Phuturetone has released for the KVR Developer Challenge 2021 GR-8, a new free virtual analog Synthesizer plugin for macOS & Windows.
And here comes another nice development by an indie company for the KVR Developer Challenge 2021. As a reminder, this is an event of the KVR Audio Forum where developers are invited to develop free plugins.
Phuturetone has a new Synthesizer on the start for macOS and Windows.
Phuturetone GR-8
The GR-8 is a very classic Synthesizer. It uses an 8-voice virtual analog engine and is somewhat reminiscent of the look of vintage Roland synths. You can play it in mono, unison with 8 voices, chord (4 stereo notes), or in poly with 8 voices. Additionally, you have voice effects such as glide, legato, voice detune, and more.
GR-8 has two analog-style oscillators. Oscillator 1 has tri, saw, pulse, and square, oscillator 2 sine, saw, pulse, and noise. Three different oscillator effects are available including cross mod (FM), pulse width modulation (PWM), and sync. The x-mod exudes some Roland vintage charm again.
Then, you get a resonant lowpass filter with three slops (12, 18, or 24dB/oct) and a non-resonant highpass filter. The modulations can be routed instantly in the respective section (osc, filter…). The synth is very hands-on and does not have a modulation matrix. This should allow you to build sounds quickly.
Since we are already on modulations, GR-8 has a single multi-wave LFO, two ADSR envelopes, a pitch bender, and a mod wheel. You can route the LFO/envelopes to the filter, amp but also to the pitch. To refine your sounds, it also hosts a multi-effect processor with an EQ, distortion, phaser, chorus/flanger, delay, and reverb. Further, it features an arpeggiator with 5 modes and with a 4 octaves range.
First Impression
I downloaded it briefly and checked it. Sounds solid to me and a nice interface to play with. However, it currently uses a lot of CPU and the supplied presets do not stand out. But I’m pretty sure we get many more presets from the community. Hopefully, the synth will get new features in the future and the developer finds a way to optimize the engine. So it can be a nice free synth.
Phuturetone GR-8 is available now as a free download as part of the KVR Developer Challenge 2021. It runs as a VST3 and AU plugin on macOS and Windows.
More information here: KVR Audio
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