Hügelton Instruments SynBe is a monophonic Synthesizer plugin for macOS & Windows inspired by the Korg SB-100 Synthe Bass & its traveler filter.
In August, the new developer Hügelton Instruments released two emulations of relatively unfamous drum machines: the Kepra (Korg KPR-77) and the Trix (Roland TR-66).
The third plugin is now available, and it’s the first synthesizer. Hügelton Instruments has released SynBe, a new mono synth inspired by one of Korg’s first analog Synthesizers.
Development
SynBe is a new monophonic bass Synthesizer inspired by the Korg SB-100 Synthe Bass from 1975. Not the Korg miniKORG 700. According to the developer, SynBe is not an exact hardware emulation, as he doesn’t own the original hardware.
He wanted the original 1975 hardware, but that proved difficult, so it became a soft synth inspired by it.
Hügelton Instruments used publicly available information for the SynBe plugin: surviving technical documentation, published circuit information, material from related instruments, and other technical references.
The original circuit design is missing, but SynBe uses the available evidence, related designs, conventional modeling techniques, and listening tests.
He disclosed on the website that he used AI tools (Claude…) to develop the plugin. However, humans created the UI, sound design, and all graphical assets. You can see the user interface isn’t AI-generated. It doesn’t look generic.
Hügelton Instruments SynBe
SynBe is a monophonic bass synth with a single oscillator with various shapes/modes: triangle, square, saw, pulse, and phaser. The latter is a pulse oscillator with pulse-width modulation.
From left to right, you can change the octave (4’-16’), change the volume of the VCA, and work with the filter. This is based on the legendary Korg SB-100 Synthe Bass and micrKORG 700’s Traveler filter with 12dB/oct low-pass and high-pass filters controllable with a slider.
Then, you have an envelope with attack and percussion controls. Hügelton Instruments reconstructed the signal path section by section, from the oscillator and waveform circuitry through the Traveler filter and VCA.
The lower panel includes newly added modifications not available on the original hardware. He describes them as fictional additions.
These include portamento, adjustable bend range, bend attack and release timing, bend to Traveler, and amount levels for Bright and Expand. You’ll also find extended resonance behavior, a noise generator, and an output drive.
Hügelton Instruments SynBe ships with 12 factory presets and supports full MIDI CC control.
First Impression
At first glance, a nice little Synthesizer. It sounds good. How closely it emulates the Korg SB-100 Synthe Bass is irrelevant here, because the developer denies that it’s an accurate emulation. “Inspiration” is a very apt description here.
Hügelton Instruments SynBe is available now for $5. It runs as a VST3 and AU plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows.
More information here: Hügelton Instruments
Yet another Vibe plugin…
For that reason alone it should be free or banned….
The developer is honest and says it’s coded with AI. Most developers don’t say it and ask for $50. I prefer this!
And he created a custom UI that doesn’t look like vibe-coding slop.
This really is starting to feel like the heyday of synthedit generated plugins on kvr back in the day. In the sense that they’re all 95% the same in every respect and almost certainly not worth installing, let alone using.
This article is wrong. It is obviously based on a Korg SB-100 Synthe Bass, not a microKorg!
indeed sorry, the Korg SB-100 Synthe Bass wasn’t on my radar
Wow. Lot of negativity in the comments. Thanks for making me aware this exists. Appreciate it!