Bedroom Producers Blog has introduced BPB 64, a freeware Commodore 64 virtual synthesizer for Mac and Windows.
BPB 64 is a sample-based freeware Commodore 64 virtual instrument. The included patches were sampled from three different Commodore 64 units. Audio was recorded directly from the SID chip without any additional processing.
A MSSIAH cartridge was used to program the synth patches and to trigger the sampled Commodore 64 units via MIDI.
BPB 64 includes 37 presets, covering bass sounds, leads, pads, and ‘authentic’ C64 arpeggios. The user interface features a filter, an ADSR envelope, four built-in effects (chorus, reverb, delay, distortion), and modulation.
Spitfire Audio has released Autograph Grand, the latest in its LABS series of free virtual instruments.
What they say about the instrument behind the sound library:
“Housed in the prestigious Woodshed Recording studios in Malibu, this Yamaha C6 grand has been graced by hundreds of musical legends — from Lady Gaga, Paul Simon, Ariana Grande and Barbera Streisand, to Metallica, The Rza, and KoRn. Featuring just one preset, enjoy this piano in all its natural splendour, with pedal up/down controls and faithfully captured release triggers.”
You might not fully understand this free stochastic synth plugin, but it might not matter.
A composer by the name of Iannis Xenakis began his research in the late 1960s, into the concept of stochastic synthesis, a tone generation technique that uses probability distributions to manipulate digital samples.
If you are struggling to understand exactly what that means, you are not alone, but the good news is that Xenakis’s Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis (DSS) algorithm has now been implemented into a free synth plugin, Xenos, that seems easy to control.
There are three main sections – Pitch, Amplitube and Global – with the first two of these offering a choice of ten stochastic distributions with up to two parameters each. There are also “first- and second-order random walks”, a variable number of segments per wave cycle and variable amplitude envelope.
Xenos offers 64 voices of polyphony and supports parameter automation. Despite its complex engine, the interface is rather streamlined, so we’re hopeful that it could reward experimentation. Watch a quick start video below.
Xenos by Raphael Radna is available now as a free download from the developer’s GitHub repository. It runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU formats and, because it is open-source, you can also download and tinker with the source code.
