Well... it's official (for me at least): you guys haven't lost your touch, not
at all.
Ever since Algorithm got released I was quite sceptical because... who needs yet another FM synth? I mean.. not only do I have Thor & Europe, but stuff like the PX7 FM (I know that's not fully comparable) and Complex can do its share of FM synthesis as well. Besides... when I need more I can always turn to U-HE's Zebra2 which is quite a powerhouse within this field. So yah... heck, I also got Friktion when it came out and although it's definitely a very good synth I also wasn't
that much impressed with it because of some other synths which I own that are also focussed on "stringed sounds".
Aaanyway... because I have a little time to waste this weekend (and because I was still curious) I figured I'd demo Algorithm to confirm my suspicions that this was just another FM synth with a routing matrix. Probably fun enough but surely not that much of a big deal, right?
Well... about that....
First I played around and was definitely impressed with some of the presets. Then I reset the device and started playing, this was definitely fun. I soon realized that although I don't think Algorithm can match the extensiveness of, say, Zebra or Hive for that matter (no offense) it was
also fair to say it definitely comes close. But more importantly (for me at least): it's most definitely
a lot more accessible. Patches are easier to make, routing schemes are easier to set up and it's definitely something else...
Then I added some randomness and that got me some interesting effects. I then decided to use Live's randomizer to mess with the MIDI input as well then I figured I'd try to see what the pattern mutator could do for me. This was soon enhanced with BeatMap, some manual gate output and map output patching (with CV inputs & the routing matrix) and before I knew I had purchased Algorithm
Very impressive and a really interesting instrument for sure! Took me a while but eh