PeterMcCulloch: Eight SubtleSonic Devices, 71k Downloads
Eight devices, 71,533 downloads between them, and a single naming prefix that ties the whole catalogue together: every device PeterMcCulloch has in the catalogue carries the SubtleSonic name, except the one that extends a stock Live device. They were added between November 2011 and June 2013, most of them built against Live 8.2.x and Max 5.1.x, with the later two moving to Live 8.4.1 and Live 9.0.4.
What holds the set together isn't a genre or a sound. It's a method. Each device takes something producers already understand \u2014 an 808 kick, a supersaw, a comb filter, a transient shaper, Live's own LFO \u2014 and rebuilds it with the parameters that the original kept hidden. The tuning curve of an envelope. The asymmetry of a waveshaper. The number of delay taps and the order they fire in. These are not devices that invent new categories; they are devices that open up familiar ones.
AnalogKick is the obvious entry point
More than half of the total downloads sit on one device. SubtleSonic AnalogKick has 38,732 downloads and a 5/5 rating across 30 comments, which makes it one of the safer picks in the entire instrument category, never mind this author's shelf.
It's a bass drum synth based on the design of the TR-808's bass drum, and per the author it can get quite close to the original. The interesting part is what was added: FM, distortion, and control over the tuning curve of the oscillator envelope, which is where the snappiness of the attack actually lives. That last control is the one to reach for first. Most 808 clones give you decay and tune and leave the attack character fixed; here you can bend the pitch sweep's shape and move between a soft round thump and a hard click without touching an EQ.
Practical first session: put AnalogKick on a MIDI track, program a four-bar pattern with a couple of velocity variations, and park on the tuning curve until the attack sits where you want it against your hats. Then bring in FM and distortion \u2014 those are your \"this doesn't sound like a stock 808 anymore\" controls, and they're far faster than stacking a saturator afterwards. Note the licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives, so you can use and share it but not distribute modified versions.
Comb filters treated as instruments, not effects
Two devices come out of the same technical interest from opposite ends. SubtleSonic CRONE is a comb-filter-based polyphonic drone synth: pulse waves and noise excite the combs, and stereo lowpass filters shape and pan the result. It has 11,087 downloads, a 4/5 rating and 12 comments, making it the second most-taken device in the set.
The author's own framing is useful \u2014 CRONE does pads, it'll do a passable clav, but it's at its best building intricate rhythmic textures from pulse waves. That's a specific workflow: hold a chord, let the pulse rate interact with the comb tuning, and the rhythm emerges from the synthesis rather than from a sequencer. If you work with long evolving beds under drums, this is a device to leave running while you arrange around it.
SubtleSonic UltraComb attacks the same structure as an audio effect. The description calls it a robotize / bouncing-ball effect pushed hard, with up to 32 delays that can be ordered in accelerating or decelerating fashion. Version 1.1 added interpolation to the delay times, enabled by an HQ button, so you can sweep times without zipper noise \u2014 which is exactly what you want if you plan to automate it. Feed it a single drum hit or a short vocal syllable and ride the delay spread; the accelerating ordering is the bouncing-ball move, and the decelerating one is less common and worth the experiment. It has 3,959 downloads and no rating yet.
Low end and detuning
SubtleSonic BASSO is the monosynth of the set, designed, in the author's words, to sound big: lots of oscillators, two filter sections, saturation, feedback delay, and hard sync with its own separate envelope. 6,573 downloads, 5/5 rating. The separate sync envelope is the detail worth chasing \u2014 it lets the sync sweep move independently of the amplitude and filter shapes, which is how you get a lead that screams on the attack and settles into a clean bass note. Version 1.0.4 added presets, so there's somewhere to start rather than a blank panel.
SubtleSonic Super6 Detuner covers the other classic fat-sound trick: it's a detune/chorus effect based on the Roland JP-8000 SuperSaw oscillator, which stacked seven detuned sawtooths. As an audio effect rather than an oscillator, it can be aimed at anything \u2014 the description specifically mentions synths, vocals and pads \u2014 and the range runs from subtle chorusing to nasty detunes. It's one of the two newest devices, added June 2013, and it has only 4 downloads and no rating, so it's the least-travelled thing here.
The two processors worth owning regardless of genre
SubtleSonic EnvelopeShaper boosts or cuts attack and decay by comparing a fast volume level against a slow one. 8,269 downloads, 5/5, and it's the most generally useful device in the catalogue after AnalogKick. You can lengthen a sustain, soften an attack, or invert either move. The author suggests it on individual drums or across a whole kit, and that's the test: put it on a loop that's already mixed, cut the attack slightly, and listen to how much room it frees up for a kick that was fighting with a snare.
SubtleSonic BandDistort distorts a specific frequency region instead of the whole signal. Its best control is Asym, which sets how asymmetric the signal reaching the waveshaper is \u2014 and therefore how many even harmonics you get. At 0% you're producing odd harmonics only. There are post-gain and tone controls after the shaper. This is the device for adding grit to a pad without turning the low end to mud, because you choose the band first and the amount second. 2,902 downloads, 5/5.
XLFO and the stock-device extension
XLFO is the outlier: an extension of the LFO device that ships with Live, adding features and adjusting existing ones. It's the only device here built for Live 9 and Max 6.1.2, and it's distributed pay-what-you-want with no minimum, though an email address is required. It has 13 comments but only 7 downloads recorded. If you want other approaches to the same problem, LFO Zero by Monolake covers the sample-and-hold and song-reset end of modulation.
Where to start, and what to check first
A sensible order:
- AnalogKick \u2014 highest downloads, perfect rating, immediately useful in any session with drums.
- EnvelopeShaper \u2014 the processor you'll end up putting on more tracks than you expected.
- CRONE \u2014 if you want texture and drone rather than another synth preset.
- BASSO or BandDistort, depending on whether you need a source or a colour.
One practical caveat across the board: these devices were built in the Live 8 / Max 5 era, with version numbers last updated between 2012 and 2014. Open them, check they load cleanly in your current Live version, and save a working copy into your own User Library before you build a set around one. Licences also differ device to device \u2014 AnalogKick is NoDerivatives, most of the rest are ShareAlike, XLFO is Attribution \u2014 so read the terms if you plan to redistribute anything.
If you like this kind of focused, single-author shelf, the alkman spotlight covers a different set of eight devices built around space, motion and timing.