Review: Polyverse Supermodal

Filters! Something anyone who loves sound design cannot get enough off. It is not hard to sell a new filter plugin to a sound designer or producer. It is not just about the sound of the plugin but sometimes the new workflow can inspire fresh sounds and ideas. But is Polyverse Supermodal a plugin you would get, use on a couple of projects, and then banish to the depths of the ever-so-deep plugin folder or will it be a recurring feature on your productions?

Supermodal is a a powerful and unique filter with unparalleled sound design capabilities that will make your music resonate. It remodels ordinary tracks utilizing its powerful Modal filter that emulates sonic characteristics modelled from a wide range resonating bodies. Combined with a parallel state-variable filter and expansive modulation system, a single audio signal can be manipulated into a wide array of frequencies to create shimmering cinematic soundscapes, pulsating rhythms, pads with harmonic motion, or anything else you can dream up.

Polyverse

Enter the Metaverse of Filters 

In a world where we hear of AI and metaverse concepts on a daily basis, this plugin fits right in. It has a futuristic, slick vibe to it. To the uninitiated, it looks like the controls of a sci-fi spaceship. Let us break down the controls and see how to get this ship going!

The plugin itself can be thought of as two halves. The top half features the main controls and we will split it further into the left and right halves. The bottom half features a set of four compartments, each of which can house one of the six modifiers. 

Let us first talk about the easy part – the filter itself. This is a pretty straightforward, extremely easy-to-use filter. 

All of the controls feature a small ‘screen’ of sorts on the top of the slider which has an indicative image that morphs along with the parameter for some visual feedback. This is really fun and makes something as mundane as a filter selection more exciting. You can choose the filter type by moving the slider up from LP to HP through the BP. Each slider also features set stop points that you can snap to by just clicking on the little triangle right next to it. This makes precise automation very easy. Once you have the filter type chosen, we move on to the frequency of the filter. You can move the knob to go up semitones or cents from the centre frequency. The little graphic of the little lines folding out of the way as you move the knob left and right is quite mesmerising. To the right of this, we have the Resonance and Decay. It also features a small Drive control that literally looks like the hyperdrive control from a ship. 

We now move on to the other half of this plugin. This is the really interesting part.  

Here we have the Modal controls. This controls the modal part of the filter. Now, what is that? Well, it’s basically a group of smaller filters all resonating with each other to spawn some holy/unholy sounds. 

There are a bunch of different Models (27 to be precise) that change the profile of the generated sounds. The models are named after the kind of sound they are making. The little spherical control in the middle rotates and revolves to reveal all the different models and is a fluid control that you can again snap using specific points along the sliders. 

There is an added Damping control and a Partials slider that lets you control the frequency profile of the generated partials.

In the extreme left and extreme right of the plugin, we have the humble Input and Output controls along with the Dry/Wet blend slider on the right-hand side. All three of these controls along with the Drive control can be parameter locked using the little lock button next to the slider.

The next part of the plugin we need to talk about is the bottom half, the modifiers. This whole section can be collapsed and hidden away if you aren’t using it. 

There are 6 modifiers. Each of them has very simple and easy controls.

All of the controls are extremely intuitive and self-explanatory. Each of these modifiers can be assigned to any of the parameters. Below each of the sliders, there is a little icon that shows all available active modifiers. You can click on this icon to reveal individual Blend controls for each of the modifiers. 

For each of the controls, you also have the option of Mono, Stereo, Dual mono and Linked modes which can be toggled by clicking the little Venn diagrams a the bottom. 

Apart from these extensive series of controls you have a very exhaustive Preset menu as well. 

Supermodal is very reminiscent of the Alchemy plugin from Logic Pro X, but in a good way. This plugin also features a lot of small UI easter eggs that make the experience super fun and interesting. For example, there is a little tiny bar right below the top menu bar that lights up according to the frequency spectrum of the output sound.

Filter Your Interests And Channel Your Creativity

This plugin can only be described as a toybox of filters. The UI has to be one of its best features. It is slick and seamless. It delivers a lot of control without being overwhelming – all while being extremely beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. As someone who does not go and muck about too much inside a filter plugin (I am more of a preset hunter), this plugin really encouraged me to go in and turn all the knobs just for fun.

So what would you use it for? What does it sound good on?

I see two major use case scenarios. The first one has to be the big obvious one – sound design. It offers so much more than a regular filter. The Modal features really extend the capabilities of the filters to offer the opportunity to create some really quirky sounds and soundscapes for your track. 

The second one has to be for inspiration. There are certain modes and settings where you can create these rhythmic feedback-y sounds. They are like filtered delays. This allowed us to throw in some basic rhythmic loops like guitars, drums etc to generate really interesting patterns. We can then build cool-sounding tracks based on these patterns. One can just rotate the sphere to endlessly spawn these unique creations.

Really feeling stuck? Throw the random modifier and have a ball! The blend feature lets you properly dial in the amount of crazy you want. As a matter of fact, this plugin is set up in a way that lets you go really crazy and once you’re done with the insanity, you can use all of the controls to very easily dial the sound back to a really usable space.

Remember the very famous advice for using exciters? Push it to where you think it sounds great and back off by 30%. That can very well apply to Supermodal. Will you get something useful for your track? Absolutely. I would suggest to anyone interested to check out the sound demos on the website. If those demos sound interesting to you, then this is THE plugin for you. They make a very compelling case to the right consumer.

As a producer myself, Supermodal is a godsend for when I am stuck creatively with a short piece of music or don’t know how to progress with a track that just sounds flat. Even in scenarios of mixing other people’s tracks, most times it’s great to infuse character through creative delays, breakdowns and intros; things the client might not have thought of. It’s not only fun but helps people sound ‘musical’ in a unique way.

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