Acustica Audio debuts THING - Iconic '80s Synth Reimagined for a New Era

[Acustica Community]

THING is a synthesizer suite, offering polysynth power and analog-inspired sound modeling. Inspired by and faithfully recreates the essence of one of the most iconic synthesizers of the 1980s, it delivers legendary classic tones with modern features and flexible sound design, from massive pads to huge basses and searing leads. Available in VST3, AU, and AAX formats, ensuring integration with all major DAWs.


Crafting lush pads, powerful basses or searing leads

Advanced features like sub-frequency control, Superstereo and cross-modulation empower you to create anything from lush synthwave textures to bold experimental soundscapes. From earth-shaking basses to celestial pads, THING is here to redefine your sound.


Powerful Sound-Shaping Effects

The THING Suite offers a comprehensive and professional effects section inspired by Acustica Audio's acclaimed plugins. With tools like saturation, EQ, chorus, delay, and reverb, it delivers unmatched flexibility for shaping and enhancing your sound. Perfectly integrated, these effects ensure creative versatility and pristine audio quality for any music production.





Dual power, one suite

THING suite introduces two exceptional instruments designed to meet the diverse needs of music producers and sound designers: THING 8 (TH8) and THING 5 (TH5).


• THING 8 (TH8): Monumental sound, built for pros.
With eight voices and state-of-the-art functionality, TH8 delivers rich textures, incredible depth, and versatility.





TH8 GUI


• THING 5 (TH5): Streamlined simplicity.
TH5 offers the same iconic sound with a simplified interface, ideal for quick workflows without sacrificing quality.





TH5 GUI




Key Features

• Sub-frequency control: Perfectly crafted low-end precision (a feature absent in the original hardware).
• Superstereo functionality: Expands stereo fields for immersive spatial effects. Use it carefully, as high values can produce an extreme spatial effect that may overpower the mix.
• Cross-modulation: Creates futuristic sweeps and dynamic textures.
• Age control: Adds vintage warmth with analog-inspired imperfections.
• Advanced effects section: Featuring premium tools from Acustica’s renowned plugins.
• Over 500 presets: Designed by industry professionals for inspiration and creative exploration.
• CPU-friendly: It delivers high-quality sounds with low CPU usage for demanding projects.
• First in the Marea series: giving birth to Acustica Audio's new line of virtual instruments, setting a new standard in sound design.
• Revolutionary MUST technology: Modular Unified Synthesis Technology ensures ultra-low latency and exceptional sound quality.

About the technology

THING is powered by Acustica’s Modular Unified Synthesis Technology (MUST), which merges analog circuit behavior modeling with Acustica’s signature convolution-based approach. MUST provides unmatched realism, combining vintage authenticity with modern performance demands.
This innovative combination delivers exceptional sound quality and unmatched realism, providing cutting-edge functionality and dynamic responsiveness. With its state-of-the-art design, MUST establishes a new standard in virtual instrument synthesis, seamlessly blending the authenticity of vintage sound with the versatility and performance demands of modern music production.


Marea: Acustica's virtual instrument series

The Marea/B] line by Acustica Audio heralds a transformative era in virtual instruments, embodying the fluidity and dynamism of the ocean's currents. Just as the tide—"marea" in Italian—moves with natural elegance and power, this series is designed to seamlessly connect creativity and innovation in music production.
This innovative combination delivers exceptional sound quality and unmatched realism, providing cutting-edge functionality and dynamic responsiveness. With its state-of-the-art design, MUST establishes a new standard in virtual instrument synthesis, seamlessly blending the authenticity of vintage sound with the versatility and performance demands of modern music production.



Thing | Demo




Technical information:

• Supported formats: VST3, AAX, and AU.
• Compatible with Windows 10 and 11.
• Compatible with macOS 10.15 (Catalina) to macOS Sonoma (version 14.x).
• Intel, AMD, and ARM compatible.
• Native Apple Silicon support (Rosetta not supported).


Price and availability

Thing introductory price: €179 | 22% OFF until December 27, 2024 at 11:59 pm CET (reg. price €229)
Get it here!

Special offer: Enjoy an additional 44% off with code THSPECIAL at checkout!*
*This special coupon is not combinable with loyalty discounts and is perfect for users without a loyalty coupon or with a lower discount. Valid until December 31, 2024, at 11:59 PM (CET).


The product is at an introductory period for the first four weeks after release or until the first official version is released; this implies that the product may receive improvements, changes, or fixes available through Aquarius Desktop updates.

Try our FREE 30-Day Trial
Please remember that trials expire 30 days after authorization, and we strongly recommend not using trial products in commercial sessions or any important project.

Thing user's manual


Thing webpage: https://www.acustica-audio.com/shop/products/THING

[Uncle E]

The sound is excellent. J-8 holds up surprisingly well but Thing is just slightly more pleasant sounding. To anyone else wanting to compare them, you'll need to turn Thing down by about 7dB for it to be a proper comparison.

Instead of naming the actual plugins TH5T and TH8T, something like Thing5 and Thing8 would be better.

[bmanic]

The sound is excellent. J-8 holds up surprisingly well but Thing is just slightly more pleasant sounding. To anyone else wanting to compare them, you'll need to turn Thing down by about 7dB for it to be a proper comparison.

Instead of naming the actual plugins TH5T and TH8T, something like Thing5 and Thing8 would be better.

Is it possible to get it a bit more "forward" sounding without using the EQ/saturation? I've only listened to various youtube demos of it but almost all of them sound quite "soft". Even the basic raw oscillators seem to be on the softer side. This is not at all how I recall the actual hardware to sound (nor TAL's version which to my ear is one of the better emulations).

Also there's definitely something weird about the filter. It gets awfully shrill at higher resonances and higher cutoff. Almost like an oldschool VSTi where it is completely overtaken by aliasing noise.

I'll probably have a chance to directly compare this to a Jupiter 8 just before Christmas.. so I'm not going to start the demo just yet.

[Uncle E]

Yes, quite soft sounding. But then so is the J-8. For example, using the Tweaks in Repro, I was able to get it to sound really close to both of them EXCEPT for that softness.

[kritikon]

Interesting. Definitely a new direction from Acustica. It's ages since I tried anything Acustica (boring repetitive releases from them recently) so can't remember if they're iLok or not? Must check it out, I could see myself getting this, VSTi rarely interest me recently.

[Uncle E]

No iLok.

[miloszz]

Huh, went in expecting to not like this (zero luck with previous Acustica products in various ways) but it works fine and sounds quite good. Baked in "vintage" flavor without being over the top vaporwave.

TH8 is ~20% CPU in Ableton 12 on a M1 Max MBP for anyone curious - not the lightest weight synth I've got installed but not crippling either.

[0degree]

Anybody had a chance to compare this with the real synth? How close is it?

[Vortifex]

Trying the demo of Thing-8. It does actually sound very good. Not sure if I like the resonance at higher values though. The UI is decent. CPU is very high; turning off the Superstereo function (which is on 90% of the presets for some reason) removes a chunk of CPU, plus it's not very mono compatible anyway.

The synth has one big flaw for me: It can be very clicky, particularly if you enable velocity sensitivity on the filter and play notes with a longish release. If you play a chord at high velocity, and then overlap it with a chord at softer velocity, the softer chord will produce a very nasty click.

Also sometimes it would refuse to play random notes. I think that might happen sometimes after changing the polyphony count.

So some issues to iron out, but the overall sound quality is great.

[db3]

After playing with this for a while I'm liking it more & more. Sounds great...much more alive than Roland Cloud and using less CPU in normal mode. First Acustica plugin I've used which doesn't glitch or add huge latency. GUI needs to support hi-dpi.

[Deisss]

First time I heard a Jupiter 8 as a VST being sexy. Never liked the Arturia, Roland Cloud, and even J8 was not there. This is as close as I remember the actual Jupiter 8 (but I do not own one anymore).

But damn the CPU... One instance already load a lot especially with superstereo enabled.

[dionenoid]

Checked Thing 8. Sounds awesome. Analog almost. But...be sure to put it in Mega mode. World of difference.

[bmanic]

What is that mega mode? Some kind of "max cpu" mode?

[bmanic]

Anybody had a chance to compare this with the real synth? How close is it?

It's a fairly simple synth to program so just copy some of these presets and see for yourself?



To my ear, this video shows how "forward" sounding the Jupiter usually is. At least all the ones I've played over the years has always been a bit "brash". Acustica Thing sounds very soft in comparison, at least to my ears.

.. but yeah, I need to check the demo. Will do it ASAP.

[Frankie.T]

Anybody had a chance to compare this with the real synth? How close is it?

I did, and tbh i like Thing more. The sound is real and it's far more versatile, the original doesn't even have velocity, very hard to work today without that tbh.

For people who compared it with other vst's just take a closer look on how different the poly function is at each key stroke, with thing the voice difference sounds much more realistic to me, also when you play multiple notes, the "free running" sounds real because it's correctly implemented, while other synts just turn the osc off to spare cpu, but the result is a weak transient response.

If you also have a chance to compare it with the real one, just have fun comparing the cross mod with both hardware and other plugins, and you see the attention of details, and why this plugin is wild.