RADICAL1 Review
I’ve never heard of Sound Radix until today when I came across their new synth Radical1 in open beta. Radical1 is a modular additive synth in the vein of Loom II, but with further depth. Radical1 lets you stack multiple oscillator layers that can each contain a variety of additive operations for complex sound design, modulation and effects modules can be added as you please as well. The UI is not the prettiest, but is serviceable enough as is. Many of the labels, menus and just the general design could be polished up to make things feel a bit more welcoming. I do like the soft gradients and the green is a nice accent color, but I’m not a huge fan of the spectrogram background, but that can be deactivated.
OSCILLATORS
Radical1 features a variety of oscillator types to work with, these include basic shapes, a drawable spectrum, noise, and even an additive sampler. Each oscillator can be loaded up into different layers, with Radical1 allowing for over 32 layers (I stopped counting after 32). There’s also a “new module” oscillator type that can be opened up and edited containing even more layers and oscillators!! This might be one of the deepest additive engines I’ve seen, I almost forgot to mention, there’s even a “formula” oscillator that lets you type in equations to use as sound generation.
Each layer then has a variety of “blocks” that can process the oscillator, there’s over a dozen options here including harmonic stretching, detune, filtering, and some experimental options. It’s almost difficult to know where to even start. With such a wide range of options, from the simple to the advanced and technical, it can be a bit tricky to know where to start. This synth reminds me very much of the free wavetable editor CarveToy, which also has a boatload of modules that can vary wildly in sonic impact.
I do wish there were some more powerful modules included, while the depth is there in terms of stacking and combining modules, the modules themselves are very much limited. I think this synth requires a lot of layering and tedium as is and could be a lot more fun with some more creative module types. I do want to point out how nice the “noisify” module is though, it adds some very pleasing dimension to any sound. I think more modules like this one would take Radical1 to the next level.
EFFECTS
Eleven audio effects can be applied to the mixed signal. You can seemingly load as many of each module as you’d like, but as far as I can tell there is no control over routing, it’s just one long serial chain. You get chorus, compressor, delay, distortion, eq, filter, flanger, limiter, phaser, reverb, and ring modulation. The effects are pretty basic, they work to polish up the sound, and being able to stack as many as you want opens the door for a bit more creative processing. I think this synth could definitely benefit from some more powerful dsp. I think it would be incredible to see some nice FFT based effects added, but also any additive synth can benefit from a wider array of distortion types to add some texture.
MODULATION
Yet again, it seems as though you can load as many modulators as you’d like, perhaps there is a cap, but it seems like more than enough whatever that cap may be. The modulation types are limited, you have the option for either envelops, LFOs, noise, or note random, as well as all the various midi voice controls. There is, however, also a “formula” modulation source, so you could craft up any given modulation shape you’d like if you’re an wizard with Desmos (for the record I have no clue if these two systems function the same). If there were any synth I’d have expected to host MSEG modulation, it’d be this one, so I was surprised it wasn’t an option. That said, there’s also modifiers you can add to your modulators for a bit of extra shaping.
I am very excited about this synth, while I don’t think it is the most “user friendly” option out there, it brings a lot of cool additive tools to the table and opens up a ton of sound design possibilities. The sound is of course on the more sterile and cold side of things being an additive synthesizer, but perhaps the right combination of modules and layers could be used to produce warmth or even natural tones. Personally I hope for a few more processing blocks that allow for deeper sculpting. Stuff like drawable filters, maybe the ability to use another layer as a frequency mask, or just some various additive algorithms like “random drips” for those of us who like some quick and easy additive effects. Keep in mind this synth is still in open beta, and may be quite different upon its official release. I’m wishing the best for this one because it is honestly quite impressive and came out of nowhere.
You can pick up Radical1 from Sound Radix’s website here: https://www.soundradix.com/products/radical1/