Sugar Bytes - Aparillo

Aparillo is Sugar Bytes' 16-voice FM synthesiser, built for cinematic sound design: slow, evolving textures, drones and big moving soundscapes for film, games and ambient music. Its headline feature is the Orbiter, an XY controller that sweeps the whole engine for instant, dramatic movement.

The synth

Two FM operators, with different complexity and ratio modes, are shaped by wave folding, wave shifting and formant shifting. A modulatable Scale editor spreads the 16 voices across harmonic structures, so a single note can bloom into a wide, shifting chord. The modulation is built around the differences between voices, which is what keeps the sound alive.

The Orbiter

The Orbiter pulls strings throughout the engine from one XY pad. Animate it with the mouse or have its position set per note, which gives up to 128 different sounds across your keyboard. It's the fastest way to make Aparillo move.

Effects

The effect section is a sound source in its own right. The Spacializer, a delay-based pitch resonator, can add a waveguide synth layer. The multimode filter includes comb, vowel and the gritty Dirt modes, followed by a poly autopan, synced delay and reverb.

The sound

Aparillo excels at the epic and the eerie: glassy metallic swells, shimmering drones and textures that change over time. It isn't designed for punchy basses or straight leads, and FM can be unpredictable, but the 500 presets and the Orbiter make it far easier to steer than classic FM synths. For a modular take on texture, see Factory.

Features

• 16-voice FM synthesiser
• Wave folding, wave shifting and formant shifting
• Modulatable Scale editor for unison spreads
• Orbiter XY controller for one-touch morphing
• Multimode filter with Spacializer
• Two interdependent LFOs with sample and hold and Gravitation
• Modulation from 10 sources
• 500 presets
• NKS support for Komplete Kontrol and Maschine

System requirements

• Version: 1.1.1
• Mac: macOS 10.13 or later. AU, VST2, VST3, AAX and Standalone (64-bit). Native on Apple Silicon
• Windows: Windows 7 or later. VST2, VST3, AAX and Standalone (64-bit)
• An iPad version is sold separately on the App Store

SOUND7 is an authorised Sugar Bytes reseller. Digital delivery: licence activation code sent by email.

Demo