Sugar Bytes Thesys MIDI step-sequencer. Thesys is a plug-in which can be used with any major Windows or Mac VST/AU/RTAS host. This includes Cubase, Logic, Kore. Sugar Bytes Thesys v1.6.5 Incl Keygen WiN/MAC-R2R TEAM R2R 19.9.2016 WiN 10.97 MB OSX 18.07 MB Thesys is an extremely powerful and intuitive MIDI stepsequencer plugin, giving you control over just about all aspects of your favorite MIDI devices. Thesys is an extremely powerful and intuitive MIDI Step Sequencer app, giving you control over just about all aspects of your favorite MIDI devices. Use Thesys to create varied and organic bass lines, screaming leads, pulsating chords, and organic pad sounds in the studio or on stage. For example, below is a screenshot of AUM, using two instances of three different Sugar Bytes plugins – Thesys (the circle with the square T in the MIDI columns) provides MIDI control, while Factory (the F in the gear circle) is doing the synthesis, and Turnado (the curvy T on an orange background) provides the effects changes for the sounds from Factory.
Factory is an amazingly flexible, patchable, multi-source syntheizer with dozens of modulation possibilities – and it’s in AUv3 format as well!
by Warren Burt, July 2019
Sugar Bytes is a Berlin-based developer whose products have been known for their flexibility and power. Turnado, for example is a multi-effects unit which has dozens of different multi-effects, available eight at a time, with many modulation possibilities for each of the effects. They now introduce, for the iPad, an AUv3 version of their Factory synth, already available for the Mac or Windows platforms.
AUv3, of course, means that it will function as a plugin in many different platforms, such as Audiobus 3, AUM, apeMatrix, Cubasis 2, etc., and that multiple instances of the plugin can be used simultaneously. For example, below is a screenshot of AUM, using two instances of three different Sugar Bytes plugins – Thesys (the circle with the square T in the MIDI columns) provides MIDI control, while Factory (the F in the gear circle) is doing the synthesis, and Turnado (the curvy T on an orange background) provides the effects changes for the sounds from Factory. The orange dots to the left of the Factory and Turnado plugins show that MIDI is routed into them. Touch the dots to open up dialogs showing which MIDI inputs are being routed to where. Both of these chains can be completely independent with different patches. The output of both chains go to a mixing Bus which is then sent to a Master effect channel for Mixing and Recording.
Factory has a very simple architecture. The power comes in the patching and the number of options available within each module. The basic architecture is:
Two Oscillators (plus a Sub-oscillator plus a noise source – there are ten different kinds of oscillators) mix into a Filter (eleven different types), then to an output fader. There is a patch matrix in which eight sources (out of a possible 23), can be routed to control any of ten targets (out of a possible 34). The strength and polarity of any connection can be changed, set and modulated in real time. A series of five modulators (two ADSRs, two LFOs, one Sample and Hold), four Sequencers, an Arpeggiator and associated controls offer control signals to the patch. The output is then put through three different effects (which can be selected from seventeen possibilities). The effects can be reordered, and controlled from the Matrix, and aspects of the Modulators, the Sequencers and the Arpeggiator can also be controlled from the Matrix. There are also two controls which allow for changing aspects of the patches in real-time – a Morph control, which allows moving between two different patches, or patch-settings, and a Tweak control for the Matrix, which allows the strength and polarity of all matrix connections to be changed simultaneously. There’s also a small piano-type keyboard at the bottom which can be used as an on-off switch for sustained chords, as well as being performed in a more traditional way. Of course, the full range of external MIDI controllers (keyboards, sliders, sequencers, etc.) can be used with the app as well.
If this looks like a synthesizer that is a descendent of the early EMS VCS3, you’d be right in assuming that. But over the 50 years or so since the original VCS3, things have gotten so much more powerful. First, of course, are the oscillators. There are ten different kinds of oscillators available, ranging from Virtual Analog to FM types, to a Sample granulation oscillator (in which you can load your own samples, as well as the wide range they supply), five different kinds of wavetable oscillators and a Waveguide oscillator. Each of these oscillator types has from two to four different kinds of controls. For example, in the Transformer oscillator, there are two controls, one for Formant and the other for Position. The Formant performs a kind of waveshaping on the chosen sample, and Position selects which small slice of the waveform is played. Both of these controls can be externally controlled, either through the Matrix, using any of the Modulators or Sequencers, or externally, through any MIDI Continuous Controller.
The Mixer allows each of the four sound sources – the two Oscillators, a Sub-Oscillator (with five possibilities for timbre and pitch-following of the oscillators) and the Noise source (five varieties of noise can be selected) to be mixed and routed through the Filter and the Drive units, or just through the Drive, bypassing the Filter.
As mentioned above, there are eleven different Filter types, from different Low Pass modes through Bandpass, Band Reject, Mid Boost, up to Peak EQ, Comb and Vowel filter types. Again, all these can be controlled, either through the internal Modulators or external MIDI controllers.
The key to Factory’s power is its Modulation Matrix. Descended from the VCS3 pin matrix of old, it allows you to determine the source of control, the target of control and the strength and polarity of control. Once you have selected your source, and your target, place your finger at the intersection point in the Matrix. To get full (or partial) positive control, slide your finger up. To get full (or partial) negative control, slide your finger down. To change the polarity, just place your finger on the intersection and move your finger up or down until you get the kind of control you want. The top two sources provide audio signals (such as an oscillator output) to be used as modulators, while the bottom six are control level signals. These produce different results. Very noisy FM-type sounds can be produced with the top two slots controlling, for example, the Pitch of Oscillator 1. Adjusting the level and polarity of the connection while holding a note can show you the wide range of output, from noise to slightly modulated and back out to noise that can be gotten here. And as stated earlier, there are controls, such as Tweak, to change the levels of all connections simultaneously, and in the lower left corner are two random controls, which will change to sources or the targets to a new random selection, while not changing the levels of the connections. This can be a source of much fertile exploration.
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/1/8/9/118960628/776484622.png)
In the two screenshots below, the changing of the Matrix can be seen clearly. In the first shot, the Morph Slider, at the lower left, is set to the left control, position A. Notice that the Matrix connections are all blue balls of various sizes. This means that the connections are all positive, at various levels. In the second shot, the Morph slider has been moved to the right, position B. Notice that now the Matrix connections are now mostly smaller and dimmer, and some are magenta instead of blue. This means that those controls are now operating in a negative direction. Any position between A and B will produce settings somewhere between the two extreme end points.
The oscillators, the filter and the matrix are all very powerful, but another source of real power in this machine comes from the row of controllers. Five tabs select the pages of controls. The first tab selects Modulations. These are two ADSR Envelope Generators, two Low Frequency Oscillators, and a Sample and Hold Generator. The ADSRs can take trigger signals from either the keyboard or from a number of different sources within the synth itself, such as the Sequencers, LFOs or Arpeggiator. At the bottom is a knob and a graphic showing how the slopes of the ADSR sections can be changed in real time. The small black triangles, when pressed and turned white, become control inputs for signals from the Matrix. The LFOs can operate in either monophonic or polyphonic mode, either synced up to tempo, or free, or triggered off by MIDI, or the Sequencers, and can operate in oscillating mode, or one-shot mode. A control and graphic at the bottom of the LFO selects the type of waveform the LFO has, from standard sine and triangle, up through random pulses (Geiger mode), to random levels or glides. Again, small black triangles can route control signals from the Matrix to various parameters of the LFO. The Sample and Hold uses eighteen different sources as a sampling timing signal (adjusted with the Threshold control), and 24 different sources to be held. There is also a Quantization control for the output, or a Lag control. The Quant produces different spreads of steady values, the Lag control produces gliding outputs between the chosen levels. Each of these controls can then be scaled and inverted and applied to any of the targets of the Matrix.
There are four step sequencers available. Each can be up to sixteen steps long, and play at a variety of rhythmic divisions of the clock. But what is quite unique about the sequencers is that they can have a variety of shapes for each step. That is, each step can not only sustain at one level, but can have one of 36 different shapes (mostly different kinds of glides), and these shapes can have their levels adjusted. And the whole sequence can run in either positive voltage, or bipolar voltage modes.
Each sequence can have any number of steps up to sixteen and can run at its own tempo. There is a Global Swing control to adjust the swing of all four sequencers together. The sequencers can generate gate signals to trigger things on and off, control signals for pitch and other parameters, and position controls (what step number is being used) for other controls. It’s a very powerful system, one that goes far beyond the “repeating loop” style of old-fashioned step-sequencing.
Arpiculation has an arpeggiator, and a scale selector, and a glide control, which offers either unquantized glides, or chromatic glissandi as options. The arpeggiator is pretty powerful – a little time spent exploring it will show its many potentials. There is also a window of settings, with a cute animation showing waveforms being manufactured in a fantasy factory, as well as other, more practical settings.
Finally there are three effect slots on the output, each of which can take one of fifteen different effects. These can be duplicated, so you could have, for example three different settings of the Spring Reverb effect being daisy chained, should you so desire. Each effect has a number of parameters, and each of the knob or slider effects has the familiar black triangle, so you can set those to be controlled by signals from the Matrix. The effects can be slid either left or right to be used in any order. All the effects that I tried sounded pretty good.
Sugar Bytes Thesys Review
With all this control, it might be obvious by now that although Factory could be used as a bread-and-butter synth, its main interest will be for those who want to explore a wide range of experimental sound making. With its wide range of controls, and its ability to have the ranges of those controls changing in real time, and the further ability to have external MIDI controlling most any on-screen control, it’s clear that here is a very powerful, yet easy to learn synthesizer that can provide a lot of different sound making potential.
What can’t it do? Microtonality, for one. (Of course, you can send pitch bend messages to detune things to any desired pitch, but I’m talking here about the ability to set a full-keyboard tuning on ANY scale.) But there are so many synths that can do that these days, that Factory lacking that is perhaps not such a loss. Still, to have the ability to have any scale, on top of the timbral possibilities offered here, would be, as the cat might say, the cream on top. Another possible addition might be a wider range of clock divisions in the sequencers and the arpeggiator, instead of just tempi divided by 2s and 3s. At least the addition of tempi dividing things by 5s, 7s, and 11s would be putting us into the realm of polyrhythmic fun.
However, if you’re looking for a synth to plunge deeply into, and to get a huge range of interesting timbres and timbre-changes from, then Factory may well be for you. And on the iPad (iOS 11.0 or greater), at $17.99 USD for the full feature set, how can you lose? It’s a lovely machine, and a great extension to the already fabulous Sugar Bytes line. Most enjoyable – buy this today!
From the App Store, Free, but full-feature set IAP – $17.99 USD.
Desktop version (Mac, PC) from https://sugar-bytes.de/factory – $139.00 USD