The Swedes are really at it these years, Klevgränd being no exception. The veteran developer collective creates both instruments and effects that look great, seem intuitive to use and fill in several unexplored gaps in the market. And with the release of Tomofon, the clever Klevs have created a sample-synth-mutation that works from not one wavetable at a time, but practically one wavetable per key or keyzone.
New Model Work
Explained really quickly, Tomofon is a synth capable of playing a sample by chopping it finely into seamlessly linked wavetables based on the source audio file, and split across several keyzones. The result is quite a lively instrument playing across an huge amount of cycles on a range of wavetables extracted from the source audio, the synth engine treating each cycle as an oscillator.


Added to this are several onboard options for modulation, effects, filtering and ADLR-tinkering – typo intended (here L stands for Loop when speaking Tomofonic, from the nature of how Tomofon loops across a wavetable of a note when arriving at the usual Sustain stage, and looping has some micro controls for length and speed.
So while other wavetable based synths like Serum and Vital of course already exist, and do their thing well with added synthesis, what Tomofon pushes forward are the many generated wavetables full of cycles up along each key or keyzone for a more analog, varied feel. The big difference between Tomofon and most sampled instruments, apart from their apparent differences in anatomy, is the sheer amount of harddrive space often needed for each patch for sample based instruments, while Tomofon works its magic from a single source sample.
MPEasy
The release of Tomofon comes at a perfect time alongside the hot topic of MPE instruments and controllers, and the focus on giving that human vibe to music while still being made with a computer. This review covers Tomofon version 1.2, which introduces filters, body types and MPE compatibility via two assignable control parameters that can point to any of the 127 CC / control change values.
For example you can assign the MPE Y-axis (the movement from top to bottom of the key, or front to back, if you will) to any parameters in the control matrix, and set the strength at which you finger slide will affect the amount of depth or pitch frequency to modulate.

I’ve used my 1st gen Roli Seaboard 25 for this review, and I must say the playability of most patches is pretty good from the get go. Compared to the Equator Synth, which is native to Roli, and if using that as a measure of comparison, Tomofon is quite alive and capable of generating both pretty natural sounding instruments as well as awesome sounding hybrids. And a fun thing to mention here is the way each Tomofon patch is built around ADLR (L being Loop instead of Sustain), Depth, Pitch and Filter, all pointing to the wavetables laid out from the sourced audio. This lets us load in different source audio files, by Klev called audio models, and keep the knobs and curves from the current patch, making sound design and discovery fun from not just one angle.
Tomofon is quite alive and capable of generating both pretty natural sounding instruments as well as awesome sounding hybrids.

Out of the box Tomofon has 180 presets based on 124 audio models, with instruments ranging from natural emulations of what you could call real world inspired basses, pads, synths, strings, percussion, to more abstract sounds, voice based and alien sounding, even.
As such Tomofon transcends genres, making it a great tool for sound design of practically any kind.
Included in the review material are the following expansion packs, which really help present the versatility of the Tomofon: Lost and Found, Vintage Organs, Tuned Percussion, Pink Textures, Analog Synths and Loney Tunes. These are purchased at Klevgränd’s website ($14,99 each).
Own It
To get the most out of Tomofon, to go from having it to really owning it, you must of course be willing to dive into the controls. They are pretty logical, even though the user interface has some pretty important stuff hidden in pop-ups and tabs, with graphical curves controlling note behavior, LFOs, filter and so forth. There are also sub-settings for your MIDI controller, voice, delay, reverb, body and EQ – all of which require a mouse click to get into the settings for each. So get ready for a lot of clicking around to tweak or create a patch from scratch. Still what Tomofon does is unique, and so many of the patches are really intuitive and immediately gets you going.
Bass Funk (video)
In the video below, I’ve created a short session inspired by playing around with a bass patch:
Playing around with the bass instruments in Tomofon in the video above was a lot of fun. Of course it helps to have an MPE controller to help affect parameters, but even if you don’t have an MPE controller, the values can still be edited and automated, and could end up sounding pretty good too, if you know what you’re doing and have time on your side. An MPE controller makes lively playing a lot easier, of course. And actually Tomofon has been the first instrument in a while (apart from Roli’s own Equator VST) that really had me appreciate the per note parameter changes and fretless glide possible with the Seaboard 25. You can hear the neck glide in the bass riffs above.
East String (video)
In the second video I’m using the ‘East String’ preset that comes included with Tomofon:
This quick sketch in Ableton’s Session View came to life after just playing around with the patch, laying down a few themes using Scenes. you’ll hear the East String patch really come to life thru modulation, here created assigning the Y-axis to the Depth of the instrument, giving the strings an fluttery edge at the top of the keys (deep on the Z-axis).
Also, I’ve set up the Ableton MAX MPE Control unit as the first link in the instrument chain, to visually track the Seaboard’s output to velocity, Glide (Z) and per note pitch bend. I think you will quickly see and hear how much MPE input data adds to the instrument – but remember, you don’t have to have an MPE MIDI controller to affect these parameters, you could also just assign a knob to each and twiddle it up. The pencil tool will even do for some automation or geometric automation, and is likely needed for fine edits of the resulting midi clip data anyway.

Ideas for improvement
Matching patches and models is really the fun part of Tomofon. So a few ideas for workflow improvement would be to make it possible to lock the loaded model, so that browsing patches keeps the model – just like you can swap the model while keeping the control settings. Also, with so many controls over loop length in both the Depth, Pitch and Filter tabs, as well as LFO settings, it would be handy for some genres to be able to match the BPM with on time quantization like ⅛ and ¼ notes for example, since matching the current millisecond scaled knobs would take quite a lot of mousing and referencing a MS to quantization conversion chart to get it right. I also would have loved to visually see the knobs moving according to the parameter changes applied by MIDI / MPE input, maybe this could justify the large size of the ADLR-section.
The reason Klevgränd made the curves window rather large is of course logical in itself, namely for clarity while editing, but perhaps the plugin UI could be optimized in a later update to show all four tabs on the interface at once, since it feels like they’re often needed simultaneously while editing a patch. Maybe add a zoom/solo tab option to show only the Filter window, while you edit its curves. But in all fairness, these are merely suggestions based on personal preference. It’s not to say that Tomofon is lacking in performance, I just feel it would speed up the workflow and add clarity while tweaking.
Summary

To sum things up, Tomofon is a fun new instrument with sounds you will have a hard time conjuring any other way than the unique audio-to-multiple-wavetables formula. Klevgränd have created a bold new way to synthesize sound, and while the real instrument simulations mostly are really natural sounding, natural isn’t always the end goal in sound design, and this is really where Tomofon becomes an adventure. You’ll know what I mean when you play a synth based on a sample of your dishwasher, and your friends wonder how you got that sound.
Version reviewed: Tomofon 1.2