Freeware synths

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Freeware synths

Postby Mush » 09 Aug 2013 16:17

Everyone likes free things, especially when they are meant to be free! I am quite the user of freebie synths, as they often can make cheesier sounds or, sometimes, can do basic things more complex synths can't.

The freebies I use are:

Synth1
YM2612
GTG 44 S
GTG K 1.3
NK 1001

I will expand on any of them if you don't know what they are.


So, MLR, what freebie synths do you use?
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby Captain Ironhelm » 09 Aug 2013 17:08

mausynth is quite good. However, it seems like it has a memory leak or something, idk. Nice sound anyway.
http://rinki.net/pekka/mausynth/

Podolski from u-he, the makers of Zebra and Diva. This may be the best free synthesizer I have come across yet.
http://www.u-he.com/cms/podolski
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby PropellerEscape » 09 Aug 2013 17:13

I love using free VSTs, seeing as many of them can rival even the most popular VSTs if you know how to use them properly :3

I regularly use many of the VSTs from TweakBench, seeing as they offer some outstanding 8-bit drums, synths and pads.

Camelcrusher is a great free distortion plugin, and it works wonders for snares, kicks or anything that takes your fancy.

CMS Bitcrusher is a versatile, easy to use bitcrusher which is perfect for a free VST

Cleansweep is a filter with Excellent high and low pass filters that works well to remover unwanted frequencies pre-EQ.

Finally one that you should all have by now, T-Force Alpha Plus. It's a subtractive synthesizer which is also capable of quite basic FM synthesis to make nice trance basses

There you are, go wild :3
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby S.P.P » 09 Aug 2013 17:17

Zebralette - free, less powerful version of Zebra. Not bad for a freebie.
Brzoza - free FM synth, sure its no FM8.. But still worth a download.
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby Alycs » 09 Aug 2013 19:43

^Dang thats a nice set eery; thanks for that

I'm just gonna throw ZynAddSubFX out there. Its packaged native with LMMS; but it is amazing powerful in itself.

It allows for Additive, Subtractive, and "Pad" Synthesis (Its a variation of Fermi Sequencing - it takes a set relative frequency range and effectively blurs it to make everything sound really smooth and pad and its amazing)

However, the best thing about it is that it allows literally endless waveform editing with EXCEPTIONAL ease. It lets you create almost anything you could with FM, as once you think you've got a waveform almost right but you've ran out of filters to move... BAM... it can self re-sample and let you take that waveform and use it as a new base and edit it from that.

Its insanely powerful for a free synth. The only [and, sadly, very damaging] flaw is that because everything is so self-dependant, you can't make internal automations. You can control the cut-off, resonance, Bandwidth, Portmento, and some other stuff, but you can't adjust, say, the actual waveforms or the FM width (did I mention it can do FM too? oops)
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby Mush » 10 Aug 2013 01:49

Right, I'd better expand on my lame excuse for a first post.

The YM2612 is amazing. It can produce lovely basses and solid 16bit tones and sounds. The YM2612 is a VST remake of the sound-chip that went inside the SEGA Genesis, so some really cool retro game sounds can be made with this thing!

The GTG Synths are a set of synths I nabbed from this handy little site I found. They are not the best by all means, they cannot be automated (that I know of), but some can make nice, nice sounds. The GTG K 1.3 is my current favourite of this set, as it can create warm saws and pads with minimal effort. The NK 1001 from the site is also pretty cool, nice for making simple 80s melodies with.

Synth1 is my waifu. I love this synth to bits and use it all the time. It is now my default go-to for melodies and pads before Harmless now (Harmless can still do better basses though).
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby Mr. Bigglesworth » 10 Aug 2013 02:48

Well Tal Noise maker is really good in my opinion. You can get some pretty good sounds out of it, my favorite use for it is sub bass though, it makes great sub basses with pretty minimal effort (turn osc1 and the sub oscilator all the way down, put a sine on 2 and put the pitch down all the way).

I also loved TAL Elec7ro.
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby Captain Ironhelm » 12 Aug 2013 15:28

Tone2's Firebird synth has gone free as of today!

http://www.tone2.com/html/firebird_vsti_vst_synthesizer_1.html
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby HMage » 13 Aug 2013 08:28

If you want daily updated rankings of free instrument plugins, go here --

http://www.kvraudio.com/plugin-ranks.php?show=50

Click on "Instruments" tab, and you're set -- there are three lists: All instruments, Free instruments and Commercial instruments.

This list is compiled automatically by rankings given by KVR users in last day, 7 days, 30 days, and 3 month average.

I'm also very glad to see that Sylenth1 is currently ranked 9 positions higher than Massive on the 3-month average in commercial section. Woohoo!

These lists update and convolute a lot during the time, and if you look at monthly history you can see some synths were more popular during specific months, and hot new releases can get highly ranked but then lost and forgotten into oblivion.
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby Conchetupony » 01 Sep 2013 15:50

Since some VST effects (not VSTi synths) are also being thrown around here, I thought I'd mention GClip, a soft clipper. Easy to use, with an intuitive interface that shows you how exactly are you mangling your waves. c:
oops I dropped the bass

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Re: Freeware synths

Postby Member1221 » 19 Sep 2013 08:01

i use:
Podolski
TyrellN6
4Front Piano
TForce Alpha (+ and TS)
and Synth1
(and if effect VST's count then: dblue Glitch 1.3 and TAL Bitcrusher)
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby Majora MIM » 20 Sep 2013 08:18

Alycs wrote:^Dang thats a nice set eery; thanks for that

I'm just gonna throw ZynAddSubFX out there. Its packaged native with LMMS; but it is amazing powerful in itself.

It allows for Additive, Subtractive, and "Pad" Synthesis (Its a variation of Fermi Sequencing - it takes a set relative frequency range and effectively blurs it to make everything sound really smooth and pad and its amazing)

However, the best thing about it is that it allows literally endless waveform editing with EXCEPTIONAL ease. It lets you create almost anything you could with FM, as once you think you've got a waveform almost right but you've ran out of filters to move... BAM... it can self re-sample and let you take that waveform and use it as a new base and edit it from that.

Its insanely powerful for a free synth. The only [and, sadly, very damaging] flaw is that because everything is so self-dependant, you can't make internal automations. You can control the cut-off, resonance, Bandwidth, Portmento, and some other stuff, but you can't adjust, say, the actual waveforms or the FM width (did I mention it can do FM too? oops)



You can automate everything with external automation pretty easily with that internal MIDI controller assignation though.

ZASFX is really a monster! Best freebie I've got by far.
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby Ocular » 04 Oct 2013 12:38

the tforce synths are great, everyone should have them in their collection. But they eat up CPU so if your computer is 2007 or older then you probably shouldn't get them lol
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby CitricAcid » 04 Oct 2013 12:57

The only freeware that I've been using lately is a frequency exciter plugin called Thrillseeker XTC. I use it on the master bus after everything is all mixed. It's fun to fiddle with, because no matter what I do it always makes things sound "better," just in different ways.
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Re: Freeware synths

Postby Mr. Bigglesworth » 02 Dec 2013 00:42

I'm not here anymore, but if you want you can still just call me Mr. BigBagelBoggle!

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