Sonicware, the Japanese manufacturer behind the LIVEN Texture Lab and Lofi-12 groovebox, has unveiled its next synth, LIVEN Ambient Ø.
Ambient Ø is a "soundscape synthesizer" designed for producing immersive sounds and sonic textures for ambient music. A digital synthesizer with 10-voice polyphony, the instrument makes use of a form of wavetable synthesis Sonicware has named Blendwave Modulation Synthesis.
With 32 wavetables onboard, the synth is equipped with six preset routing configurations, or Structures, grouped into Drone, Pad and Atmos layers. These make use of the its three oscillators and various forms of modulation, including pitch, ring and frequency modulation. Each layer has a dedicated envelope, high and low-pass filters and two LFOS.
As you'd expect from a synth geared towards ambient sounds, Ambient Ø has a built-in reverb with nine different reverb types. There's also six more effects onboard, including a tape delay and reverse delay, along with overdrive, bitcrusher, EQ and chorus on the master output.
In addition to a conventional noise oscillator, you can dial in eight pre-recorded nature sounds with the synth's Noise Layer, or sample up to 8 seconds of stereo audio via the instrument's line input to create your own textures.
Ambient Ø is equipped with a four-track sequencer, with a single track assigned to each of its Drone, Pad, Atmos and Noise layers. Patterns can stretch up to 64 steps of adjustable length, and you're able to adjust probability and record specific parameter settings for each step in a pattern. There's also a multimode arpeggiator onboard.
As for connectivity, you've got 3.5mm stereo line in/out, MIDI in/out, sync in/out, and a headphone output, for when you'd rather not use the built-in speaker. The synth can be powered via mains power or 6 AA batteries.
Sonicware's Ambient Ø is priced at a generous $239. The initial run of 100 units is now sold out, but a second batch will ship at the end of this month. Pre-order the synth from Sonicware's website.
