In the oscillator section, there’s frequency modulation, which is handy for roughing things up. There are plenty of other ways to dirty up your signal too. You have a choice between three distortion modes: Triode, Pentode, and Saturated. In fact, it’s tough to get a clean signal from it, as the Amp Mode dial in the output section will prove. Upping oscillator gain at the mixer stage will do it, as will overall output volume. With every tube, the sound gets warmer and more saturated. What makes Knifonium special is the sound and how it’s affected by all those tubes. The fact that there are so many modulation options even for just the pulse width is a little surprising but this carries through across the whole synth, and is one of the things that makes it so unique.Īll that we’ve mentioned so far is par for the course for most any classic monosynth. The pulse width of VCO 1’s square wave can be modulated manually or via four different modulators, including Envelope 1, the keyboard, LFO, and even an external source (wait, what? Yes, indeed). VCO 2 has the same, minus the square (which is a shame).
VCO 1 has four waveforms: inverse ramp, triangle, square, and sine. Much like that other famous monosynth, the Minimoog, the Knifonium seems preternaturally suited to bass. The result is more often than not glorious, unpredictable, and quite unlike any other plugin we’ve yet heard. Brainworx has carefully modelled these using its TMT (Tolerance Modeling Technology). As mentioned before, this hot beast has 26 tubes inside, each capable of saturating the signal in gorgeous, characterful ways. While there’s quite a bit more than meets the eye (as we’ll soon see), what makes the Knifonioum truly special is what it does to the sound.
#Beats audio software gearslutz plus#
Knifonium (both the hardware and plugin) is a 1970s-style monophonic synthesizer with the usual complement of subtractive synthesis functionality: two oscillators, lowpass ladder filter, two envelopes, an LFO, plus a ring modulator and sample and hold circuit. It’s also incredibly expensive (see: handmade) and thus out of the reach of most of us (unless you’re Hannes Bieger). Just when you think every worthwhile synthesizer has been emulated for the plugin domain, along comes Knif Audio’s Knifonium to prove you very, very wrong.ĭeveloped by top-shelf plugin team Brainworx and the hardcore hardware boffins at Knif Audio with help from Plugin Alliance, Knifonium (pronounced with a hard ‘K’) is a recreation of the boutique synth of the same name, a handmade monophonic monster with 26 tubes and reverse-colour ebony keys.