Elysium is an audio engine of the Californian Wide Blue Sound, which allows you to generate "hybrid" synth sounds that "evolve", that kind of sound for those who want to create a cinematic sound, that is to create a sound that suggests the idea of movement .
Comparison is often made with analogue for its characteristics of micro-nuance and warm sound, which is more difficult to achieve in digital. In Elysium we find so many different ways to add movement, in a sense this plugin would like to re-propose what was possible with traditional analog synthesizers but at the same time go further.
Sound Engine
Its sound engine is made up of two synths that act synergistically: one channel percussive and one more properly synth, all connected to a component dedicated to "movement". The percussive synth allows you to use from 1 a 3 timbres, while with the other synth you can have up to four. The choice of tones for the channels is supported by a sound browser, which allows you to browse the sounds also based on their "mood".
The performance engine works in three different modes:
Pulse Create rhythmic patterns starting from each channel at maximum volume and then fading, like a traditional percussion sound
Chop rhythmically breaks up the sound.
Flow crossfades between channels, ideal for creating pads or slowly evolving sounds.
Let's see in detail the audio channels of the Elysium.
Perc Channel (Percussion)
The Perc channel is used by combining two sounds: MORPH and BASS.
More specifically, Morph adds a random percussive sound taken from the library, but in any case according to the selections made.
bass adds a low percussive sound, always obtained from the selection.
Once you have made your choice of sounds, you can change the octave, filters and length. Filters are fairly self-explanatory: you have a low cut and a high cut and you can change the slope of each filter.
There are also several options to click to add more bikes:
- Analog: Adds a slight variation to make the sound more analog
- spread: Adds a stereo spread effect
- Flux: Adds tonal variations to the playback of the zone. For example, if a C3 is played and is held down, it can take samples from the surrounding areas and move them up and down to C3.
Synth channel
Each individual synth channel has a sound selector, as well as five knobs that control gain, pan, pitch, filter cutoff frequency, filter tone, and then a filter type selector. Depending on the selected wave mode, there are controls to define how the modulation affects the amplitude, allowing you to fine-tune the desired shape. If you need to give an aggressive character, you can use i French filters which when activated provide 12 dB of saturation. An important feature is the possibility to select which channel is actually used. Think of using it as a pad, which shouldn't take up too much space in the mix; then, we can decide which one to turn off.
Phase Sequencer
The Phase Sequencer forms the component of the system and is what creates the movement in the sound of the Perc channel and the Synth channel. As we said at the beginning of this review, there are many to add variations to the final sound and here too we have several sections:
Hand
In this section we choose the activation of each channel for each step.
Il Perc Main Sequencer can step off, on, or play the main perc sound only, the morph perc sound only, or the bass perc sound only.
Il Synth Main Sequencer select which channel will play in which order.
Accent
In this section we can choose the amount of accent applied to a given step, on a scale from 0 to 4. So we can mark more or less certain notes of the synth or perc.
Pitch
This section allows you to change the note of the pattern and then to introduce changes by semitones to the programming of the melodies.
Action
You can select from a list of different playback types to add repetitions or envelopes for each step. You can move the pattern left and right, you can repeat the first two, four or eight steps, or they can be randomized, even together with the phase sequencer of the accents and that of the actions to get really interesting results.
Regarding the randomness of the generated events, Wide Blue Sound claims to have developed an algorithm that ensures that the generated sounds do not produce unmusical results.
Sound Browser
In the sound browser section we find a catalog of ready-made presets for both the Synth channel and the Perc channel. The choice is really huge and fortunately it is possible to listen to a preview in a dedicated window. So to have a patch ready just choose the sounds and customize them to your liking. A mood-based search function is also available. The function is very interesting Generate, designed to randomly create presets, but always in a very musical way.
Effects
On the effects page we find 300 preset editable. The Perc and Synth page have the same options, while in the Master we find a compressor and other Stomp models. If you want you can add some saturation.
We have an tape limiter which you can enable to add some drive and warm sound, also with the limiter you can make sure that the patch doesn't clip and sound bad.
Here too we find the “Generate” function (the icon with the nut) that we have already seen for the two layers. We can make all the settings we want and lock them, in order to keep the chosen effect even when changing the preset. Page FX is divided into 5 sections, let's see them in detail:
shaper
In this section we act on the transients. Using Native Instruments' popular Transient Master wave shaper, shaper gives the ability to quickly add or reduce attack and sustain.
With the lo-fi knob we can add that kind of "bit crushing" sound
stomp box
In this section we can add guitar pedals to the preset.
- CAT Simulates a guitar distortion pedal, ideal for blues and rock tones.
- CryWah wah-wah pedal.
- boss DS-1 An emulation of a classic guitar distortion effect pedal.
- Saturation This pedal is basically an amplifier with a non-linear characteristic and allows you to recreate the saturation effect of the tape.
- Skreamer This module offers an alternative overdrive algorithm that sounds warmer and smoother than to the effect of distortion.
Amps
Simulate a guitar / bass amplifier.
- AC Box shapes the sound of the guitar amp that fueled the British Invasion of pop music.
- The firm simulates the sound of a guitar cabinet recorded through a microphone.
- Hot Only is an amplifier that employs two separate preamp channels and a lot of gain for a modern rock sound.
- Jump simulates the classic tone of British guitar amps.
- Twang simulates the rich tube sound of classic guitar amps.
AnalogEq
The analog EQ differs from other KONTAKT EQs in that it is modeled after analog circuits high quality. It is a 4-band parametric EQ and offers the choice of low and high frequency band control.
Modulation
- Chorus
- Flanger
- Phaser
- Rotator The Rotator effect realistically simulates the sound of rotary speaker cabinets, which are commonly associated with the rudder organs that became popular in rock music of the 60s and 70s.
- Chorale interesting effect that switches between four chorus modes (70s Synth Polyphony Effects, 70s Synth String Effect Ensemble, 80s Studio Dimension Chorus, Universal for a clean and modern chorus), which determine the sound characteristics and modulation behavior.
Flair
There are three types of flangers:
- Standard In this mode, each flanger voice behaves like a basic flanger effect, creating harmonically related peaks and notches in the frequency spectrum
- Thru Zero each flanger voice is duplicated. Duplicate instances of flanger voices are excluded from modulation
- Scan instead of adding vocals to the flanger to form a chord, they are scanned one after the other. The effect is similar to an arpeggiator
Phase
Adjusts the frequency of the modulation applied to Center and Spread.
Delay
Based on the dedicated plug-in Native instruments REPLIKA XT, offers multiple delay modes, each with a very different sonic character.
Reverb
We have four types of reverb:
Room: A high-quality algorithmic reverb that offers options for real-time modulation.
Hall: Another high quality algorithmic reverb for a hall effect.
plate: Emulate a plate reverb for classic vintage metallic sounds.
Digital: A legacy reverb with a specific reflex characteristic.
Convolutions
Very briefly, convolution is a mathematical process that, technically speaking, allows you to replicate the acoustic behavior of a room, speaker, or hardware reverb unit for use with your own signals.
Convolution is best known among users as a method of obtaining highly realistic reverbs; works equally well for simulating the characteristic resonances of speaker cabinets and other speakers.
Motion Page
The secret of many Elysium presets lies precisely in this page, because it is precisely here that the motion of the sound is created. We can draw the temporal evolution of the parameters of the two channels (synth and perc). Rise / Fall times and slope can be chosen. In addition, LFO-like effects can be created quickly.
Il pulsating LOOP instantly creates the looping of the preset, but if left off it can be used as a kind of “envelope” of the sound. This section is very useful for anyone who wants to create a cinema-like sound, that is, to create a sound that evolves or suggests the idea of movement. There are a total of six sequencers on which to draw the trend of the parameters you want to control. To meet those who don't have much time or are looking for inspiration, here too it is possible to generate presets, then modify and customize the results obtained. So for example you can draw a rhythmic pattern, even just the first steps and then repeat them with variations, or create patterns and add variations to the last bars.
Expansions
While having tons of presets available, there are two paid expansions available ($ 39 each): Pandora and Rhythmic Element.
Pandora contains 62 instruments without Phase Sequencer therefore only hybrid instruments.
Rhythmic Element, on the other hand with 86 presets, focuses on the rhythm part with Analog Drums, Deep Pulsar, Pulses,
The test
Just as I was writing this review, I got very interested in the "Who Should Decide" competition dedicated to Amazon Frontlines (www.musiccosmos.earth/competition2021),
whose mission is to support the struggles of indigenous peoples to defend their rights to land, life and cultural survival in the Amazon rainforest.
I decided to participate because the theme of the defense of the Amazon rainforest has always attracted my attention.
I thought of putting Elysium to the test in writing the music for the short film of the contest and analyzing the scenes I decided to use it in three points:
- the first one right at the beginning, where I didn't even use a patch called “Rainforest Calm” to do it on purpose, of which I changed the rhythm of the Perc channel to adapt it to the scene. The patch starts softly and always evolves without bothering the narrator. A light rhythm makes the evolution of the sound more interesting.
- The second point is where the fate of the battered forest is described, the “Take a risk” patch prophetically offers a quite anxious rhythm part and very rarefied pads. I split the synth channel from the perc to make what I played on the keyboard independent of the arpeggio.
- The third point of the short film describes the community that is fighting for the defense of the forest. Here I used another library (which I will tell you about in a future article) which has the more strictly classical sounds of the orchestra. In this passage the expansion taken from Rhythmic Element was very useful, necessary to create a continuity with the previous section and without which there would have been no crescendo towards the finale.
Conclusions
Many sounds already made and at your fingertips, but many possibilities to create new sounds to be associated with a movie scene, a song or a video game.
The creation is simple and immediate, highly customizable in all aspects.
The final sound is of excellent quality and always very “alive”.
This is why I would like to say that Elysium is a versatile tool to keep at hand to create original sounds for a wide range of uses.
