KVR :: Instruments » Quirky vst's [View Original Topic]
There are 65 posts in this topic.

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quayquay17 - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:08 pm

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Hey all, i'm poking around the net for "quirky" VSTi's

"what the heck does he mean? " You're probably asking yourself.

I'm talking about synths that don't behave perfectly like your typical VA.
My favorite "quirky" vst i've used thus far has been the Mono/fury from fullbucket audio.

It doesn't behave like every other VA. The "poly" mode steals notes here and there, the cross mod is cryptic yet glorious.

Also, because of its quirks, it lends a certain sound to the end result. Even if you perfectly patch in a pluck how you would in any other synth, it's a little weird, a little off. I LOVE IT.

I've tried korg's MS-20 as well. While there's nothing particularly rogue about it, the limitations, and modulation routes do lend a weirdness to your results.

Of course there's that freebie "therapy" but i'm looking for something that is still controllable, and tonal.

I'm sick of VA. Sick of FM. Sick of wavetable.

I'm sick of my synths behaving predictably.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

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KBSoundSmith - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:32 pm

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sample?

Maybe try something like alchemy, using the granular mode or something.

You can always take some sounds and just edit them by hand as well. Maybe do that AND feed into alchemy's granular mode?

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RunBeerRun - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:34 pm

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Dmu Arcade, it takes a sample folder and whacks it around to make an instrument. It was recently reposted here, should be in the last couple of recent pages.

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Resonator63 - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:36 pm

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These all offer something different
Glass Viper
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/2950

Scanned Synth Pro
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/2230

Mr. Alias Pro
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/4054

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KBSoundSmith - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:38 pm

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Actually, if you have zebra, the comb filter is pretty wild; maybe that might be interesting to you?

There's synplant which doesn't function like other vsts, although I personally don't use it and can't really say anything about it.

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Resonator63 - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:41 pm

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Nearly forgot Synplant,that's another good one

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Xichael - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:42 pm

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Olga and Unique come to mind.
Oh, and Aalto.

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nix808 - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:43 pm

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http://www.krakli.co.uk/cygnus.htm
Maybe this one w/- Space skin?
Kinda quirky just to press stuff,
not knowing what it does.
But +1 here for Synplant

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synthgeek - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:46 pm

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Yep yep. Both quite different from each other, but equally awesome & "quirky".

I would also recommend SQ8L - the features are mostly VA-like, but the (E)SQ flavor is a little different.

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justin3am - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:50 pm

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SG didn't you put out some odd little noise makers?

Any synth with modular/semi-modular routing capabilities can do some weird stuff, especially when you start playing with feedback. I'd also recommend synths by xoxos.

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jdnz - Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:56 pm

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err ... that's not quirky, it's just a correct emulation of how a real mono/poly behaves (seriously, having owned one 'quirky' is probably the nicest way to describe the x-mod modes - how about 'unstable and impossible to reproduce reliably')

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synthgeek - Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:05 pm

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Yeah, thanks for the mention. However, the OP specified "tonal", which isn't really where most of my stuff shines. Link is in my sig though (first one), if anyone wants to check 'em out.

Which also reminds me, because I posted a bank for Meridian a little while ago too: Tiny God has a couple of pretty quirky synths available too (and fx for that matter).

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EvilDragon - Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:09 pm

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Definitely OLGA.

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Rathead - Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:12 pm

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You want quirky?

http://www.xoxos.net/

Knock yourself out!

Also +1 for Scanned Synth - excellent product

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Morgaxx - Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:17 pm

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Would Chimera by Majken qualify?

"Chimera is a noise driven synth focusing on pads and haunting leads. Three noisegenerators are connected through pitchcontrolled resonant bandpass filters."

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IrionDaRonin - Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:37 pm

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Controllables but unpredictables!

Sophia, an ambient synth which you barely know what are you tweaking on the Gui, lol. But amazing, i love it.

VurtBox and Mini VurtBox, both free from Krakli.

Also Explorer, a synth without labels which was in KVR Developers Challenge.

All free. I hope it works with your taste.

Have a good day

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inaheartbeat - Thu Feb 16, 2012 7:26 pm

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Well if you want something really different how about Ambitron? Take any sample you want or use the ones included and let it rip. It even has an autopilot mode. Seriously twisted drone heaven. You will have no way of predicting what is going to come out of it when it starts to grind away.

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normal - Thu Feb 16, 2012 8:02 pm

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i second the recommendation of sophia ...

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quayquay17 - Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:34 pm

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WOW thank you guys for all of your wonderful responses. I was afraid I would offend some as there are so many discussions on FSU modules and databases. But this has been really useful.

Yes, one day I hope to own a mono/poly. I have played with a real one for about an hour. Frustrating, yet very liberating when you get sick of things doing what you tell them
(am i telling them to do the wrong things? )




This is a wicked list!!

Also, to all of those who mentioned OLGA


ya ya ya ya ya looks great. Next payday

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quayquay17 - Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:41 pm

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Sophia is wonderful so far.

Thanks again. It's time to inject a bit of fun into my increasingly industrious production sessions.

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Guenon - Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:44 am

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http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=37



Edit: ah crap, it HAD been mentioned. I tried to check for it and my search missed it, haha. Oh well, my recommendations also!

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kelvyn - Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:00 am

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Da Hornet:)))

http://nusofting.liqihsynth.com/freeplugins.html

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Full Bucket - Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:05 am

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@jdnz: Thanks for pointing that out, couldn't have said it better!

@quayquay17: Try the Mono/Fury's arpeggiator in "Poly" mode with X-Mod & Sync... that's quirky! I have some tracks on my website featuring the arp: "mode decision" with a real Mono/Poly, and "hunted" with the Mono/Fury.

Cheers Björn

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D-Fusion - Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:20 am

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FXPansions Amber in the Synth squad pack.

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Mutant - Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:10 am

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If your DAW is REAPER, you can make every VSTi act unstable by modulating its parameters with a random LFO.

Move control, Param, Parameter Modulation, LFO, Shape = Random, Centered, Speed and Strength to taste, Move the top slider to adjust the point around which the randomness will happen.

Stack lets say 10 instances of such an unstable plugin and you will get a HUGE and ALIVE evolving sound.

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Doug1978 - Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:22 am

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Aalto is the 'most different' synth in my arsenal. TBH, it is absolutely brilliant.



And here's a couple of my other favourite quirky vsts:

Phase-Shifter
http://hgsounds.com/product/phase-shifter-vsti-2/

and Antopya
http://www.vstplanet.com/News/11/Antopya.htm

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ouroboros - Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:25 am

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xoxo's noismo & isnonu

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Albert.VST - Fri Feb 17, 2012 5:15 am

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Could Nuklear qualify as 'quirky'? http://www.hamburg-audio.com/

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quayquay17 - Fri Feb 17, 2012 11:26 am

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I'm in love with a little russian girl named Olga



Thanks for the recommendation everyone. WOW. The saturation can be gross or warm, the oscillators can be flabby or punchy. Already I have come up with some great patches. I coaxed a mellotron sort of string path from it. Reedy strings that warble a little with high end fuzz. The LFO's are placed perfectly. I've also got a broken wurly sound going as well.

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quayquay17 - Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:01 pm

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SQ8L is definitely under-appreciated. Really loving the strings this thing makes (or tries to).

Other than that daHornet is pretty decent. The quirky thing about it is the distortion, crackle, and the weird cabinet style frequency response it has...

lots of fun

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V-GER - Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:19 am

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Cynthia is a quirky beauty! In keeping with staying close to the original hardware synth in a suitcase that inspired this creation you have to tune it by ear and nothing is temposynced no matter how many people asked for convential features like this.

It's a three osc modular with different frequency ranges for each osc where the third could be sort of an LFO with or without keyfollow or an oscillator in the lower ranges or both audible in itself while also modulating other soruces etc etc (again as the original hardware whose structure it recreates and expands slightly upon) and nothing will make a sound unless you patch things up right. All audiosources are directly patchable to be used as modulationsources instead of or in adittion to being heard - either way they can be patched into the ringmodulator etc. Delightfully unpredictable!

Be warned: the manual even deals with what to do if "Cynthia falls asleep" - and the guy who virtually built her isn't sure why she behaves like this every once in a while! It's a VA, but I'm pretty sure it's your kind of VA.

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mudpeople - Tue Mar 13, 2012 1:56 pm

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The EMS Synthi AKS is legendary, Pink Floyd used it famously on Dark Side and its front and center on Obscured by Clouds, apparently one of the first VCS3 owners was Jean Michel Jarre and he was stoked enough to get 3 Synthi models as well... Personally I love playing with the freeware emulations, once you know how to use the things its very easy to get really nice, strange, sounds

Madrona Labs' Aalto is definitely quirky, its a semi-modular with complex oscillators similar to Buchla's, I dont know of any other software similar. Its very reasonably priced @ 100 USD, but the demo is very useable, it has an audio-watermark noise-burst now and then but its got to be the most friendly noise burst out there.

http://madronalabs.com/aalto

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Sendy - Tue Mar 13, 2012 2:41 pm

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Credit has to also go to whoever made their manual. I think it's one of the nicest and coolest synth manuals I've ever seen (Lots of humerous hand-drawn illustrations!)

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Integratron - Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:45 pm

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Right = this came to mind immediately! Start here!

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mudpeople - Tue Mar 13, 2012 6:58 pm

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If it hasn't already been mentioned; Xoxos' physical models. I made a 100% synthesized ambient jungle-storm-scape with the Nature pack, the modeled percussion rules... The rest of his stuff is great too.

Elektrostudio's free pack has quite a few quirky lesser-known-but-loved-by-those-who-do synths including emulations of the EKO Computerhythm, Oberheim 2-Voice (with sequencers), Korg Mini-Pops (including preset patterns), Moog Sonic Six and Micromoog, Mellotron (with fun animated tape), ARP Solina String ensemble, and definitely the quirkiest one is the Davolisint (only 37 notes but they're good 'uns). My favorite is the 2-Voice, up til the recent Latte it was the only freeware SEM emulation, and its still the only one with onboard sequencers.

Then theres Synchrosoft's emulations of classic Soviet synths from the 80s, I love the Polyvoks Station. http://y0u-file.narod.ru/Polyvoks.htm

Yet another obscure-analog-emulation is TubeOhm's AntiTranspirant (Powertran Transcendant emulation), the free version rules and comes with a step sequencer

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quayquay17 - Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:36 am

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OK thanks again for you suggestions, so far the best ones i've found have to be:

Olga
SQ8l
Mono/Fury
DaHornet

yes of course three of them are emulations, but they are still quirky. They either have weid frequency responses or peculiar modulation. I particularly like sq8l.. the strings i get out of it are always slightly off. I LOVE IT.

Next to demo is Aalto.

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Resonator63 - Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:28 am

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Don't know if it's been mentioned yet,but how about Symptohm Meloman
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/symptohm_melohman_by_ohm_force

There is also the free performer version.

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taoyoyo - Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:10 pm

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Humanoid Sound System's Scanned Synth Pro is a pretty quirky bugger...

All sorts of nice (or nasty) accidents waiting to be had there!

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Resonator63 - Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:54 pm

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Quirky but nice

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quayquay17 - Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:05 pm

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Anyone tried DLM's dirty harry? Description is intriguing..

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synthgeek - Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:21 pm

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Yeah, I have it, and like it. I think it's a bit tame compared to some of the other things mentioned in this thread, but I would still say "quirky" applies.

While we're discussing dlM, I would also say it's worth checking out his fx - lots of stuff there good for quirk-ifying whatever you want.

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Sendy - Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:24 pm

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I like it but it's pretty limited to dirty, circuitbent, broken chiptune type sounds. Pretty much every parameter is in tune with this breif. If you like that sound, you'll love it (as do I).

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quayquay17 - Fri Mar 16, 2012 5:44 pm

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Does it make that weird pwm morphing-phasy sound you get from an atari punk console? If so I will have to buy it...

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mudpeople - Fri Mar 16, 2012 6:30 pm

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Mono/Fury RULES, I even prefer it over Korg's own software Mono/Poly.

Funny you mentioned Scanned Synth, I had thought of it when making that last post but it got lost in typing. Scanned synthesis is definitely a quirky way to make sound

Oh yeah, another quirky one; Progress Audio Kinisis. Just messing around I loaded waveforms from a 303, a Prophet 5, a Korg Karma, and a Buchla system then did the whole vector-timetable treatment to it. Sounded GREAT. And that was only one of 4 voices each with 4 wavetable oscillators that load and manipulate audio files. The oscillator mix can be controlled vector-style with the very intuitive timeline. And the LFOs, filters, pan, whatever else, also have timelines for their own automations. I was a synthesis-purist sneering at anything using recorded waveforms before I tried Kinisis. While Im not really interested in going for Omnisphere, I definitely have changed my opinion. (synthesis is just quicker usually )

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djmino02 - Sat Mar 17, 2012 3:26 am

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If you haven't already. You should check out the Ugo synths.

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Alex@ProgressAudio - Sat May 05, 2012 9:28 am

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Sounds like a great experiment! Do you have that saved as a preset? I'd be very interesting to get a copy of it to try it out

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quayquay17 - Thu May 10, 2012 6:34 pm

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WOWOWOW Big thanks to those that mentioned scanned synth pro.
The name didn't interest me at first, I simply assumed it was a draw your own wavetable synth. BOY WAS I WRONG

It's really amazing. Creates sounds that I've been searching a long time for. It makes some of the most interesting and complex basses and leads I've heard, and it's simple to use too (unlike FM/in depth additive).

It really is a refreshing break from typical VA's!

The best plugins I've found through my searches and through your suggestions:
schwa OLGA
De La Mancha Mod Almighty
Scanned synth Pro
Mono/Fury
SQ8L
DaHornet

still need to demo AAlto. (I LOVE that GUI)

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taoyoyo - Thu May 10, 2012 7:51 pm

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It's a good un isn't it?

And John, the developer, is working on SSP2, which could be even more interesting-er.

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cron - Thu May 10, 2012 9:13 pm

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If you're willing to go offline, a whole world of free standalone strangeness awaits. Check out Hourglass, FScape, Mammut, Cecilia, and SPEAR for starters. Although they're all effects processors, they can generate some seriously odd tones from innocuous material for sampler work. SPEAR + sampler is one of the greatest combinations ever.

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rosko12 - Fri Sep 21, 2012 6:25 pm

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my vote is for heizenbox. one of the best FSU ever. does a few things that are completely unique. chews audio up and sneds it out mangled. unfortunately it seems to be no longer supported on the latest os etc, plus it's very hard to find.

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Lotuzia - Sat Sep 22, 2012 2:33 am

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Some Reaktor ensembles will certainly refresh your ears

Well a lot of synths can become quirky tbh. A very simple FM8 can really generate some weird things if you control a bit what you do.

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thecontrolcentre - Sat Sep 22, 2012 2:55 am

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Phosphor

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ariston - Sat Sep 22, 2012 3:04 am

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Well, since this old thread got bumped, a new synth has entered the quirky fold... Phonec! I love this odd little synth to death. As the dev says: "Inspired by the mystique of video logo synth scores from worn out VHS tapes"...

http://www.psychicmodulation.com/phonec.html

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quayquay17 - Sat Sep 22, 2012 8:47 am

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HOLY MOTHER
OK, I normally take a long time to buy something but I'm getting it now.


Also, to add to the list for those reading:
Rhythmic Robot has two wonderful instruments:
Tubes and Wires
This is a synth sampled from super old analogue signal generators, with some filters and saturation tossed in.
Loopscape
This is an instrument built from sampled loops of analogue waveforms played through old tube amp-ed reel to reels. Warbling and instantly classic sounding.

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ariston - Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:23 am

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These sound great! Oh, temptation....

Thanks for pointing them out.

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quayquay17 - Thu May 02, 2013 6:48 pm

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Have any others been brought to light since this thread was alive?

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V0RT3X - Fri May 03, 2013 2:50 am

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Bazille can get pretty quirky

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soundonly - Fri May 03, 2013 3:22 am

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VST's by knobster!

http://knobster.org/plugins/en/#.UYOc8qIhq7o

which include meow synth and mellofan among others...

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The_Hidden_Goose - Fri May 03, 2013 3:56 am

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Most of the Hollow Sun stuff is pretty quirky.

One's that jump to mind are: Optomotron, Altaerion, Cognosphere and especially TriOsc.

Sample/Kontakt based but quirky as hell. Cheap as chips but they pack some really interesting sound possibilities in there.

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Nielzie - Fri May 03, 2013 4:27 am

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DR1 Dr.Drone

http://www.drdrone.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZjbJZoje5A

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Resonator63 - Fri May 03, 2013 5:21 am

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Mr Alias and Mr Alias Pro
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/mr-alias-pro-by-insert-piz-here

Also The Element of Surprise
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/the_element_of_surprise_by_ugo

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mad_processor - Fri May 03, 2013 5:52 am

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Kairatune

http://futucraft.com/category/kairatune/

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cosmosis - Tue May 07, 2013 9:34 pm

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OC-10 does some pretty glitchy pitch-downs.

http://marvinpavilion.ojaru.jp/en/sound/vst.html

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quayquay17 - Wed May 08, 2013 1:41 am

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This is fun!!

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prupert - Wed May 22, 2013 12:22 am

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This is an awesome thread. I knew these synths must exist somewhere, other than all the samey VAs, so very glad I have found a load of the kind of synths I had hoped existed.

If any one knows of any more resources, I am all ears.

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There are 65 posts in this topic.