Genki is a company that likes to think outside the square. Its new Cosmos soft synth maintains that approach by combining intuition and originality.
Fetishising the vintage classics is definitely not Genki’s bag. Its wearable MIDI controller, the Wave Ring, made quite an impression when it debuted and signalled its imaginative intent. Now they’ve launched a new virtual instrument called Cosmos: a simple, elegant soft-synth, with a single-screen interface. But isn’t that a little conventional for a company like Genki?
That’s where you’re wrong, my friends. On one hand, yes, it’s just a plugin. But through its intuitive set of parameters, user interface, and sonic character, Cosmos brings originality to a well-established formula. Let’s check it out.
User interface
Part of what makes Cosmos so clever is that it presents familiar synthesizer architecture: an arpeggiator section, an oscillator section with envelopes and LFOs (though in this case fittingly titled ‘UFOS’), a filter section, and effects — but all in a way that enables complete novices to come to grips with it almost instantly. And where does the intersection between the traditional and the innovative take place? Its unique user interface.
On a classic hardware synth, you’re usually greeted with a series of identical knobs or sliders. And if you don’t know your LFOs from your ADSRs, or your LPFs from your HPFs, things can get confusing very quickly.
Cosmos, in keeping with its intergalactic theme, bridges the gap through an intuitive set of sliders for its controls. For the sliders that contain multiple parameters, there’s helpful colour-coding to guide your mouse cursor (or your Wave Ring).
Sound
With a name like Cosmos, the tones tend toward the adventurous. If you’re into creating evolving patches that evoke spooky sound design for video games and film, you’ll have oodles of fun (that said, with a bit of tweaking you can conjure up more ‘classic’ or ‘conventional’ tones).
Plus, there are some modular touches built into the workflow of Cosmos. If you look closely, you’ll notice envelope icons next to ADSR 1 and 2 and UFO icons alongside the LFOs. Click on these and you’ll enable connections to other synth parameters.
For example, if you wanted to connect an LFO to the reverb or delay feedback for unique, undulating pulses, that’s possible. Or, if you want to connect the ADSR envelope to the drive parameter to create a customised shape for distortion, that’s also at-the-ready.
Overall, Cosmos is all about playfulness and performance, and if you’re looking for new ways to incorporate interstellar sounds into your productions, it’s well worth an audition.
Head over to Genki for all the details.
