WORLD OF MUSIC ; PORTABLE KEYBOARD - Latest Portable Music Keyboards, Synthesizers and Music News

If you are new to synthesis,  this free soft synth can help you learn how it works.

Developed by Syntorial, an educational platform that teaches aspiring synthesists to design patches from the ground up.

Originally designed as a companion to Syntorial, the Primer soft synth is now being given away as a free synth plugin by Audible Genius, the company behind the platform. A basic subtractive synth with a clear and easy-to-use interface, Primer is intended to help synthesists learn the fundamentals without getting bogged down in advanced concepts or distracting additional features.

Primer has all the features you’d expect from a simple subtractive synth: its two main oscillators and a sub-oscillator are equipped with saw, pulse, triangle and sine waveforms and capable of FM, oscillator sync and ring modulation. A resonant multimode filter is joined by a trio of envelopes for the filter, amp and assignable modulation, plus a single LFO that can be routed to seven of Primer’s key parameters.

There’s also three voice modes, adjustable portamento and a unison mode with controls for voice count, detune and spread. Five effects (reverb, delay, chorus, phaser and distortion) can be used to spice up Primer’s sounds, and the synth has a handy visualizer onboard to show you what the envelope, filter and LFO is doing in real time. Primer also comes with 400 factory presets.

Primer strips things back to just the bare essentials that you’ll find on almost any conventional subtractive synth, framing these in an easily understandable layout for musicians that are new to synthesis and sound design.

If you are using Syntorial, this means you can take what you’ve learn there and apply it directly in your DAW. If you’re not, Primer would still be an excellent synth to learn with through your own experimentation. And if you’re already experienced with sound design, Audible Genius suggests that Primer could be a fast and distraction-free tool for sketching basic patches.

Compatible with macOS and Windows, Primer is available in VST/AU formats. It’s also available as a standalone iPad app and AUv3 plugin.

Here’s Primer Walkthrough Video:

Find out more and download Primer for free on Audible Genius site.

Full Bucket Music has introduced Fury-68, a free software synthesizer that emulates the KORG Poly-61 polyphonic synthesizer from 1982.

Features:

• Emulation of the original hardware
• Extended polyphony and Unison mode
• Increased parameter resolution
• Optional enhancement parameters (VCA envelope generator etc.)
• Additional Phaser, Chorus and Ensemble section
• Alternative parameter panel with preset browser
• Resizable user interface (not “N” version!)
• Supports MTS-ESP by ODDSound dynamic micro-tuning
• MIDI Learn – all parameters can be controlled by MIDI CC
• Plug-in supports Windows and macOS (32 bit and 64 bit)

Video demo via cra zik:

Fury-68 Audio Demo:

The demo was done with Fury-68 (18 instances) and DrumTraqs (1 instance).

Fury-68 is available now as a free download.

Pro audio effects creator Soundtoys today announced the release of SpaceBlender, an experimental reverb that they say lets you create unreal and imaginary spaces, with shapes, textures, and tones that would be impossible in the real world.

Described as an “imaginary space machine”, SpaceBlender is an experimental reverb that brings together a unique and innovative approach, inspired by the tape looping techniques used by pioneering ambient musicians, with a nod to vintage digital reverbs such as the Lexicon 224, Ursa Major Space Station and Eventide DSP4000.

Whether enhancing a track’s sense of space or creating dynamic, evolving effects, SpaceBlender is a fun and intuitive tool for sound designers, musicians, and producers looking for creative yet easy-to-use spatial processing.

Unlike many reverb plugins, SpaceBlender isn’t based on feedback delay networks or convolution, but a newly-developed algorithm inspired by swarm synthesis. As such, Soundtoys says the plugin is far more than “just another reverb”: it’s a sound design tool that lets you “create imaginary spaces and effects that don’t exist in the real world”.

Despite its unconventional approach, SpaceBlender has a simple and intuitive interface, centred around an interactive visualiser. Displaying incoming signals in purple and reverb in blue, the visualizer lets you shape the reverb’s envelope by dragging a cursor across the display: the X axis controls the envelope shape, while the Y axis adjusts the amount of envelope shaping applied.

The dial below the visualizer adjusts reverb time, which can stretch from 100ms to an entire minute and sync to your DAW’s tempo. Here you’ll also find a Warp button, which modulates the pitch and speed of the reverb and introduces classic tape echo-style smoothing when the Time control is tweaked.

The Color knob controls how the tonal balance of the reverb changes over time; turning it clockwise makes the sound grow brighter as the signal passes through the reverb, and vice versa. The Texture dial adjusts reverb density, much like a diffusion control, and the Mod control adjusts the depth of SpaceBlender’s lush, chorus-like modulation effect (the shape and rate are set at fixed values).

You’ll also find a Freeze button that captures and loops the current sound – ripe for ambient experimentation – and a Mix knob that does what you’d expect it to. SpaceBlender arrives with a healthy selection of presets, and the interface is resizable, something many Soundtoys fans have been requesting for a while.

SpaceBlender is unique, inventive and – despite being relatively light on controls – hugely versatile: it can do expansive ambient spaces, snappy gated reverbs and fun reverse effects, while also handling more conventional applications. It also sounds phenomenal – check out the preset demo video below:

Features:

• Interactive control – move between gate, reverse, decay, and bloom reverb shapes and everything in-between, in real time.
• Visualizer – see your sound move through the reverb shape as you adjust its sonic envelope.
• Simple control of spectral evolution; reverbs can get darker or brighter over time.
• Deeply embedded modulation creates rich, constantly moving ambient effects.
• Smoothly change the reverb texture from dense and lush to sparse and grainy.
• Extreme range from super short 100-millisecond nonlinear effects to absurdly long 60-second meditations.

Soundtoys’ SpaceBlender is available now for free – a $99 value – through May 22 at this link.  SpaceBlender will be available for purchase from authorized resellers worldwide for $99 US beginning May 23.

Learn about Soundtoys’ system requirements and host compatibility here.