Applied Acoustics Chromaphone 3 Review (2023)

AAS Chromaphone 3 Review (BEST, 2023) | Reviewers Revival

AAS Chromaphone 3

Chromaphone 3 by Applied Acoustic Systems (AAS hereafter) is a powerful, dual-apparatus software synthesizer that specializes in acoustic object modelling. Boasting eight physically modeled acoustic resonators and a dual-voice, multi-timbral engine, it allows a user to illicit highly convincing instrumental tones out of it, all the way through to creative, otherworldly sounds. Showcasing a fresh new interface design that is freely resizeable and 4k ready, Chromaphone 3 delivers an exciting, unique musical experience without sacrificing an iota of ease-of-use.

Chromaphone 3 computationally materializes eight physical modeled resonators. These being: strings, plates, drum heads, membranes, beams, bars, and two types of tubes. Any of these can be used in solo, pairs, or in duo-paired combinations to reproduce very realistic sounding real-life instruments. Not surprisingly, there is huge potential inconspicuously concealed under the hood that lends itself to also creating original sonic textures that defy physical instrument limitations.

Version 3’s predecessors, Chromaphone and Chromaphone 2, masterfully carved out their own physical modelling niche, and subsequently raised their own bar-of-excellence to Olympian levels. It’s not unreasonable to conclude that only AAS (Applied Acoustics Systems) itself could develop a third iteration of the instrument that behests a cautious shopper to seriously consider upgrading or making a first time acquisition. Priced normally at $199 (USD) for the synth by itself, or $399 for the Sound Packs Bundle (includes 16 deluxe expansion packs), Chromaphone 3 may well be considered a moderate purchase that the average plugin collector might not want to make whimsically. Fortunately, licensees of earlier versions can upgrade to version 3 for as little as $79 (USD).

​In regard to platform compatibility, Chromaphone 3 is available natively for both Windows (Win 10 and later) and MacOS (10.11 El Capitan or later). An Intel core i5 (circa 2015) or newer is recommended. The software can be easily downloaded and taken out for a 15 day trial run with zero restrictions.

Of special interest, for a large portion of this review, I very successfully had Chromaphone 3 running under wine (wine-staging v8.9) within​ Kubuntu Linux v22.04 – with no negative issues to report. I used yabridge to make the VST and VST3 accessible to my Linux-native installation of Reaper 6.x with imperceptible delay, function loss, or performance degradation. ** Please note that this is in no way officially supported by Applied Acoustics Samples.

AAS's software authorization/activation process is of the C/R (challenge-response) type. After you've purchased any one of their products, you can easily download a customized installer from your AAS user account. The customized installers contain pertinent licensing information - like name and serial number - and will attempt to automatically connect to their activation servers during the product installation. All in all, it's an unobtrusive activation method that doesn't require periodic "phone home" licensing checks after activation. If you choose to keep your DAW PC offline, there is an offline process available as well, but of course, it will require you to activate your specific machine's unique identifier while online with a separate device.

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More is Better . .

I applaud developers like Rob Papen and AAS for always including legacy presets from their earlier products whenever they release a new variant. In suit, Chromaphone 3 not only retains all of its predecessor’s factory library, but all 670+ original (v2) presets have been revitalized and repackaged as so-called remastered patches. This goes a long way in maintaining a strong degree of backward compatibility and ensuring that you can easily find your favourite factory sounds without having to try rebuild them from scratch. AAS haven’t exactly reinvented the wheel sound-wise here, but Chromaphone 3 does ship with 421 exhilarating new presets that really show off its fresh, contemporary dual engine attributes.

Speaking of the new dual engine (or maybe better referred to as dual layered) system, it’s important to note that each engine can still be initialized and used individually, if one so chooses (closely mimicking previous iterations of Chromaphone). However, Chromaphone 3’s savoir faire and power becomes immediately evident once you start exploring the instrument’s new duality properties. Each engine can be configured, tweaked and zeroed-in completely independent of the other with its own resonator, effects chain, and modelling parameters. On the surface, one might mistakenly appraise this synth to be merely a simplistic novelty. In fact, Chromaphone 3 is a deep, engaging instrument that presents itself with a refined, graceful interface – one that belies the enormous complexity hidden behind its attractive visage.

​Fresh, New, Polished Interface

Yes! Chromaphone 3 is fully resizeable and looks sharp and clear at any screen resolution. In the lower right corner of the GUI you’ll find an inconspicuous, but most welcome diagonal resizing tag.

Navigation, presentation and user control have all been reworked and redesigned whilst retaining AAS’s identifiable product motif. Gone is the somewhat dated (although pleasantly functional) typical AAS facade from the mid 2000s; instead, the user is greeted here with a decidedly more modernistic and fluid layout – one which makes preset browsing, patch editing, and effects instantiation quick and intuitive.

It’s worth noting that AAS has gone back and revisited most nearly all of their previous generation VIs and have outfitted those with resizeable interfaces as well. This is noteworthy and laudable considering that most of their competitors use this highly sought after functionality as a reason to charge for upgrades. Instead, AAS has done this for us as 100% FREE updates – not paid upgrades. If you are content to remain with Chromaphone 2, Ultra-Analog 2, and other AAS items from the previous generation, you will benefit from resizeable GUIs at no extra cost to you.

​Although this new interface design resides on the brighter side of the hue spectrum, it thankfully manages to come across slightly muted by the designers’ careful choice of balancing demure, but eye-catching accents against a soft, light gray background. Even after spending lengthy periods of time reviewing Chromaphone 3, my sensitive, 56 year old peepers weren’t unduly stressed. Notwithstanding, I would really appreciate having an optional dark gray theme to select as well. Here’s hoping that m. Verge and his gang at AAS will consider implementing this recommendation into a future Chromaphone 3 update.

Navigation

:: Home

By default, the VI (Virtual Instrument) presents itself with an attractive, uncluttered Home screen when you first launch it. Here you are presented with an amply-proportioned preset panel, a global volume control, and a tidy, attractive LED meter along the top. Just below the preset panel we have four centered navigation tabs: Home, Browser, Edit and Settings. Taking up the largest area of the Home page, is the pair of centralized square panels depicting the currently active resonators. The bottom quarter of the home page is occupied by a pitch wheel slider and a foursome of handy-dandy macro controls. Of course, these can all be midi (or host) assigned, or midi learned. Lastly, an unobtrusive virtual keyboard rests along the bottom.

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:: Browser

​Preset browsing is now much more accommodating and elegant over that which was provided in Chromaphone 2. That’s not to imply that older AAS virtual instruments were difficult to navigate or weighed down with cludgy, unwieldy preset browsers, but in comparison to Chromaphone 3’s spiffy avant-garde library manager, the older ones pale considerably. This nifty new arrangement is neatly categorized and a breeze to perambulate through – complete with newbie-proof save, save as, undo, redo, and compare buttons. It’s practically impossible to lose your way or get mixed up using this easy-peasy preset manager – all presets are tagged by type, author, style, and et cetera.

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:: Editor
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I suspect that most users will be intrigued by, and satisfied with the diverse range of included presets, owing to the fact that they are so expertly curated for us by AAS. Be that as it may, for anyone who enjoys tweaking, tinkering or flat-out creating their own sounds, heading over to the ‘Editor’ tab will surely gratify any tweaker’s desires. On this page the user can manipulate each engine’s parameters via three sub category tabs: Mode, Synth and Effects.

​:: Mode

​This subsection is where keyboard modes (poly, mono and unison), and keyboard split points can be set. Here too is where you’ll find the arppegiator casually positioned on the right side of the page. And by the way, the arppegiator is super simple to use; however, it doesn’t provide more than 16 steps. You can generate sequences in various divisions ranging from quarter notes all the way up to 32nd notes – including triplets. For me personally that’s plenty, but I do understand that some ardent synthesists like to employ 32 steps of arpeggiation or even more. Both engine layers can be soloed, muted, enabled/disabled and configured individually – including their arp settings.

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:: Synth

All the usual bread n’ butter controls are at the user’s avail under the Synth tab: ADSR, Waveform type, Noise, LFO type, Envelope, and so forth. Both exciter types are represented with plenty of control over their sensitivity, characteristics and overall influence upon the objects themselves. This brings us to the next stage of sound creation in C3; here you find the eight varieties of object resonators. Most of the resonators are malleable through similar sets of parameters excepting the tube types – these have Decay, Release and Radius knobs only. Each resonator (or pair of resonators) can be tuned (by pitch) and have their strike force, ‘physical’ position (distance from the virtual object), harmonic density, rate of decay, low frequency oscillation, material composition, and much more governed here. In a nutshell, there is much contained in the Synth section of Chromaphone 3’s immense customization options to experiment with if one so desires.

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:: Effects

​Of the five available FX rack slots per engine (or more accurately, per layer), three of them are fixed, meaning they are not hot swappable: A four band EQ, Compressor, and Reverb. Two effects spaces in the center can each house one of the many effects on offer: Chorus, Flange, Distortion, Wah, Delay, Phaser, Autowah, Guitar Amp, and et cetera.

Polishing off the effects feature set, AAS has outfitted Chromaphone 3 with a Master Effects rack too! Both engines/layers are routed through the master effects as the final stage of signal processing.

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I am quickly inserting a brief sidebar statement here about the on-board effects. In a word, they are superb! As a matter of fact, AAS has developed such luxurious-sounding effects that they compare favourably with most nearly any third party’s FX plugins. It would be really cool to have these effects available as individual plugins on their own, unconstrained from the instruments (or bundled together as a multi slotted rack like IK Multimedia’s MixBox or Slate Digital’s VMR).

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:: Settings

Not the least of all we come to the fourth tab: Settings. This is the page where all necessary nuts n’ bolts configurations are organized. Herein you can set a preferred GUI zoom level, adjust global tuning properties, delimit note priority (first note played or last note played), programme midi control change assignments, set up pitch bend values, and adjust other important universal parameters. Of particular interest are the Macro button designations, where each one can be assigned to any one of the available 127 midi CCs.

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My Disclaimer: I openly admit that I am not a synth programming expert; my production skills fit well in the more traditional sphere of audio recording and classic instrumentation. You’re much more likely to hear vintage electric pianos, saxophones, acoustic drums, blues-based electric guitars, and so forth in my own recording projects than you are to hear EDM (Electronic Dance Music) elements. As such, having an opportunity to incorporate unique, powerful synthesized components into an otherwise traditional music project, without needing a degree in modular synthesis design, is a huge advantage. It is my considered, honest opinion that VIs in the ilk of those developed by AAS are a godsend. I am a huge fan of software synths that provide user-friendly interfaces on the surface, yet harness a shedload of power and delightsome sonority discreetly on the inside.

Chromaphone In Operation

My Second Disclaimer: This is a fairly in-depth review; it should not be considered a “how to manual”. It is beyond the scope of this article to dive too deeply into all the intricacies that comprise Chromaphone 3. That said, let’s share an overview of what you can expect from this deceptively powerful object modelling synth.  :)

Resonators, what are they?

Simply put, resonators are the real-world, physical objects that C3 (Chromaphone 3) is imitating - or ‘modelling’, if you will. The particular objects/resonators present in this case are: String, Beam, Drumhead, Marimba, Membrane, Plate, Tube and Manual – where Manual allows creative user control over four layers of sound partials. Most objects will resonate when they are struck, correct? -- and so, AAS calls the objects they have modelled in this synthesizer, ‘Resonators’.

The lion’s share of C3’s resonators are of a percussive nature, although a couple of them are more sustained wave/melodic in character: namely, String and Membrane. Hmmm, well on second thought, where membrane is kinda-sorta a square shaped adaptation of the round Drumhead resonator, it fits somewhere in the middle as a hybrid, one could say. The tubes, perhaps, can also be considered hybrid resonators due to the fact that if you *excite them with noise (ie. wind or breath), they take on a more pipe organ-esque role; else struck with a mallet exciter, they comfortably sashay over into the percussive camp.

Now that I’ve mentioned *exciters, allow me to define what they are in basic terms. It is my understanding that exciters are the physically modelled properties used to initiate a response (or vibration, as it were) from any of the eight resonators. C3 utilizes only a couple of exciters: Noise and mallet. Don’t be dissuaded by this though – these two exciters cover a lot of ground.

In express relativity as regards Chromaphone 3, I find it easiest to think of the noise exciter as though it were wind. I live in a region that is frequently vexed with moderate to strong winds, so I am all too aware of how much force and excitement that wind is capable of levying against stationary objects (eg. when trying to sleep in an upstairs bedroom in a 120 year old country house during a fierce winter storm). As I mentioned above, using the noise exciter to activate movement/vibration/resonance from a tube resonator will yield the same sorts of tones as one would expect to hear from a pipe organ, a blown bottle, or a flute.

​On the other hand, the mallet exciter is much more easily understood. It’s fair to assume that most of our readers are at least passingly familiar with mallets – the felt-tipped sticks  (or other material)  used to strike timpanis, vibraphones, marimbas, and many other types of percussive instruments.

A Pair or Coupled?

Each layer (or engine) within C3 provisions us with two resonators. These can be setup to work in parallel, or as one feeding into the other. In simplest terms, I like to think of it as follows: one mallet (or wind) exciting two resonating objects simultaneously, or one mallet (or wind) hitting the first object, and that object’s resonance more or less exciting the next object. It is beyond the scope of a review article to delve too deeply into this topic, but suffice it to say that you hear dramatic differences between normal mode and “coupled” mode. Pages 38 – 40 of Chromaphone 3’s substantial user manual gives a somewhat scientific and detailed explanation of the concepts behind this unique form of synthesis.

Ok, But How Does It Sound?

This is an easy question to answer: C3 sounds great! This instrument produces a lush, luxurious sonic palette unlike any other. Sure, there are other fabulous sounding synths on the market: Tone2’s Saurus 4, U-He’s Diva, Rob Papen’s Predator 3 (or Blue 3), and Lennar Digitals’ Sylenth 1 are prime examples. But for all that, Chromaphone 3 is certainly the King of the Hill within its unique niche of percussive-melodic object modelling synthesis. There isn’t anything about Chromaphone 3 that is meant to directly impersonate any sort of analogue synthesis; it’s purely digital in the very best kind of way. I particularly like the bell, marimba, and vibraphone-esque tones this powerhouse is capable of reproducing. My old Blues-Rock heart tends to gravitate towards real-life sounds more so than the experimental, ethereal or electronic kinds. As such, some of the presets are somewhat lost on me, but I suspect that they would be very captivating indeed to Dance, Trance, Techno and EDM artists.

While I personally feel that C3 shines brightest in regard to its percussive-melodic tones, some very intriguing string-like vibes can be effortlessly coaxed out of it too. As a quick example, factory preset, “Da Slappa”, does a dandy job of reproducing a slapped J-Bass style of sound. Overall, Chromaphone 3’s string sounds are acceptable to my ears, but not exceptional by any means. I think of them as nifty can-use-in-a-pinch bonuses on top of the amazing percussive-melodic presets. In all fairness, Applied Acoustics's equally impressive “String Studio VS-3” and “Ultra Analog VA-3” are better suited to virtual strings duties.

If you have the CPU power to spare, C3 can be configured to produce absolutely brilliant tones – deep, rich and crystalline. On my audio-optimized Intel i7-10700 Windows 10 system, I generally found that using medium density resonators resulted in excellent sound quality while maintaining moderate CPU requirements. For some of the factory presets that have been fabricated to use ‘FULL’ density, I noticed that simply readjusting them to utilize ‘High’ density was enough to make the instrument play nicely on my PC. As the netizens like to say, your mileage may vary.

It’s A Powerful Instrument – It Needs Power

I am very impressed with the rich, enthralling sonic quality that Chromaphone 3 is capable of producing. The sounds are lush -- void of thin, ‘tinny’, or cheap-sounding artifacts. When you consider that many of the presets are specific to metallic or percussive object resonators, such as beams, marimbas, and plates, it is outstanding that the resultant tones are so crystal clear, harmonically vibrant, and detailed –- free of sterile, ‘ping-y’, or unpleasant metallic-ness (as though there really were such a word as metallic-ness). 

The dual-layered engine(s) in Chromaphone 3 are akin to the single engine in the instrument’s predecessor, Chromaphone 2 (but further refined). That is to say, each engine is comprised of not just one, but two resonators. Now that Chromaphone facilitates a maximum of four resonators at any given time, it certainly qualifies as a truly multi-timbral design. When you also weigh into consideration the raft of FX choices also on hand, this makes for some mighty impressive sounds. Notwithstanding, this abundant pool of real-time computation does require a reasonably robust computer to pull it all off well.

​Applied Acoustics Systems’ co-founder and CEO, Marc-Pierre Verge, had this to say about Chromaphone 3’s increase in CPU requirements.

https://www.applied-acoustics.com/chromaphone-3/resources/#faq

Chromaphone 3 can indeed be CPU intensive. Now that it is bi-timbral, there are literally two Chromaphone instances running in parallel which obviously increases the load. CPU usage varies greatly from preset to preset, and it depends on the modules which are switched On, and the quality factor of the resonators. We have an FAQ that explains this a little and gives some strategies to lower the load.

The Chromaphone 2 factory library has been remastered for Chromaphone 3. All these presets are single layer and therefore do not take more CPU than they used to in Chromaphone 2.”

Generally speaking, I am confident that most DAW PCs that have been built since 2016 should be able to handle a few simultaneous instances of Chromaphone 3 without too much trouble. If you refrain from using full-on multi-timbral patches constantly, and choose to rely on some single engine instances instead, the CPU requirements scale back accordingly. As a point of reference, anyone who is familiar with the CPU demands that softsynths like U-He’s DIVA and Repro-5 make, will find that some of Chromaphone 3’s heavier patches require similar processing power.

Concluding Remarks

​Many contemporary softsynths are capable of producing bell, marimba, and other types of melodic-percussive tones (with varying degrees of success). However, none of them excel at it and dominate the field with such prowess and power like Chromaphone 3 does. I go so far as to say that C3 actually bests many percussive-melodic sample libraries – both sonically and functionally.

​The resizeable GUI is not only very attractive, but it is also majorly intuitive and easily navigated. It is my honest impression that the folks at AAS put some serious thought and planning into the revitalization of Chromaphone – this isn’t just a quick n’ dirty repackaging of the “same ole, same ole” with an extra couple of knobs and some inconsequential new features. Chromaphone 3 takes everything good about its predecessor and truly makes it better in every way.

>> Click here to visit the AAS Chromaphone 3 Product Page <<

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>> Check out these Chromaphone videos <<

​4.5 Out of 5 Stars

:: Pros

• Vastly improved User Interface.
• High quality, convincing percussive-melodic tones, with some very intriguing creative sounds too.
• Almost 1000 factory presets – 421 of them are new and the previous version’s presets have all been retained and remastered.
• Some patches can be CPU heavy, but scaling back the resonator density levels makes the synth play nicely on older computers.
• Easy, unobtrusive authorization and copy protection.

:: Cons

• String patches, while good, are not quite as impressive as the melodic-percussive choices.
• Some presets are very CPU demanding – thankfully, they can be easily reconfigured to scale back the requirements.
• The GUI is attractive, but it is quite bright. An optional darker skin would be much appreciated.

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Brother Charles is a freelance writer, Gospel music artist and minister. Charles had been a professional touring musician during the nineties; working primarily as a lead guitarist in the Canadian country music industry. Brother Charles is also involved with music production and quality home recording."

Intellectual Copyright 2012 - 2023  All rights Reserved. This review may not be copied or reproduced in whole, nor in part, without express written permission from the author

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