Baby Audio BA-1: Evolving everyday softsynth design

Hot on the heels of the launch of its very first, retro-tailored softsynth, we speak to Baby Audio's Caspar Bock to find out more about why the company has taken the leap into the canyon of synth-craft, and learn all about the awesome BA-1

- Caspar Bock

cm: What motivated the creation of your BA-1 synth plugin?

Caspar Bock: "We've always wanted to make synthesisers; but it took eight effect plugins until we finally took the plunge! As for the motivation behind BA-1: with many of our products we have this philosophy of doing 'evolutions' instead of 'emulations', where we take a piece of hardware and expand upon its concept in a software version. We felt that the CS01 could be a really great candidate for a project like that - for two reasons: first of all, because it had a much bigger impact on music history than it's normally given credit for. And secondly, the original was so limited that it gave us lots of room whereby we could expand upon its legacy."

cm: What made you choose the Yamaha CS01 as the foundation for the BA-1?

CB: "We wanted our first synth to be a simple project as we knew there'd be a learning curve when making an instrument for the first time. Furthermore, the CS01 has never been properly emulated before and it's a bit of a cult classic. So we felt like we could actually bring something new to the table with this. Finally, because the original CS01 was so limited, we were able to just take its core sound - which is really nice and gritty - and then build our own vision of a perfect simple synthesiser around that. If we had chosen a more complex piece of gear to 'evolve', we wouldn't have had the same creative freedom."

cm: How long did the modelling process take, and what are some of the BA-1's USPS? How would you define its sound?