Sugar Bytes

To the right of the Synth page, Brightness
controls the FM feedback circuit, pulling
Aparillo’s sine waves into saws at the top of its
range. In loose terms, it makes the synth sound
more ‘traditionally analogue’.
The bank of signal processing modules in the
FX page comprises a multimode resonant Filter,
the Spacializer delay/comb ilter, an auto Panner,
a feedback Delay, and a very passable reverb.
Sweet 16
More than anything, Aparillo is about
modulation, most notably that generated by its
two polyphonic LFOs. These are visualised in the
central panel of the Synth and Env pages as a
row of 16 dots – one for each voice. At default
settings, they all move together – in a sine wave,
or linear up/down, looped or one-shot – at the
set Rate and Phase. Tweaking the Jitter knobs
for those parameters ofsets the speed and start
position of each voice, for unison modulation,
visualised by the movement of the dots in the
LFO display, and the meter array behind the
slider of any targeted parameter. From 050%,
the ofset is increasingly random; from 51100%,
it transitions from random towards a
progressive, even spread from voice 1 to voice
16. Further to that, LFO 1 can modulate LFO 2’s
phase, and both LFOs can be set to stepped
output via their respective Quantize and S&H
parameters. The Gravity knob is a novel
addition, too, messing with kinetics of the LFOs
over time, ‘bouncing ball’ style; and the option to
have each voice retrigger only when it collides
with the same voice in the other LFO is genius.
The LFOs are truly spectacular, seamlessly
merging unison voice pitching (through
modulation of Shift) and conventional
parameter modulation. They aren’t the only
modulation sources, though. There are also two
ADSR envelopes, a range of ixed curves, MIDI
velocity, and pitch and mod wheels. As for
targets, almost every slider in Aparillo accepts (a
single) modulation input – Shift, Jitter, Op
Balance, the Filter and Spacializer, all envelope
stages… and the aforementioned meters give
instant feedback on their per-voice activity.
Closely related to the LFOs, the Arpeggiator
picks out certain voices from the 16 available for
arpeggiated ‘plucking’, depending on which of
the four modes it’s set to. Clock mode is your
standard rate-controlled arp, while Threshold
(LFO 1 or 2) and Collision modes see the
Arpeggiator triggering only when the LFO for
each voice crosses a user-deined threshold
in the LFO display, or the two LFOs for a given
voice meet. The Arp output is a separate audio
stream with its own operator balance control,
mixable back in with the main output, and
also available as a modulation source.
Lost in space
With its highly individual architecture and
worklow, Aparillo isn’t the easiest synth to get
into, but perseverance brings great rewards. The
sounds it makes run from epic pads, drones and
soundscapes to monolithic basses, delicate keys
and alien percussion, and its pervasive
‘modulated ensemble’ ethos gives it a cinematic
character all its own. Messing around with those
amazing LFOs never gets old, and the Orbit
controller serves as an intuitive performance
layer for efective manipulation of the whole
instrument via mouse or MIDI. Just like Sugar
Bytes’ other synths, Aparillo is an inspired
concept, beautifully realised.
Web www.sugar-bytes.de
Verdict
For Well-implemented FM
Mind-blowing 16-voice LFOs
Quality efects and Arpeggiator
Orbit controller is awesome
Phenomenal sounds
Against Not easy to get into
Only one mod source per parameter
A sound designer’s dream synth, Aparillo
presents a unique technical proposition
and sounds absolutely incredible
9/10
Alternatively
Dmitry Sches Thorn
119 » 9/10 » £89
There’s no direct equivalent to
Aparillo, but Thorn can sound
similarly grand
Native Instrument Razor
165 » 9/10 » £89
NI’s stunning additive synth has a
similarly adventurous, sound
design-y approach
The Orbit page is a sort of XY macro
controller on steroids, for the design of
elaborate synth-wide modulations.
Fifteen of Aparillo’s parameters are
laid out as ‘objects’ in the Orbit
‘cosmos’, including Operator Balance,
Reverb Mix, Formant, Brightness, Arp
Mix, Jitter and Filter Cutof. Moving the
red Orbiter puck towards one within its
‘radius’ (the dotted circumference)
increasingly applies its efect, so by
moving the objects around, speciic
areas of multi-parameter modulation
can be deined within the Orbit. You can
record Orbiter movements for
triggered playback (looped or not), and
up to 128 positions can be assigned to
MIDI notes for keyboard-controlled
operation. The X and Y axes are also
MIDI CC assignable, of course.
Right-clicking an object reveals
controls for adjusting its modulation
Amount, Radius, Level and Pan, and all
Amounts and Radii are randomisable at
a click, as are the Mouse and Key
recorder bufers, and object positions.
Dragging in the cosmos background,
meanwhile, moves all objects at once,
bouncing each on back inwards when it
reaches any edge.
The Orbit is pure Sugar Bytes:
brilliantly innovative, deeply powerful
and – more than anything – endless fun
to play around with.
In Orbit
The FX page houses a simple but efective collection of
(per-voice modulatable) signal processing tools
Take your patches to another universe in the Orbit page
“More than
anything, Aparillo
is about
modulation’”
May 2018 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 93
sugar bytes aparillo / reviews <
CMU255.rev_aparillo.indd 93 06/03/2018 16:39