BA-1 by Baby Audio
*The review code for this software was provided to TBYN free of charge. Thanks to Baby Audio for the support.
The BA-1. Baby Audio’s Dark Horse modernization of a cult classicIt’s not really hyperbole to say that the music production industry runs on hype. I know it. You know it. Every single year, we’re bombarded with equipment and software claiming to do it faster, newer, shinier. Once you’ve been at this for a minute, you tend to get a bit desensitized. That makes it all the more clear when a company manages to cut through the noise and do something actually special. I feel like Baby Audio is one of those companies.
Prior to writing this review, I’d never actually PERSONALLY gotten the chance to use or work with any of their software. Yet, still, inexplicably, through the grapevine and just the organic machine that is the internet today, I somehow came to innately associate the brand with doing interesting work. That’s why, a few months ago, when they announced that they’d be putting out their first actual instrument, I and many in the production community perked up and started paying attention. The tweets were cryptic. The teaser videos only fueled our collective curiosity. Then. Eventually. It was revealed. The BA-1. An emulation and, more specifically, the evolution of an obscure synth made by Yamaha in the 80s. Huh. Okay.
Let me be clear. It was certainly an interesting choice. The Yamaha CS01 was a battery-powered, one-oscillator, monophonic synth with its own built-in speaker. At the time it wasn’t considered a flagship unit or something to be used by professionals by any means. Yet, it became a cult classic, becoming the “secret weapon” tool of many producers from the era and well into the modern day.
I’m going to start this review by being a bit of a spoiler boy right up front and say that I think this is an incredibly special instrument and there’s LOADS I love about it. Many things make this a unique piece of kit, but it’s almost easier to talk about what this instrument ISN’T before diving into exactly what it IS. Please remember that this review is based on roughly a week of playing around with this instrument. I won’t go as far as to say that I’ve mastered it by any means, but I feel fairly confident that I’ve got a respectable grasp on its capabilities and the potential that is baked into it.
Let’s get into it. This synth is not a workhorse synth. This is not your “does-it-all” synth. You know what I mean. There are a few of ‘em out there. Synths that are capable of a wide range of types of sounds and sound design capabilities. You could buy one of them and potentially make most if not all of the commonly used textures and sounds one might need in modern production. Stuff like Serum, Phaseplant, Vital, or Pigments. Yeah. The BA-1 ain’t these. Don’t walk into it having those expectations. It’s also not some synth purporting to explore some newfangled style of sound design or pushing the envelope in THAT way. The BA-1 is an evolution of a one-oscillator, monophonic, subtractive synth. That was never its aim. It definitely is my belief that it absolutely pushes the envelope, just, not in that way.
On the surface, you might be tempted to dismiss this synth and, I wouldn’t necessarily fault you for that. It’d be a mistake, sure, but I get it. A lot of the dope stuff this instrument does actually lies a bit below the surface. A cursory look can kind of put the BA-1 in a weird light. Okay, they added an extra oscillator. That’s cool. Not a whole lot of envelopes or LFOs though. There are a couple of effects. That’s kind of neat. Do you get where I’m going with this? Many of us have gotten used to infinite options. We’ve gotten used to an almost overwhelming amount of synthesis types and modulation parameters. We’re used to blank-canvas matrices with the ability to control almost everything.
This is actually a POSITIVE point for me. The BA-1 is positively childlike compared to the average modern synth in terms of the number of options you have, and this is way more refreshing than I thought it would be. What you see is what you get when it comes to the synth. There aren’t any pop-up windows or other tabs to click into. You can and WILL likely get sucked into the process of making sounds with this one. Part of the brilliance of its design is down to embracing this simplicity. The barrier to entry is pretty low, which makes it friendly to all levels of producers. Not once did I lose the plot in the middle of making a patch. It honestly felt a bit magical.
So. Architecture. What’s the workflow on this bad boy like? Well, first of all, you’ve got the choice of polyphony if you want it. Big step up. You got two oscillators with the basic sound shapes you’d expect (saw, square, triangle, pulse, and PWM on Osc 1). You can blend between these and mess about with the pitch. You’ve got the ability to dial in some FM as well; if you like. Then it’s onto the filter, which is a smooth 24db low-pass. I’m not gonna try to describe in words how warm this thing sounds. You kind of just have to hear it and then play around with it yourself. But it’s good. You’ve got one global envelope, one LFO (that can be routed to either the osc 1 or filter), a built-in sidechain, and then the effects. In terms of effects you’ve got some really nice saturation (we’ll go into this in a minute), some simple delay, reverb, and a chorus.
In terms of the FX, the delay, reverb, and chorus all sound really nice but they’re not exhaustive in the control you have over them. They also aren’t capable of creating cascading layers of sound in the realm of anything insane like Supermassive by Valhalla. Again. Pretty sure the simplicity and charm are kind of the point here. The saturation is nice and offers two modes, a circuit-bending mode and one that recreates the sound of an 80s overdrive pedal. These are supplemented by tonal controls for the darkness and brightness of the sound. They’re both distinct enough from one another to warrant their addition.
That’s it, BASICALLY. I’m not going to spend this review breaking down how it works any further, though. This isn’t a tutorial, after all. My goal is to paint a picture of my time with this thing, what sets it apart (if anything), whether or not I could see this become a staple of my process, and whether or not I’d recommend that you run out and grab it yourself. Let’s start with the unique things that set this apart.
The analog emulation on this thing is A1. I don’t have any particular experience with the original CS01 but I have been around analog synths throughout my time as a producer so I’m familiar with the warmth and organic tone they tend to be known for and this synth nails that feeling. Don’t believe me? Fire it up, pick the square wave on oscillator 1, and set the pitch range on it to the lowest. OOF. Beefy. Authentic and effective analog emulation is just one part of the equation, though, and honestly, not necessarily a strong enough selling point on its own with competitors like Arturia killing it on that front as well.
Next up, the inclusion of a speaker button on this thing is really nice. Basically, Baby Audio replicated the sound of the lo-fi speaker included in the OG hardware unit. Gamechanger? Not necessarily but very nice to have. You can’t really affect the sound of the speaker, it’s a simple on-off button and just is what it is but I like it. (It’s REALLY nice to run pad sounds through just FYI).
The battery slider. OKAY. Remember how I said somewhere at the start that the CS01 that this softsynth is an evolution of runs off of batteries? Dope. What do you reckon would happen to that synth when the batteries started to die? That’s right. You’d get random artifacts. Noise would be introduced, you’d start to experience audio dropouts, pitch fluctuations, and more inconsistency and unpredictability. Well, they programmed in a battery slider and it’s SO cool. Basically, you have total control over how much “battery power” the unit has. The closer to zero you get the more affected the sound becomes. Baby Audio themselves have admitted that they’ve exaggerated the degree to which the sound gets affected because, well, it just sounds good.
There’s something seemingly crazy about it to me, though. I’m not a programming or design wizard so I really don’t know if this is true but, this is what my ears experienced in the many hours of testing this particular feature. See. The way I assumed the battery slider would work is that there’d be a set fx chain that would get more and more exaggerated the closer to zero you get. Easy Peasy lemon squeezy. What I figured that’d mean for my experience of it is that eventually, if I left the battery slider on a particular percentage and doodled around, I’d sooner or later hear the variation of fluctuations repeat or cycle back. It never happened. Whatever algorithmic wizardry they’ve done seems to have baked into it all of the unpredictability of real-world batteries just fizzling out. INSANE. This isn’t a feature that you can automate from within BA-1 but, for me, as an Ableton user, being able to automate the battery slide from within the DAW opens up a whole host of potential sound-design madness that I really appreciate.
The final thing that I thought was insane and, this one IS a game-changer, is the re-gen engine. At the bottom right of this unit is a little button. A tiny one. With a neat little dice icon. Click it and BA-1 algorithmically generates a new patch. I lost my marbles at this one. Literally. You can click and click and click and click for hours and each time you get a new patch that’s unique and, 99.99% of the time, instantly usable AS IS. Baby Audio themselves markets this as a way to get a starting point or inspiration for your own sound design and, it absolutely can work for that. Still, the truth is, if you’re new to sound design, this feature can teach you a lot about how individual components are set and adjusted to create certain types of sounds. Beyond that, the re-gen engine is a godsend for people just looking for new sounds and not interested in making their own. As I said, the vast majority of them are usable as they are right from the click. Insane.
So. Verdict. What was my time with it like and do I see the BA-1 being a regular part of my workflow? Well, to answer the first, I’ve spent the better part of 7 days playing around with this synth and I’ve loved every minute of it. As I said before, this isn’t a “does everything” synth but I really do believe that there’s a wide depth to the sounds you CAN create with this. There’s also the fact that this thing ships with over 500 presets, including some designed by well-known Artists and Sound Designers. More than anything, it’s just FUN to use and get lost in. I truly believe that the simplicity of the workflow is by design and an intentional core tenet of this synth. The OG hardware unit is known as a secret weapon synth and I look at this one much the same. I can easily see this being my secret weapon go-to for coming up with Flume-esque, Odesza-ish-inspired future bass leads, and lush pads in my own project.
More to the point, should YOU get it? This synth has an MSRP of $99 which, for everything on offer, in my opinion, is actually worth it. However, Baby Audio is retailing it with an intro sale of 51% off, making it accessible right now for $49. At that point, it becomes kind of a no-brainer for me. Whether this synth ends up being a go-to, used-on-every-track powerhouse synth for you OR a secret weapon synth, OR even if it’s something you occasionally use to have fun and get back to basics, the bottom line is that the BA-1 is a unique piece of kit that sounds great, has a lot of sound design potential to it and, fundamentally, is just such a joy to get lost in that I, without reservations, firmly recommend it.
Baby Audio’s BA-1 is on sale now with an intro pricing of 51% off. Pick it up now here!
Review written by ColonyWant to get an in-depth tutorial on the BA-1? Watch Baby Audio’s Official Tutorial:
