Spitfire Audio are a London-based collective of musicians, producers, engineers and composers who are all active in the industry at large, and contribute their skills and sounds to the ever-expanding LABS platform. If you’re after deep pads or classic 80s style synth sounds, this free plugin instrument might be a secret weapon for you. It even has an additional Chorus effect and greater polyphony (12 voices, not 6).
He created an open source VST version that doubles as a patch editor for the hardware – similarly to Dexed. Although you do have to ignore the clunky user interface.įor whatever reason, nobody seems to have wanted to create a VST version, until Martin Lüder. It can also do unique, abrasive and wild sounds thanks to its powerful DCO/VCO oscillators.
That said, if you want creamy, warm leads, pads, organs and electric pianos, it’s one of the most elegant options going.
Full disclosure I do on one, and am hopelessly biased. Martin Lüder’s PG-8Xįor me, one of the most underrated classic synths is the Roland JX8-P. Most would have stopped there, but thanks to continuous input from U-He, the synth gets regular updates (including Catalina compatibility) and has even been integral to Behringer’s design of their popular DeepMind hardware synth line. Inspired by the replicants (AKA Clones) of the movie, they decided to create their own replicant of a classic synth architecture.
The interestng back-story to the N6 starts with a bunch of Germans who love the movie Blade-Runner.
And, a Mod Matrix… Seriously, this is a synth that should not be free! Add in 2 ADSR envelopes, 2 LFOs, a frankly brilliant Chorus and an equally brilliant Ladder Filter.
There are also Noise, Ring Modulation and Feedback engines, plus Vibrato, Glide and a sweet-sounding Pulse Width Modulator.
In lay terms, that just means there are 3 powerful voices to create your patch, which you can mix together in different degrees for tone control. Presumably, the Sub Oscillator is a Sine wave. Interestingly, both oscillators are wavetable, so varying degrees of input can be garnered from each shape. VCO Oscillator 1 has 4 wave shapes Square, Triangle, Saw and what looks to be a Super Saw, while Oscillator 2 has either Triangle or the aforementioned Suoper Saw. There are 2 VCO oscillators and a ludicrously deep Sub Oscillator. The 8-voice engine and architecture was created by U-He, so you know it’s gonna sound pretty decent. Rather than recreating the sound of a particular classic synth, it can recreate many such legends, like the JUNO-106 or the Moog Model D. In fact, I often choose it above VST Instruments with a considerably higher price-tag. If I could only pick one free synth, it would be this. The Tyrell N6 has no right to be free, it’s that good. I hope you’re sitting comfortably, because this one’s a bit of a story… There are even some decent preset patches to get you started. It isn’t the easiest to use interface, but it’s a very faithful recreation of the DX7, and it can roll out some amazingly diverse sounds. However, it has its own in-built FM synth engine which sounds pretty amazing.
So it is with Dexed, which is technically a patch editor for the Yamaha DX7. Dexedĭisclosure alert a good number of the best free VST Instruments are clones of famous classics. It even goes further than the classic monophonic, 3 VCO engine, by adding up to 64 voices and the capacity for 16 multitimbral parts. Many manufacturers have tried and failed to come up with something as big-sounding as Steinberg’s freebie! It’s got analog power, character, warmth and tone in abundance – something that’s hard to emulate digitally. You know what a Model D sounds like, even if you’ve never played one, because you’ve heard in so, so many songs. It’s an emulation of the legendary Moog Model D, a monophonic synth that is one of the most celebrated of all time. Steinberg Model EĪ free clone of a classic synth, that’s so good even Hans Zimmer uses it? Step forward Steinberg’s Model E.
N.B Unless stated, the following instruments are compatible with Mac and Windows OS, although not necessarily Catalina at time of publishing. Free is the magic number… particularly when starting your music production journey, or operating on a tight budget.Īdam Hignell takes a look at some incredible VST Plugins you can get for exactly zero dollars.