Cherry Audio's Harmonia synth plugin brings together additive, vector and wavetable synthesis in sweet harmony
Cherry Audio have unveiled a new synth plugin. Harmonia is inspired by the vector and wave sequencing synths of the '80s and '90s, building on these techniques with a modern architecture that harnesses additive synthesis to create "lush, evolving and polyphonic sounds".
Harmonia is equipped with two sample-based oscillators, each of which can generate up to eight pitches using waveforms in the plugin's library. These pitches, or harmonics, can then be tuned individually to create harmonically complex timbres. The volume of each of these harmonics can also be tweaked individually, adjusted collectively through a handy slider, or even modulated to produce evolving textures, through a process Cherry Audio have named 'interpolated harmonic scanning'.
Cherry Audio says Harmonia's waveform library contains "hundreds of meticulously sampled waveforms sourced from various synthesizers, traditional instruments, and voices, as well as an array of quirky "lo-fi" sounds", so there's tons of potential for sound-building and tone-sculpting. Users can also import their own samples to be used as waveforms.
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The sound from Harmonia's dual oscillators runs through a stereo multimode filter and can be shaped with click-and-drag amp and filter envelopes before being processed by four onboard effects: distortion, modulation, echo and reverb. Harmonia is outfitted with a fairly capable modulation matrix with 80 destinations and 19 sources, including four tempo-syncable LFOs with ten waveforms.
Harmonia supports aftertouch and flexible MIDI mapping so there's plenty of scope for expressive performances. The plugin arrives with 350 presets, so even if you're a little stumped by its unique approach to sound design, you'll be able to get going straight away. If that's the case, you might find our beginner's guides to additive synthesis and wavetable synthesis helpful.
Harmonia is priced at $49 right now but the RRP is $69. The plugin is available in AU, VST, VST3, AAX, and standalone formats for Mac and Windows.
Watch a walkthrough video below, or visit Cherry Audio's website to find out more.
