KeySolutions Sounds Traveler is a new expressive, immersive cinematic Synthesizer plugin for macOS and Windows created by Mike Martin.
Mike Martin is a familiar face from the music tech world. He worked for many years for Casio, TC Electronic, and Yamaha. He began his career, however, with his own sound design firm, KeySolutions Sounds.
After a very long hiatus, Mike Martin is reviving KeySolutions Sounds as a brand and launching his first Synthesizer, Traveler.
KeySolutions Sounds Traveler
Traveler is a new artist-built cinematic hybrid Synthesizer plugin for macOS and Windows.
Mike of KeySolutions Sounds says that Traveler combines the depth and character of classic hardware synths with a flexible modern architecture, designed for composers, producers, and sound designers.
The name “Traveler” doesn’t come out of nowhere. The synth engine centers on motion and an immersive stereo architecture.
In Traveler, sounds can travel and evolve in timbre, rhythm, modulation, and stereo position, allowing musicians to create all kinds of cinematic sounds. Among other things, you can work with dual/stereo filter topology, per-oscillator panning, per-key alternate panning, and more.
It also includes sophisticated modulation, extended envelopes, a dual step sequencer, an advanced arpeggiator, and more. Martin said.
“Nothing has to stay static. Sounds can evolve, pulse, change character, and move across the stereo field as you play. The destination isn’t fixed. The musician decides where the sound goes.”
Hybrid Engine
KeySolutions Sounds has created a hybrid engine for Traveler that combines various synthesis concepts. It supports mono, polyphonic, legato, and up to 16-voice unison modes.
It starts with three continuously variable oscillators spanning six octaves and providing real-time waveform modulation. Oscillator 1 is more traditional, while Oscillators 2 and 3 differ.
Oscillator 2 uses a 7-voice unison super stack with detune and stereo spread, while Oscillator 3 uses wavetables with 85 available tables and lets you import new ones. Duo stacking with stereo spread is also available.
Oscillator Sync and both linear and exponential FM are possible, and the Vintage parameter introduces subtle oscillator drift and non-periodic behavior. In a dedicated mixer, you can mix all three sources and add noise.
From there, the four sources feed into a multi-type, multimode duao/stereo filter section. It has low-pass ladder filters in different variations (6, 12, 18, and 24 dB/octave) as well as NJM2069-style (Korg DW-8000) 12 and 24 dB/octave models. Both come with low-end bass compensation
Also onboard is a fully independent high-pass filter with linked low-pass cutoff tracking, mixer feedback loop, and pre-filter drive. As already written, this uses an immersive stereo path that contributes to the Traveler synth plugin’s immersive character.
The section includes left/right frequency spacing, plus a per-voice “Spread” parameter that alternates filter offset per note. Low Frequency With parameter can keep bass locked to the center. On the other side, treble expands wide, per-oscillator panning, per-key alternate panning, and assignable voice-pan modulation.
Extensive Modulation & Sound Shaping
The modulation engine is an essential component of the immersive sound of KeySolutions Sounds Traveler. It houses three polyphonic LFOs with 21 shapes and random motion. They also have a dedicated modulation envelope.
Alongside the LFOs, Traveler also has three envelopes (filter, amp, and mod) with switchable ADSR or ADBSSR shapes and customizable stage curves. They can also be triggered by a mod controller or LFO cycle.
All of this is managed through a 21-slot modulation matrix with 92 possible destinations, available on a separate UI page.
Add more motion to your sounds with the dual sequencer and a 20-mode arpeggiator. Each sequencer comes with 16 steps, variable length, smoothing, swing, gate control, and ping-pong modes.
The arpeggiator offers everything you would expect from a classic arpeggiator, but you can also route it to a specific oscillator and use per-step envelope shaping.
To refine your sounds, KeySolutions Sounds Traveler comes with a feature-rich multi-FX processor: 3-band EQ, three-mode bucket brigade chorus, modulation delay with dual and ping pong modes, and three-mode reverb,
Support for mono and polyphonic aftertouch, polyphonic glide, separate up/down pitch-bend settings, and full MIDI CC learn gives you plenty of tools for expressive sounds. However, MPE support isn’t available yet.
KeyTIME and KeySPACE
Traveler ships with over 400 newly designed presets from professional sound designer veterans, including Mike Martin, Venus Theory, David Helpling, Scott McAuley, John “Skippy” Lehmkuhl, Drew Schlesinger, James Dyson, and more.
KeySPACE and KeyTIME sound like a sound expansion for the Traveler, but they’re not. They are new FX plugins.
They package Traveler’s dual-modulated delay and reverb engines into two standalone FX plugins included with your purchase.
First Impression
I received a demo version from Mike Martin at almost the last second and installed it immediately. Sonically, the Traveler follows classic synthesizer paths. The wavetables bring in various more digital moods, which is nice.
The presets suggest it leans heavily toward the cinematic and epic, making it well-suited for composers. I need to listen to everything and explore the features myself. The first 50 already sound amazing and very sprawling and room-filling.
What I like less is the UI, which is very large and reminds me of Cherry Audio plugins. Such large UIs are suboptimal on a smaller screen; as you scale them down, the controls become hard to read.
If there are too many features, then I prefer multiple pages in the UI. Nevertheless, congrats on the first synthesizer, Mike Martin.
KeySolutions Sounds Traveler is available now for an introductory price of $99, down from $149, through September 30, 2026. It includes the standalone KeyTIME and KeySPACE effects plugins at no extra charge.
KeyTIME and KeySPACE are regularly priced at $49 each, giving the introductory package a combined regular value of $247 for $99. A free 14-day Traveler demo will also be available.
It runs as a standalone application and as a VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows.
More information here: KeySolutions Sounds
Feels like Zebra3 with everything in front of me. Unwilling to learn for a single plugin again keycommands (which might interfere with macOs, thank you Apple&Logic) and blocking creativity while searching, this UI looks really interesting to me. Wonder how it compares with Zebra 🤔
It sounds phenomenal and the price is pretty decent.
Looks like a real labour of love and the sound designers that worked on this are top notch.
Listen to that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVLKqAuvN20
yeah, I dunno man. it sounds great. but so does like… nearly all the recent synths of this year and last. I’m not finding anything ground breaking here. I think people are going gaga for it is because it’s marketed as “atmospheric and cinematic” there’s so many slept on so synths than can do all of this and then some, like MSoundFactory. and I mean, I’ve never heard anything compared to many of Current’s sound banks. I just think musicians prefer buying new shinny things than they do using them.