KVR Audio

karrikuh · Post by **karrikuh** » Sat May 02, 2015 2:33 pm

I'm happy to announce the next major release of Charlatan, your favorite free virtual analog soft synth.

Changes
2.0 Final (2015-06-05)

Fix loading of 1.x presets
Fix popup menus with multiple monitors
Make Amp envelope sustain parameter logarithmic
Fix old presets (LFO Wave), add some new ones
Reduce pitch drift

2.0 Beta 3 (2015-05-03)

BUGFIX crashes on AMD systems

2.0 Beta 2 (2015-05-02)

BUGFIX not loading in some hosts
BUGFIX note hanging after switching voice modes

2.0 Beta 1 (2015-05-02)

completely rewritten DSP engine resulting in roughly 50% (!) CPU savings in polyphonic mode
unison mode with upto 7 voices and stereo spread. Even with 7-voice unison, CPU usage is very bearable
major GUI overhaul
additional LFO waveforms
stereo noise
some more presets
mostly compatible with presets for Charlatan 1.x (*)

(*) Due to some tweaks to the sound engine, there may be subtle audible differences when loading some of the old patches.
In most cases, it should be possible to compensate for those with some fine adjustments. Still, I recommend to keep an
old 1.x version of Charlatan around if you need to fully preserve old projects. Sorry for the inconvenience...

More info and download:
http://www.blaukraut.info

Charlatan is a polyphonic, subtractive virtual analog (VA) synthesizer plugin with focus on sound quality and easy usability. It comes with a flexible, yet not overwhelming feature set which encourages artists to start tweaking instead of just relying on presets. Inspite of it's simplicity, Charlatan's architecture is flexible enough to create both classic sounds and rather experimental noises. While making no compromise about sound quality, the sound engine has been highly optimized for efficient CPU usage making Charlatan well suited as a "bread and butter" synth even in projects with a large number of plugin instances.

Best of all, it's FREEWARE! Enjoy!

Key Features

2 oscillators with shape modulation
Oscillator hard synchronization and ring modulation
Unison mode with upto 7 voices and stereo spread
Stereo noise generator
2 ADSR envelope generators
LFO with host tempo synchronization
3 filter types modeled after classic analog hardware: 4-pole (24 db/oct) and 2-pole (12 db/oct) lowpass, bandpass
3 voice modes: Monophonic, Monophonic Legato and 8-voice Polyphonic
Ultra-low CPU usage

System requirements

Intel(R) x86-compatible CPU with support for Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSE3)
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Vista or higher operating system
VST 2.4 compatible 32-bit or 64-bit host application

Regarding Mac version:
I'm working on it, but it's still a long way to go.

manandmusic · Post by **manandmusic** » Sat May 02, 2015 3:04 pm

Great! Thanks!

GaryG · Post by **GaryG** » Sat May 02, 2015 3:04 pm

Excellent news, thanks!

Kind of amazed you've slashed the CPU by so much, already very light...

Passing Bye · Post by **Passing Bye** » Sat May 02, 2015 3:12 pm

oooh man, first PG-8X, now this, wuuuuttttt

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Sat May 02, 2015 3:15 pm

HELL YES!!!!!!!!

Glad to see Charlatan is still growin!
this boy is already a heavy hitter in the bass area
cant wait to hear what id does in unison!
awesome

Yudaidhun · Post by **Yudaidhun** » Sat May 02, 2015 3:17 pm

I just want to say thanks to you!
I like Charlatan's OSC and Filter.
Now Charlatan definitely addicts the SuperSaw freaks.
I will add to my new project and see if it has bugs or not.

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Sat May 02, 2015 3:27 pm

mind = blown

in 3 voice unison, holding down a 3 note chord only registers 5.3% cpu usage in savihost!
holy c***!!

P.S. the GUI looks marvelous! i'm not even gonna mess with it!

murnau · Post by **murnau** » Sat May 02, 2015 3:32 pm

Why i still buying commercial stuff when i can get something like that for free? Thank you!

Markku · Post by **Markku** » Sat May 02, 2015 3:50 pm

Would it be possible to rename Charlatan internally (for example to Charlatan2) so that both the old and the new version could be used?

It seems that some quite nice 1.4 sounds don't work (no sound at all) and I guess I'm not quite competent enough to recreate them. I'd like to have the new one, too, because there will surely be a lot of soundbanks for the new version; I'd like to have both working.

However, if there is a lot of work to achieve this kind of solution, forget it; I understand this is a problem only for us beginners.

Passing Bye · Post by **Passing Bye** » Sat May 02, 2015 3:54 pm

layzer wrote:in 3 voice unison, holding down a 3 note chord only registers 5.3% cpu usage in savihost!
:

100 instances, 5 voice unison with 3 note chord on i5 quad

sbj · Post by **sbj** » Sat May 02, 2015 4:06 pm

We are blessed

Never thought I'd be a Charlatan

Thanks

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Sat May 02, 2015 4:13 pm

excellent ... thank you.

bpblog · Post by **bpblog** » Sat May 02, 2015 4:28 pm

So awesome, thanks for this!

Ghostwave · Post by **Ghostwave** » Sat May 02, 2015 4:35 pm

Thanks a lot!
When I relaunch my website, I'll update my bank for Charlatan and take advantage of the unison.

fluffy_little_something · Sat May 02, 2015 5:30 pm

Passing Bye wrote:
layzer wrote:in 3 voice unison, holding down a 3 note chord only registers 5.3% cpu usage in savihost!
:
100 instances, 5 voice unison with 3 note chord on i5 quad

100 instances

And they all look the same, must look confusing on the screen

Charlatan 2.0 Final Free VA synth released (Windows)