Subatomic Labs has announced the release of version 1.8 of Mantis307, which is described as "a fat, mean, and rubbery VST synth influenced by the similarly raucous sonic stylings of classic analog synths like the TB-303, MC-202, Nord 3, OSCar and Juno 60".

Mantis307 features "killer" unison and distortion, as well as constant time-slide ("portamento done right"). In addition, sync, mono and polyphonic modes, keyboard tracking, and 3 envelope curve types, and much more. All with a low CPU footprint that lets you layer many mantis sounds without breaking a sweat.

Features:

• 2 oscillators per voice - Saw, Sqr, Tri, Sin, Pink/White noise.
• 1 sub-oscillator per voice for extra fat basslines.
• Hard sync, hidden sync oscillators give each main osc its own hard-sync sound.
• Trigger sync, restart each oscillator for each new note.
• Detune, with detune copy/paste quick buttons.
• Oscillator mix.
• Unison modes - mono, stereo, or chorus modes adds 1, 2, or 5x the voices.
• Unison detune, 2 different detune styles, "dirty", and "clean".
• Smart voice allocation:
  • Monophonic and polyphonic modes.
  • Aggressive constant time slide.
  • Polyphony limiter - take control over CPU usage.
  • Legato mono-mode (polyphony == 1) enables constant time slide, skips attack phase of envelope.
  • Legato poly-mode (polyphony > 1) true legato, skips attack phase of envelope.
• Envelopes:
  • 3 envelope shapes - linear + 2 different curves.
  • Amplitude ADSR.
  • Filter ADSR with Amount and Velocity sensitivity.
• Filter:
  • 4 pole moog style filter with cutoff and resonance, can self resonate, cutoff is envelope controlled.
  • Keyboard Tracking of the cutoff parameter (3 modes off, normal, bright).
• Distortion unit:
  • Wet/dry mix.
  • Gain.
  • 3 types, Tube, Thin, Hard-clip.
• Volume Output Level.
• Preset Manager featuring many built in presets with save/load and rename functions.
• Low CPU footprint lets you layer many mantis sounds.

Pricing & Availability

Mantis is available for Windows as a VST instrument plug-in. It comes as a free unlimited Demo/Trial version (with polite nag screen) and costs $20 to get rid of the nag screen.