Synthesis

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Synthesis

See also Sampling, Audio#Synthesis (for speech synthesis), Audio (in general), Groovebox, etc.

todo; touch-ups, more links, more text

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesizer - often abbreviated as synth, is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals that may be converted to sound. Synthesizers may imitate traditional musical instruments such as piano, flute, vocals, or natural sounds such as ocean waves; or generate novel electronic timbres. They are often played with a musical keyboard, but they can be controlled via a variety of other devices, including music sequencers, instrument controllers, fingerboards, guitar synthesizers, wind controllers, and electronic drums. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are often called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device, often a MIDI keyboard or other controller.

Synthesizers use various methods to generate electronic signals (sounds). Among the most popular waveform synthesis techniques are subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis, wavetable synthesis, frequency modulation synthesis, phase distortion synthesis, physical modeling synthesis and sample-based synthesis.




  • Synthtopia - a portal devoted to electronic music.



Learning

  • Synth Zone is an attempt to ease the search for synth resources on the Internet . If you can't find links to the information or resources here then please check out the full list of synth sites on Synth Zone's Synth Sites Links & Resources page.





  • Synth.tk - Sound Synthesis Education. Various article and video series. [1]
  • Advanced Programming Techniques for Modular Synthesizers - intended to provide the advanced user of the Clavia Nord Modular synthesizer with a toolbox of techniques for creating complex and interesting patches. Although the emphasis is on the Nord Modular, the techniques described in this document can be applied to any modular synthesizer, from a modular Moog to the Native Instruments Reaktor softsynth.
  • The Synthesizer Academy - a site dedicated to help you learn about synthesis and the creation of electronic music. If you’re looking for a synthesizer tutorial, this is the site for you! You can either start at the very beginning and work your way through each lesson one-by-one, or use the red bar at the top to jump in wherever you want. We’ll also be adding links to various synth resources to help you learn more and get your hands on some gear to play with. New lessons will be added frequently, so check back often.



Elements



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-frequency_oscillation - LFO - The primary oscillator circuits of a synthesizer are used to create the audio signals. A LFO is a secondary oscillator that operates at a significantly lower frequency (hence its name), typically below 20 Hz. This lower frequency or control signal is used to modulate another component's value, changing the sound without introducing another source.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_synthesizer - a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of vacuum-tube (thermionic valve) and electro-mechanical technologies. After the 1960s, analog synthesizers were built using operational amplifier (op-amp) integrated circuits, and used potentiometers (pots, or variable resistors) to adjust the sound parameters. Analog synthesizers also use low-pass filters and high-pass filters to modify the sound. While 1960s-era analog synthesizers such as the Moog used a number of independent electronic modules connected by patch cables, later analog synthesizers such as the Minimoog integrated them into single units, eliminating patch cords in favour of integrated signal routing systems.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_synthesizer - a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. This in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digital recordings of acoustic, electric, or electronic instruments. Some digital synthesizers emulate analog synthesizers others include sampling capability in addition to digital synthesis.


Methods

Subtractive synthesis

FM synthesis



Additive synthesis

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_synthesis - a sound synthesis technique that creates timbre by adding sine waves together. The timbre of musical instruments can be considered in the light of Fourier theory to consist of multiple harmonic or inharmonic partials or overtones. Each partial is a sine wave of different frequency and amplitude that swells and decays over time. Additive synthesis most directly generates sound by adding the output of multiple sine wave generators. Alternative implementations may use pre-computed wavetables or the inverse Fast Fourier transform.

It’s difficult to go very far with additive synthesis using analog hardware. Each wave needs its own oscillator, and to get sounds that are very complex, it requires quite a few of them. This can get very bulky and expensive rather quickly. Most sounds found in nature would require hundreds or even thousands of sine waves to accurately reproduce them. Digital synthesizers make it easier to do additive synthesis. All the waves are just numbers in a computer, so you can add as many as you want if you have enough processing power.

Despite this potential complexity, simple additive synthesis is possible on quite modest analogue synths. So is 'sinusoids plus noise' synthesis. Indeed, I guarantee that anybody playing an instrument with two or more independently tuneable oscillators (and, maybe, a noise source) has created sounds employing tuned fifths, octaves, or whatever. As soon as you have done this, you've entering the weird and wonderful world of additive synthesis. So go and find a handful of extra oscillators, and get serious. Additives can be good for you, and it's great fun, I promise.

Wavetable / sample

See also Sampling


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table-lookup_synthesis or wavetable-lookup synthesis is a class of sound synthesis methods using the waveform tables by table-lookup, called "table-lookup oscillator" technique. The length of waveforms or samples may be varied by each sound synthesis method, from a single-cycle up to several minutes.




  • https://github.com/sneakernets/DMXOPL - New and improved DMX GENMIDI for Doom and sourceports, taking full advantage of the OPL3 waveforms. This takes things up a notch in terms of timbre.




Physical modelling synthesis

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_waveguide_synthesis -the synthesis of audio using a digital waveguide. Digital waveguides are efficient computational models for physical media through which acoustic waves propagate. For this reason, digital waveguides constitute a major part of most modern physical modeling synthesizers.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banded_waveguide_synthesis - a physical modeling synthesis method to simulate sounds of dispersive sounding objects, or objects with strongly inharmonic resonant frequencies efficiently. It can be used to model the sound of instruments based on elastic solids such as vibraphone and marimba bars, singing bowls and bells. It can also be used for other instruments with inharmonic partials, such as membranes or plates. For example, simulations of tabla drums and cymbals have been implemented using this method. Because banded waveguides retain the dynamics of the system, complex non-linear excitations can be implemented. The method was originally invented in 1999 by Georg Essl and Perry Cook to synthesize the sound of bowed vibraphone bars (Essl Cook 1999).


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karplus–Strong_string_synthesis - a method of physical modelling synthesis that loops a short waveform through a filtered delay line to simulate the sound of a hammered or plucked string or some types of percussion. At first glance, this technique can be viewed as subtractive synthesis based on a feedback loop similar to that of a comb filter for z-transform analysis. However, it can also be viewed as the simplest class of wavetable-modification algorithms now known as digital waveguide synthesis, because the delay line acts to store one period of the signal.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion_synthesis - a group of sound synthesis techniques which modify existing sounds to produce more complex sounds (or timbres), usually by using non-linear circuits or mathematics. While some synthesis methods achieve sonic complexity by using many oscillators, distortion methods create a frequency spectrum which has many more components than oscillators. Some distortion techniques are: FM synthesis, waveshaping synthesis, and discrete summation formulas.



Hardware

  • Synthesizer Manuals Collection - Collecting several hundred manuals in one location, this collection of information about Music Synthesizers spans over 40 years of technology and products. Most consist of information about programming, usage and operation of synthesizers, as well as software products that emulate synthesizers. Additional scans are always welcome.




  • Open Theremin V3 - an open source hardware and software project with a great community of musicians and people interested in the world of electronic music instruments . The aim is to build a next generation, digital version of the legendary music instrument. With more than 1000 Open.Theremins in the world the new version 3 was built based on many community ideas and inputs.





  • https://github.com/MrBlueXav/Dekrispator - Experimental Music synthesizer based on an STM32F4 Discovery board (ARM Cortex M4F from STM32 series) with USB MIDI Host function for interaction and automatic mode.
  • https://github.com/MrBlueXav/Dekrispator_v2 - New Experimental Music synthesizer based on an STM32F4 Discovery board (ARM Cortex M4F from STM32 series) with USB MIDI Host function for interaction and automatic mode. Updated with Cube/HAL.



  • https://code.google.com/archive/p/forbinlfo - a project to build a Low Frequency Oscillator module for an Analog Synthesizer using a simple cheap Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The advantages that this gives you are many fold in that it will allow certain operations that are extremely difficult and expensive in the pure Analog domain such as phase differences that are continuously variable and completely arbiatary.


  • Mozzi - sound synthesis library for Arduino. Mozzi brings your Arduino to life by allowing it to produce much more complex and interesting growls, sweeps and chorusing atmospherics. These sounds can be quickly and easily constructed from familiar synthesis units like oscillators, delays, filters and envelopes. You can use Mozzi to generate algorithmic music for an installation or performance, or make interactive sonifications of sensors, on a small, modular and super cheap Arduino, without the need for additional shields, message passing or external synths.


  • x0x Clones - website for learning about vintage Roland machines as well as their hardware clones and software emulations, old and new, including Roland SH-101, TB-303, TR-808 and TR-909 Clones & XOX Emulations. dead.


  • x0xb0x - not just another MIDI-controlled TB-303 clone. x0xb0x is a full reproduction of the original Roland synthesizer, with fully functional sequencer. The sequencer can be programmed just like the original 303 (ok its actually a little easier, we think) and can be used to control other synthesizers via any of its various output formats. 128 banks of track memory and 64 banks of pattern memory are stored in onboard EEPROM, no battery-backup is needed!





  • JDXi Manager - an easy-to-use, intuitive, modern looking software patch editor for the Roland JD-Xi synthesizer. Currently editing of the Analog Synth part, the two Digital Synth parts, the Drums part and the Effects of the JD-Xi is supported. It is designed to run on Microsoft Windows and on Linux. The JDXi Manager is still work in progress and more features and functionality are being added with every new release.


  • Prynth - Our goal is to explore models for self-contained programmable synthesizers, gathering attributes from both hardware synths and computer-based systems.


  • https://github.com/eclab/edisyn - a synthesizer patch editor library written in pure Java. It runs on OS X, Linux, and Windows.Edisyn is particularly good at exploring the space of patches. It has to my knowledge the most sophisticated set of general-purpose patch-exploration tools of any patch editor available.

Control voltage / gate


#type    name   chan, cc MSB/LSB, midi range, cv range,   latency
cvout    vol1    1    cc  7  -1       0 127     -1.0 1.0    10

cvout_name cvoutprupru




  • GZD - attempts to find the frequency with the biggest magnitude in an audio-signal. This frequency is then transformed into a control voltage.

Modular hardware



  • ModularGrid - a database for modular synthesizers with an integrated planner where people gather information and sketch out their modulars.


  • Synthesizers.com - Fine modular analog synthesizers featuring classic styling and world-class customer service





DIY



Virtual Analogue

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_modeling_synthesizer - a synthesizer that generates the sounds of traditional analog synthesizers using DSP components and software algorithms. Analog modeling synthesizers simulate the behaviour of the original electric and electronic circuitry in order to digitally replicate their tone. This method of synthesis is also referred to as Virtual Analog or VA


Patching / programming

See also Audio#Programming

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_synthesis - provides movement in a sound by providing dynamic cross-fading between (usually) four sound sources. The four sound sources are conceptually arranged as the extreme points of X and Y axes, and typically labelled A, B, C and D. A given mix of the four sound sources can be represented by a single point in this 'vector plane'. Movement of the point provides sonic interest and is the power of this technique. Mixing is frequently done using a joystick, although the point can be controlled using envelope generators or LFOs.



  • JSynthLib - an Open Source Universal Synthesizer Patch Editor / Librarian written in the Java Language. Beside a bunch of commercial synths, it provides an editor for MIDIbox SID V1 and MIDIbox FM, which gives you access to all sound parameters and the wavetable sequencer. Since the official beta release of JSynthLib as well as the MIDI API of Java v1.5 has some flaws, I created this short guide in order to describe the required steps to setup JSynthLib for a MIDIbox properly.


Bass

"take one square wave, one pulse wave, detune slightly. run to resonant 12db lowpass filter (you want 12db because the more gentle rolloff curve is much more suited for basses). A slight bit of env mod on the filter cutoff is acceptable, but don't go crazy with it, you're not trying to make a 303 here. A really low cutoff with a relatively high resonance will give you alot of crazy harmonics spun off into neverneverland, which once you hit on a nice sweet spot with give the impression of deeper bass." [6]



Drums

Modular

Noise

Graphics synthesis

See also Audio#Sonification



Variophone

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variophone - developed by Evgeny Sholpo in 1930 at Lenfilm Studio Productions, in Leningrad, the Soviet Union, during his experiments with graphical sound techniques, also known as ornamental, drawn, paper, artificial or synthetic sound. In his research Sholpo was assisted by the composer Georgy Rimsky‐Korsakov. The Variophone was an optical synthesizer that utilized sound waves cut onto cardboard disks rotating synchronously with a moving 35mm movie film while being photographed onto it to produce a continuous soundtrack. Afterwards this filmstrip is played as a normal movie by means of a film projector. Being read by photocell, amplified and monitored by a loudspeaker, it functions as a musical recording process.

Oramics

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oramics - a drawn sound technique designed in 1957 by musician Daphne Oram. The machine was further developed in 1962 after receiving a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation. Oram's composition machine consisted of a large rectangular metal frame, providing a table-like surface traversed by ten synchronised strips of clear, sprocketed 35mm film. The musician drew shapes on the film to create a mask, which modulated the light received by photocells. Although the output from the machine was monophonic, the sounds could be added to multitrack tapes to provide more texture.

UPIC

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPIC - (Unité Polyagogique Informatique CEMAMu) is a computerised musical composition tool, devised by the composer Iannis Xenakis. It was developed at the Centre d'Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (CEMAMu) in Paris, and was completed in 1977. Xenakis used it on his subsequent piece Mycènes Alpha (1978), and it has been used by composers such as Jean-Claude Risset (on Saxatile (1992)), François-Bernard Mâche (Hypérion (1981), Nocturne (1981), Tithon (1989), Moires (1994), Canopée (2003)), Takehito Shimazu (Illusions in Desolate Fields (1994)), Mari King, and Curtis Roads. Aphex Twin talked about it in an interview

Physically, the UPIC is a digitising tablet linked to a computer, which has a vector display. Its functionality is similar to that of the later Fairlight CMI, in that the user draws waveforms and volume envelopes on the tablet, which are rendered by the computer. Once the waveforms have been stored, the user can compose with them by drawing "compositions" on the tablet, with the X-axis representing time, and the Y-axis representing pitch. The compositions can be stretched in duration from a few seconds to an hour. They can also be transposed, reversed, inverted, and subject to a number of algorithmic transformations. The system allows for real time performance by moving the stylus across the tablet. The UPIC system has subsequently been expanded to allow for digitally sampled waveforms as source material, rather than purely synthesised tones.

Coagula

  • Coagula is an image synth. This means that it is both a simple image editor, and a program for making sound from those images.

HighC

  • HighC - a graphical music creation tool. It is a synthesizer, a sequencer and a mixer. Its goal is to make music composition as simple and direct as sketching.

Graph-O-Spect

  • Graph-O-Spect - This program embeds images into sound files. It creates a .wav file whose spectograph matches the input .ppm file.

SpectroBits

Virtual ANS

  • Virtual ANS is a software simulator of the unique Russian synthesizer ANS - photoelectronic microtonal/spectral musical instrument created by Russian engineer Evgeny Murzin from 1938 to 1958. Murzin named his invention in honour of the composer Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin. The instrument was used by Stanislav Kreichi, Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edward Artemiev and other Soviet composers. You can hear the sound of the ANS in Andrei Tarkovsky's movies Solaris, The Mirror, Stalker. In 2004, the British experimental group Coil released CoilANS, a boxed set of experimental drone music performed on the ANS.

Virtual ANS (2)

AEO-Light

  • AEO-Light - a new generation of optical sound extraction software developed by the University of South Carolina in close cooperation with Tommy Aschenbach. The project is made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The official project webpage contains additional information about the project’s history.

SoundGrid

Hardware DSP

Zynthian

  • Zynthian - a new class of machine. A kind of swiss army knife of synthesis, equipped with multiple engines, filters and effects. Completely configurable and upgradeable. An Open Platform for Sound Synthesis. Based on Raspberry Pi and Linux, its hardware specification is public and software is Open Source. It is fully hackable! DIY (Do It Yourself!). A community-focused project where you can choose between build everything from scratch or use one of the kits that we offer, adapted to the different skill levels. You can use it for live performing, studio production or as a tool for experimental sound exploration.

PreenFM2

Axoloti Patcher

hardware - $

Kyma

The first version of Kyma, which computed digital audio samples on a Macintosh 512K was written in the Smalltalk programming language in 1986 by Carla Scaletti in Champaign, Illinois. In May 1987, Scaletti had partitioned Kyma into graphics and sound generation engines and ported the sound generation code to a digital signal processor called the Platypus designed by Lippold Haken and Kurt J. Hebel of the CERL Sound Group. When the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign eliminated the funding for the PLATO laboratory in 1989, Scaletti and Hebel formed Symbolic Sound Corporation in order to continue developing Kyma and digital audio signal processing hardware.

Patchblocks


Teenage Engineering oplab

  • teenage engineering – oplab - the musical switchboard for all your electronic instruments. it allows you to interconnect virtually any electronic musical instruments and music software. no more hassle with one box for MIDI and another for CV or a third for USB. just connect your cables, set the appropriate scenario and experience a perfect sync.

PC Speaker

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_speaker - a loudspeaker built into most IBM PC compatible computers. The first IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, employed a standard 2.25 inch magnetic driven (dynamic) speaker. More recent computers use a piezoelectric speaker instead. The speaker allows software and firmware to provide auditory feedback to a user, such as to report a hardware fault. A PC speaker generates waveforms using the programmable interval timer, an Intel 8253 or 8254 chip.


  • https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/PC_Speaker - more commonly referred to the speaker located on the motherboard. Nowadays this speaker is usually a simple piezoelectric speaker providing just enough speaker hardware to distinguish simple frequency and tones of beeps. Beeps usually occur on error, but can be customized as this article will document.


echo -e '\a'



beep -f 200 -f 300
  # beep at 300Hz.


  • https://github.com/przemoc/pcspk - PCSpk is a set of command line applications for playing simple sounds and melodies using the PC speaker. It is inspired by simple, but really great Johnathan Nightingale's beep.





  • What’s up with the Beep driver in Windows 7? - Earlier today, someone asked me why 64bit versions of windows don’t support the internal PC speaker beeps. The answer is somewhat complicated and ends up being an interesting intersection between a host of conflicting tensions in the PC ecosystem.


  • https://github.com/dbatbold/beep - Beep sound library and utility for alerting end of a command execution. Beep can also play MIDI or text music score. Written in Go.


Songs

Modular softsynths

See also #SunVox

gAlan

  • gAlan - The Graphical Audio Language. A modular synthesiser - drum-machine - sequencer - effects-unit for Linux and Win32. Like Buzz.

AlsaModularSynth

  • AlsaModularSynth is a realtime modular synthesizer and effect processor. It features MIDI controlled modular software synthesis, Realtime effect processing with capture from e.g. "Line In" or "Mic In", Full control of all synthesis and effect parameters via MIDI, Integrated LADSPA Browser with search capability, JACK Support

ams-lv2

  • ams-lv2 - set of LV2 plugins is a port of the internal modules found in Alsa Modular Synth. These plugins are used to create modular synthesizers and contains: VCO, VCF, VCA, LFO, Slew Limiter, Envelop, Sample & Hold, etc.

avw.lv2

  • avw.lv2 - A port of the AMS internal modules to LV2 plugins. It provides VCOs, LFOs, Filters and other modules controlled using Voltage Controls. They are designed especially to be used with Ingen to create Modular Synths.

Fomp

  • Fomp is an LV2 port of the MCP, VCO, FIL, and WAH plugins by Fons Adriaensen. There are 13 plugins in total: 1 auto-wah, 1 EQ, 3 chorus, 5 filters, and 3 oscillators.

controlfilter.lv2

Omnifono

  • Omnifono is a mixture of various simple utilities in one plugin: amplifier, panner, noise generators, etc. LV2.

BLOP

  • BLOP comprises a set of LADSPA plugins that generate bandlimited sawtooth, square, variable pulse and slope-variable triangle waves, principally for use with one of the many modular software synthesisers available. They are wavetable based, and are designed to produce output with harmonic content as high as possible over a wide pitch range.
  • Bandlimited Sawtooth Oscillator
  • Bandlimited Square Oscillator
  • Bandlimited Variable Width Pulse Oscillator
  • Bandlimited Variable Slope Triangle Oscillator
  • Random Wave Generator
  • Mono Amplifier
  • 4 Pole Low Pass Filter with Resonance
  • ADSR Envelope Generator
  • ADSR Envelope Generator with Gate and Trigger
  • DAHDSR Envelope Generator with Gate and Trigger
  • Sequencer
  • Quantiser
  • Clock Oscillator with Gate
  • Clock Pulse Oscillator with Gate
  • Frequency Modulator
  • Control to Audio Interpolator
  • Signal Tracker
  • Signal Sum
  • Signal Difference
  • Signal Product
  • Signal Ratio
  • Signal Branch
  • BLOP-LV2 - a mostly faithful port of blop-0.2.8, except plugin variants have been eliminated via the use of morphable Control/CV ports. This way, users do not have to choose from several versions of the same plugin, but the host can configure controls to be control-rate or audio-rate as appropriate. This mechanism is backwards compatible, so these ports will simply appear as normal LV2 control ports in hosts that do not support port morphing.

Omins

  • Omins is a collection of LADSPA plugins geared at modular synthesizers. The name comes from Om, but these plugins are not Om specific in any way, and Om does not require them. However most (not all) of them are only really useful in modular systems.

SpiralSynthModular

  • SpiralSynth Modular is an object orientated music studio with an emphasis on live use. You can use it in a fairly straight forward way to make tracks with, or get very experimental. Audio or control data can be freely passed between the plugins. Data can also be fed back on itself for chaotic effects.

vModSynth

Zyne

  • Zyne - a Python modular synthesizer using pyo as its audio engine. Zyne comes with more than 10 builtin modules implementing different kind of synthesis engines and provides a simple API to create your own custom modules.

Synth-A-Modeler

  • Synth-A-Modeler compiler, enables musicians to synthesize binary DSP modules according to mechanical analog model specications. This open-source tool promotes modular design and ease of use. By leveraging the Faust DSP programming environment, an output Pd, Max/MSP, SuperCollider, VST, LADSPA, or other external module is created, allowing the musician to hear the sound of the physical model in real time using an audio host application.

TX Modular

  • TX Modular system is a modular software synth which is written in the SuperCollider language. It can be used to build interactive audio systems such as: digital musical instruments, interactive generative compositions, sound design tools, live audio processing tools, and group improvisation performance tools.

SynthForge

VCV Rack




  • https://github.com/mschack/VCV-Rack-Plugins - 3 Channel 16 Step Programmable Sequencer. Mixer 1x4, 2x4 and 4x4 (with EQ, 4xAUX buses, and 2 x amplification ). Triad Sequencer ( v0.4.10 and above will not load notes properly from pre v0.4.10 builds ). Synth Drums. Ping Pong Delay (with Gnip Gnop mode). 3 Channel Oscillator with Filter and Amp Envelope

Axiom

  • https://github.com/monadgroup/axiom - an extremely flexible node-based realtime audio synthesizer. It was originally designed for size-constrained environments such as PC intros in the demoscene, but is entirely open source and is becoming an excellent free tool for any musician. [10]

XODULAR

  • XODULAR - a new modular synthesizer system in Pure Data. Where the first XODULAR system was a collection of simpler synthesis building blocks, the ecoSYSTEM is a much more personal instrument. The modules are more specific and complex. I wanted to create an instrument with a unique workflow and sound. For this reason, I do suspect that it might not be as easy to dive straight into as the previous XODULAR system, but the sonic possibilities are much, much wider.

Automatonism

  • Automatonism - a modular synthesiser that runs in the open source programming language Pure Data. It features a large library of 81 modules (version 2.1). Modular synthesis is akin to musical gardening: modules can spring to life and their interconnections suggest the formation of a sonic ecosystem. The act of patching is no different to playing any other instrument: it affords the opportunity to express oneself and directly engage with other people. It is towards that goal of performability and communication that Automatonism was created. It mimics the signal flow of a physical modular but features dynamic preset management and advanced parameter mapping tools on an open-source platform.


Windows

XSRDO Patchwork Modular System

  • XSRDO Patchwork Modular System - a true modular synthesizer. You can choose what modules you want, where to put them and how many of them you want. Each module is independant of any other and only becomes active when you start to patch them together in your own creative way. Features... 36 virtual 'racks', 50 virtual 'modules', Insert any module into any rack (except Effects, System and Output [of which only one instance of each type is allowed]), Insert multiple modules, Movable modules. Windows VST.

Kamioooka

  • Kamioooka - a polyphonic Full-Modular synthesizer with patch cable system. You can freely combine modules and make patches. 10 module slots and 7 types of modules (VCO/VCF/VCA/ADSR/LFO/MISC/SEQ) are available. Windows VST.

WREN

  • WREN - an open source modular soft synth for Windows

Cynthia

  • Cynthia - monophonic VSTi, very Old School, but will still be able to keep in tune throughout the song, patches can be stored and it is of course fully MIDI controllable. Cynthia is free to use and will send you 30 years back in time to the dawn of modular synthesis... As the name implies its inspired from the old EMS SynthiA. Windows.

KX77FREE

  • Kx-PolyM-CSE - Vintage modular polyphonic synthesizer with CV/GATE sequencer and CS70M* emulation.
  • Kx-PolyMod - Vintage modular polyphonic synthesizer with stereo SF2 player. To build analog 70's leads!
  • Kx-Modulad - Analog modular synthesizer with stereo SF2 player and an additive synthesis WaveTracer to build high quality waveforms. 128 KX presets (70's and 80's).
  • KX-SYNTH-X16-V5 - Vintage modular polyphonic synthesizer.

u-he Beatzille

  • Beatzille - a compact version of our monster modular synthesizer Bazille. Although its condensed feature set makes it the ‘little brother’, Beatzille is still an engaging and capable synthesizer. Power and style run in the family. Digital oscillators, analogue-style filter and flexible patching will keep you busy for a good while before thinking about tackling Bazille.

Drum synths

Stegosaurus

  • Kick - C4
  • Snare - D4
  • Closed hat - E4
  • Open hat - F4

Currently uses MIDI channel 1 rather than 10. [11] patch in milkmiruku/stegosaurus

DrumSynth

Features:

  • 32 voices polyphonic
  • 24 drum notes (2 octaves mapping)
  • 1 tone with sweep
  • 2 overtones
  • 3 noize generators
  • envelope editor
  • midi automatable with learn function
  • import/export of DS files


Rudolf 556

  • Rudolf 556 - Rudolf 556 is an analogue-sounding drum machine. It has six separate drum engines, two of which are bass drums, two are snares and two are hihats. Each engine has three parameters: L (Length) - pretty obvious what this controls. The higher the value, the longer the drum will sound. H (Hardness or Harshness) - when this value is small the drum will sound "soft" and when it's large it will sound "hard". Basically it controls the amount of noise that is mixed in. V (Volume) - basic gain control.

Smack

  • Smack is a drum synth, 100% sample free. It intends to emulate a large number of famous drum machines (TR/others) as well as sample code for physical modeling. It's built with LADSPA plugins and the Om modular synth.

"Yes, Smack was based on Om, a modular synthesis environment. Ingen is the successor to Om. If we are lucky, Ingen will see a release soon and finally make the step from brilliant in theory to awesome in practice :) The Om codebase is as dead as can be and Smack's author pretty much dropped out of LAU/LAD. Ingen's author David is interested in porting Smack's patches from Om to Ingen, but that clearly has no priority." [12]

KickMaker

Required VST SDK 2 to build 

g++ -fPIC -c -I. -I../vstsdk2.4 -I../vstsdk2.4/public.sdk/source/vst2.x -I../vstsdk2.4/vstgui.sf/vstgui -Iplugincore -Igui -Ieffects -D__cdecl="" *.cpp      

g++ -shared -Wl,-soname,KickMaker.so -o KickMaker.so *.o

doesn't register?

Beatfox

  • https://github.com/chronopolis5k/Beatfox - a free Csound generative beat tool. It will constantly create perfectly looped rhythms that can easily be dropped into a program like Ableton Live. Leave it running all night, and you'll wake up with hundreds of loops in your folder!

Kickblast

Geonkick

mbass

  • mbass - a feature rich analogue modeled bass drum synthesizer written for Pd, aka Pure Data. If you are unfamilar with Pd check out the Pd community website puredata.info. Pure Data is an object orient real-time music and multimedia environment, so versitile that it will wet your mother's knees.mbass features a nonlinear distortion filter, with level compensation; a trigger synced FM LFO with dual polarity modulation control; and two independent exponential envelopes with tight attack times.Written with entirely native objects, the mbass object may be used on any platform running a stock installation of PD, so there is no need to compile sketchy externals that come with broken make files; just click and go.

Windows VST

QuirQuiQ

  • QuirQuiQ - Punchy kick synth that fits in your shuttlecraft or in your pocket with a big sound and tiny cpu footprint. Utilizes digital envelopes allowing for precise control, and presented in a clear, resizable vector interface. Slam the dancefloor with sharp and pounding kicks, ooomph away with long breathy thumps, go for a grungy and snappy sound or find just that right balance that is perfect for your track. By Ocean Swift Synthesis.

Freqatic

Drumatic VE

  • Drumatic VE - inspired by several sounds of the TR-909 and TR-808 drum computers. It isn't just a sample player... It uses smart wavetable synthesis mixed with virtual-analouge synthesis to get the best results. Windows VST.

CM-505

  • CM-505 - a 12 voice drum synth. Windows VST.

TS-808

  • TR-808 - a software emulation (VSTi plugin) of the Roland TR-808. The TR-808 service notes provide full schematics for each voice. I used them to make SPICE simulations of the circuits. I also analysed the best samples I could find (The Tape808, by Goldbaby), and tweaked the sounds until the waveforms and spectral content were as close as possible to the real thing. Most of the voices have more parameters and a greater range than their hardware predecessor. Windows VST.

ES DGenR8

  • ES DGenR8 - a free virtual analog drum machine in the style of Roland's TR Series, in particular the Roland TR-909, with 11 voices and controls that mimic the TR-909: Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Low, Mid & High Toms, Rim Shot, Clap, Open & Closed Hi Hats, Crash & Ride Cymbals. Windows VST.

TW-Opkicker

  • TW-Opkicker - Analogue kick synthesis in digital form, but with some extra features. 4 Oscilators, tweaked and twisted to simulate analogue behavior. Multiple Filters and a Distortion to get the sound you want. Reverb, Echo, Delay and Auto Pan to create all sorts of unusual effects. Us an extra effect like a Maximizer or Compressor to get groundshaking kicks. Playing higher notes turns this machine in a regular synth. Windows VST.

TW-Percussion1

  • TW-Percussion1 - Synth designed for short and percussive sounds. 2 multiple waveform oscilators, 1 noise oscilator. Low Pass/High Pass/Band Pass filter to suit every need. 2 LFO's for the filters, to get that nice modulated sound. Stereo beat synced delay. Windows VST.

DC Bazz::Murda

EXD-80

  • EXD-80 - a flexible drum synth that can produce a wide variety of drum and percussion sounds, from emulations of classic drum machines to crazy, mangled glitch sounds – all synthesized, no samples here! It is suitable for many EDM styles including electro, glitch, industrial, ambient, dubstep, drum & bass and hip hop. Windows VST.

KICKWOrK

  • KICKWOrK - a kick drum synthesizer plugin. From deep hiphop basses to hard rave kicks - everything available with the turn of some knobs. A clear and easy GUI helps you to find your bass drum sound quick. No samples inside - pure analogue emulation. A minimum of knobs for a maximum of variations. Kick sound can be triggered by any incoming MIDI note or by an audio input (bass drum of a drumloop). Windows VST.

Drumatic 3

  • http://www.e-phonic.com/plugins/drumatic3.php - a virtual-analogue drum synthesizer. All sounds are 100% synthetic and allow an enormous flexibility and variation. Sounds: Bassdrum, Snaredrum, Handclap, 2 Toms, Hihats and a Rimshot / Bell. Key features: Graphical envelopes for amplitude and modulation, Load / save presets for single sounds, Simple but effective effect section for each sound with distortion and bitcrusher and a filter., 6 Stereo outputs, assignable for each sound, All parameters can be automated. Windows VST.

ErsDrums

Kick Me Too

Psy-Drums

Optik

  • Optik - a basic, yet interesting drumsynth with it's own unique sound. It's got 7 drums, multiple outputs and an onboard mixer. Each drum panel can be opened to reveal additional controls for further tweaking. Windows VST.

DR-Fusion V2

daBUMZ

  • daBUMZ - Mainly for bass drum or toms, but the sound can be widely ajusted. Goal was to have a minimum of knobs for a maximum of variations (note: each knob has a hint text for the parameter). daBUMZ does one sound at a time, triggered by MIDI notes or with the mouse on the “eye” in the middle. Available for Windows PC as VST-plugin.

easy-toolz.de drums

  • easy-toolz.de drums
    • easy-drum X8 - an analog Vintage-style drum-module with 12 fully synthesized instruments and some additional features: -12 X 16 Step-Sequencers with Potis >modulations all Parameters - Distortion - Lofi - SV-Filter - Lfo a.m.more
    • easy-beat-box - It is a "only with the mouse" using Drum-machine machine with the following specs: - 4 Drumslots a 16 Steps Sequencer - 4 Soundbanks ( mixed 1+2, fx, 8o8 ) 64 sounds each - Joystick manipulates : Horizontal > Pitch (Sounds) Slotwise - Vertical > Cutoff - Res - Drive - Flanger - Lofi - Hostsynchron - NO Midi-Input scheduled!
    • easy-kick - Kick-Drum with 10 Bassdrum-samples-Tunning Bitcrusher -4 Filter Overdrive -A-D- Envelope - Reverb
    • easy-drum o4 SE 909 - 4 Slot Drumbox with 909/808-Samples - overdrive-flanger-bitcrusher-moogfilter - 3 lfo -> modulated tune-cutoff-pan - 32 Patches

Softsynths

to resort

mbeep

  • https://github.com/7402/mbeep - Mac or Linux beep tool plays a series of sine-wave tones on the audio output or writes to a .wav file. Tones are specified by freq and length, MIDI notes, or text to be sent as Morse code.


Test Signal Generator

  • Test Signal Generator - A no-frills test-signal generator plugin with 7 operation modes: Sine Wave 1kHz. Sine Sweep 20Hz to 20KHz (at most to samplerate / 2) in 10 seconds, Square Wave 1kHz, Uniform White Noise, Gaussian Shaped White Noise, Pink Noise, Impulses (1 sample spike) 100 Hz, 0dBFS

jack-oscillator


pjbsynth

  • pjbsynth - csound script takes MIDI input and produces audio output. It is still at an early release stage, and is likely to change even in important details like Patches and Controller-numbers. Channels 0-8 are dedicated to Audio signals. The basic Patches are simple, old-fashioned waveforms like sine, triangle, square, and sawtooth, plus some fractal waveforms, and also live or file audio. The Channel Controllers for these Audio channels can be set by the normal methods, or one or two of them can be driven by a built-in Low-Frequency-Oscillator by using the non-standard controllers cc20 to cc23, or cc24 to cc27, or by a built-in Attack-Envelope using cc52 to cc53. Other non-standard controllers offer also Ring modulation, Distortion, some unusual types of Loop, etc. Channel 9 is dedicated to a low-tech percussion-set using simple waveforms like sine or white noise. It is roughly modelled on General-MIDI Channel 9. Channels 10-15 are dedicated to the Low-Frequency-Oscillators, where MIDI-note number 60 means not middle-C, but 1 Cycle-per-second (i.e. eight octaves lower!).

Cursynth

  • Cursynth - a polyphonic music synthesizer that runs graphically inside your terminal. You can play Cursynth as a standalone soft-synth with your computer keyboard or MIDI keyboard.

ZynAddSubFX

  • ZynAddSubFX is a open source software synthesizer capable of making a countless number of instruments, from some common heard from expensive hardware to interesting sounds that you'll boost to an amazing universe of sounds.

Patches

Engines


Tutorials

old interface:

zyn-fusion interface:


Other

  • zyn - extract synth engines from ZynAddSubFX and pack them in LV2 plugin format. Resulting plugins are heavily based on work made by Nasca Octavian Paul. If you like the amazing sounds these plugins generate you should thank Paul for this. Project goals: Port ZynAddSubFX synth engines to LV2, Fix some inherit issues preventing hard-realtime mode of operation, causing clicks sometimes (memory allocation/sleep in audio process context), Make synth engines reusable in source form, Make all synth engines parameters controlable on the fly (as opposed to original "parameter change takes effect on next note on" strategy), Fix bugs found and try to propagate fixes to ZynAddSubFX


  • https://github.com/ventosus/zyn_ext_gui - a toolkit agnostic LV2 UI for ZynAddSubFx 2.5.3. This gives you an LV2 UI even if ZynAddSubFx has been linked to FLTK and does not provide an LV2 UI of its own.



Yoshimi

  • Yoshimi - software synthesizer for Linux, a "fork" of ZynAddSubFX. ZynAddSubFX was founded by Nasca Octavian Paul and continued by many others; several years later, Yoshimi was founded by our dear friend, the late Cal, at a time when ZynAddSubFX showed amazing promise but did not satisfy his needs and ours. If you enjoy profound and powerful tonality with your Linux, please do try Yoshimi, we think you will feel the love! The two projects are now in wonderfully active, but different, development.

Helm

Sorcer

  • Sorcer is a polyphonic wavetable synth LV2 plugin. Its sonic fingerprint is one of harsh modulated sub-bass driven walls of sound. Two morphing wavetable oscillators and one sine oscillator provide the generation routines. The LFO can be mapped to wavetable modulation as well as filter cutoff. An ADSR allows for shaping the resulting sound, while a master volume finishes the signal chain. Easily creating a variety of dubstep basslines and harsh pad sounds.

Crazynth

  • Crazynth - What is able to do? Generate weird sounds on random generated basis. Modulate a sine-like wave to get strange outputs. Stereo outputs (a 5.1 surround version is ready, but still to be released).

sfxr

  • sfxr - a little tool made in connection with the 10th Ludum Dare competition held in December 2007 to provide a simple means of getting basic sound effects into a game. The idea was that they could just hit a few buttons in this application and get some largely randomized effects that were custom in the sense that the user could accept/reject each proposed sound. It turned out to work rather well and a lot of the entrants used it, which is cool.
  • sfxr-dssi - a port of the famous sound effect generator sfxr. sfxr-dssi is a very simple but functional example of the use of libwhy.

Bfxr

  • Bfxr - an elaboration of the glorious Sfxr, the program of choice for many people looking to make sound effects for computer games. Bfxr has moved in the direction of increased complexity and range of expression. All the buttons that you know and love are here, but there are some new things as well: 5 new waveforms : triangle, breaker, tan, whistle, and pink noise. 3 new filters : compression, harmonics, and bitcrusher. Ability to lock parameters during mutation/randomization. Expanded pitch-jumping abilities - good for arpeggiation effects. Visualisation, Mixer, Keeps your sounds and mixes in persistant lists. Can reverse synths. Ability to link directly to sounds.

Jfxr

  • Jfxr - a browser-based tool to generate sound effects, for example for use in games. It was inspired by bfxr, but aims to be more powerful and more intuitive to use. [13]

rogue

  • rogue - multimode softsynth with LV2 interface, 4 oscillators with Virtual Analog, Phase Distortion, FM and other waveforms, PWM, PM, Sync, RM and AM modulation, 2 filters with Biquad, Moog and SVF style modes, 4 AHDSR envelopes with customizable curve

4 LFOs, 20 Modulation matrix slots, Effects: Chorus, Phaser, Delay and Reverb, Qt4 based UI

Bristol Collection

  • Bristol Synthesiser Emulations on Linux - or Bristol is an emulation package for a number of different 'classic' synthesisers including additive and subtractive and a few organs. The application consists of the engine, which is called bristol, and its own GUI library called brighton that represents all the emulations. There are currently twenty something different emulations, each does sound different although the author maintains that the quality and accuracy of each emulation is subjective. One of the main reasons for putting together this site (host by Sourceforge which provides the rest of the services required by bristol) is to depict all the different emulations.


Digits

  • Digits VSTi is here! Digits is a phase distortion synthesizer inspired by Casio's CZ series but takes that form of synthesis to the limit. Create warm pads, glitchy sounds, dirty basses, filthy sweeps, screaming leads, and anything in-between. The interface is minimal and designed to enable the user to create sounds from scratch in record time! And, if you're too busy for that, it comes with 51 lush presets that run the gamut from pads to stabs, leads and basses. Multi-platform VST

nekobee / Nekobi

  • nekobee - A softsynth recreation of a classic single-oscillator bass monosynth. DSSI.

Minaton

  • Minaton - LV2 plugin - A monophonic, subtractive, beefy analogue style bass and lead synth.

triceratops

WhySynth

  • WhySynth - a versatile softsynth which operates as a plugin for the DSSI Soft Synth Interface. A brief list of features: 4 oscillators, 2 filters, 3 LFOs, and 5 envelope generators per voice. 11 oscillator modes: minBLEP, wavecycle, chorused wavecycle, asynchronous granular, three FM modes, waveshaper, noise, PADsynth, and phase distortion. 10 filter modes. flexible modulation and mixdown options, plus effects.

Wolpertinger

  • Wolpertinger - an realtime opensource softsynth for linux, created by Johannes Kroll. From the ReadMe file: "Wolpertinger is a subtractive, antialiased software synthesizer. Sound is generated by a Saw/Rect/Triangle wave generator and then filtered through a bandpass filter whose center frequency "bounces" around the frequency of the playing notes."

Add64

  • Add64 is an additive synthesizer. It is based on QT and uses the JACK Audio Connection Kit for platform independent audio/midi I/O. The GUI interface departs from the traditional knobs-and-buttons approach by using a spectral graph to permit the oscillators and related parameters to be modified.

DIN Is Noise

  • DIN (DIN Is Noise) - a software musical instrument, uses the computer mouse to pick both the pitch (by moving horizontally) and the volume (by moving vertically) of a sound from an on-screen keyboard that displays the notes of the current scale and a number of microtones in-between. Bezier curves, FM and AM and control other parameters like stereo gater patterns, Delay feedback & volume patterns and Compressor patterns. Users can also create an unlimited number of drones pitched on any microtone and edit them in real-time.

NoiseScaper

PHASEX

  • https://github.com/williamweston/phasex - [P]hase [H]armonic [A]dvanced [S]ynthesis [EX]periment - an experimental MIDI softsynth for Linux/ALSA/JACK with a synth engine built around flexible phase modulation and flexible oscillator/LFO sources. Modulations include AM, FM, offset PM, and wave select. PHASEX comes equipped with multiple filter types and modes, a stereo crossover delay and chorus with phaser, ADSR envelopes for both amplifier and filter, realtime audio input processing capabilities, and more. Inspirations come from a variety of analogue and early digital MIDI synthesizers from the '80s and '90s.

amsynth

  • amsynth - an analog modelling (a.k.a virtual analog) software synthesizer. It mimics the operation of early analog subtractive synthesizers with classic oscillator waveforms, envelopes, filter, modulation and effects. The aim is to make it easy to create and modify sounds.

Sineshaper

  • Sineshaper - A monophonic synth plugin that sends the sound from two sine oscillators through two sine waveshapers in series. You can control the vibrato, tremolo, portamento, the tuning of both oscillators, the oscillator mix, the shape amount (total and split over both shapers) and the phase of the second waveshaper function. There is also an ADSR envelope generator that can control the total shape amount and the amplification (with controllable sensitivity for both), an LFO for the total shape amount, distortion, and a feedback delay. The shape amount and amplification is velocity sensitive, and the synth supports MIDI pitch bend events (with a range of +/- 2 semitones). All parameters can be controlled using MIDI Controller events.

Mx44

  • Mx44 - a polyphonic multichannel midi realtime software synthesizer. It is written in C and hand optimized for the (Intel) MMX instruction set. It runs under Linux, using the JACK daemon and a kernel modified for realtime performance. The core algorithm is a 4 x 4 crossmodulating matrix (phase and amplitude) with individual envelopes for each oscillator. Oscillators have individual frequency intonation, can emphasize any of the eight first harmonics and even do some internal crossmodulation. Envelopes can be switched between VCA and a VCF-like mode. The sustainloop of the envelope can be brought into oscillation in the audible spectre as well as provide slow LFO sweeps. Also, key and velocity modifications of phase relationship.

Newtonator

  • Newtonator - an LV2 soft synth that uses a unique algorithm based on simple ideas of velocity and acceleration to produce some unpredictable sounds. Being an LV2 synth, it only works on Linux, and at the moment there is only an LV2 synth plugin; there is no stand-alone version.

Obxd

  • Obxd - Emulation of famous OB-X, OB-Xa and OB-8 synths

OB-Xd

  • OB-Xd - by discoDSP. based on the Oberheim OB-X. It attempts to recreate its sound and behavior, but as the original was very limited in some important ways a number of things were added or altered to the original design.The OB-Xd was designed to sound as good and as rich as the original. It implements micro random detuning which is a big part of that sound. However, it was not designed as a self-contained completely independent soft-synth. It needs to be contained within a VST framework where things like transposition, automation, layering, arpeggiation, etc., are available.

synthv1

  • synthv1 - an old-school 4-oscillator subtractive polyphonic synthesizer with stereo fx. pure stand-alone JACK client with JACK-session, NSM (Non Session management) and both JACK MIDI and ALSA MIDI input support, or LV2 instrument plugin

padthv1

  • padthv1 - an old-school polyphonic additive synthesizer with stereo fx. padthv1 is based on the PADsynth algorithm by Paul Nasca, as a special variant of additive synthesis. Features: pure stand-alone JACK client with JACK-session, NSM and both JACK MIDI and ALSA MIDI input support; LV2 instrument plugin.

rt_lpc

  • rt_lpc - real-time LPC analysis + synthesis + visualization. rt_lpc is a light-weight application that performs real-time LPC analysis and synthesis.

SO-404 / SO-KL5 / SO-666

Synister

Peggy 2000

  • Peggy 2000 - subtractive synth with step sequencer made with juce

Paraphrasis

  • https://github.com/falkTX/Paraphrasis - spectral modeling synthesizer. It is licensed under GPL v2 or any later. Paraphrasis uses these libraries under thier license terms: JUCE (GPLv2, GPLv3, AGPLv3, ISC), Loris (GPLv2), Teragon GUI Components, (GPLv2) TinyThread++ (zlib), sse_mathfun (zlib), Teragon PP (FreeBSD), readwriterqueue (FreeBSD), arduino-base64 (MIT/Expat), dbRowAudio (MIT/Expat), dbRowAudio dependency: SoundTouch (LGPL v2.1), dbRowAudio FFTReal (WTFPL). [14]

Vex

  • Vex - a 3-oscillator subtractive synthesizer that provides a series of sampled waves for intial tones. It can be run standalone through jalv.gtk or a plug-in manager like Carla.

Each of the 3 oscillators has the same modifiable parameters, such as octave detune, fine detune, phase adjustment and tuning. The filter section has a traditional ADSR layout, and low-pass and high-pass filter options. Discrete amplitude and LFO sections are provided, as well as independent effects controls. Chorus, reverb and delay are included in the effects section.

Xsynth

  • Xsynth-DSSI plugin, a classic-analog (VCOs-VCF-VCA) style software synthesizer with an editor GUI. Xsynth-DSSI was written by Sean Bolton, and was based on Steve Brooke's Xsynth code, but has since aquired polyphonic operation, band-limited oscillators, a better filter mode, and velocity-sensitive envelopes.

RTSynth

  • RTSynth - a midi event triggered real time software synthesizer entirely based on physics and mathematics.

Goal of the software is to reproduce sounds of strings, organs, flutes and drums in real time. The sound generation is based on the physics of the instruments. That means all sounds created by this software are the result of a mathematical model based on some physics about how the sounds shape varies in time. You have access to most of the models parameters through a graphical interface. Further more most of the parameters can be controlled by MIDI controllers.

Wsynth

  • Wsynth-DSSI is a simple wavetable synth. It is not based on any "real life" synth, but was written with the PPG Wave and Prophet VS in mind. The code is based on Xsynth-DSSI, hence the imaginative name.

slat

  • slat - This is my soft-theremin. It was called "theremin", but now it's called "slat". Calling it theremin was a bit silly. Playing it is very simple, move the mouse pointer up and down to change pitch, left and right to change volume. Notes are printed on either side to make it easier to play.

DX-10 / JX-10

WatSyn

  • Wat Syn is a 4-oscillator, modulatable wavetable synthesizer, another powerful instrument included in the Linux MultiMedia Studio (LMMS) Digital Audio Workstation

TAL Noisemaker

  • TAL-NoiseMaker is an improved version of TAL-Elek7ro and has a completely new synth engine and a lot of improvements in sound and usability. The synth also includes a small effect section with a reverb, chorus and a simple bit crusher effect.

A display shows the knob and slider values. This allows more control over the synth. A ringmodulator and a syncable triangle are also part of this synth. TAL-NoiseMaker includes new filter types as the self resonating 6dB low pass and a notch filter. Its improved amplitude ADSR is very suitable for slow pads as for really fast envelopes. 128 factory presets included, 80 made by Frank "Xenox" Neumann / Particular - Sound.

distrho linux port available

Xiph

  • Xhip - a free software subtractive/hybrid synthesizer available for download as a plug-in. It correctly implements those features considered essential to a synthesizer capable of a wide variety of classic "bread and butter" sounds. Users of classic synthesizers should find it very comfortable and familiar as well as extremely fun to use. [15]

RaffoSynth

Minicomputer

  • Minicomputer is a standalone Linux software synthesizer for creating experimental electronic sounds as its often used in but not limited to Industrial music, IDM, EBM, Glitch, sound design and minimal electronic. It is monophonic but can produce up to 8 different sounds at the same time. It uses Jack as real time audio infrastructure and can be controlled via Midi.

Tunefish

  • Tunefish is a very tiny virtual analog synthesizer. It is developed to fit into about 10kb of compressed machine code while still producing an audio quality that can compete with commercial synthesizers. This site was created to make the VST/AU version of it available to the public. This plugin, unlike the version of TF which is used in 64k intros of our group Brain Control is of course larger, mainly because it has a UI and uses the excellent Juce framework for C++. (This is true for v4. v3 uses Qt and v2 uses the VSTGUI library.)

Universal VST.

Sprike

  • https://github.com/cognitone/sprike - an extended version of Tunefish4 with modifications and enhancements added by Cognitone. While the actual sound synthesis was not changed (in fact, you can import your existing Tunefish4 presets), Sprike features a differently organized preset storage, 4 additional MOD sources, an on-screen keyboard, a level meter, tempo-controlled delay units, and a more complete MIDI implementation with bank plus program selection, in order to integrate more transparently with MIDI-controlled environments and conventions.

Mr. Alias 2

  • Mr. Alias 2 uses non-bandlimited oscillators which can be transposed near to and beyond the Nyquist frequency, causing most of their spectra to be aliased back into audible non-harmonic frequencies. The sound can then be further processed by a number of crude "effects."

Universal VST, Mac AU.

Digits

reSID

  • reMID - a MIDI interface to reSID
  • https://github.com/ssj71/reMID.lv2 - This is a MIDI implementation of a MOS8580 6581 SID chip using the reSID library. It includes support for scripted instruments that allow complex sonic control of the chip.

Rave Generator VST

  • Rave Generator VST - a free rompler VST synth, containing many of the classic sounds of the early rave / hardcore from the 90′s.

Happychords

  • https://github.com/milasudril/happychords - a software synthesizer for producing hooks like the one found in "Rosa Hellikopter" and other fast-paced dance tracks. It can also produce rock organ sounds or sweeping pads. LV2

Qin

  • Qin - an LV2 plugin for synthesizing plucking and striking sounds. The basic architecture is two oscillators feeding into a highpass filter followed by a lowpass filter. Unique to this synth are the envelopes which are designed to better mimic physical plucking and striking sounds.

lv2_guitar

  • lv2_guitar - a simple plugin that is capable of physically simulating the vibrations of a guitar string using the Functional Transformation Method. The plugin is playable via MIDI. It is based in part on the VST-plugin 'FTM String' by Daniel Maaß, on the VST-plugin 'FTM Psycho String' by Alexander Müller and on the LV2-plugin 'Simple Sine Generator' by Nedko Arnaudov.

CT-Synth

  • CT-Synth - GUI toolkit for the Linux desktop and for Android tablets, running Android 4.4 or higher. Included is a demo project, a synthesizer.

Psychosynth

  • Psychosynth project aims to create an interactive modular soft-synth inspired by the ideas of the Reactable. We will try to provide a clean object oriented API to allow the creation of new innovative interfaces for the synthetizer and a 3D simulator of a Reactable-alike device with support for collaborative music creation over the internet. Our main goal is to create a free software alternative to allow newbies, developers and professionals explore new ways of making music.

GuitarSynth

  • https://github.com/geraldmwangi/GuitarSynth-DPF - a set of wavetable synths controlled by a monophonic pitchdetector. Actually it is not specific to guitars but can be used for any harmonic instrument when playing single notes. This is a small petproject of mine to explore the possibilities of pitchdetection for Guitars. It uses aubio for pitch detection, but that will change as I want to write my own detector.

bytes

reasonablesynth.lv2

fastbreeder

  • fastbreeder - An experimental genetic programming synthesiser. This program is free software, developed for linux, using jack for audio. Fastbreeder is essentially a 4 button synth. The idea is to grow code by choosing from a range of automatically generated variations of functions, you don't have to know how they work, but each function creates a sound which can be selected by you. The following generation is then created containing mutants of your chosen sound. You can refine and develop the sound just by auditioning and choosing the best one each time.

munt

  • munt - A multi-platform software synthesiser emulating (currently inaccurately) pre-GM MIDI devices such as the Roland MT-32, CM-32L, CM-64 and LAPC-I. In no way endorsed by or affiliated with Roland Corp.

andes

  • Andes - a software synthesiser plugin in early stages of development. The core of Andes is an original oscillator which uses a pseudo-3D version of Perlin noise to produce distinctively digital sound.

GuitarSynth-DPF

  • GuitarSynth - a set of wavetable synths controlled by a monophonic pitchdetector. Actually it is not specific to guitars but can be used for any harmonic instrument when playing single notes. This is a small petproject of mine to explore the possibilities of pitchdetection for Guitars. It uses aubio for pitch detection, but that will change as I want to write my own detector. Required: libjack, aubio

Diodow

  • Diodow Virtual Software Synthesizer - contains around 5% capabilities/features of it's mighty bigger brother - Tranzistow. But don't worry, despite those 5% it has enough capabilities to keep you busy for quite some time and very complex sounds can be made with 4x oscillators, 4x filters, 4x LFOs, 4x 5-stage envelopes, 16x+16x modulation matrix, 4x delays, etc.

Tranzistow

  • Tranzistow - a virtual software synthesizer with 4 or 8 independent multi parts. Although it is (to some extent) inspired by Waldorf Q, Waldorf Microwave II/XT, Alesis Andromeda, Oberheim Xpander, John Bowen Solaris and Yamaha DX series, it has a unique sound and tons of unique features not found on any other synthesizer. Various forms of synthesis are supported including Additive, Virtual Analog/Modeling (VA), Wavetable (with classic, crossfade and full wave interpolation modes), two completely independent FM engines, Ring Modulation, Oscillator Sync, Vectors, Rotors (as in Solaris), various filter models (SVF 12/24dB, 6dB to 24dB Transistor Ladder with fully configurable poles, 24dB Diode LowPass Ladder, ...), Filter Chaining, Comb Filters, WaveShaping, freely drawable Contour Generators, exhaustive FX section including Chorus/Flanger, Phaser, Delay and Reverb units, etc, etc. - $ (Diodow is the free version)

super_welle

Sigmatizm

StkDekrispatorSynthesizer

jackpunkconsole

  • https://github.com/switryk/jackpunkconsole - a sound synthesizer that emulates an Atari punk console. It is written in C and uses the Jack Audio Connection Kit. It has a Gtk3 interface and a midi connection through Jack, so it is possible to play sounds with a midi device. As it uses Jack for audio, it is possible to redirect the sound in a FX processors, recorders, or anything from fun to useful.

Xhip Follower

  • Xhip Follower - The Xhip synthesizer filter controlled by a HAR envelope follower.


wigwamjam

  • wigwamjam - grows sounds using your decisions to drive the evolution of genetically programmed synth functions.


Xephys

Cloud Generator

  • https://github.com/visstup/cloud-generator - Polyphonic 18 oscillator (9 sinusodial, 9 sawtooth) alias-free synthesiser with a sinusodial LFO modulating the frequency of each oscillator, a cubic distortion unit, and a third-order lowpass Elliptic (Cauer) filter. See the documentation for more information on the signal path.

ZamSynth

  • ZamSynth - Experimental plugin from ZamAudio

Cadmium

  • Cadmium - a vector phase-shaping synthesizer.Vector phase-shaping (VPS) is an evolution of phase distortion, taken further in Cadmium with audio-rate modulation. This opens up a sound palette characterised by moving, morphing, shifting timbres – from snarling jungle bass to classic FM tones and everything inbetween.It has the accoutrements of a subtractive synth: a modelled filter, envelopes and LFOs for modulation, but with a fresh approach where it counts – the oscillators.Cadmium is now available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.

Frequency modulation

hexter

Dexed

  • dexed - FM VSTi/AU plugin synthesizer. Dexed is a multi platform, multi format plugin synth that is closely modeled on the Yamaha DX7. Under the hood, it uses music-synthesizer-for-android for the synth engine and JUCE as a plugin wrapper. The goal of this project is to be a great tool/companion for the original DX7. Yes, the sound engine with 'float' values parameter; different waveform (a la TX81z) would be great but anything that goes beyond the DX7 should will be a fork of this project. This is to keep the compatiblity with the original synth.

LegaSynth

  • LegaSynth - an old chip/synthesizer emulator on top of an advanced software sound synthesis programming framework. It currently emulates the Yamaha DX7 FM Synth, the MOS6581SID (C64 soundchip), the Yamaha 2xxx FM series (very common in some personal synths, arcades, and the Sega Genesis), and the TB303. It supports the ALSA Sequencer API for midi input, and OSS/ALSA and JACK for output. A GTK graphical interface is provided to take full advantage of the synth, as well as for managing presets, patches, and banks, etc.

6PM

  • 6PM - a phase modulation (PM) synthesizer made of six oscillators.

Oxe FM

  • Oxe FM Synth is an open source VST 2.4 instrument plugin for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Features: Multitimbral (16 MIDI channels); 8 operators (6 oscillators, 1 noise generator/limiter, 1 filter), all with envelope; 1 LFO per channel; frequency modulation half-matrix with self-modulation; global reverb and delay; great general performance in low resources systems; a lot of good quality patches included

JuceOPLVSTi

adljack

  • https://github.com/jpcima/adljack - OPL3/OPN2 synthesizer using ADLMIDI and OPNMIDI. This is a standalone synthesizer for ADLMIDI and OPNMIDI on the text console. It is based on libADLMIDI and libOPNMIDI. adljack is the version for the Jack audio system. adlrt is the portable version for Linux, Windows and Mac. Feature list: Real time, low latency FM synthesizer, Support of multiple FM chip emulators, Support of multiple chips for extended polyphony, Loading instrument banks in WOPL and WOPN formats, General MIDI level 1 and 2, Multi-channel MIDI playback, Automatic bank reloading when the file changes on disk, User interface for the terminal with dynamic controls, Session management with the NSM protocol (adljack only)

ADLplug

VOPM

  • VOPM - Virtual FM synthsizer, like OPM

Ported to linux by the Jucetice Team at Anticore.org


synthplayer.synth

  • https://github.com/irmen/synthesizer - A waveform synthesizer that can generate different wave form samples: sine, triangle, sawtooth, square, pulse wave, harmonics and white noise. It also supports Frequency Modulation, Pulse-width modulation, and ADSR envelopes using LFOs.


jack_miniFMsynth

  • jack_miniFMsynth - tiny FM synthesizer, a JACK client and a client of the ALSA sequencer system. This example client is based on the example miniFMsynth.c.

To compile jack_miniFMsynth just type 

 cc -o jack_miniFMsynth jack_miniFMsynth.c -ljack -lasound -lm

jack_miniFMsynth takes several parameters: 

jack_miniFMsynth <MIDI channel> <FM> <harmonic> <subharmonic> <transpose> <a> <d> <s> <r>
  
 <MIDI channel>   MIDI channel for NOTE events
 <FM>	          Strength of the frequency modulation
 <harmonic>	  Harmonic of the master oscillator (integer)
 <subharmonic>	  Subharmonic of the master oscillator (integer)
 <transpose>	  Note offset for both oscillators (integer)
 <a> <d> <s> <r>  Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release

Chiptune




ftz Chiptune


synthem80

SocaLabs 8-bit synths


vst2413

ymVST

  • ymVST - VST plug-in for authentic Atari ST chipsounds. Emulates the built in YM2149 sound chip with a decent plugin user-interface on your PC.

SN76489

Organ

Aeolus

  • Aeolus is a synthesised (i.e. not sampled) pipe organ emulator that should be good enough to make an organist enjoy playing it. It is a software synthesiser optimised for this job, with possibly hundreds of controls for each stop, that enable the user to "voice" his instrument. First presented at the 2nd LAD conference in Karlsruhe, end of April 2004.

GENPO

  • GENPO - the GENeral Purpose Organ. It replicates the essential features of any pipe, theatre, or reed organ. GENPO reads a description of an organ (a .org XML file) and presents a suitable user interface for operating that organ. There are a number of high quality organ SoundFonts freely available and the .org file maps the stop sounds to organ divisions, manuals and stops. Other facilities such and couplers and presets are available. You may connect one or more MIDI keyboards to GENPO to provide the organ manuals, you can also assign one to be the 'pedalboard'.

jOrgan

  • jOrgan - a Java-based MIDI processor. It is free software for complex transmitting and dynamical modifying of MIDI messages on their way between MIDI encoders and MIDI decoders, through an own MIDI Programming Language MPL. It can be used as Virtual Pipe Organ (virtual organ console). Runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux and macOS operating systems

Beatrix

  • Beatrix is a MIDI-controlled, software synthesizer designed to imitate the sound and properties of the electromechanical organs and sound modification devices that brought world-wide fame to the names and products of Laurens Hammond and Don Leslie.

setBfree

  • setBfree - A DSP Tonewheel Organ emulator. setBfree is a MIDI-controlled, software synthesizer designed to imitate the sound and properties of the electromechanical organs and sound modification devices that brought world-wide fame to the names and products of Laurens Hammond and Don Leslie.

GrandOrgue

  • GrandOrgue is a sample based pipe organ simulator. When connected to MIDI keyboards and an audio system, it can accurately simulate the sound of a real pipe organ. This application has builds for Linux, Windows and OS X.

Foo YC20

  • Foo YC20 - This is a Faust implementation of a 1969 designed Yamaha combo organ, the YC-20. In addition to the Faust code, it has a Gtkmm UI with Jack audio and midi support. A LV2 instrument plugin is planned but not yet executed.

Horgand

  • horgand - a softsynth, really simple and easy to use, specially designed to produce organ sounds is also capable to generate other sound types like Electric Pianos (Rhodes, Wurlitzer, DX E.Piano), Jazz Guitar, Strings, Brass, Fretless Bass, Accordion etc. using low CPU resources. horgand is based on a FM audio synthesizer with twenty carriers (20) without modulators in a plain based algorithm. Each carrier frequency can be modified for construct complex sounds. The synthesizer incorporate also a LFO (Low frequency oscillator) for generate tremolo effects and detune effects applying LFO Pitch and Amplitude to the carrier frequency's. Some synthesizer parameters can be edited for each sound including two ADSR, (Normal and Percussion), Fine Frequency, Attenuation, Rotary Amplitude, Transpose, etc. Four DSP effects are available for obtain more complex sounds, Rotary, Chorus, Delay and Reverberation. Sounds are stored in banks of 32 organ sounds and can be changed externally with MIDI program change (1-32).

Organteq

  • ORGANTEQ Alpha - a new generation physically modelled pipe organ that reproduces the complex behaviour of the organ flue pipe. It is a small organ with a keyboard range of 4 octaves (from F1 to F5) and with 2 stops: a Flute 8' and a Flute 4' (octave).

It is provided in standalone mode only and should be regarded as a foretaste of a more advanced commercial version in development, due to be released during 2018.

AZR-3 JACK

  • AZR-3 JACK - a port of the free VST plugin AZR-3. It is a tonewheel organ with drawbars, distortion and rotating speakers. The original was written by Rumpelrausch Täips. The organ has three sections, two polyphonic with 9 drawbars each and one monophonic bass section with 5 drawbars. The two polyphonic sections respond to events on MIDI channel 1 and 2, and an optional keyboard split function makes the bass section listen to the lower keys on channel 1. The three sections have separate sustain and percussion switches as well as separate volume controls, and the two polyphonic sections have separate vibrato settings. All three sections are mixed and sent through the distortion effect and the rotating speakers simulator, where the modulation wheel can be used to switch between fast and slow rotation, and the fast and slow rotation speeds themselves can be changed separately for the lower and upper frequencies.

Connie

  • https://bitbucket.org/horo/connie/wiki/Home - Simple simulation of an electronic organ like e.g. Vox Continental. This project is a toolbox for creating an electronic organ program with JACK MIDI input and JACK audio output for Linux. Connie is a JACK application. It has one MIDI input and a stereo audio output.

EplayOrgan

  • EplayOrgan - a brand new multi purpose organ by David Back, November and December 2017, intended to be playable by organists and versatile enough to be useful to everybody with an interest in organs. It will load and be playable almost instantly and does not need an expensive computer with huge amounts of memory. eplayOrgan was designed and tested on a 64 bit Windows 10 system but was always intended to be versatile in that it will run on any Windows system back to and including Windows XP. It will also run on any Mac or Linux system under Wine. All the basics are in place for producing native Mac and Linux versions in due course. Latency is negligable under Windows.

Elka Panther

  • Elka Panther - one of the most famous organs in 60s’ and 70s’ popular music. VST/AU plug-in.

Windows VST

SQ8L

  • SQ8L - an SQ80-emulating VSTi. Runs on Linux via Wine, but not on Windows????????


Synth1

  • http://synth1.com/ a software synthesizer for computer music use. It is VSTi/AU compatible. (AU version is beta now) The current version is freeware. Functionally it is modelled on the Clavia Nord Lead 2Red Synth ; with the following characteristics: 2 Oscillators + 1 sub Oscillator, FM modulation, ring modulation,sync,modulation envelope; 4 types of filters, distortion; 2LFO(synchronized with host); Arpeggiator (synchronized with host)

Tempo delay (synchronized with host), stereo chorus/flanger; Legato mode, portamento; 32 notes polyphony; 128 presets; Thoroughly optimized for light CPU load using SSE instructions etc.; Automation

Bleep

  • Bleep - a free VSTi synthesizer plug-in for Windows which inspired by the sound of MOS Technology SID. At the same time Bleep' is not emulator of this chipset but only partially similar to its architecture.

u-he Zebralette

  • Zebralette - has two LFOs (one per voice, one global), a multi-stage envelope and three on-board effects (chorus, EQ, delay). Not forgetting Zebra2's famous dual spectral effects, which include several squelchy filter algorithms. Windows/Mac.

u-he Podolski

  • Podolski - a simple, CPU-efficient virtual analogue synthesizer. Basically a cut down version of FilterscapeVA with just one oscillator, one filter, one envelope and two LFOs, it also features a Zebra-style arpeggiator/sequencer plus chorus and delay effects. Podolski's specialities are the Click parameter (emphasizes the filter attack) and its ability to seamlessly morph between three waveforms (WaveWarp). Windows/Mac.

u-he TyrellN6

u-he Hive

  • Hive was made to be fast and simple. The streamlined single screen UI lets you dive into sound creation immediately. A fluid workflow invites you to tweak away until your sound is just right (or wrong in just the right way). Hive was engineered to be light on CPU, and won’t slow you down while you work. But being “fast and simple” doesn’t mean we’ve sacrificed sound quality or creative control - Hive is packed with features, controls and enough flexibility to deliver stunning sounds. Windows/Mac.

u-he Triple Cheese

  • Triple Cheese is a unique-sounding freeware synthesizer plugin. Triple Cheese doesn't use any of the classic synthesis techniques – substractive, FM or additive – but various forms of comb filter i.e. very short chromatically tuned delays. The three cheese modules in a row either generate their own signal, or process the output of the previous module. Windows/Mac.

deputy Mark II

Charlatan

  • Charlatan is a polyphonic, subtractive virtual analog (VA) synthesizer plugin with focus on sound quality and easy usability. It comes with a flexible, yet not overwhelming feature set which encourages artists to start tweaking instead of just relying on presets. Inspite of it's simplicity, Charlatan's architecture is flexible enough to create both classic sounds and rather experimental noises. While making no compromise about sound quality, the sound engine has been highly optimized for efficient CPU usage making Charlatan well suited as a "bread and butter" synth even in projects with a large number of plugin instances. Windows VST.

Venom VB-303

  • Venom VB-303 is a win32 VST made with SynthEdit/SE_SDK2. It’s an approximation of the sound of a x0xb0x, and the sequencer of the TB-303.

Windows VST.

Caustic 3

  • Caustic 3 - a music creation tool suite inspired by rack-mount synthesizers / samplers rigs. Everything is real-time and optimized for mobile devices. Windows VST.

Defiant WT

  • Defiant WT - Wavetable – Additive – Subtractive Hybrid / Polyphonic. Slick and compact but packs a powerful punch and a host of advanced features. Providing wavetable, additive and subtractive synthesis in an efficiently clever design with a unique modulation arsenal, Defiant WT is creative, grungy, intuitive, fun and to the point.

metamorph

  • metamorph - a waveform morphing synth with a bunch of envelopes, LFOs and onboard effects to guarantee movement on even the most vanilla note. Each oscillator can morph through a selection of waveforms in tempo sync or modulated by an envelope. It can also step through the waveforms, make each cycle a new waveform or even just stick with one waveform if you want. Throw in pitch modulation, 5 envelopes, 2 LFO’s, a ring mod / 3rd audio osc, variable state filter, distortion, delay and an arpeggiator and that held note will never sound the same again

GalaXynth

  • GalaXynth - a Workstation Synth from the future. With this baby, you’re done fiddling with neverending rows of knobs. Find the sound you need ASAP, stop messing around, start making music.

Scylla

  • Scylla - a 32 bit Windows VST instrument capable of sample-playback combined with subtractive synthesis to produce a wide variety of sonic possibilities ranging from lush pads to far-out soundscapes and effects via scorching leads and chunky bass. Scylla includes three different types of oscillators that can be modified to a wide variety of styles and three built-in samplers that can accommodate .wav audio samples, which can be played back in grain table, waveform, sample or single hit format. All the audio can be modified and modulated through LFO, volume and filter envelopes, Ring-Modulation, and Unison.

Oatmeal

  • Oatmeal - a two-oscillator subtractive synth.

X11

Harmony Box

basic65

  • basic 65 - a monophonic synth, inspired by the classic 80s home computer, the Commodore 64 and its legendary SID chip. Building on the waveforms and signal path of this famous chip, basic 65 adds further features and options to take things a step further. The double arpeggiator allows complex versions of that retro 8-bit game sound and the modulation options inspire experimentation via the mod envelope and 2 comprehensive LFOs. Pulse width modulation, ring modulation and oscillator detune/sync are key ingredients in the signature sound. Throw in some pitch drift, bit drift, a sprinkle of dirt and randomisation and you have a wide range of lofi, chiptune, retro-tastic sounds at your disposal.

Preparation P

  • Preparation P - a VSTi collection of 61 high quality prepared piano samples. All of these samples were recorded by Tom Gersic on a baby-grand piano, and include a variety of strummed strings, plucked strings, and many other sounds of various objects lodged in the strings. Each sample can be tuned individually, and you can also adjust the attack, decay, sustain, and release characteristics of the sound by using the envelope controls.

SmallQoo

  • SmallQoo - 8voice poly Compact Synth. Win VST.

Metatron

  • Metatron - a 2 oscillator analog synthesizer with an arpeggiator that works alongside a gated modulation sequencer for creating unique rhythmic patterns and sounds. The oscillator section uses waveforms that double up to create a phasing effect similar to pulse width, but for each waveform. This along with a powerful unison detune section and ring modulator give Metatron a rich, fat sound. With the addition of versatile graphical envelopes, LFOs and other modulation options, Metatron becomes an instrument that can create complex sounds, but at the same time keeps it simple without trying to do everything, making it a perfect 'go to' synth for one-finger basslines, rhythmic techno leads, spacey gated pads and other creative arpeggiated sequences. Win VST.

Photon

  • Photon - a hybrid synth with an with an experimental 'warp' engine for creating evolving rhythmic sequences, random arpeggios and classic Sample&Hold style arcade weirdness. Win VST.

Subconscious

  • Subconscious - Hybrid Sequencer Synth. Subconscious is a dual arpeggiation sequence synth with oscillator crossfading, feedback modulation, and independent filter and amp envelopes for both oscillator sections. Subconscious has two different onboard sequencers, a gate sequencer and a modulation sequencer, which can be used for stepped sequences, gated pads and modulation of the pitch and filters. Win VST.

ProtoPSG psg-005

NoteGraphica

blooo

  • blooo - a VST 2.4 polyphonic software synthesizer plug-in for Microsoft Windows® (both 32 and 64 bit) based on the classic subtractive synthesis architecture. It is written in native C++ code for high performance even on "lighter" systems.

Tempo sync.

scrooo

  • scrooo - a VST 2.4 polyphonic software synthesizer plug-in for Microsoft Windows® (both 32 and 64 bit) based on a spectral formant synthesis architecture and written in native C++ code for high performance.

Tempo sync.

qyooo

  • qyooo - a VST 2.4 polyphonic software synthesizer plug-in for Microsoft Windows® (both 32 and 64 bit). It is written in native C++ code for high performance and low CPU consumption.

Ragnarök

  • Ragnarök - a VST 2.4 software instrument for Microsoft Windows® simulating a custom-built one-of-a-kind analog synthesizer from 1980. It is written in native C++ code for high performance and low CPU consumption.

Nabla

  • Nabla - a VST 2.4 software instrument for Microsoft Windows® simulating the KORG Delta DL-50 Strings Synthesizer from 1979. Is is written in native C++ code for high performance and low CPU consumption.

Deputy

  • deputy Mark II - a VST 2.4 software instrument for Microsoft Windows® (both 32 and 64 bit) in the tradition of classic string machines and early "polyphonic" synthesizers, written in native C++ code for high performance.

Kern

  • Kern - a VST 2.4 polyphonic software synthesizer plug-in for Microsoft Windows® (both 32 and 64 bit) designed to run with and to be fully controlled by modern MIDI keyboard controllers like the Novation® Impulse™. It is written in native C++ code for high performance and extremely low CPU consumption.

Mono/Fury

  • Mono/Fury - a VST 2.4 software synthesizer plug-in for Microsoft Windows® (both 32 and 64 bit) emulating the classic KORG Mono/Poly® analog synthesizer of the early 1980's. It is written in native C++ code for high performance even on "lighter" systems.

ModulAir

  • ModulAir - a modular polyphonic software synthesizer for Microsoft Windows (VST) and Apple macOS (VST/AU) written in native C++ code for high performance and low CPU consumption. WARNING! ModulAir is a work in progress, unfinished, buggy, as of now with only a few quirky presets. Expect horrible things to happen. It is a clumsy unhandy complicated piece of software.

Formant Classic Advanced

  • Formant Classic Advanced - an extended Donation Ware version of the "Formant Classic" Free Ware version based on the legendary Elektor Formant DIY (Do It Your self) synthesizer of 1977/78 . It is available as a standalone version and VSTi plugin version for Microsoft based computers.

TS-Substance

  • Substance - a virtual analog software synthesizer (VSTi) emphasizing simplicity, flexibility, and sound quality. The key factors in the design of Substance were that it should sound great, without effects, and that it should all fit on one page.

TW-PitchShop

  • TW-PitchShop - Versatile Mono/Poly Synth with portamento. Loads of controls to create (or adjust) sounds, divided over different screens. Easy to use interface, very understandable for beginners and experts. Interface ±840 pixels wide, height about 440 pixels.

TW-WhiteWidow

  • TW-WhiteWidow - Versatile Mono/Poly Synth with portamento. Loads of controls to create (or adjust) sounds, divided over different screens. Easy to use interface, very understandable for beginners and experts. Interface 810 pixels wide, height 619 pixels. Patchbank with 128 sounds.

TW-PVM Special

  • http://www.technowitch.nl/vst-pvmspecial.html TW-PVM Special] - Versatile Mono/Poly Synth with Noise Oscilator. Loads of controls to create (or adjust) sounds, divided over different screens. Easy to use interface, very understandable for beginners and experts. Interface 722 pixels wide, height 343 pixels. Patchbank with 64 sounds.

Eclipsis

  • Eclipsis - full featured hybrid wavetable synthesizer with 3 oscillators, 6 LFOs, 118 waveshapes, 39 modulation targets, 2 effects racks and unique preset randomization! And all of that in new attractive design!

U.F.O. ZE

  • U.F.O. Zone Edition - (VSTi) is upgraded version of original U.F.O. plugin with some updates, improvements and fixes. It is a subtractive synthesizer with three oscillators and some preset randomization function.

Charlatan

  • Charlatan - a polyphonic, subtractive virtual analog (VA) synthesizer plugin with focus on sound quality and easy usability. It comes with a flexible, yet not overwhelming feature set which encourages artists to start tweaking instead of just relying on presets. Inspite of it's simplicity, Charlatan's architecture is flexible enough to create both classic sounds and rather experimental noises. While making no compromise about sound quality, the sound engine has been highly optimized for efficient CPU usage making Charlatan well suited as a "bread and butter" synth even in projects with a large number of plugin instances.

The Viking

  • The Viking - uses additive synthesis to produce Dynamic Tonality tunings and timbres. Scale pitches result from successive additions and subtractions of a period (e.g., an octave) and a generator (e.g., a perfect fifth). The period and generator can be set to any size, making a wide variety of microtonal tunings easily accessible.

2032

  • 2032 - a Dynamic Tonality physical modeling (modal) synth. It emulates the sound of a pitched physical object (string, pipe, plate) mounted on an unpitched physical body (guitar body, djembe body, drum shell, etc.) that is excited by a hammer, breath, bow, or live audio input. It supports a wide range of microtonal tunings and the partials of its sounds can be retuned so as to match the underlying tuning, thereby minimizing sensory dissonance. It supports tunings produced by a period and a generator of any sizes (for standard Western tunings, the period is the octave and the generator is the perfect fifth).

Transformer

  • Transformer - a Dynamic Tonality analysis-resynthesis synth. It transforms an audio sample, or live audio, by separating it into pitched components (partials) and noise. The amplitudes and frequencies of the partials, and the balance between noise and pitch can then be dynamically adjusted. As with all Dynamic Tonality synths, it supports a wide range of microtonal tunings and the partials can be retuned to match the underlying tuning, thereby minimizing sensory dissonance. The tunings are produced by a period and a generator (for standard Western tunings, the period is the octave and the generator is the perfect fifth). The sizes of both can be freely adjusted to morph between many diverse tunings.

Mika Micro

OwlBass

ODOsynths archive

Dream 64

Harsh Digital Nose

  • Harsh Digital Nose a synthesizer that converts two images into two oscillator waveforms and then mixes them in various horrible ways. You can drag and drop images or draw them on the plugin in real time.

Windows/Mac VST, Mac AU.

Chip32

  • Chip32 - small wave table synthsizer VST Plugin for Win

DvnSfxMaker

  • DvnSfxMaker - a VST/AU plugin to create sound effects for games. Features: 3 Oscillators (Sin, Triangle, Tan, Square, Saw, Breaker, Whistle) + White and Pink Noise. AHDSR envelopes for filter and amplitude. Pitch Envelope. Low and Hi pass filters with resonance. Pitch jump. Random preset generator. Built-in bitcrusher. Settings history. 4 notes polyphony.

SANA 8BIT VST

  • https://github.com/COx2/SANA_8BIT_VST - VSTi project made by JUCE 5.3.1 Library. "SANA 8BIT VST" is name of the Synthesizer. It has a Oscillator, pitch sweep function, vibrato function and Wave scope. Oscillator can switch several waveforms and has ADSR function. And you can write own waveform on the WAVEFORM MEMORY component.This is a windows 32bit/64bit Application. It builded as DLL format. And you can install your DAW easily.

GSinth

  • GSinth - Free VST synthesizer from GVST. 3 oscillators with independent settings can be used to create interesting, evolving sounds. Randomise buttons allow for quick experimentation with sounds.

GSinth2

  • GSinth2 - Free VST synthesizer from GVST. 3 oscillators with independent settings can be used to create interesting, evolving sounds. Builds on the simpler GSinth with additional waveform and noise generators. Randomise buttons allow for quick experimentation with sounds.

Little Spiral Generator

Rhythm and Pitch Generator

  • Rhythm and Pitch Generator - an analog-style arpeggiator that can be run at audio rate for a quirky sound generator or locked to a tempo to generate inspiring melodic and rhythmic phrases based on a seed-based random sample-and-hold.Features Robin Schmidt's TriSaw morphable oscillator which can be morphed (not crossfaded!) into tri, saw, square, sine, anti-sine, and everything inbetween, giving tones that range from chiptune squares to warm analog saws. free VST/AU by Soundemote.

MetaSynth

WebSynths

See also WebDev#Web Audio API

Android

One Hand Synth

  • One Hand Synth - a musical instrument for tablets running Android 2.2 or higher. Choice from 2 sound sources: a Moog-like synthesizer and a Hammond-like organ. These can be played with one of 3 on-screen keyboards. Preset patches as well as manual controls.

SynprezFM

  • SynprezFM - a full-fledged Yamaha DX7 emulator for Android

DOS

Various


Modelled instruments


  • https://github.com/paulbatchelor/voc_demo - A realtime demo of Voc, a vocal tract physical model. With the exception of RtAudio (released under the permissive STK license, included here), all code here is licensed under public domain.


  • Spicy Guitar - a free physically modelled acoustic guitar synthesizer.


  • DIMPLE - Dynamically Interactive Musically PhysicaL Environment an implementation of a physical dynamics environment which can be controlled via OSC, so that audio projects such as PureData can create physical objects in a virtual space, and then let them interact with each other, colliding and otherwise moving around. Data about objects' position and acceleration, for example, can be retrieved and then used to affect some sort of audio synthesis. It is a part of the "force feedback for audio systems" IDMIL project and was first presented at NIME 2007.

Granular synthesis

Argotlunar

  • Argotlunar - a tool for creating surreal transformations of audio streams. Specifically, it is a real-time delay-line granulator. It disintegrates an audio stream into short samples (grains). Each grain can have random settings of amplitude, panning, duration, delay, pitch, glissando, filter and envelope. The output of all grains is mixed together into a stream which can be fed back into the main input. Time-related parameters can be synced to the host tempo, for rhythmic and pulsing textures. Pitch-related parameters can be quantized for harmonic and melodic effects. Feedback can create chaotic, densely layered, and distorted sounds.

Soundgrain

  • Soundgrain - a graphical interface where users can draw and edit trajectories to control granular sound synthesis. Soundgrain is written with Python/WxPython and uses Pyo as its audio engine.

Slicer

  • Slicer - allows you to create rhythms and textures from any sound you import by moving the Slicer nodes. Slicer will chop your sound into slices and superpose them. The slices will be created and manipulated acording to the position of the control nodes (the ones represented by a square). The slicer nodes (in color) control volume (vertical) and pan(horizontal) of each slice, while the control nodes control pitch, lenght, shift and starting point for all the slices.

Hadron Particle Synthesizer

  • Hadron Particle Synthesizer - granular synthesis tool. In fact it is such a complete implementation of granular synthesis we’ve renamed the technique to particle synthesis. The plugin is of course free and open source. Hadron can be used as a synthesizer or an audio effect. It can also seamlessly morph between different sound processing methods, so you can make the plugin gradually change from synthesizer to audio processing mode. This is all part of the state morphing system, accessible via the big 2D joystick control.



Narrativas Sonoras

  • Narrativas Sonoras - a very simple audio granulator. Its original design dates back to end of 2006. for Macintosh, for Windows, for Linux or the source code. It is based on Processing and you might need to install a recent version of Java.

Borderlands

Cumulus

  • Cumulus - a software-synthesizer with following features: Implements the Asynchronous Grain Synthesis which is very multifaceted. Fully realtime capable. MIDI-Port to Controllerboxes (all parameters can be controlled via MIDI!), Keyboards (Polyphony, 8 voices) and Sequencers. Convenient GUI with drawable envelopes for each parameter. Internal 32 bit sampling resolution and a multiple of the external sampling rate. Cumulus was originally developed as a parallel application on a cluster of LINUX-workstations. I used a cluster of 7 Pentium-233 nodes, connected by the very fast "Easynet" network which was developed by the Institute of Electronics at the ETH Zuerich (Switzerland). I hacked the code to run on a single PC and I achieve about the same performance on a single modern PC (Thunderbird-800). The code runs on any GLIBC LINUX distribution with QT Devel >= 2.0 (GUI) and AFsp (a library to load and store .wav-files) installed. Note that the code is published under the GNU GPL.

Loomer Cumulus

  • Loomer Cumulus - a granular sampler which radically transforms sample content by breaking it into tiny slithers of audio called grains and reorganizing them to form new sounds. Cumulus is capable of a wide ranges of timbres: from evolving atmospheric soundscapes; to organic physical textures. Up to eight Scenes can be created; a Scene corresponding to a particular sample position and set of synthesis parameters. Scenes can be played in realtime via MIDI, or arranged internally using the built-in sequencer. Cumulus is available free on the cover-mounted DVD of Computer Music magazine from issue 170 and onwards. Cumulus is supported on Mac OS X (VST, AU, RTAS, and Standalone), Windows (VST, RTAS, and Standalone), and Linux (VST, Standalone), and natively supports 64-bit for VST, Audio Unit, and Linux Standalone formats. - $

Frontieres

Windows / Mac

Atomic Cloud Grain Cloud Generator

  • Atomic Cloud Grain Cloud Generator takes an audio file as input, and generates a granular synthesis grain cloud in real time. Grain clouds are played back through your speakers, and can also be rendered direct to disk, while you listen, for further processing.

R_MEM

  • R_MEM - Granulator. The download contains the unlocked installers. OS X and Windows.

Granny

  • Granny - a real-time granular synthesizer for Windows.

therapy

  • therapy - 3 band granulizer effect with absolutely no ability to deliberately control any parameter. Windows VST.

Hourglass

  • HourGlass - a standalone application intended for radical sound processing by taking fragments (more commonly referred to as "grains" in other similar software) from sound recordings, to create sound textures. It is not intended for minor transparent corrections of playback speed or pitch, but is rather placed firmly in the sound mangling/glitch territory.

GGrain

  • GGrain - Free VST plug-in for granular resynthesis, GVST. Cuts audio up into tiny grains and recreates it. Great for interesting, lo-fi effects.

Concatenative synthesis

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concatenative_synthesis - a technique for synthesising sounds by concatenating short samples of recorded sound (called units). The duration of the units is not strictly defined and may vary according to the implementation, roughly in the range of 10 milliseconds up to 1 second. It is used in speech synthesis and music sound synthesis to generate user-specified sequences of sound from a database built from recordings of other sequences. In contrast to granular synthesis, concatenative synthesis is driven by an analysis of the source sound, in order to identify the units that best match the specified criterion.

PySoundConcat

rhythmCAT

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