped the ‘legacy’ from its name.

The 6 synths included in Korg Collection are the MS-20, Arp Odyssey, Mono/Poly, Polysix, M1 and Wavestation. Each uses Korg’s Component Modelling Technology (CMT) to, as you might surmise, model all of the circuit level components (and interactions between them) of the original hardware. However, rather than be constricted by the inherent limitations of that hardware, Korg has enhanced its features whilst keeping its sounds.

https://www.korg.com/us/products/software/korg_collection/cmt.php

The originally monophonic MS-20 is now polyphonic…and has no less than 32 voices! It also offers up to 16 voice unison and MIDI clock synchronisation. The only thing it lacks is the ability to switch between the much loved Korg 35 filter that appeared in early versions and the filter that subsequently replaced it.

The ARP Odyssey, on the other hand, being based upon Korg’s and original Odyssey designer, David Friend’s, acclaimed hardware reincarnation of said synth, provides a switch on the front panel that enables you to change between all three versions of the Odyssey’s filter.

It also has a bank of presets for each filter, which are labelled ‘MK1’, ‘MK2′ and…’Factory’ (why ‘Factory’ instead of ‘MK3’ is beyond us). When a preset from one of these banks is selected, the Odyssey is re-skinned to look like the corresponding version of the synth. However, there is no front panel switch or menu option that lets you re-skin the Odyssey at will, which is a bit of a shame.

Like the MS-20, the Odyssey has acquired polyphony. It has also acquired a very clever little arpeggiator and 6 effects, both of which have been designed to look and function like they were part of the original. With a little creative programming this arpeggiator can be made to function as a 1-16 step sequencer, not just for notes, but for three additional customisable synth parameters – think motion sequences. The only thing it lacks is the ability to switch of individual steps.

The six added effects are distortion, a phaser, a ‘chorus flanger ensemble’, EQ, Delay, and Reverb. Although they may look simplistic, they sound spot on and have clearly been designed to reflect the sorts of effects that were typically used with the ARP Odyssey in the ’70s & ’80s. No finer example of this can be found than in ‘Preset 003: Curried’, which combines some of these effects with arpeggiated sequencing of VCO1 FM Depth & VCO 2 Coarse Frequency, for instant Billy Currie style lead synth solos from Ultravox’s heyday.

The Korg Mono/Poly, offering as it does, a voice count of up to 128 (or 16 in unison mode), an 8 slot modulation matrix with 159 sources and 35 destinations, and two integrated multi-effects processors, appears to have spent the last 35 years necking ‘roids. Without these augmentations it sounds classic, with them it sounds next level and offers perhaps the widest range of sonic possibilities of the four analogues in Korg Collection.

Rounding out the analogues is the Korg Polysix, whose enhancements include up to 32-voice polyphony, up to 16-voice unison, two modulation slots each of which offers 8 external parameters (such as velocity, pressure, pitch bend & breath), MIDI clock synchronization of the modulation generator and arpeggiator.

On the digital side, the M1 includes all of the patches and PCM data from the original M1, the expanded M1EX, and the entire T-series of keyboards that followed in their wake, plus all 32 of the optional ROM cards for the M1/M1EX/T-series and an additional card’s worth of Legacy Collection patches. All in all that’s about 33,000 sounds! It also adds the one thing that the original M1 lacked…resonant filters – HALLELUJAH!

The Korg Wavestation similarly offers over 1500 presets and waveforms from all four versions of the Wavestation i.e. the original Wavestation, Wavestation EX, Wavestation A/D, and Wavestation SR, plus additional waveforms and wave sequences. The only thing it lacks is the Wavestation A/D’s ability to process external audio signals. This is a somewhat surprising omission considering that the Korg Collection includes two stand alone audio effects processors, one of which is the MS-20FX, which is literally an MS-20 dedicated to processing audio; and that the Wavestation A/D’s effects include a powerful vocoder. A Wavestation FX would be a nice addition.

The other effects unit in the Korg Collection is the MDE-X, which uses an algorithm derived from Korg’s Triton family. It offers 128 programs based upon 19 different types of effects that include a range of Reverbs, Delays, flangers, phasers, choruses, a talking modulator, wah wah, compressors, limiters, EQ, distortion, overdrive, and mastering effects.

So how does everything sounds? In a word, fantastic. In another word, authentic. Close your eyes and you’ll think you are playing the real things. As for the MS-20FX, try putting a drum loop through it and you’ll wonder how you ever managed to live without it.

But it doesn’t end there, because Korg collection has one more trick up its sleeve, in the form of ‘Legacy Cell’. This provides you with an additional instrument in which you can combine two MS-20s, or two Polysixes, or an MS-20 and a Polysix, assign dual MDE-Xs to each one, mix their outputs and then send them through a further dual MDE-X. Furthermore it adds 16 real-time performance controllers, laid out as 8 knobs and 8 sliders, and tempo sync. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that’s capable of generating some seriously impressive sounds. It would be even more powerful if one could add the other instruments from Korg Collection (and perhaps combine more than two of them). We hope this is something that Korg will add in a future version.

The only real complaint we have about Korg Collection is that none of the windows are resizeable. This isn’t a problem per se with the ARP Odyssey and Mono/Poly, as they have large, friendly, single window interfaces. Nor is it a major problem with the M1 & Wavestation, which are easier to program than the original hardware, though we think they would benefit from large single window interfaces instead of medium sized multi tabbed ones. But it has to be said that the MS-20’s/MS20-FX’s and Polysix’s GUIs leave something to be desired, particluarly the MS-20’s/MS-20FX’s, which requires programming to take place in an edit window into which not all of the MS-20’s controls fit, forcing you to scroll back and forth using the integral scroll bar, which does not respond to scrolling on an Apple Magic Mouse; and whilst the MDE-X is perfectly usable, it seems needlessly small. However, to be fair to Korg, they have told us that a GUI update is in the works.

Aside from improving the GUI, Korg Collection is pretty much perfect as is. However, as anyone suffering from GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) will tell you, there’s always room for more synths in any collection, and as Korg has an embarrassment of riches upon which to draw, here’s our list of what else we’d love them to add.

Top of out list would be a Korg Mini 700s or 800DV (which, along with the 770, Micro Preset, and SB100, were a large part of the sound of Synth Britannia), followed by an MS50 (and SQ-10/SQ-1), then a Delta (as used by the Human League on ‘Dare’), then perennial favourite the MicroKorg, then an Oasys…and as we already have the effects from the Triton, it seems almost churlish not to include the rest of one…we could go on, but we’d end up just listing everything that Korg has ever made, so let’s conclude by simply saying that Korg Collection is one of the best virtual instrument collections we’ve heard and deserves to be a part of everyone’s sonic arsenal.

More info: https://www.korg.com/uk/products/software/korg_collection/

© 2019, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.

Skylum Luminar 2018

Skylum Luminar 2018 screenshot

 

After releasing a number of award winning iOS apps, Macphun hired a bunch of ex Nik Collection employees, changed its name to Skylum, and released Luminar, a cross platform program that it claims is a Lightroom alternative. So is it? Read on to find out.

Skylum Luminar is a raw image processor with an interface that’s similar to Adobe Lightroom Classic’s Develop module, sans left column. Like Lightroom, its right column contains the editing controls (which, in Luminar, are called ‘filters’). However, instead of this being full to the brim with everything but the kitchen sink filter (that’s the one that magically removes kitchen sinks from any image), it offers a selection of workspaces, which populate this column with a subset of its available filters. These can be customised further by adding/removing filters, naming and saving your workspace.

Removing filters is as simple as clicking on the little x that appears when they are moused over. Adding filters is achieved, uncontroversially, by clicking the ‘add filters’ button and choosing from the resultant drop down list. Mousing over that list provides useful descriptions of what each filter does and an example photo, though not a live preview of your photo. Alternatively you can use the ‘clear workspace’ option to build a workspace from scratch.

Unfortunately, if you switch between workspaces whilst editing a photo, you loose any changes you have made to your photo and have to start again. Notwithstanding that and the aforementioned lack of live previews, we really like this approach and feel it is something that Adobe would do well to adopt as there have been countless times when we have found ourselves scrolling up and down the right column in Lightroom’s Develop module trying to find a specific control.

All of Luminar’s filters do an excellent job. The star though is the ‘Accent AI Filter’ which uses Skylum’s AI technology to optimise everything in your photo; and because it’s a slider, you can use it to dial in everything from a subtle enhancement to in-yer-face pop.

In addition to filters, the right column includes layers. Those who have grown up with Photoshop will appreciate this. Those who have grown up with Lightroom, not so much. For our part we view layers as a retrograde step that is entirely the wrong paradigm for this type of image editing application. However, as they are an unobtrusive addition that most functions do not depend upon, we do not object to their presence per se.

Across the top of the screen are several functions including ‘History’ and ‘tools’ drop downs. The latter consists of just four tools – ‘Crop’, ‘Free Transform’, ‘Clone & Stamp’, and ‘Erase’, which is a bit limiting. There is also a before/after button, which displays your photo as a before/after split screen with a draggable split point. We love this and wish that Lightroom offered something similar.

Across the bottom of the screen is a ‘filmstrip’ offering live previews of the various preset ‘looks’ that are available. Although there are 7 preset categories (‘Basic’, ‘Street’,’Outdoor’, ‘Portrait’, ‘Travel’, ‘Dramatic’ and ‘Aerial’) each contains only a handful of presets. However, you can get more by downloading free and premium looks from inside Luminar, and can create your own.

So is Luminar a Lightroom replacement? In a word, no. Whilst it does an admirable job of replicating and in some ways improving upon Lightroom’s develop module, it lacks some of that module’s functionality, for example, there’s no negative clarity, red eye correction, spot removal tool, or camera profiles. Furthermore it lacks almost all of the functionality found in Lightroom’s other modules and crucially any form of asset management. Consequently (its basic batch mode notwithstanding) you have to open individual images and, when you are done working on them, save them in Luminar’s proprietary file format, remembering to tick the ‘save history’ checkbox, in order to be able to pickup editing where you left off, which is an inefficient use of disc space and a potential asset management headache. This coupled with Luminar’s reliance upon layers for some functions makes it feels like something of a halfway house between Lightroom and Photoshop.

Nevertheless, there’s lots to like about Luminar. It offers an elegant interface, is easy to use, and enables you to achieve excellent results. It is also outstanding value for money. If your photo editing needs are modest, or you are used to a Photoshop workflow, then it may very well suit you. If you are a professional photographer who needs to edit and manage large numbers of photos on a regular basis, we’d suggest sticking with Lightroom or Capture One for now. However, we wouldn’t be at all surprised if, as it matures, Luminar becomes a true Lightroom alternative for all.

 

More info: https://www.skylum.com

© 2018, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.

IK Multimedia Syntronik

Syntronik

 

In The Technofile Awards 2016, we implied that there are two ways to recreate vintage synths in software – modelling and sampling. However, that was then but this is now and, as ABC asked, why make the past your sacred cow? IK Multimedia certainly hasn’t. Instead they’ve devised a third way, by hybridising the first two, to produce Syntronik.

 

In developing Syntronik, IK Multimedia took the view that step A was to use their sampling expertise to painstakingly multi sample single oscillators and oscillator combinations (including sync and FM sweeps) from ‘golden’ examples of their 38 favourite synths and string machines.

 

The list of machines they sampled is pretty comprehensive, including, as it does, the Alesis Andromeda, ARP 2600, ARP Solina, Elka Rhapsody 490, Hohner String Performer, Micromoog, Minimoog Model D, Modular Moog, Moog Opus 3, Moog Prodigy, Moog Rogue, Moog Taurus I, Moog Taurus II, Moog Taurus 3, Moog Voyager, Multimoog, Oberheim OB-X, Oberheim OB-Xa, Oberheim SEM, Polymoog, PPG Wave 2.3, Realistic Concertmate MG-1, Roland Juno-60, Roland Jupiter-4, Roland Jupiter-6, Roland Jupiter-8, Roland JX-10, Roland JX-3P, Roland JX-8P, Roland RS-09, Roland RS-505 Paraphonic, Roland TB-303, Sequential Circuits Prophet-10, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, Yamaha CS-01II, Yamaha CS-80, Yamaha GX-1, and Yamaha SY99.

 

Step B saw IK Multimedia inventing and applying its brand new “DRIFT” technology to the resultant 50GB library of 70,00 samples, in order to vary the phase, timbre and pitch, temporally, as a means of emulating the way that analogue oscillators behave.

IK Multimedia Drift Technology

 

Step C involved IK Multimedia using its modelling expertise to create circuit-level models of the Moog transistor ladder (from the Minimoog and Modular Moog), Roland’s IR3109 chip (from the Jupiter-8 and Juno-60), the Curtis CEM3320 chip (from the Prophet-5 and Oberheim OB-Xa) and the Oberheim SEM state variable filter, through which these DRIFted samples are controllable.

 

And there you have it, easy as ABC; but not wanting to make the past their sacred cow, IK decided that instead of merely offering facsimiles of the 38 machines they sampled, they would instead mash things up a bit by distilling them into 17 machines, some of which (such as the ‘T-03’ & ‘Blau’) emulate one specific synth (the Roland TB-303 & PPG Wave 2.3 respectively), others of which (such as ‘Stringbox’) combine the characteristics and samples of several similar machines.

 

 

 

Each of these 17 virtual instruments, though visually representative of the instrument(s) it emulates, offers a common set of controls…including a filter section that sports all four of the aforementioned filter models, plus a phaser, a formant filter and the SampleTank filter. This means that you can essentially play a Jupiter 8’s DRIFTified oscillator samples through a modelled MiniMoog’s filter, and a Solina’s DRIFTizzled oscillator samples through a modelled PPG filter.

 

 

Notice we said ‘and’, not ‘or’, as Syntronik allows you to layer/split up to four machines, making for some complex sonic possibilities.

 

But it doesn’t end there, as Syntronik also includes 38 ‘lunchbox’ style effects, some of which are derived from IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube and T-RackS, others of which, such as ‘Ensemble Chorus’ are new and exclusive to Syntronik; and up to five of these can be applied to each machine.

 

There is also an (up to) 32 step note/chord arpeggiator with some fairly deep options.

 

As for how it sounds? Exquisite! The samples are pristine, the DRIFT is convincing, the filters are some of the best software modelled ones we’ve heard, and the effects are every bit as good as one would expect, given their provenance. We would have loved the ability to select initialised instruments, instead of being forced to choose from presets, but in mitigation the 2000 presets sound fantastic and are eminently editable.

Conclusion:

We think that Syntronik brings something genuinely new to the table by enabling the ‘DNA’ (as IK would have it) of 38 vintage instruments to be combined in new and novel ways. Programming is simple thanks to the common set of parameters, large friendly effects page, and easy to use layer/split/arpeggiator window; and the results sounds fantastic. It’s Driftification for D nation.

More info: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/syntronik/

© 2017, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.

Red Giant Trapcode Suite 14

Trapcode Suite 14

Red Giant Trapcode Suite has long been an industry standard package for creating motion graphics and visual effects in Adobe After Effects, but its latest incarnation – Trapcode Suite 14, takes things to the next level. Of the eleven products it includes, two – Trapcode Particular & Trapcode Form, see major updates (to v3.0), whilst a third – Trapcode Tao, sees a point upgrade (to v1.2), so we’ll concentrate on these.

Trapcode Particular 3

Particular 3

Particular is very much the go to third party particle generator for Adobe After Effects. Version 3 sees a raft of major new features.

Particular-GPU-Accelerated

Kicking things off is Open GL GPU acceleration. Red Giant say that depending upon your system this could result in a speed increase of 4X or more. Whilst we haven’t scientifically tested this claim, we can say that we saw a significant improvement on our Mac Pro, making this a godsend.

Particular Designer

Coming in a close second is the new ‘Designer’ interface, which owes much to Red Giant’s excellent Magic Bullet Looks. Clicking the ‘Designer’ button opens the ‘Designer’ window. On the right hand side of this is the pop up ‘blocks’ tab. Each block contains a preset behaviour/style for emitters, particles, shading, physics and aux particles. When a block is selected it appears in the scrollable ‘effects chain’ tab below, from which it can then be selected and adjusted in the ‘Master System’ tab. Alternatively, you can select one of over 300 complete particle effects from the pop up ‘Presets’ tab on the left. These include effects for creating fire, space flight, fireworks, muzzle flashes, explosions, & smoke, and all are customisable.

Particular Presets

As you select/tweak blocks/presets, the impressive results are previewed in Designer, in real time, thanks to the GPU acceleration. This level of immediacy is reminiscent of Apple Motion, making it easy for those who are new to or inexperienced with particles to create great results. In fact we’d go so far as to say that thanks to Designer, Particular 3 is to particles what Magic Bullet Looks is to grading. That said, Designer is optional and hardened pros can still use Particular the classic way, direct from the After Effects’ interface.

Particular Multiple Systems

Up third is the ability to combine multiple particle systems in the same 3D space. The interaction of these can results in some awesome effects. Adding multiple particle systems in Designer is as easy as clicking the plus button and adding blocks/a preset for each additional system; and we’re delighted to report that when you do this, the results remain viewable in real time, thanks to the GPU acceleration.

Particular OBJ Emitter

Up forth is something that will delight the 3D crowd, namely the ability to use 3D models and animated OBJ sequences as particle emitters. You can choose from Particular’s library of 60, or you can load your own, and particles can be emitted from the vertices, edges, faces or volume of your chosen OBJ.

Form Sprites

Fifth is the ability to use any image in your composition as a particle by assigning it to a 2D sprite or textured polygon. Particular 3 includes over 270 still and animated sprite images, which run the gamut from 2D shapes, to dust & debris, ‘light & magic’, organic matter, smoke & fire, water & snow, symbols, and 3D geometric shapes. There’s even a selection of ten festive baubles…for those needing particles for Jesus.

Particular Aux Systems

Sixth and finally, Particular 3’s updated aux system (which is great for creating effects like particle trails and traces, organic lines, and splashes) now allows you to add custom particles and has keyframable parameters, for more variation and control.

Trapcode Form 3

Form 3

Many of the cool new features in Particular 3 are shared with Form 3.

Form Designer

The most notable of these is Designer. Of course, the blocks and presets on offer differ between the two as they are different programs, with the blocks in Form 3 affecting base form, particle, disperse & twist, spherical field, kaleidoscope & world transform.

Meanwhile the 71 presets include fractals, landscapes, geometry, bokeh, lines, shape grids and spin dots.

Form 3 also shares Particular 3’s ability to use 3D models & animated OBJ sequences, and 2D sprites.

Finally, the updated graphing system allows you to temporally animate controls including colour, size, opacity, and particle dispersion. Best of all though, these can now be audio reactively animated, which is something we hope to see implemented in all of Trapcode suite’s components in a future release.

Tao 1.2

Tao

Rounding off the updates, is a new depth-of-field tool that makes it simple to create camera-realistic blurs for Tao objects, based on their distance from the After Effects 3D camera.

Conclusion

Mir

Trapcode EchospaceTrapcode Shine

Of course, that’s just part of the story, as Trapcode Suite 14 includes 8 other products – Trapcode Mir 2.1 for creating 3D Surfaces, Terrains and Wireframes; Trapcode Shine 2.0 for creating Ultra-fast 3D light ray effects for footage, motion graphics & text; Trapcode Lux 1.4 for creating 3D Volumetric point and spot lights; Trapcode 3D Stroke 2.6 for creating organic 3D Shapes and Lines from masks; Trapcode Starglow 1.7 for creating stylized glints and glows for motion graphics and text; Trapcode Soundkeys 1.4 for creating audio reactive motion graphics; Trapcode Horizon 1.1 for creating infinite 360 degree backgrounds; and Trapcode Echospace 1.1 for creating complex 3D shape animations. Together they make a compelling suite that is essential for After Effects based motion graphics and visual effects work. If you are doing either, we say get Trapcode 14, and if you are using an earlier version we highly recommend upgrading.

5 bagels

 

More info:  https://www.redgiant.com/products/trapcode-suite/

© 2017, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.