Anyone that’s been a part of my music production background knows I’m obsessed with VSTi’s. Especially the FREE ones. I’ve had Synth1 in my plugin database for over a year or two now, but NEVER had I really messed with it.
I discovered that this little guy is capable of some incredible things. There a lot of reasons why this VST is amazing, but most importantly because 1) it gives you up to 16 polyphonic voices and 2) it has very MINIMAL CPU usage. While most synths are peaking round 40% and 50%, this one is so light it makes the production process very smooth. (Most freeware synths offer anywhere from 6 to 8 poly voices). It’s also modelled on the Caliva Nord Lead 2 Red Synth. It’s subtractive, packed with FM Modulation (woot woot!), Ring Modulation, Sync, Unison, with EQ effects, Delay, Chrous, Flanger, Distortion. There are two oscillators (I’ve looked it up and there are about 2,000 presets available out there for download meaning this synth has a lot to give. I’ve recently created a trance/progressive production exclusively using the Synth 1 (trance/progressive sounds typically require the highest quality tones out there available, usually not easy to make with free soft synths).
Synth 1 deserves all the praise it gets. The only downside is that the interface is a bit ugly and sometimes difficult to control (all the “knobs” are very close together not a big fan of the font either, and it should’ve come with another color… although you can even modify that if you’re that much into it).
I personally use PC because the amount of synths out there are 10 to 1 for PC to Mac. The cool thing though is that Synth 1 actually does come for Mac and you can download it here (http://www.filecrop.com/synth-1-mac.html).
Synth 1 is great for the price (free!), it uses very little CPU, it has some amazing sounds (up to 16 poly voices), and it has a GANG of effects included.
The only thing I regret about Synth 1 is that I underestimated it when I first got it. I judged a book by its cover, and surely enough I was dead wrong. Looking back, I probably could’ve made some brilliant tunes with this little beauty.
Synth 1 for Macs (http://www.filecrop.com/synth-1-mac.html)
Synth 1 for PC (http://www.synthzone.com/softsyn.htm)
