BitHeadz Retro AS-1

Retro AS-1 Image

The Retro AS-1 is a full featured programmable analog synthesizer for Macintosh and PC computers. Taking a modular approach you create and link modules of oscillators, envelopes, filters and LFO sections. The results can create stunning analog synth sounds in a clean 44.1kHz digital environment. The AS-1 is fully MIDI equipped and works with sequencers and MIDi controllers. However it has an on-screen keyboard and can also be triggered from the computer keyboard.

New patches can be stored on your hard disk for a virtually unlimited amount of user patches! The AS-1 has such extensive and complete editing and parameter control that it could intimidate, even baffle some users. Be sure and try the FREE DEMO version and see if the professional Retro AS-1 polyphonic synthesizer is for you!

11 Visitor comments
wharf99
October 8, 2011 @ 7:17 pm
I just found a demo version of the Retro AS-1 in the multimedia section of Wendy Carlos' "Switched-On Box Set" CD collection from 1999. Sadly, the program is in Classic, so I cannot open it using OS X. So I am none the wiser as to how it sounds ... it's rather like a piece of digital amber...
Andrea
February 8, 2011 @ 8:00 pm
This was the very first soft synth I bought, back in the way back when. Needles to say, I never managed to make it work, so I have no idea of what it sounded like...
0=0
November 5, 2010 @ 9:57 pm
i used this on my first record.
Will Puckett
September 17, 2010 @ 10:44 am
Most of us ended up at Digidesign :-)
The architect/designer went back East and continued his work with Korg. Good times.

I still have Unity Session on my ProTools MAC 10.3 rig. Retro AS-1 2.x was better is certain ways with the original sound set, but the Session version was far more robust on XP.
Trey
November 23, 2009 @ 1:12 pm
Ive used this program from 1999 up until now. I started out using this softsynth along with its twin "The Unity DS1. as the person below me has stated it ranned flawlessly on win98. But now after so many years of dedication I finally have the Retro AS1 installed on my XP machine with my other plugins perfectly. Back in 99 I only used 3 programs to produce music and that was: Cakewalk Pro audio 9, Bitheadz Retro AS1 & Unity DS1. Later I found out about Reason 2.0 and began to use it and enjoy it but all the sounds in reason will never compare to the nice gritty and dirty sounds of the nostalgic Retro AS 1 (thats my opinion of course).

Again the company responsible for this program is Bitheadz. Sadly these guys just up and vanished into the night but not until finishing their last program which was suppose to be a combination of all the software Bitheadz created, into one plugin\stand alone softsynth named Unity Session.

Thank you for everything Bitheadz!
 
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  • Specifications
  • Polyphony - Up to 32 notes
  • Oscillators - 3 oscillators per voice: Saw, Pulse, Triangle, Sine, Sine squared, Glottal, Noise (white, pink, red)
  • Memory - Unlimited
  • Filter - 2 filters: 13 filter types, including 4-pole resonant lowpass, highpass, bandpass, allpass, notch, and state-variable
  • LFO - Dozens of LFOs, 6 shapes, midi sync, modulate almost any source and destination
  • Keyboard - On-Screen keyboard
  • Arpeg/Seq - Arpeggiator: Midi sync, multiple modes
  • Control - MIDI (16 parts)
  • Date Produced - 1998
  • Resources & Credits

  • Images from Bitheadz web site.

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