Invader

Anything by e-phonic you can generally rely on as being eminently useable, usually with lots of sonic character, and there's no disappointment with Invader.

It's aimed at being a spcialFX synth, which is exactly what it does best, so don't expect to be able to play Chopsticks on it, or even play a recognisable note depending on the settings!
Invader is a VSTi that I load up often when I'm doing dub. It's just perfect for those heavily delayed synth bleeps and warbles that you use for effect rather than as part of any melody. In fact, every now and then I get a sound from it that's quite reminiscent of my MS20 - generally it's not aimed at being a clone of anything in particular, but when you patch up weird sounds, it can take on some definite analogue character. It can range from mild but interesting to complete modulation madness, and it does it better than most general synths.

Sound - as stated, it has it's own character, and occasionally takes on the character of quite esoteric h/w synths. The perfect sound for dub, ambient, experimental, or soundtracks. It can be obviously digital and thin, but more importantly can be full and warm-sounding.

Features - plenty of scope for modulation mayhem - you can modulate pitch, filter, FM, amplitude, and the mod sources and destinations are quite flexible. One of the nice things about Invader is that you don't have to be an expert programmer to get weird sounds from it. OK, it helps to know what you're doing if you have a specific sound effect in mind, but any beginner can have immense fun and good results by just twiddling knobs at random. Many synths work the exact opposite way - play with too many parameters and you ruin a sound if you're not careful. But Invader invites you to make silly sounds, and then delivers. Not a huge amount of oscillators but it really doesn't need that many.

GUI - if you're not familiar with synthesis, then you could be scratching your head to fathom it out, but it does actually make sense and is logically laid out. My only beef is the GUI is a bit too small for my screen settings - too many GUIs are designed for low res, but if you're working with a big host it's often better to have very high res, so you can get more of your mixer channels etc on-screen - but this makes some GUIs very small and difficult to read from any distance. I would like it bigger.

Presets - not many, but I'm not convinced that Invader needs any more. Because it's designed to make weird specialFX by modulation, you'll probably have to make your own, otherwise they're too distinctive and easily recognised to be of original use. It really is a breeze to get your own sounds - simply move any or all knobs until the sound is as weird as you want it to be.

Stability - no crashes, and a surprisingly small CPU hit considering it's Synthedit. I'm often not flattering about Synthedit VSTi's, but it shows it can be good if programmed well with thought (which e-phonic has done)

I discovered Invader after somebody on the K-v-R forum who was looking for a VSTi for creating sound effects was directed to it. It's always good to find free VSTi's that are made to do something a bit different & that actually sound good. Invader is one such synth.

The parameters on the Invader are your standard subtractive synthesis fair - 2 Oscillators, Amp envelope, Filter, Filter envelope & 2 modulaters that can be synced to your sequencers BPM & routed to the oscillators &/or the filter. This is handy for adding rhythmic modulations to your sounds. There's also a delay section & the main area has a glide control for portmento effects, A noise generator & a Ring modulator.

Sound wise is where the Invader stands out from the usual VA/Subtractive soft synth. It's cleary been designed with more obscure, Esoteric sounds in mind. That's not to say it pumps out random, unusable nonsense - quite the opposite. It's sounds have a fair amount of character, Warmth & depth to be honest. It's certainly just as capable of creating nice fat, warm bass & leads tones it is at making more esoteric sound FX.

Sound quality wise the Invader scores quite highly to my ears. It often reminded me of the old C=64/SID type sounds only with much more analogue style fatness & character.

As a freebie that will give you something a bit different that also sounds fantastic Invader is absolutely essential.

i have been using this as filler sounds in all my tracks and i love it. this vsti has one of the most naturally analog sounds i have ever heard in a synth edit creation. its very capable of more experimental analog noises not a lead or a basss synth BUT BUT BUT that is great how many SE VSTi's have there been that are these thin sounding poor analog emulations. the gui is very clean and organized well. the presets are very good if i remember correctly they are all complied by users of the invader. one of the most stable SE creations i have incountered. if you have not tried this yet DL it now!!

After using Drumatic in almost every song i did, i had to try this one.

I really like Invader.
Low CPU for a Synth Edit VST and very good sound.
It's perfect for effects and atmospheric sounds.
The coolest feature is that the signal of the modulators can be quantisized. This gives an effect of some sort of an appregiator.

The modulators can be controlled and routed in many ways.
You even can modulate the modulator and route that to the pitch of an oscillator, control the amount of modulation, inverse the modulation, send it to the filters cutoff and so on.

It has FM and Sync and Ringmodulation. And these can be on at the same time.

All these options are placed in a clean interface.

The sounds it can produce are from a simple bass synth to complex effects.

The build-in modulated delay makes the sound complete and rich sounding.

An other nice freebee from ephonic. I guarantee it's not a waste of time to try this one. Just listen to the presets that go with it... nice...