Poly Evolver

Back in April of 2003, Richard Zvonar reviewed the Evolver, so I feel I should preface this review with “Previously on Evolver” and quickly summarize what Richard said before I expound on it.

• Dave Smith, the man whose name is on the Evolver, did a couple little things before like help create MIDI, invent the Prophet 5, and co-author the first commercially available software synthesizer for the PC. I believe he may also be responsible for the telephone but I should look that up. But what has he done for us lately?
  
• The Evolver is a hybrid digital/analog synth combined with a 16-step sequencer.
  
• The voice architecture of the synth is unique in that it integrates both analog and digital oscillators into the same circuit, letting you mix and match them at will and combines with analog and digital filters as well.
  
• Richard really, really, liked this synth.

So before I jump into some hoary details let me just whet your appetite. In every synth review I always say “No synth is for everyone”, which is still true. But the Poly Evolver has got to be a synth for almost everyone. Digital workstation types who are only looking for sample-based sounds should look elsewhere, but everybody else, whether you like smooth, creamy, vintage or skull-splitting digital mayhem will get a kick out of the Evolver.

Along Came Poly

So what’s new about the Poly-Evolver? Well it’s polyphonic. Ok, but really polyphonic. Each part of the voice architecture, including the sequencer, has all been replicated 4 times over. So it is the complete equivalent of 4 of the mono-Evolvers. And each voice has 4 oscillators.

But the Poly is a rack unit, so it will work in the overly-keyboarded or spatially challenged studio. Unfortunately all the knobs went with it, so you are stuck with the “2 line LED and 2 knobs” approach that was so popular with, well, no one. Fortunately, it comes with its own editor (which I will cover later) so you can bypass this if you want.

Each voice can act independently so you can layer those sounds that you create into an even larger sound. I mean we’re talking about piling up 16 oscillators in just about any combination. Truly you have some thickness there.

The digital oscillators feature 95 factory waveshapes which correspond to factory programs 32-125 on the Prophet VS. From 96-128 are user waveshapes that can be loaded using the editor. Using the built-in sequencer you can move between waveshapes like you can on a Wavetable synth like the Korg Wavestation for Waldorf Microwave, although unfortunately, the sequencer is the only way to shift between waveforms which I sometimes like to do with LFO or velocity.

Using the digital oscillators you can also use Oscillator 3 to Ring Mod oscillator 4 or to Frequency Modulate it, or both. And if the Evolver were Amazon.com it would say “Customers who enjoyed Ring Modulation may also enjoy Tuned Feedback”. And if you do, you will. Tuned feedback is a specially designed delay line where the pitch of the feedback can be controlled via any modulation source. And in case that wonderful pile of noise is not noisy enough for you can add the “Grunge” parameter as well. This is one screaming mess of bending, tearing metal, wrenched from the depths of hell. It can also do strings.

The Sequencer

The Evolver’s sequencer is a standard 4 track 16-step sequencer. The thing that is remarkable about it is the way you can direct it to different thing besides just the pitch and duration of notes. You can create some very interesting shifting, bubbling soundscapes by directing the channels of the sequencer to different things like filter cutoff, Ring Mod amount, delay frequency, etc. I found trying to program the sequencer from the front panel frustrating, but programming it using the editor a snap.

More, More, More

In case this wasn’t enough for you yet, you can also chain Poly’s together and control them from a single source as if they were one, similar to what you can do with something like the Matrix 1000. Or if you already own and love a mono-Evolver, you can use that as a controller as well, which is a nice feature for people who have spent some time learning the interface on the Mono but want the additional voices and features of the Poly.

A Letter to the Editor

The Poly comes with an editor created by SoundTower for Dave Smith Instruments. I actually own two other editors created by SoundTower (for the Korg Triton and Waldorf Micro-Q), so I had a bit of a leg up with dealing with these.

The editors are very comprehensive and powerful but it can be frustrating due to the lack of documentation and cryptic icons. I certainly easily found my way around editing voices (again, I have had a little time with the idiosyncratic interface), but some of the other features have eluded me despite some serious effort.

In addition, there have been a lot of complaints on the Evolver mailing list about the OSX editor being completely buggy. The developer came on the list and said he was going to release the source code and fix the bugs but has since never been heard from. So OSX users should approach this with caution. You can however download a demo version so you can see a little bit for yourself. [Last Minute Correction: The OSX editor has been re-released addressing most of the issues that people have been concerned about. When we get a chance to try it we will update this paragraph]

Now with all that negativity, I will say again, these editors are the most comprehensive powerful editors I have used. The poly editor lets you get in and edit and create sequences with a lot of detail. You can get in and create wavetables even using a pencil type tool to directly edit the waveform; you can use the “Sound Genetics” which allows you to “mate” two sounds to create hundreds of offspring with different pieces of each “parent”. This gives you some of the “out of nowhere” effect of a random patch, while still keeping you in the ball park of what you were looking for. All in all, on the PC at least, a great piece of software despite some rough edges.

The Sound

Boy oh boy, the sound. While it’s not very objective of me to say it sounds “awesome”, I feel I can objectively say the Poly sounds “unique”, powerful, and has a lot of personality. If you listen to the sequenced sounds that come on board you immediately hear them fitting into a great song built around that sound. They are the sort of thing that will make your ears sit up and take notice.

Conclusion

The Poly Evolver is a good thing that got even better. Combining the best of analog and digital synthesis, it gives you a huge palette of sounds to choose from and lets you do things that you can’t do anywhere else, while at the same time letting you reach for time-tested classics. It’s my nominee for “Best all-around synth” although it would certainly also be nominated and win in “Best Combination of Analog and Digital Synthesis” and “Best Synth at making sounds that will tear your face off”. (At said awards ceremony that occurs only in my head)

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