Phase Plant turns seven this year, and we wanted to celebrate by looking at some of the many different ways people actually use it as well as running a Seven Second Sound contest and an anniversary offer with $100 off Phase Plant and 50% off all Content Banks. Read on to find out more.
Over the years Phase Plant has become a go-to tool for producers and sound designers across a wide range of styles and disciplines. Bass design, FM, cinematic work, MPE performance, game audio, generative sound design, wavetable work, and more. All ask different things from an instrument, and Phase Plant has provided the solution for all of them.
It has not stood still, either. We have kept expanding and improving Phase Plant and the wider Kilohearts Ecosystem over the years so it stays fast, flexible, and genuinely useful, whether you are building one sound or a whole workflow around it.
And we are not done. We are never done. There are more big updates on the horizon for the Kilohearts Ecosystem, and we are excited to keep pushing it further and further.
To kick off this year's anniversary celebrations, we are highlighting seven areas of Phase Plant sound design and gathering insights from top Phase Plant Power Users.
Seven Ways You Can Use Phase Plant
Electronic Bass Design
Bass sound design is one of the places where Phase Plant quickly earned its reputation. The combination of flexible routing, clean modulation, sampler integration, distortion, multiband processing, and fast experimentation makes it a natural home for modern bass music.
For this feature we are talking to Nasko, whose work and teaching have helped a lot of producers understand just how far a bass patch can be pushed before it turns into something rude and excellent.
Read: Electronic Bass Design with Phase Plant
FM Synthesis with Phase Plant
FM can be magical, brutal, elegant, confusing, or all four at once. Phase Plant makes it unusually approachable while still letting you build incredibly complex relationships between oscillators, modulators, and effects.
For this one we are speaking with Venus Theory, whose FM-focused explorations have helped demystify the technique for a lot of curious patch builders.
Read: FM Synthesis with Phase Plant
Wavetable Design in Phase Plant
Wavetables sit close to the core of modern synthesis, and Phase Plant gives sound designers plenty of room to do interesting things with them. This feature looks at wavetable design and use as both a technical craft and a creative voice.
We are speaking with mleuc, whose work in this area makes a strong fit for the series.
Read: Wavetable Design in Phase Plant
Expressive Sounds with MPE in Phase Plant
Phase Plant is not just about making impressive patches. It is also a fantastic instrument to perform with. Add MPE into the mix and it becomes something far more tactile, responsive, and nuanced.
In this feature we talk to Christian Laffitte about expressive control, performance-minded patch design, and the joy of turning movement into sound.
Read: Expressive Sounds with MPE in Phase Plant
Cinematic Sound Design
Big impacts, fragile textures, evolving tension, hybrid atmospheres, strange mechanical life - cinematic sound design asks a lot from a synth. Phase Plant happens to be very good at supplying all of the above.
For the cinematic angle we are featuring Geoffrey Day of Noise Dept. working in the world around Oblivion Engine, a project that shows how well Phase Plant can handle dramatic, detailed, widescreen sound work.
Read: Cinematic Sound Design with Phase Plant
Game Audio Sound Design
Game audio needs sounds that are expressive, repeatable, adaptable, and efficient to build. That makes modular workflows especially valuable, and it is one of the reasons Phase Plant has found such a warm welcome in interactive audio circles.
For this feature we speak to Aaron Wolff about game-ready sound design, creative workflow, and the ideas behind SFX Pro 9000.
Read: Game Audio Sound Design with Phase Plant
Procedural Generative Soundscapes
Some of the most delightful Phase Plant patches do not just play a sound. They build a little world. A few modulators start talking to each other, some random motion slips in, and suddenly the patch feels less like a preset and more like an ecosystem.
That spirit is exactly why we wanted to include a generative feature in this series. We are highlighting Amfivolia, whose work shows how procedural sound can be technical, musical, and deeply informed by the behavior of real ecosystems.
Read: Procedural Generative Soundscapes with Phase Plant
Seven Second Sound Contest
We are also marking the anniversary with the Seven Second Sound contest.
The idea is simple: make a seven second example of Phase Plant in action using a single patch, send us the clip and the patch, and we will choose seven favorites.
Each winner will receive seven Kilohearts Content Banks of their choice and a $70 coupon, and if you feel like posting your entry on social media as well, even better.
Read: Enter the Phase Plant 7th Anniversary Seven Second Sound Contest
Anniversary Offer
As is tradition, we are also running an anniversary offer with $100 off Phase Plant and 50% off all Content Banks from May 28th to June 12th. Making this a perfect time to grab Phase Plant and start exploring some incredible presets.
We are keeping the focus of this series on the people and the work, but if you have been curious about trying Phase Plant for yourself, or expanding your library with new sounds and starting points, this is an excellent time to jump in.
Thanks for Seven Years of Sensational Sound Design
We are enormously grateful to everyone who has used, taught, pushed, stretched, and abused Phase Plant over the years. Every preset pack, every breakdown video, every ridiculous patch experiment, and every track, score, redesign, or sound effect made with it has helped shape what the instrument has become, and it has pushed us to keep improving both Phase Plant and the Kilohearts Ecosystem around it.
Thanks for all your support and inspiration and look out for the next big update to the Kilohearts Ecosystem, which we're very excited to finally unleash in the not-too-distant future.
