Review: Sugar Bytes Cyclop - The Bass Monster

In the electronic music genre, rich bass sounds have recently become increasingly popular again. Without wobble bass, Dubstep would just be badly arranged breakbeat, and acid without TB 303 would just be boring Berlin minimal techno. Personally, I actually owned enough VST synthesizers to get pretty much any bass I needed. However, a few months ago I came across Sugar Bytes’ Cyclop and within minutes I was smitten by this bass monster.

Sugar Bytes’ Cyclop plugin instrument comes with a clean, very nice, and modern GUI design with four main big knobs: one for the Wobble section (an LFO controller), one for morphing between two parameter setups, one for the main FX section, and one for controlling various assignable parameters.

Cyclop offers an extremely wide range of sound design options that do not necessarily result in bass sounds. Among the six forms of synthesis, there are exotic ones such as Spectromat, Phase Stressor, or Transformer. The Transformer offers the option of importing wave files and using them as the basis for shaping the sound. With two filters, which come up with ten different filter types, a variety of sounds are guaranteed.

32 programmable effects in the internal step sequencer, a distortion unit with nine types, and two filter units each with ten filter types (bandpass, lowpass, spectral, comb filter, etc.) are a remarkable selection for a bass synthesizer. In addition, there is the wobble switch and ultra-flexible routing paths. Cyclop really has an impressive arsenal of features.

Also, Cyclop plugin comes with a very large and powerful presets library that will give you a perfect starting point to start your work and add the perfect bass to your track.

The strongest feature of this synth sit is sequencing and modulation options. Fun to use in creating those modern digital tracks with powerful and unique sounding for basses.

Use your own samples as a wavetable, throw effect sequencer orgies, drop on filters and make wobble basses never heard before. Cyclop is here to create new sound. Wrap your bass around your drums like melted sugar around a hot chili pepper. Cyclop is monophic and it will blow your mind. Wobble bass? Dubstep? Do something completely new!

Features of Cyclop:

New kinds of modulators like the Wobble Generator and the Sound Knob.
FX-Sequencer is also to be controlled by the FX-Knob.
6 Synthesis Engines: Saw Regiment, Analog Sync, FM, Transformer, Spectromat, Phase Stressor
10 state-of-the-art Filter types, plus vowel mode.
Routing Module for Synth / Filter patching, including Overdrive.
Sub Oscillator, Bass Processor, one-view modulation-flow.
Recommended by BoysNoize, Skrillex, Peaches, Modeselektor, SiriusMo, Mouse on Mars, Biohazard.
Over 800 presets were included, most of them from various artists.
Cyclop comes as a standalone application and VST/AU/RTAS/AAX plugin.

System Requirements

PC: WinXP/Vista/7 32/64bit, 2GHz, 1024MB RAM
Mac: OSX 10.4+, 32/64bit, 2GHz, 1024MB RAM

Thanks to the organic and musical-sounding filters, Cyclop has a clear vintage character without sounding washed-out or lacking in transparency. On the contrary: the sounds are very powerful and sizzle nicely in the middle to lower registers. This also applies to noisy sounds.

Sugar Bytes Cyclop is an all-around successful bass synthesizer that is capable of much more than just generating awesome Dubstep wobble basses. Cyclop has its very own charm and is even up for a little gag (mini computer game in the sequencer, each level reached a new sound). Cyclop is a lot of fun that I’ve never experienced with any other synthesizer.