Contour

Monophonic bass synth
2 oscillators, 9 types
Sub, noise and a sample
5 drawn envelopes
8-slot mod matrix
14 filter types
14 effects in 4 slots
8 macros
XY performance pad

What it does

Paint how each note’s volume, pitch and tone change over time, loop the part you like, and push it through a drive section, fourteen filters and a full effects rack. Nine oscillator types, from wavetables to plucked strings, vowels and grains, give it plenty to chew on. Contour plays one note at a time and is built for bass: wobbles, growls, dive-bombs and talking tones.

Draw the movement

Five drawn envelopes, Volume and Mod 1–4. Draw freehand, lay down lines and curves or press RANDOM, then loop the part you like and lock it to the song's tempo.

Two oscillators, nine types

Wavetable, Waveform, Phase Dist, Shaper, Harmonic, String, Formant, Supersaw and Granular, with up to seven unison copies. Osc 2 layers with Osc 1 or bends it with FM, Ring or Sync.

Draw the sound too

Harmonic adds up 64 partials whose levels you draw, twice, and morphs between the two spectra. The Shaper runs a sine through a curve you draw.

Strings, voices and grains

String is a plucked string that can ring for ever, Formant sings the vowels A to U, Supersaw stacks seven detuned saws and Granular plays grains of a wavetable or of your own sample.

Sub, noise and a sample

A sub under the note, four kinds of noise and an audio file played on every note, for a kick or a click on the attack. Each has a direct path that skips the drive and the filter, so the low end and the transient stay clean however nasty the rest gets.

Aggressor

Three drive stages in a row, Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz. Drag the filter before or after them; filtering first and then distorting gives the classic growl.