Homegrown Sounds has announced the release of Astralis C, the flagship synth from its Synth Pack.

Astralis C is the 3rd synth from the Astralis VSTi collection and uses either 16- or 24-bit mono/stereo samples as its sound source. The Samples are stored in banks of around 50 in a custom samples folder which can be installed anywhere on your PC. A bank is simply a sub folder which contains WAVs which are then selectable from a list within Astralis C. The Synth ships with 2 banks of high quality samples and 128 presets and is available as a download in the private section of the site along with the included bonus sample library, access is granted immediately upon payment to new users. Existing licence holders already have access to this section of the site. Although only available to registered users, Astralis A and B are still available as fully functional shareware for 30 days to evaluate the Pack.

Astralis C has been optimized and is light on CPU considering the breadth of its capabilities. There is an MP3 of demos using the included presets on the Astralis page. The ability to use custom samples in the synth unlocks the full potential of the Astralis system and is capable of producing a spectrum of sounds ranging from lush landscapes through to Hypnotic Trance Rhythms. A custom Sample location can be chosen when installing in the same way as the Microtonal Patches.

Astralis C specific features:

• Two Stereo Samplers which can load 16/24 bit samples.
• Loop points selectable between embedded or user edited as well as a fine tuning screen.
• Gate Sequencer now has 2 new Destinations, sample 1 and 2 and can be used to shift the playhead position for beatslicing type effects.
• Wavetable Synthesis via Mod Matrix.
• Start or end Loop Points can be modulated.
• Sample Start Position can be Modulated.
• Normalize Sample to 5 different Levels.
• Progressive Lofi modes.
• Forward or Reverse Modes.
• Attack Section On Off.
• One shot/ Loop with Release or Loop Only playback.
• Loop Section Fwd or Alternate.
• Random Sample selection from Banks.
• Optimized CPU usage.

• A Microtuning Patch System.
• Two Modulation Sequencers.
• A Gate Sequencer.
• Cascadable Filters.
• An Advanced Modulation Matrix.
• Programmable Zones.
• A Pitch Bend Zone.
• Multi FX Section with Reverb, Delay, Echo, Ring Modulation, Clipper, Organic and an 8 Band EQ.
• Noise and Drive per Oscillator.
• Spread.
• A Voice Modulator.
• An Arpeggiator.
• ...and more.

The Astralis Microtonal VST Synthesizer Pack costs £30 and is available for Windows in the VST format.