Kilohearts' Phase Plant has had quite the build-up over the past few months. Announced at NAMM, where we got to try it, this is a hybrid modular platform that combines the company’s Snapin effects with a range of new signal generation and modulation devices, giving you everything you need to create powerful synthesis- and/or sample-based instruments.
That’s quite a lot to take in, but Kilohearts has endeavoured to keep things simple for the user by offering a single-window interface. Divided into Generators, Modulators and Effects panes, this enables you to load up and combine modules as and when you need them, so your creations can be as straightforward or complex as you wish. Plenty of presets are supplied, too.
The Generators include the Analog and Wavetable oscillators, a sampler and a noise generator. Alongside these are multimode filter and distortion devices, and you can add more more sound design options by using audio-rate frequency, phase and ring modulation between the Generators and the filter/distortion.
Over in the Modulators pane you’ll find an LFO, AHDSR envelope, MIDI messages and multipliers. The global Effects racks can be used to host Kilohearts’ Snapin effects modules, of which six - Delay, Chorus, 3-band EQ, Gain, Limiter and Stereo - come included. Five more can be added if you purchase the kHs Toolbox Starter pack, and more than 20 others are available individually or in various bundles.
Phase Plant is available now for PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats. You can purchase it for $169/€169 with Kilohearts Toolbox Free, or $199/€199 in a bundle with the aforementioned kHs Toolbox Starter. $349/€349 gets you the software with Kilohearts Toolbox Professional, which contains all current Snapin effects, while a $499/€499 bundle gets you Kilohearts Toolbox Ultimate. This includes all available snapin effects and the Snap Heap host plugin, plus all other current Kilohearts premium plugins.
Find out more on the Kilohearts website.
