Homegrown Sounds has announced the release of HG Electric Sitar, a new VST instrument plug-in for Windows based on a multi-sampled Jerry Jones Electric Sitar, the modern day equivalent of the '60s Dan Electro, used by The Beatles and the Stones. There are 7 different sample sets, each containing at least 4 octaves of samples, one for each note. Any two sample sets can be used simultaneously to give plenty of flexibility for creating interesting Sitar based sounds and atmospheres.

The plug-in is based on the HG Piano, and so also includes SoundScaper, an effect capable of combs, delays and reverbs which is good for producing experimental atmospheres. As well as SoundScaper there is also a Flanger swappable for a filter, and a delay. The effects can be routed in 3 different ways, SoundScaper->Flanger->Delay, Flanger->SoundScaper->Delay or in parallel.

As with other Homegrown Synths, Sitar features a versatile Scala based Microtuner and comes with a standard selection of 300 patches. There are over 3,500 patches freely available from the Scala website which can also be used. Finally there is also a full-featured Arpeggiator and an inbuilt Recorder capable of recording WAVs directly to disk at up to 32-bit.

As an added bonus there are also 500 24-bit Electric Sitar Loops with RX2 equivalents.

Full Feature List:

• Dual Sitar Layers - There are 7 different sample sets, each has a unique sample per note.
• Filter - Cascadable up to 8 times and includes Low Passes, Hi Passes, Band Passes, Comb, Low Shelf, Hi Shelf and Peak.
• 2 ADSR Envelopes - Simple Envelopes. Envelope 2 can either be used to control Sitar 2 volume or used to shape the Filter Cutoff Frequency.
• Drive - Auto Volume Distortion.
• Arpeggiator - With many modes include classic Arp modes.
• Microtuner - Microtuner uses most standard Scala files of any size for custom tunings.
• SoundScaper - Comb / Delay / Reverb Effect for creating interesting soundscapes.
• Flanger/Filter - Switchable between Flanger and Filter effect, LFO has over 300 predefined shapes with smooth control as well as standard shapes.
• Stereo BPM based Delay - Synced delay.
• FX Routing - 3 different Paths available.
• Drift - Adds a random pitch detune with each note played.
• Stereo Spread - Allows setting a random value to the Pan of each voice.
• Recorder - Allows recording directly to disk at 16/24/32 bits. Wavs are auto-named by date and location is set via a config file.
• Limiter - Output is limited to prevent clipping.
• Default - Sets Sitar to default settings.
• Randomize - Randomizes all settings. There are also local randomizers in each section.

Pricing & Availability

HG Electric Sitar is available for Windows as a VST instrument plug-in. There is a demo version available which has just a single lofi sample set and no Microtuner. The full price is £30 but it is currently available for the introductory offer price of £18.