Superwave P8

As freebies go, especially as SynthEdit synths go, this is up there with the best. Not necessarily in terms of features (it has some limitations), but in terms of sound. Played purely with 1 or 2 voices, it's fairly ordinary. BUT ... some people consider the extra detuned oscillators as a gimmick ... well, it may be, but the point is that most other VSTis don't offer this facility, and when used, it makes SuperwaveP8 a very strong-sounding dominant synth.

Basically it has 6 extra voices (identical to the main oscillator) but all detunable by independent amounts - and you can do this with both oscillators - so it makes for a huge amount of oscillators (14!) and a wide thick soupy sound - very "analogue". When you consider that some big analogue patches used detuned VCOs and PWM and chorus to make the distinctively analogue sound, then these extra "Superwaves" aren't cheating - they are offering you a classic analogue trick that standard synths don't offer.

A very good set of patches to start off with, all of which identify what type of sound easily - you want a Jarre sound or a Numan or Van Halen pad, then it's labelled. No gimmicks - it just shows you what it's capable of.

I especially like the sync sound - it can squeal sharply and also be used subtly and musically - the 2nd oscillator can sweep from a good set of mod options from envelope, LFO, midi or whatever - in fact the whole modulation set is very flexible - not possibly set out as well as it could be in the GUI, but there are alot of options there.

The GUI - I have some problems with it, but overall it is well thought out and obvious - it looks like a real synth should in most aspects, so it is easy to program. Filters are set apart from envelopes and LFOs and modulation options - you really can't find it too difficult to tweak even if you are new to synth programming.

FX - nothing amazing, but sound an integral part of the patch unlike many other VSTis. You can argue whether VSTis should or shouldn't have FX, but this one works well - simple delays that don't overpower the patch.

It's not a do-everything synth by any means, but if you like fat analogue sounds (especially pads) then SWP8 is better than many commercial synths. Capable of basses (similar in a way to the Juno sound - big flabby bass useful for some styles,but not others). Good for leads and some special FX.

There are some problems such as not being able to latch LFOs to song position (i.e it won't restart the LFO at the start of a bar - it freewheels) but this is more a Sythedit problem than a SWP8 problem.

There are some Synthedit synths out there that are weird and wonderful, but often unusable. Some are useable but bland. SWP8 is both useable and flexible. You could replace some bog-standard analogue h/w synths with SWP8. A problem is that it's so fat sometimes that it overpowers your mix - 14 DCOs is not always good so use sparingly.

One of the better Synthedit creations- very very useable.