Spitfire and BT's Phoenix lets any sample act as an FM operator

Spitfire Audio is known for sample libraries, and Phoenix, released on 29 September with the composer BT, is a synthesizer that happens to contain one. The 40 GB of recordings sit inside it as raw material for the engines rather than as the point.

Each note runs six engines that share one signal path: spectral wavetables, FM, a sampler, two-operator FM transients, subharmonic generation and a complex noise oscillator.

Where the sampler and the FM meet

The FM section is a full six-operator design with 34 algorithms, and Spitfire says up to 48 oscillators can be stacked into a single note. The detail worth stopping on is that any sample can become an operator.

In classic FM the operators are sine waves, which is what makes the results predictable: the carrier and modulator frequencies decide where the sidebands land. A recorded sample as an operator brings its own spectrum and its own movement over time, so every partial in it generates sidebands of its own. That is a much less predictable kind of FM, and it is the one part of Phoenix that depends on Spitfire having the recordings to feed it.

Two channels, one seed

Left and right run independent chains, with different wavetable positions and different warps that can drift apart in real time. There are more than 80 warp modes across two serial slots, and warp depth can be modulated per channel.

The Meta sequencer has four stages of 128 steps, per-stage play probability and eight scale modes. Its random generator is seeded, so a take you liked can be printed again identically, which is the part of randomised sequencing that usually goes missing at bounce time.

Around that sit 37 effects across 12 slots in three chains, 552 presets, and 16 voices with full MPE.

Price and requirements

€239 until 25 October, then €299. VST3, AU and AAX, through the Spitfire Audio App. macOS 15 or later, or Windows 10 22H2 or Windows 11. The library is 40 GB, and Spitfire asks for 80 GB of free space during installation.