Acustica THING

Acustica’s soft synth debut is a recreation of everyone’s favourite ’80s polysynth.

THING is the first VST/AU/AAX virtual instrument from Italian software developers Acustica, joining their vast line‑up of audio processing plug‑ins in a new ‘Marea’ (the Italian word for ‘waves’) range that promises more synth emulations down the line.

It’s an odd name for a synth, THING, and especially so for one which (as many aficionados will already have spotted) is so clearly referencing Roland’s Jupiter‑8, the high‑end analogue synth produced from 1981‑1985. But why not? It’s certainly distinctive, and makes a change from yet another arbitrary code‑like name or metaphorical whimsy.

Actually THING is two synths, THING8 (TH8) and THING5 (TH5), which are both part of a standard installation. TH8 is the more sophisticated, with a user interface that’s very close to the original Jupiter‑8 top panel, while TH5 has a friendlier, simplified parameter set and no arpeggiator.

It Don’t Mean A Thing

Focusing on the full‑fat THING8, to describe its basic topology is very much to describe the Jupiter‑8. There are two VCOs with switchable waveforms (sine, triangle, square/PWM, with a noise option in VCO2) feeding a filter section with a simple static high‑pass stage and a much more fully equipped 12/24 dB/octave low‑pass. There’s a single multi‑waveform LFO (though VCO 2 can also be switched to a low‑frequency mode), and two envelope generators. Notable synthesis niceties include sync of VCO 2 by VCO 1, and variable cross modulation (bidirectional linear FM) between the oscillators, for clangourous noises. There’s a fixed key follow option for envelope times (getting shorter as you play higher), and plenty of ways to deploy modulation concurrently but independently. Jupiter‑8s have an interesting section to the left of the keyboard, where the pitch bender and a modulation button (instead of a modulation wheel) could be set up to control the pitch of the VCOs (separately or together), the filter frequency, and modulation amounts going to oscillators and filter. That’s intact in TH8, albeit with controls set above the keyboard instead, and with the modulation button replaced with a more useful and standard mod wheel (which explains the related loss of the LFO Mod Rise Time fader). A welcome trade‑off of authenticity for versatility.

It’s a legendary synth of course (and one for which, as a kid growing up in the early ’80s, I’d have happily traded a body part or two) but this topology is not in fact especially complex, and Acustica have largely held firm to that original conception. The control layout is very similar, give or take a bit of horizontal condensation. Terminology is the same throughout too, and the eight‑note polyphony limit is retained. In fact the only significant changes, apart from the switchable filter emulations and effects we’ll come to in a minute, include jettisoning the original’s dual‑layer architecture (and a repurposing of the original’s Lower/Upper Balance knob as a pan control), and an understandable axeing of preset and memory switches.

There are a few novel enhancements. An additional, second RESON[ance] knob can be found in the filter section: Acustica tell me they added it to compensate for the inability of the hardware Jupiter‑8’s filter to go into self‑oscillation. So it’s a variable boost, and for the filter types that could already self‑oscillate it can make for some glorious harmonic chaos. It’s a really welcome feature. TH8 also gets velocity sensitivity knobs for the VCF and VCA sections, but there seems to be no facility for the synth to respond to aftertouch.

Many of the effects are taken from Acustica’s extensive range of processor and effects plug‑ins, and include some rare and unusual hardware models, like the delays shown here.Going further, TH8 is equipped with an effects section that many early '80s Jupiter owners, having already shelled out the equivalent of about £15,000$17,500 in today’s money, could only dream of. (A Jupiter‑8 has no effects at all: not even the chorus that would become an iconic feature in the Juno series.)

A Saturator module offers 15 different hardware amp and pedal emulations. Chorus then has obvious similarities with the Roland Juno chorus, though here increased in scope with a harmonic saturation bias control, and variable noise. The delay section offers emulations of 20 historic analogue, digital and tape‑based delays, with a stereo ping‑pong option and MIDI Clock sync divisions. Finally a reverb offers 10 different algorithms (and CPU‑saving equivalents alongside) with pre‑delay and size parameters, and a ‘dark’ option.

Many other sound and playing possibilities come from combinations of the controls at top left of the plug‑in window and the green voice assignment buttons. There are more interactions and subtlety than I can describe here, but basically a Superstereo effect duplicates sounding voices, and to varying degrees pans the resulting voice pairs and de‑correlates them in phase. They can be detuned too. This works both for polyphonic playing and in the monophonic Solo modes, making for some beautiful effects varying from subtle thickening to luxurious, loose chorusing. Unison mode plays all oscillators at once, but counterintuitively does not make TH8 monophonic: holding down extra notes gives you a chord, with a redistribution of sounding voices, the maximum number of which you’ve chosen from the Voices sub‑menu. An interesting if not especially useful effect, and with a significant weakness in that it provides no way to play the ensuing oscillator stacks monophonically, for domineering bass or lead duties with portamento.

In any mode, a sub‑oscillator is available for extra welly, and you can choose between sine and square waveforms, which is really useful. And finally there’s an Age parameter: as you turn it up, the front panel graphics get progressively more knackered, and instead of voices just going wonkily out of tune against each other the most obvious feature becomes an ongoing pitch wobble. It’s really nice, loosening things up, but surprisingly subtle: even maxed out things are only just unpleasant, and I couldn’t discern any decorrelation of envelope times or filter response (as with the Vintage parameter of a hardware Prophet‑5 Rev4, say).

Going back to those enticingly colourful buttons, the blue Hold latches any played notes to turn them into never‑ending drones. Unfortunately though it continues to behave in a strictly cumulative way when using the arpeggiator. Whatever notes you hold and release to begin with are just fine, but pressing others thereafter just adds to whatever is already latched. That’s not the way most arpeggiator latches work, nor how we’d want them to: you just end up with messy note clusters. Currently MIDI CC64 messages activate Hold, so a sustain pedal doesn’t do anything different. The arpeggiator itself is fine, and sticks to the original design, with a 1‑4 octave range, and four familiar basic patterns including random. It can be sync’ed to your DAW or an internal clock.

I won’t beat around the bush: THING is one of the best‑sounding plug‑in synths, or analogue emulations of any kind, I’ve ever heard.

Sound & Substance

I won’t beat around the bush: THING is one of the best‑sounding plug‑in synths, or analogue emulations of any kind, I’ve ever heard. It’s characterised by real presence, elasticity, and a sparkling, open, three‑dimensional quality. If you associate virtual analogue with sterility or that sort of soapy lack of focus and clout (things start getting quite metaphorical when discussing these things) THING might make you think again.

On both TH8 and TH5 it’s the default VCF‑8 filter mode that for me is the jewel in the crown. Even when the filter is already fully open, VCF‑8 has noticeably more high‑frequency content (and can be louder) than all other filter types. So if your notion of the Jupiter‑8 sound is something fundamentally bright, sparkling and liquid, this will not disappoint. Having said that, the other filters are good too, and help the synths to span a huge timbral range. The Moog‑inspired LAD is much darker and heavier, while the OMX is fizzy and light, and there’s massively different resonance behaviour and quality to boot. Does THING become a Memory Moog when you engage LAD? Not exactly — synths are always sums of all their parts — but having these options available hugely increases scope for sound design.

THING sounds very good just in its raw state, without the Superstereo feature, or the onboard effects, but it can do even more with them. Superstereo is valuable because it’s so controllable: a sniff of it lends some size and dimension without taking over the stereo image. It also maintains positive stereo phase correlation until quite extreme values. The Saturator stage does everything from subtle harmonic enhancement to fuzzy destruction, and Tone’s apparently simple three‑band EQ can actually have its band frequency centres adjusted, graphically, in the otherwise blank panel at top right. The chorus mimics a Juno chorus in that there are three modes, but whilst the third (‘I+II’) correctly drops the pseudo‑stereo phase opposition, its very fast choppy warble is an acquired taste. You’d need a forensic approach to separate the many modes of the delay, at least for simple treatments, but suffice to say there are digital as well as analogue/BBD style sounds, and a ping‑pong option. Amongst the reverbs there are some quirky and characterful things, though sadly nothing really luxurious and modulated, and definitely no shimmers. The maximum decay time is no longer than about eight seconds, which is a bit lacklustre for some jobs, but hey, we’ve all got other reverbs in our DAWs.

Conclusion

To give some additional context, during testing I made some extensive side‑by‑side comparisons with Arturia’s Jup‑8 V4. The two soft synths occupy the same sonic territory, as you’d hope, but for similar settings the Acustica synth always produced more high‑frequency content. Both emulations include original Jupiter‑8 presets like ‘Negative Pluck’, and when comparing those TH8 still has considerably more presence and sparkle, with a character that is not matched by opening the Jup‑8 filter (or switching to 12dB/oct mode, for 24dB/oct sounds). This is not to say that Jup‑8 V4 is bad. Far from it: it’s also a great‑sounding virtual synth that offers some more possibilities around unison mode than TH8, and has valuable additional modulation sources and effects processors. But TH8 more often made me think ‘Oh I see!’ in a way that was normally reserved for the increasingly rare occasions I’ve met a hardware Jupiter‑8 (or Prophet‑5, or Minimoog...) in a studio. In that respect it deserves some serious kudos as an emulation: it’s probably the finest virtual Jupiter‑8 out there, currently.

One thing I haven’t tackled yet is the question of value. It’s pertinent because the THING ‘suite’ is costly as plug‑ins go: €229. Yes, Arturia’s Jup‑8V is only a little cheaper, at €149 (though it’s much better value as part of the bigger V‑Collection bundle), but another well‑regarded Jupiter‑8 emulation, TAL’s J‑8, is well under £100. Roland has its own ‘official’ Jupiter‑8 emulation too, that can be had through a subscription model or bought outright at around that €/£150 price point again.

I think it’s likely, after comparing all these options, that many users would decide that THING has qualities that make it worth the premium. Currently though, I feel the total package, from installation to ongoing use, has too much unevenness to earn a simple unqualified recommendation. I’d have expected to see full, updated documentation and much nicer installation etiquette. On the synth itself a more useful Hold implementation is needed, along with better MIDI Learn facilities, and the strange mono Unison limitation should be sorted out. I wonder if we couldn’t have an option for greater polyphony too, even just in the Poly modes — really long sustaining sounds would benefit from it hugely.

However, ultimately it is sound quality, much more so than mere features, that makes any synth truly valuable, and THING gets that right in a way that’s still uncommon in the virtual world. It can sound absolutely glorious, alive and responsive. I can imagine it becoming many users’ ‘go‑to’ synth, with the multiple filter models covering hugely more ground than a Jupiter‑8 could by itself. To the extent that it could even be a single synth that could fulfil all roles. THING is quirky, yes, but it’s also already very impressive. A free demo will let you see if it can do its thing (sorry...) in your studio.