TRANSFIGURE Review
Sugar Bytes just released Transfigure, their take on spectral processing. Transfigure features two different spectral modes with modulation effects and plenty of controls to edit. I love to see more of these spectral effects as each one seems to be a completely different take on the effect than the last. Right off the bat, I think the UI is a bit dull for a Sugar Bytes plugin, I miss the more vibrant colors of effects like Looperator and Effectrix. I also found that the UI seemed to refresh based on my DAW’s sample block size, causing a bit of uncomfortable lag, perhaps this is exclusive to my computer, but I figure this is a bug.
The sounds of Transfigure are quite unusual, and seem best for leaning into chaos and resampling. The two modes, spectral and resynthesis, feature different sets of controls and have completely different sounds. Spectral is more of a traditional spectral processor, where resynthesis seems to generate its own partials to reconstruct the incoming audio.
Each mode has five controls that can be mapped across the spectrum using a drawable spectral map. These allow you to assign that control to different values per partial, great for spectral delay sweeps or focussing certain characteristics onto different regions of spectrum.
SPECTRAL
The spectral engine is very smeary, you get control over FFT window size for a variety of textural qualities.
The “freeze” controls hold the spectrum until the next freeze is triggered, this is fun for steppy mosaic madness at 1/16 tempo.
A simple delay lets you map out different delay times per partial for weird sweeps and morphing. After this is a simple pitch shifter
A harmonization engine repitches partials into a set key for musical chord shaping.
A spectral envelope lets you smear partials.
This is followed by a multi mode spectral effect, with nine different options, most behave as a form of noise reduction, but there’s some interesting effects in here
A spectral filter lets you create a series of gaps that can be shifted for phasing qualities
Finally a mix stage lets you set volume, a “reshape” control, and stereo image (which is per partial
RESYNTHESIS
The resynthesis page features many of the same controls, but instead has some different options to shape the resynthesized oscillators.
You get a fun pitch mod control that modulates the synthesis with the original audio, and some FM controls to shape the oscillators,
A threshold control adjusts the sensitivity of the input detection for more sparse partials.
And the voicing control can add some depth and soft texture to resynthesis
EFFECTS
Two effects slots allow you to host one of six different send effects. A couple of these effects are quite fun and unique, adding an extra level of chaos and glitch to Transfigure.
The delay and reverb both have pitch controls for some more creative uses. The reverb pitch is almost like a reverb harmonizer, it’s s subtle effect, but an interesting take on reverb.
The looper and capture effects are both glitchy audio loopers. Looper’s looping is triggered via a modulatable control, where capture automatically grabs slices of audio and loops them. There’s some interesting pitch controls on these for some added fun.
MODULATION
Modulation takes up a good chunk of the UI, a prominent XY pad encourages you to play with presets play with modulation routing. In addition to this macro control, there is an envelope follower, random, and four “envelopes” which behave more like LFOs. Modulation can be routed to any control via a simple right click menu. I think this is the first time aI’ve seen full MSEG style LFOs in a Sugar Byte’s plugin, so it’s nice to get some customizable motion.
The trigger use used to start LFOs or to activate the spectral freeze, it can listen to one of 8 frequency bands or all at once.
This is by far one of the weirdest Sugar Bytes plugins yet, which falls in line with their style, but it still feels a bit out of place for one of their plugins. If I had one criticism, it would be that a lot of the Sugar Bytes fun and charm has been left aside in favor of advanced customization and features. Luckily, it seems as though all of the presets at least take advantage of the XY pad, which is visible from the preset menu if you just want to have fun and experiment. Don’t get me wrong, I love that they made a spectral effect and I will enjoy exploring this one further.
I’m not really sure what to do with this one, it seems to be very much on the experimental side of things. I think the somewhat laggy UI slowed down my creativity quite a bit, if they fix this or if it is smoother on another computer I will love exploring this one more.
I found it worked best on drums and percussion to create weird rhythmic harmonies, perhaps it could be useful for beatboxing ideas into existence.
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TRANSFIGURE: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/53-Multi-Effect-/16368-Transfigure?a_aid=61c378ab215d5