It can be hooked up to a Mac for easier editing using software.Also available for the Mac, Amiga, and Atari ST. Also on-board is a useful 8-track sequencer. Free musical instruments? No catch, no spamIt uses those giant 5 floppy disks for storage. Despite its simplicity, with three oscillators, several different filters and a pleasing amount of modulation capabilities, it can make some seriously powerful sounds. NoiseMaker builds on the success of TAL’s Elek7ro synth and is a relatively straightforward virtual analogue soft synth.
![]() u-He’s baby Zebra, some cheese and the legendary Tyrell Full Bucket Music – analogue Korgs and original concepts too The latter in particular is a real resource hog, the trade off for circuit-accurate recreations of classics like the D-50 and modern synths too there’s a virtual System 8 in the package.This will grow to be a long list – fortunately for us, there’s a lot of really cool stuff to get started making music without spending money, as long as you have a computer. Some are glitchy or need a bit of work, but the majority are as good as any commercial, expensive package.Not everything I use is free, obviously, and I’m comparing my experience of these free VSTs with the likes of Arturia V-Collection and Roland Cloud. These days, though, it’s really hard to justify going all out to get every synth you findin a secondhand shop or carboot sale, because virtual copies aren’t just available – they’re good.Crazy thing is, too, a lot of them are free or donationware. SheepShaver started as a commercial project in 1998 but is now open source since 2002.Got a fierce case of GAS? I sympathise, I’ve suffered it for years – my Gearslutz ‘owned’ list is either epic or depressing, depending on your perspective. Updates ms office 2011 for macIt’s expanded and opens up the rather arcane programming in a way that people who stuck to patches on their 800s (like, er, me) will find enlightening.Itching to see what’s on offer? Go and visit the source: Here are all the Fullbucket VSTs (Windows and Mac, with AU versions too) you can download. Joining them are some classic Korgs – the Mono/Poly, Trident, Sigma and Delta, and a few original creations.The most recent addition to the family is the quirky ’80s Korg Poly800, in the form of Fury800. Yes, that’s a ‘free’ download of a 48-voice analogue monster that would cost tens of thousands to acquire, let alone maintain – if you could find one in the first place. Musician and programmer Björn Arlt dealt with the lust for unaffordable classic synths by creating virtual versions and has released an astounding number of them as donationware.These aren’t one-off summer projects that sound awesome and have been abandoned, either – regularly updated with professionally-programmed soundbanks, they’re the sort of thing that makes you wonder how big firms can get it so wrong or neglect their plugins for ages.Headliners here are the Korg PS synths, replicated in FB-3300, 32. Classic synthesizers, name your price – Full Bucket MusicTop of the list for free VSTs has to be the epic work by Full Bucket Music. Synth Emulator Full Keyboard PolyphonyLearning to program the FB-3300 is a daunting task – it comes with a set of presets, thankfully, so you’re ahead of those first electronic musicians…For all intents and purposes, the FB-3100 is one-third of the PS-3300 sound engine, with a single VCO voice structure but full keyboard polyphony. If you’re a fan of Tangerine Dream, ELP, Yes or any of the psychedelic/prog artists that made synthesizers cool (or not), you’ll love it.I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the emulation, but it sounds deeply impressive, is stable and has a scalable GUI so you can actually see the hundreds of parameters you can control. Not only that, each key has its own VCA, VCF and envelope generators.This is a truly big synthesizer with great analogue character – you can only imagine what it was like playing one on stage or studio in the 1970s. The original was a beast, with effectively three PS-3100s in one box, a dedicated 48-key keyboard and a total of 144 oscillators*. Can be resized easily, low CPU overheadFB-3300 is a real gift for fans of classic 1970s and early ’80s synthesizer music. Impressive analogue emulation, 48 voices, 3 oscillators per voice It might not have the analogue-recreated accuracy of imperfection, but it’s the spirit of the original through and through. The free version doesn’t claim to be 100% accurate, either, but it’s very very close.Which means it sounds speaker-blowingly, old-school brutal for some patches. Navigating Mono/Fury is therefore a bit easier. So sensibly, u-He have a few freebies to show what they do… ZebraletteDescribed as a baby Zebra, the Zebralette is a single-oscillator version with less flexibility, but still 16-voice polyphonic with ADSR and MSEG envelope generators, wave-morphing and spectral filters that go beyond low or high pass.Basically that means it sounds WAY better than just a single oscillator synth. Not an unreasonable amount (they’re actually pretty good value, and you can trade in your old synth for a discount ) ), but enough to make you think ‘do you need it’. Diva’s more grounded, but a storming software virtual analogue dream that if it were hardware, would be everywhere.These flagships cost though. Take the best bits of modern synthesizers, pick and choose, and build to your heart – and your CPU’s – content. Zebra is like modular on steroids, or if you want to move away from the capes and patchcords, object-oriented synthesis. They’re donation-ware you’ll want to pay for – but don’t have to… u-He – Baby zebras and cheeseU-He (Urs Heckmann) is well known for two astonishingly powerful softsynths, Zebra and Diva. And of course, that super-distinctive throttle-style bass booster. Martinic’s free plugin has probably done more to raise global awareness of this unusual-looking creature than anything else.What you get is a solid-sounding monophonic bass/string organ with some extra tuning and filtering flexibility under the toggle switches and tolex. This baby string bass synth is an obscure – but apparently easily to find – electronic instrument from Rheem, a company known for making water heaters. It’s brilliant, frequently updated, has the vital scalable UI for big monitors and sounds epic.Next to the wonderful (paid for – but trials are available) duo of the Elka Panther combo organ and Lem Italian tape echo is a quirky little beast, the Kee Bass. Most people needed the PG-800 programmer to get the most from it. The Roland JX-8P was a six-voice polyphonic, dual-DCO analogue synthesizer with sophisticated programming (but, more 1980s chips-and-software involved instead of analogue circuits) hidden behind a true 80s-tastic membrane button front panel. Martin Lüders – PG-8XThis is a stealthy one, but you really want it if retrowave is your thing – you can download a virtual Roland JX-8P here. And absolutely worth the effort. No catch, no signup, no involved account creation, it’s quick and straightforward. And it offers polyphonic mode too – something the original never could.It’s free, but you do need to request a licence before installing it. Native Instruments – Komplete StartThis one’s really aimed at supporting hardware – but it’s available to all, and contains some very worthwhile, versatile instruments in an impressive 6GB library. A must-have for ’80s pop, synthwave and early alternative electronic music. MIDI learn allows rapid mapping of controls from your hardware, and when you’ve loaded some sysex files and patches you can store the full 128-sound bank in a PG8X preset file for quicker recall.It’s fast, lightweight, with easy to read controls and exactly the right aesthetic for the JX-8P it’s also a synth Roland has yet to emulate in Roland Cloud. There are loads available, factory sounds and other libraries, and it’s straightforward. Or aftertouch repair.Unlike many VSTs, it relies on you loading some presets into it from JX-8P sysex files.
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