Diego Capoccitti NerDie is a new noise Synthesizer and sequencer plugin for macOS, Windows, and iOS inspired by the SOMA RoAT.
In recent months, developer Diego Capoccitti, or 34Audiovisuals, has attracted attention with emulations of popular hardware synths, including the SOMA Lyra-8, the Make Noise Strega, and the Grendel Drone Commander.
He’s staying with SOMA for his upcoming release. Diego Capoccitti has announced NerDie, a new noise synth inspired by SOMA’s 8-bit portable synth.
Diego Capoccitti NerDie
NerDie is an upcoming 8-bit noise Synthesizer and sequencer plugin and standalone app for desktop and iOS (AUv3).
Diego Capoccitti describes NerDie as a synth inspired by the SOMA RoAT, but since the UI is almost identical, it’s more likely an emulation. I guess he’s doing that to avoid potential problems with SOMA. Alternatively, you can use a pixel interface.
The NerDie engine is not a traditional subtractive engine. It has four 8-bit oscillators, each with 16 waveforms (19–1350 Hz), powered by an engine that runs on integer uint8_t arithmetic at a fixed chip rate.
In this, the overflow, wrap, and quantization aren’t simulated after the fact; they are the signal. Four LFOs are also onboard to modulate pitch or level.
In a traditional synth, you mix the four oscillators and work with FM, etc. Here, an internal network handles this task with three distinct topologies, 3 nodes, and 8 algorithms.
This gives you 1536 colorful ways to sum and flip the signals with ring mod, XOR, FM, waveshaping, addition, overflow, and subtraction. It’s a hybrid of summation and shaping in one.
Chaos In Mind
Alongside these, you have a resonant 8-bit lowpass filter and a chaos engine with chaos for instant chaos, drift for the slow moments, and random for the full patch. It also includes a clockable one-bar sequencer with overdub.
Operation is also somewhat different than in a conventional synth. Instead of tons of knobs, the parameters are summarized in registers that control each a certain property of the synth engine.
In the Diego Capoccitti NerDie, you have 32 registers across 8 pages. In direct comparison, I prefer the pixel interface here over the heavily inspired SOMA RoAT interface because it makes the registers easier to use.
NerDie also supports MPE on all four oscillators and four voices. In a matrix, you can choose what press, slide, strike, and bend will control.
Diego Capoccitti ships the plugin with numerous presets so that you can have instant fun with the synth.
First Impression
NerDie looks like a fun noise Synthesizer. I can’t say how authentic it is to the original, but if it comes close, then desktop and iOS users can look forward to a noisy, crazy sound storm.
Whether the UI should be an almost 1:1 replica of the original is debatable. I would prefer the alternative Pixel interface; that way the app design has some originality and leaves others to stick with what they originally designed.
Diego Capoccitti NerDie will be available soon. It will run as a VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows. An iOS version with AUv3 support will also come.
More information here: Diego Capoccitti
Need make noise 0 coast !!