KX77FREE’s Kx-Modulad 2.0 is a free “analog” style modular synth for Windows with stereo SF2 player and an additive synthesis WaveTracer to build waveforms.

Features:

• Stereo routing.
• 3 Polyphonic EGs with for each segment: curves, velocity and Kbd controls.
• 1 Monophonic EG with for each segment: curves, velocity and Kbd controls.
• Multiple trigger sources and sync for the EGs and the LFOs.
• 2 oscillators with 2 waveforms and 2 outputs with Phase modulation and Sync.
• 2 independent Sub Oscillators.
• 1 Stereo SF2 player.
• 2 Monophonic LFOs with 2 Rates and ASR EG.
• 2 Mulitmode VCFs.
• Mixer with 6 sources: Noise, Vco1 1-2, Vco 2 1-2, Ring, Vco1 Width, Vco2 Width and 3 outputs: VCF1, VCF2, VCA.
• Each mixer voice can be modulated by different sources.
• Noise Generator with an EQ.
• Sample & Hold.
• Ring Modulator.
• 6 host sync clocks.
• 2 Midi inputs.
• 1 Distortion.
• 2 Delays with sync, multimode filter and modulation oscillator with sync.
• 1 Scope with 100 ms of buffer size.
• Full Midi learn.
• Full NRPN implementation.
• 128 KX presets

via svartling

Free Music Software: Cakewalk has dropped the price on its SFZ+ Professional SoundFont Player for Windows from $60 to $0.

Description:

rgc:audio’s revolutionary SoundFont player sample-playback engine, packed in a professional VST/DXi instrument.

Outstanding sound quality, stereo built-in effects, adjustable CPU/quality settings to adjust it to your hardware, fully multitimbral operation, multiple stereo outputs, several loading modes including direct-from-disk streaming and a beautiful interface make sfz+ the perfect choice for SoundFont users and professional composers.

Note: The download is currently missing in action. See comments below.

Download the free TC Electronic reverb plugin M30 for Windows & Mac before November 18th.

If you give it a try, leave a comment with your thoughts!

M30 is tested with these systems:

• Windows XP SP2
• Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard

Applications:

• Apple Logic Pro 9
• Apple GarageBand
• Steinberg Cubase 5
• Steinberg Cubase 4.5
• Cakewalk Sonar
• Ableton Live

The free VST effects include:

• Fuzz Muff
• Distortion
• Delay
• RMod
• GSynth
• Phasor
• Flanger
• Panner

If you’ve used EFM’s free VSTs, leave a comment with your thoughts on them!

Free Windows Music Software: Synthgeek has introduced a free glitch music plugin for Windows, sg-glitchgate.

Description:

SG-Glitchgate is basically a rhythmic gate, but not set up in the standard way. There are two periodic gates which can be used for anything from regular rhythmic chopping to random rhythmic manipulations and strange dropouts.

The gates are followed by a delay unit designed to enhance the glitchiness- it does not sync to tempo, and the delay time and gain can be randomized. There are 5 LFOs to add to the fun.

Several presets are included to give you an idea of how things work.

If you give SG-Glitchgate a try, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Supercollider 140 is a free album of Twitter music – audio pieces composed of Twitter-sized snippets of SuperCollider code.

It started as a curious project, when live coding enthusiast and Toplap member Dan Stowell started tweeting tiny snippets of musical code using SuperCollider. Pleasantly surprised by the reaction, and “not wanting this stuff to vanish into the ether” he has recently collated the best pieces into a special download for The Wire’s online readership here.

Many of these pieces are actually generative, so if you re-run the source code (the track titles) you get a new piece of music.

The compositions are self-referentially named, with titles like:

{LocalOut.ar(a=CombN.ar(BPF.ar(LocalIn.ar(2)
*7.5+Saw.ar([32,33],0.2),2**LFNoise0.kr(4/3,4)*
300,0.1).distort,2,2,40));a}.play//#supercollider

Tweet that and put it in your SuperCollider!

You can preview the album below, or download it at the Internet Archive:

Detailed artist biographies for the composers are available at The Wire.

via SuperCollider

Blastwave FX has released a free sample library, creatively named Download Pack #2 (Note to Blastwave: see this earlier post about sample libraries with porn movie titles).

It’s got ominous thuds, kitties screaming – all the stuff we mentioned in the headline. And more.

You can unleash this monster download at the Blastwave FX site.

The sample pack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, which means you can use it however you like but you should give them credit for giving you the free samples.

via rekkerd

This video demonstrates how you can use the new Novation Launchpad like a monome.

To try this out, you’ll need a Launchpad (You can get them for $199 at Zzounds and other online retailers), a free app called nonome and a monome app.

For this demo, Mike Tron built a Windows executable that combines nonome with a monome program called mlr. Tron is offering to build an OS X version, too, if there’s interest.

ganK, a new free music synthesizer VST for Windows

Lucas Xie has released ganK the Synthesizer, a free synthesizer instrument for Windows.

ganK the Synthesizer is a free soft synth developed by Lucas. It is presented in both VSTi format and Windows standalone application. ganK is an additive/substractive synth with 3 oscillators , a moog filter, a lfo, effects like an 8-band eq and a delay component.

Have fun.

If you give this a try, leave a comment with your thoughts on ganK!

via rekkerd

Ableton is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Live by giving away 10 free Live Packs for Ableton Live 8 and up.

The Live Packs feature the work of 10 top Ableton Live artists, and let you look inside their songs and see how the artists work their magic.

The Live Pack artists include:

• Adam Freeland
• Apparat
• Brian Ales
• Covert Operators
• Junie Morrison
• Martin Gretschman, aka Acid Pauli
• Micah Frank
• Mum
• Swayzak
• Thavius Beck

Note: The free Live Packs will work in Live Intro or Live Lite, but will be read only.

No registration or email mumbo-jumbo is required – just go to Ableton’s site and start downloading.

Here’s an example of free music software that doesn’t play it safe.

_02.circles is a Windows software synthesizer that features a user interface inspired by Wassily Kandinsky’s abstract painting Einige Kreise:

This plugin opens an intuitive access to sound construction, modification, modulation, live performance tweaking, etc. being an interactive painting and thus a form of art by itself.

VST plugins nowadays mostly resemble the look and feel of real instruments so musicians feel comfortable with, but neglecting the power of contemporary user interfaces: mouse, touchpads, multitouch, gestures….

This plugin follows an intuitive approach, e.g. instead of knowing the filter cutoff value has to be modified to “2100 Hz” and the frequency modulation index has to set to “75″ the user is encouraged to play with the elements, e.g. make the blue circle a bit smaller and drag the green circle a little so that it becomes more visible, or even try things like “what will it sound like when I modify this red circle”?

Details:

• Operating System: Windows (developed and tested with XP SP2)
• Format: VST Instrument dll file
• Misc: Minimum requirements: SSE capable processor, VST Host compliant to VST 2.3 spec. Tested with Orion Platinum 7.62, Ableton Live 7, Energy XT 2, Tracktion 2, MULAB 2.6, FL Studio 8

New free music software for Mac and Windows – PanCake – a VST plugin that lets you create customized tempo-synced pan automations.

Key Features:

• Free, and available for both PC and Mac.
• Creative Modulation Tool: Create complex pan modulations with ease.
• Unique Waveform Drawing Capabilities: Construct your own modulation curves in a very intuitive manner. Waveforms can be easily drawn using soft or hard breakpoints, thus producing gentle transitions or sharp bends in the waveform. The unique drawing tool is similar to professional graphics/vector software, and allows you to draw with impressive precision and unparalleled ease.
• Customized Waveforms: Up to 10 customized waveforms can be stored.
• LFO Speed: LFO speed can be set free-running from 0.02 Hz to 5.24 kHz. It can also be set in rhythmic units synced to the host sequencer, from a fast 1/128 note modulation up to 32 bars.
• User Friendly Buttons: Reverse the waveform, move it in any direction, or randomize it. Select from a list of default waveforms, or copy and paste between waveforms, including presets.
• Complete Parameter Control via Automation: Absolutely everything in PanCake can be automated. Even the shape of the modulating waveform can be automated, and breakpoint movements can be recorded and played back. And if you want to use more than four modulation curves in a song, you can automate the plugin to switch between them.
• Exceptional Sound Quality: PanCake computes the audio at a per-sample basis; the modulation is interpolated with linear or, for the audiophile, cubic interpolation. The plugin’s LFO will always stay in sync, even when you make tempo changes in your host software, or jump ahead to different parts of your track.

PanCake comes out of this year’s KVR VST challenge.

You can download it here.

This year’s KVR Challenge resulted in a lot of interesting new free music software – including this Windows ambient sound synthesizer, Antorpya.

Here’s a demo of Antopya in action: Uranus:

Description:

The main Engine uses FM and Additive Synthesis. Edit the Harmonics Intuitive by moving the Planets on the Crosspad. The Result is wide smooth Pads, Strings, Spacy FX, Bass sounds and more.

Specs:

One OSC + 3 Sub operators, 5 Filter Types (LP/HP/BP/BR/FMT), Phase ADS Envelope, Envelope ADSR, One Step LFO, Chorus FX, Stereo Delay and Crossharmonic Pad for intuitive creating of Harmonics.

Free Music Software: The Venom VB-303 is a pattern-based acid bassline synthesizer for Windows inspired by the Roland TB-303.

Venom VB-303 is actively under development, but is still in beta.

Download links are available at the KVR forum.

Free Music Software: Hotelsinus Sound Design has released version 0.23 of TonesynthDS, a free software synth for the Nintendo DS. TonesynthDS combines matrix sequencing with a simple synthesizer.

Features:

• 16×16 pattern editor (16 accord, 16 tone (the scale is selectable), first line is always the C3).
• 16 different pattern stock.
• Different volume setting possibility for each accord (in the second editor mode).
• Adjustable tempo.
• Possibility to play a pattern looped with the default sound samples or with generated sound samples.
• With the button X you can clear a pattern (and set the volumes of that pattern to maximum).
• Sound sample generator. You can listen a test sound with ADSHR, play a continuous test sound without adshr (but you can set the parameters on the fly) or generate the full stock, that will be used by the pattern player. The system is fully usable while you play or generate samples. Although the playing of the pattern will be paused during the generation.
• For the generation there are two oscilloscopes. Both can generate sinus, saw, rectangle and organ. The frequency of the second oscilloscope can be set relative to the frequency of the first oscilloscope with a slider under that except for the ‘am’ mixing type where you can set the absolute frequency between 0 and 20 hertz.
• 3 mixing types: Amplitude modulation, ring modulation (the difference is in the base frequency of the second oscilloscope) and cross modulation. For the last one you can set the cross fade factor with the slider under the first oscilloscope.
• Low pass filter with resonance.
• ADSHR for the generated samples. The length of the samples are limited to 2 seconds.

via Steelberryclones

Free Music Software: In the late 60’s composer Steve Reich stumbled across a technique he called phasing, which was to have two identical tape loops that run at slightly different speeds, the result is that every possible combination of sound is cycled through until they arrive back in sync. The result with a melodic piece of music is that it moves through moments of chaos and moments of melody.

Phase Shifter is a Windows VST designed to make it easy to create phase shifting music, like the early work of Steve Reich. It also has a built in recorder so that the output can be recorded directly to disk. It works by loading up to 2 WAVs, and is triggered via a MIDI keyboard. Middle C will play the WAV at it’s original speed.

You can preview the results of Phase Shifter below.

Download here.

LDaySynths has released Bass-Cruncher – a free bassline synthesizer, inspired by the Roland TB-303.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

BASSCRUNCHER

Monophonic Bassline Synthesizer mit einem Quitschigem Lowpassfilter ähnlich dem tb-303.

Features:

• Monophonic Synthesizer
• 1 OSC (saw/pulse waveform)
• 1 LP Filter mit 303 artiger Resonanz
• Drivemode (Soft/Hard sience V1.1)
• Filter Stepsequencer in 16 Stufen

You can preview Bass Cruncher below.

OT: The Halloween Scream Machine (App Store link) is a free iPhone app for Halloween.

It plays back creepy sounds and soundtracks, and it also lets you record and play back custom samples.

Combine these scary sound effects with the Halloween dark atmospheric music mix and get read to scare the neighborhood……

The KVR Developer Challenge 2009 has ended and that means that there are some interesting new freebies available.

There were 42 entries:

• 40 of these are available for Windows;
• 6 for Mac OS X; and
• 1 for Linux.

Highlights include a Moog Model D clone, a bassline synth with built-in effects, a granular synthesizer and a convolution reverb.

Here are links to the new free music plugins:

• amphetamine by easytoolz (by NEK-X)
• Anawave (by Lithium)
• Antopya (by L-Day)
• Armchair Guitarist (by Minouris)
• Barberpole Tuner (by Christian Budde)
• Black Ops (by gpunk)
• dimensional vector spider (by afdarhus)
• Drum Synze (by Longsoft)
• dschlon_nzElektrik (by Michael Benjamin)
• Eigenmode (by eigentone)
• EQUINOX (by IIRs)
• Explor3r (by thelowerrhythm)
• FerricTDS (by bootsie)
• FMMF (by de la Mancha)
• Harsh Digital Nose (by insertpizhere)
• HybridReverb2 (by c.borss)
• In-Kult (by mickygemma)
• JBM Jagular (by jobromedia)
• LISAROCK V1.0(VST/AU) PLUGIN (by seibel1)
• massTURBOtar (by LpD)
• MIDI LFO (by gertius)
• MoarF VSTi (by __F__)
• NCL Phase EQ (by matt42)
• New Blend (by xoxos)
• PanCake (by Jakob / CableGuys)
• Phase Shifter (by Astralp)
• Phonics/Attack Entrancer (by nix808)
• Piezo Drum Pad Pack (by FrettedSynth)
• pk_hui (by discodaniel)
• Prodigious Synthesizer (by synthescience)
• Psychic Modulation – Metatron (by Jack R)
• RA Mowg (by Chris Roberson)
• sg-grainbot (by synthgeek)
• SIMPLICITY (by BONES)
• SpectroBits (by g200kg)
• Stolon (by novaflash)
• SynekDC (by duncanparsons)
• The Marcus Johnson Collection (by sunahura)
• Transistorhead (by sonicase)
• Twin Engined Verb (by daz.diamond)
• unicycle (by spacedad)
• _02.circles (by rl)

Free Windows Music Software: Artifake_Labs has introduced a free software synthesizer, RedTron_MKV, that emulates the Mellotron MKV (essentially a double M400), one of the rarest Mellotrons ever made.

Features :

• Realistic user interface.
• Six sound types : 3 Violins, 8-Voice Choir, Flute, Brass, String Section, Cello.
• “Loop” and “Non-Loop” modes : as the original “Mellotron”, each sound is eight seconds long but you can switch to “Loop Mode” and allows the samples to loop continuously.
• Layer possibilities & independent parameters for layer A & B:
  • Volume, Tone, Reverb, Delay, Pan, Octave, Note & Attack parameters.
  • Delay effect (Amount, Time, Feedback & Pan parameters).
  • Reverb effect (Mix, Width, Size & Damp parameters).
• Pitch control
• Can be used as Soundfont Player to mix any .sf2 file with “Tron sounds” or to extend the sound palette.

Download from the Artifake_Labs site.