No Friends? Here are some Free Synths
Featuring Surrealistic MG-1 Plus by Cherry Audio, Dawesome ZYKLØP by Tracktion and Dawesome, Medicine Bell by TDJaudio, Ample Percussion Cloudrum - Ample Sound & Rasa by MNTRA. All were hand-picked by me - and are free to use and download.
Surrealistic MG-1 Plus | Cherry Audio
This is a recreation of the Realistic MG-1, an analog synthesizer that was sold in Radio Shack stores in the early 1980's.
We didn’t have the Radio Shack chain here in Ireland; we mostly had a lot of individually owned stores of a similar nature (the only chain that would have been somewhat similar was Maplin, which sadly shut all brick-and-mortar stores a few years ago).
By Cyfeiliog23 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=136471943
Cherry Audio creates some of the best standalone synths and synth emulations out there. Their synth ‘Atomika’ is an emulation of the Soviet synth Polivoks, which I discovered after recently going down a Soviet synthesizer rabbit hole, as a result of becoming fixated on the ANS synthesizer (which was used to create the soundtrack to the 1972 movie ‘Solaris’).
The Surrealistic MG-1 Plus is a substantial and powerful synth, one that is thankfully very easy to install. It comes with quite a lot of powerful presets, ranging from basses, percussion, sound effects (my personal favourites being the bleeps and bloops of ‘computer rhythms’ and ‘UFO 1 and 2’), leads, and more. This will make you feel like you are sitting in the basement on a dark Friday night in the 1980s. Who needs friends when you have the Surrealistic MG-1 Plus?
It is available in AU, VST, VST3, AAX, and standalone formats. It is available for Windows and MacOS. A full in-depth guide is available from Cherry Audio here.
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ZYKLØP - Dawesome, Tracktion
I came across this on Plugin Boutique and was immediately drawn to the Fuchsia plumes of the visuals, which initially reminded me of one of my favourite plugins of 2023, ‘Synplant 2’.
A bit of background - ‘ZYKLØP’ is the sister software to ‘MYTH’ and has the same Re-synthesis V2 engine that powers MYTH. I had never used MYTH previously, so this was all completely new to me. ‘ZYKLØP’ comes with a vast bank of presets, which can be accessed via the menu on the left or at the very top.
You can use a preset, build your own sounds, or you can drop a sample of your choosing into the Iris, in which “machine learning is used to re-synthesize the sample in a special way.” However, it does specify in the manual that Iris is not a sampler and that “instead you should better think of it as an oscillator derived from an audio source.” You have a choice between Re-synthesize V1 and V2, V2 being more faithful to the original timbre of the sound. Underneath are a selection of parameters which allow you to alter the sound (they are referred to as Transformers in the manual; I have circled these in white).
I took a fairly standard house strings sample I had and loaded it into the Iris. It completely transformed it - making it sound like a glittering celestial pad from another time.
Sample Before:
Sample After:
You could score an entire movie or make a whole album just using this synth - it is that powerful. There is also an appregiator, a section for FX, modulation, and so much more. In fact, there is so, so much to this, that I truly cannot believe that it is free. There is an extraordinarily helpful, in-depth step-by-step manual created by Dawsome, which you can access here, in addition to a walkthrough here. ZYKLØP can be your companion all summer long. Good times lie ahead.
Connect with Tracktion
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Connect with Dawesome
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Medicine Bell by TDJaudio
This reminds me of witchy cafes from 1990s TV shows and movies (I feel like it could exist within the world of the Halliwell sisters in Charmed). I found this on plugins4free, a website that is just an utter blast to look through. (I also found an instrument that is a called Clap Machine, which simulates clapping).
Medicine Bell is a chime and bell instrument, and is very straightforward to install. You can toggle the options Gem, Flower, and Butterfly on and off as you choose, and adjust the sound via the dials above.
The ‘Flower’ instrument by itself has a dissonant quality to it, perfect for creating off-kilter atmospheres. The Gem and Butterfly used together have a traditional bell and chime sound, that sound wonderful (you can use all three together if you choose). This is very effective and fun to use, and will add a nice tinkling effect to your music, or a witchy, slightly eerie ambiance.
Flower Demo
Gem + Butterfly Demo
Ample Percussion Cloudrum - Ample Sound
This is a Steel Tongue Drum instrument with a range of 3 octaves.
One of my college professors told us to always read the manual of every piece of hardware/plugin/VST we got if we wanted to get full use out of them. Thankfully, I do this with everything I get, as if I had not done so, I don’t think I would have found out that when you hit the Q, C, D, and R buttons (under the Main fader, pictured below), you can control the Q (EQ), C (compression), D (delay and R (reverb) which powerfully transform the sounds.
This added a whole new dimension of shaping and control over the sounds, and within seconds, I had transformed the instrument into something that sounded like it had come down from the heavens. Ample Percussion Cloudrum allows you the freedom to stay within the traditional sound, if that is what you are looking for, or to morph it into something else entirely, like a shimmering, dreamy pad. It comes with some fun presets (I particularly enjoyed Cloud Pad 2), which you can access via the menu at the top. You can find the full manual here.
Sample Demo
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Rasa — MNTRA
I just love the GUI for this - it reminds me of playing PC games on the household computer as a child. This will make you feel like you are venturing into the realm of your imagination (pro tip: this is even more magical to use at nighttime).
This does require you to download MNDALA 2 in order to use it (which is free), this being the sampler engine where all the instruments can be played. The changes you make using the X, Y, and Z faders on the left-hand side are actually reflected in the visuals (e.g. reverb increases the ‘glow’ around the key), which is a cool touch.
In ‘Matrix’, you can see the samplers within Mandala (you can add or remove sounds here as you choose), the ‘Samplers’ section allows you to adjust parameters of the sounds (which gives you a lot of control if you are using this for sound design), there is also a section for FX (pictured below), sequencing, and more.
This is a tool I will definitely be using a lot for sound design - as is the case with any powerful tool, there is a bit of a learning curve here, but once you play around with it for a while (or read the manual and watch the walkthrough), you will be having the time of your life. I was using the preset ‘Devourer’ and from playing around with the different parameters, I managed to go from something that sounded like it was from an old Hollywood movie, to a shimmering, bewitching string-like pad, to something that sounded like it was playing through the halls of a 1960s horror movie.
This is an incredibly impressive tool - and it is completely free to use and download!
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About Eimear O Sullivan
Eimear Ann O Sullivan is a multi-genre music producer, audio engineer and vocalist. After receiving a Masters in Music Technology from the CIT Cork School of Music, she went on to operate as a producer under the name Blakkheart. Her releases have received critical acclaim from Ireland's biggest music publications, such as District Magazine and Nialler9, alongside receiving heavy commercial radio airplay. She currently works in Cork recording studio Flashpoint CC. Previous clients of hers include the likes of Comedy Central’s Dragony Aunt star Candy Warhol, rapper Darce and Outsider YP. (Photo credit @Fabian Boros)
Contact Eimear O Sullivan at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com
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