REQ: Tracktion Novum

Novum is a granular Synthesizer plugin that does many things differently than its competition. Rather than offering more of the same, Novum tries to bring granular synthesis further with new options. Let’s say an innovative touch on granular synthesis.

The core engine is based on sound decomposition. More precisely, you can drag and drop any sample source in the plugin window and Novum will decompose it into 6 layers of sound. You get a unique colorful representation of sound where the different timbres are separated. This analysis is stored in the plugin and represented as a spectral list in the sidebar.

It becomes super wild if you use this data to create new sounds. For example, you can exchange timbres and envelopes from different samples in seconds. This can be done simply by drag and drop them from the sidecar. So you dive into the spectral layers of individual samples and manipulate the spectral content but also the temporal evolution of a sound. So you can, for example, take a flute sample but hear it with the timbre of a piano.

Of course, the plugin also has the usual granular processing tools per layer including grain size speed, jitter position and time, skew, pan… You can also draw a new envelope per layer with two loop points and an offset parameter.

There are also more extravagant features. Novum hosts a unique timbre flower that includes spectral variations of the actual layer. By clicking through the dots in the colorful flower, you can explore the spectrum. So you can use a spectrally modified version of the timbre (layer) that has either more harmonics, is more static, or noisier

Then, you have an innovative Syntify shaping section that uses Casio CZ-style phase distortion synthesis and applies it to arbitrary samples. Peter, the developer of Novum says it is capable to turn (almost) every sound material into something that sounds like it’s coming straight out of a modular Synthesizer.

Besides these highly unique functions, it also comes with classic subtractive features like an analog-style multimode filter with a multi-type distortion as well as a comb filter. There is also tons of modulation power in the global engine including envelopes, LFOs, step modulators, randomizers, MIDI CC, pressure options, and more.

Effect side, it features a reverb, clouds processor, shimmer reverb, delay, phaser, and chorus. So effects that go very into the ambient and soundscapes.

Dawesome ships the plugin with 300+ factory presets that open the door in the wild granular world of Novum. It comes with full MPE support and highly optimized for CPU efficiency. That’s correct. In the first tests, the plugin consumes very little