In this second part of my impressions of Blade I wanted to 1st observe what Blade does not do that most additive synthesizers do and that is re-synthesis. What is re-synthesis? In additive synthesizers it takes a sample and breaks it up into a series of partials each with it's own pitch and amplitude envelope.
What Blade does is provide a series of additive models with a large number of partials which can then be shaped by various additive shapers for lack of a better word. Blade calls this a harmolator. Because of this design Blades sounds are more edgy than most I have used.
Pads and soundscapes are not really part of this synths sonic vocabulary. IMHO it lends itself more to leads although I an personally intrigued by using it with velocity maps and another sampled layer similar to a Kawai K5000. Certainly the partial heavy sounds lend themselves well to cutting through a mix which is perhaps the reason for it's name. The name might also be a play on Native Instruments synth Razor. Both seem to cater a bit to dance music with Razor and it's spectral filters claiming more of a dubstep ficus.
Blade has a plethora of interesting effects that extend well beyond the yawn worthy delay, flange, phaser, distortion effects that you find in many soft synths.
What you can do with these effects is something I rarely see on soft synths is the ability to modulate effect parameters. This combined with the XY pad that us stage center for Blade opens up some real interesting possibilities. More on this in Part III.
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