MYTH Review
IMPORTANT
Before we begin this review, it is important for me to clarify something, I now work for Dawesome. I did write this review prior to beginning work with Dawesome (besides preset design, and I did have early access to it, in addition to receiving it for free (like the majority of the plugins I review). From here out, my reviews of Dawesome plugins will be far more clinical and straight forward, there’s no need for me to criticize them because I can direct my ideas towards Peter himself, and praise will be awkward from this position. So in the future my Dawesome reviews will read more like a list of features that I personally enjoy. This will not affect any of my other reviews and as I mentioned already, this one was written before I began working for Dawesome
-thank you for understanding, if you have any concern feel free to email or contact me directly.
Dawesome makes some incredibly experimental and unique synthesizers, and Myth is no exception. However, on top of the unique synthesis introduced in Myth, there is an added layer of modules that both gives you all of the traditional/familiar controls while adding even more opportunities for experimental sound design. Myth is a hybrid beast, with two spectral based non-linear resynthesis oscillators, loads of modulation and processing and several new enhancements, you’ll never run out of content to explore. The Ui is quite easy to navigate with tabs for each section and a main editing window where you can mix and match different modules.
There are a several sections in Myth, the primary oscillators are contained in the “Iris” window, there are several tabs for the arp, oscillators, filter, effects, modulation, and browser, and there is the modulation window to the right, which contains a list of all your active modulation sources. Each of the main tabs can contain up to six modules, with duplicates of any given module being possible. There are some differences to each tab which I’ll discuss in their respective sections below.
OSCILLATORS:
At the heart of Myth is the two “Iris” oscillators, each of these are made up of four individual layers that contain a series of partial bins determined by analyzing an audio file. Each layer also has a complex envelope curve based on the amplitude curves of the different layers. It’s a fairly complex array of synthesis that works together to replicate the analyzed audio as an interpretive replication. All you really need to know is that you drop in a sample, and you get a unique oscillator. The layers and tones present in this oscillator determine the shape and color of the Iris.
Below each Iris are a series of geometric shapes and colors, don’t worry, if you’re technical, the tool tips will clue you into what these do. These either alter the iris or apply one of many FM based effects to the Iris. Most of the colors tend to change the tonal structure of the iris, shaping it to sound more like a saw, string, square, horn, sync or even digital noise. The last color, blue, reduces the harmonic complexity of the original Iris, giving it a softer rounder tone. Of the shapes, four are direct FM controls, playing with these gives you a variety of classic FM sounds. In addition to a position control, there is one that fades between layers, and one that smooths out the envelope curve. Finally you can either fade, or ring mod between the two Iris, I hope in the future to see more options (perhaps vocode between layers?)
Results vary with these Iris oscillators, it’s worth trying different samples, and it’s worth seeing what you can milk out of any given sound or even the default sine Iris. This section alone could likely be its own synthesizer, a rather strange synth, but one worth exploring. At the same time, the rest of Myth is so deep, you could leave this section completely alone and never run out of ideas to explore. As mentioned earlier, this is because the rest of Myth is a fairly modular and flexible system that allows you to build your own signal path with blocks. For the most part, the two oscillators and the filter tabs share the same sets of modules.
The oscillators get mixed into the filter, but all three of these tabs are completely polyphonic, so any processing is applied per voice, unlike the FX tabs. Exclusive to the Oscillator tabs are the transpose block, for shifting a voice in pitch, and the wave block, which mixes in basic oscillator shapes that can be detuned with unison. There’s too many blocks for me to describe each one, so below I’ll list out a few of my favorites and ones that stand out. Otherwise, you’ll find a variety of modulations, distortions, filters, and utility functions.
Modulations:
BTTF: An FM effect with feedback and a short delay, makes for some insane screaming resonances.
Orbit: Nonlinear modulation with 3 orbit shapes, creates some exciting overtones and motion
Filters: A variety of filters are available, several lowpass models, hpf, lpf and even notch, and a vowel filter
Comb: A keytracked comb filter with damping, inharmonicity, and two resonant modes
Distortions: Several distortion options are available, including asymmetrical distortion, noise, and a unique amp/phase crushing effect
Atari Punk Console: Replicates a classic circuit bending effect based on the 555 timer circuit.
Resonator: A tuned resonator based on a variety of sample sources, you can even import a sample to get a unique resonance pattern.
EFFECTS:
This system of different effects blocks has already been explored in some previous Dawesome plugins, but things are a little different this time around. Now just like the other tabs, you can see multiple effects at once. There are also quite a few more effects to chose from. All the classic Dawesome reverbs are here, a delay, modulation and chorus as well as the some crossovers from the voice section. I wont go into each effect, but I’d like to discuss some of the new and interesting options.
OTT: Named after the classic multiband compressor, this one adds some nice top end to your sound. it behaves quite differently to normal OTT, but is useful nonetheless.
Grains: A simple granular effect with some octave glitter, jitter, and a calm control. It’s not the deepest granular effect, but it provides a unique texture.
Loophole: A grid of micro loopers, these play in strange patterns and overlap to create som unique echoing patterns.
ARP/MODULATION:
Myths arpeggiator also retains this block system, this allows you to mix and match various midi effects to create rather unique generative patterns and melodies. You can stack two arps to create nested patterns, there’s even a scale block to lock things into a key. Now’s a good time to mention that each tab has the ability to store presets, this means you can save any pattern you create in the arp section and use it to control other presets as you wish.
The modulation is similar to previous Dawesome plugins, with even more slots to add in modulators. However, even here you’ll find the blocks system continued, as the LFO and Math modulators each have 5 slots for their own sets of modifier blocks, these allow you to alter the modulation curve, add slew, randomization, or even visualize the modulation output. Combining these together with the Math and LFO modulation allows for a range of customizable motion beyond what a normal LFO can do.
Myth is quite customizable, each section, block, modulator, and even the iris’s have the ability to save presets so you don’t have to start over completely from scratch every time you create. Additionally, each of these sections can be frozen, when browsing presets, randomizing settings or even using the preset “breeding” system, frozen sections remain locked, preventing them from being altered. This and the browser system were designed with producers in mind, or anyone who’d rather actually use and edit the presets. This browser is an improvement upon previous preset systems, giving even more flexibility to how you navigate your preset base.
I’m really not even covering everything in this review, as normal I’m just talking about the things that interest me most. This is an incredibly deep synthesizer with a variety of options and ways to use it. there’s MPE, tuning support, different controller setups, notes, undo/redo, a mod matrix, and many blocks I failed to even mention. Also, it should be noted that Dawesome plans to expand Myth, I’m not sure how soon or how often, but the blocks system makes it possible to expand without breaking things in the future. Myth sounds quite unique, but great, the Iris oscillators are not always the easiest to control, but with the right settings can sneak into some insanely rich and unique textures. Loads of motion and texture can be applied with the various blocks. It’s not your normal synth, so don’t expect normal sounds, but you will be rewarded for exploring and trying new ideas.