Synthesizers

I Wish is a granular synthesis plug-in that uses incoming MIDI notes to play very short loops of audio.

SynthMaster might seem like an ambitious name, but then SynthMaster is an ambitious synth...

Question: What’s the difference between Carmen Electra and Carbon Electra? Answer: One is a glamour model and performer, the other is a four-oscillator subtractive synth that will work as a plug-in within your DAW.

The Receptor lets you use VST plug-ins without a computer. How does V2 improve on the original?

FabFilters powerful plug-in suite brings us advanced modulation possibilities, filters with multiple personalities, and plenty of overdrive.

What could be more tempting than a sweet-sounding virtual analogue synth? How about that same synth bundled with a bunch of high-quality plug-ins targeted at music production?

We test another group of hot plug-ins: Universal Audio Dimension D • Ugo Rez, Texture, String Theory & Motion • TC Electronic VSS3 Stereo Source Reverb.

Sound designer Rob Papen may be best known to you as the man behind amazing sounds for the Access Virus or Alesis Andromeda. Now he's moved into producing software-based synths of his own. So how good is it?

We test two hot new plug-ins: Camel Audio's Camel Space (PC VST & Mac OS X AU) and TC Electronic's DVR2 (Mac/PC Powercore).

Basement Arts Frantic, Cakewalk Z3TA+, and Progress Software Soup get the install treatment.

If you want to get your hands on the latest VST Instruments and Plug-in effects, but don't fancy having a PC in your studio, Muse Research's Receptor could be the answer.

Concrete FX's plug-ins incline towards the less well-trodden areas of sound generation, and their latest is a wavetable synthesizer that recalls the Waldorf Microwave.

If you are looking for effects and instruments to give your mixes a sideways slant, Cycling '74 might have just the thing...

Disco DSP's additive synth plug-in offers both high-quality resynthesis, with up to 256 partials per note, and a novel 'spectral display' for editing your sounds.

Gmedia continue their quest to render the best of the world's keyboards in software form. But will it give OSCar fans a case of the grouches?

Novation's V-Station plug-in provided a software version of their hardware K-Station — now there's a software version of their mid-'90s hardware monophonic analogue bass synths, the BassStation and BassStation Rack...

Just as Access's hardware Virus synth was followed by the snazzy Virus Indigo, so the TDM plug-in version for Pro Tools has benefited from an upgrade to Indigo status, making it more infectious than ever...

Formats: Creamware SFP