BioTek 2

A powerhouse sampling and synthesis workstation.             

In a world full of virtual instruments, BioTek was designed to be different from the ground up. Not only is the engine more capable than existing offerings, but the choice to use natural and environmental samples gave the instrument its unique character. The user interface was designed to allow rapid access to inspirational parameters via macro controls on the main ‘Wild’ page whilst also presenting access to the deep editing environment. Extensive modulation and modifier routes are intuitively assigned and all parameters are available for DAW automation. Dive into the weird and wonderful immersive world of BioTek.

Spinal Saw Oscillator

The unique ‘Spinal Saw’ oscillator allows you to have up to 11 detuned sawtooth waves within a single oscillator. Considering BioTek features 4 oscillators per voice, this gives you a total of 44 sawteeth per sound layer – and you can have unlimited sound layers per patch. Perfect for making thick leads, huge pads, and rumbling synth basses – unleash the beast.

Granular Oscillator

The BioTek 2 granular oscillator extracts sound grains from the sample of your choice and redistributes them into dense clouds, scattered drops, or any density in-between. This allows you to create everything from uniquely textured musical instruments to otherworldly soundscapes. The oscillator itself provides a useful visual reference for how the grains relate to the source sample, showing playback position and pitch relationships. The BioTek 2 granular oscillator brings a mighty storm surge of synthesis to an already powerful engine.

Deep Parameter Control

BioTek’s unlimited engine can scale to literally tens of thousands of parameters so managing the workflow is key. The intuitive system for importing your own samples and promoting parameters to the main ‘Wild’ macro page allows you to quickly construct your own instrument. The customizable ‘Wild’ page macro controls are immediately accessible to your DAW automation and new in version 2 is the ability to also access the entire parameter list from the deep editing pages. You have unprecedented control over all the instruments' sound-shaping tools.

Surgical Precision

No synthesizer is complete without a comprehensive filtering and effects section. BioTek has a full complement of both – 9 high-quality effects can be loaded into 4 effect slots per voice allowing for extensive creative sound shaping. Filtering is also extremely flexible with numerous types to choose from, now including Transistor Ladder and Sallen-Key in BioTek 2 – sculpt your sound with surgical precision.

Creative Horsepower

BioTek features 4 oscillators per sound layer capable of creating multiple forms of synthesis: FM Synthesis, Virtual Analog, Sample Playback, Karplus-Strong, and now also Granular and the unique Spinal Saw. With unlimited sound layers per patch, you can create simple or extremely complex, expressive instruments.

A Breath Of Life

BioTek takes modulation to the next level – it features 200 modulation routes and 32 modifier routes performing mathematical functions on the modulation sources. It also features 8 unique Flow LFOs, each with 8 individual parallel syncable sub LFOs on every sound layer. With so much routing available, it is possible to program “life”, an organic randomness, into your sounds.

Instant Control

BioTek’s signature ‘Wild’ macro page allows you to rapidly explore each sound patch with surprising depth. The stunning central XY control is typically assigned to numerous sound-shaping parameters allowing for immediate and sometimes extreme manipulations. While the unique ‘Flow LFO’s’ invite you to dynamically perform variations in the modulation assignments. Each patch is individually designed to present the most interesting sound-shaping tools right at your fingertips, then dive deep into the editing pages to fully customize your sound.

All About The Sound

All instruments are not created equal! BioTek’s codebase was skillfully created by the industry veteran, Wolfram Franke who refined his craft by designing a long list of instruments for Waldorf Music – revered for their outstanding depth of sound. Sculpting this beast into weird and wonderful soundscapes has been the task of some of the most prominent sound designers of our day – led by Taiho Yamada and most recently adding electronic experimental guru Richard Devine, the factory patch list has swelled to over 500 deeply creative sonic experiments.

The Biotek Sample Library

To help set BioTek apart from the status quo, an entirely new collection of audio samples was required. Enter composer and engineer, Mike Wall.

BioTek’s natural and environmental sounds are samples from Mike’s collection spanning 20 years of field recording in Washington, Oregon, California, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and Hawaii, with a bit of Texas stirred in (for seasoning). For the industrial sounds, Mike did location recording at several manufacturing facilities near Seattle. Mike achieved exceptionally high resolution and low noise by utilizing various stereo microphones, hydro-phone rigs and digital recorders that are customized for intense field conditions. The samples were carefully looped and mastered for the Acktion Engine™.

Features

• Spinal Saw Oscillator Type with up to 11 sawtooth oscillators in one, with FM and in-oscillator sync
• Granular Sample Oscillator Type, with FM
• Transistor Ladder Filter Type with 6, 12, 18 and 24 dB lowpass characteristic and resonance up to self-oscillation for all slopes
• Sallen-Key Filter Type with 12 dB lowpass characteristic
• Automation of all parameters (some hosts might be limited to first sound layer)
• Dedicated browser page with filters for author, category, style and timbre and full-text search
• Assign Source Info Menus showing where a modulation source is assigned to
• 500+ factory patches
• 4 virtual analog/sample playback oscillators
• 4 operator FM synthesis (can use samples)
• Sync, Ring Mod, PWM, waveshaping
• 2 multimode filters in series with distortion and EQ
• Filter Types: 4-pole & 2-pole LP, BP, HP, BS (Notch) 1-pole LP, HP Comb (Tuned Delay for Karplus Strong) Redux (SR, Bit Reducer)
• 200 modulation routes, 32 modifier routes (performing mathematical functions on the modulation sources), assignable GUI macro controls
• 8 Flow LFOs (each with 8 individual parallel syncable sub LFOs)
• 4 effects in series
• Effects Types: Reverb Delay Compressor/Limiter Distortion Chorus Flanger Phaser Redux
• 4 envelopes (can be up to 32 stages with looping sustain and release sections, curvatures for each stage)
• Sample import (Osc), MID file import (Arp)

*All above features are for a single sound layer (unlimited layers can be created for a single patch).

System Requirements

Mac

• macOS 10.9 or Later
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz Processor 
• 2GB RAM (8GB Recommended)

PC

• Windows 7, 8, 10
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz Processor 
• 2GB RAM (8GB Recommended)

Note: Requires a DAW host software to run and 1GB available disk space.