Not everyone is able to afford all of the latest hardware and software synthesizer releases all the time, so it’s always a relief when a few affordable or even free offerings pop up. Here’s a round-up of some of the newest software releases for synth fans that can be added to your collection without putting too much of a dent in your wallet. 

Creature From The ID

By Giorgio Sancristoforo

Price: 19.50€

Website: https://www.giorgiosancristoforo.net/

Artist, sound designer, and software developer Giorgio Sancristoforo has unveiled a groundbreaking “Krellotron Musical Instrument” named Creature From The Id. This innovative music software, inspired by the pioneering work of Louis and Bebe Barron, is designed to emulate the self-generating electronic circuits they were renowned for perfectly. What sets Creature From The Id apart is its use of only the techniques available in the 1950s, making it a truly unique and intriguing tool for electronic music enthusiasts. 

Created as both an act of love to honor the Barron’s legacy and a tool for teachers and students of electronic music, Creature From The Id offers unpredictable and fascinating alien sounds. Giorgio has stated that the circuits of this instrument seem to have a life of their own and have a warm, analog sound. He also made it clear that no artificial intelligence or samples were used to make Creature From The ID.

Creature From The ID is standalone software only, not VST. It is available for MacOS, and a Windows version is promised in the future. Since it’s not a VST, a virtual audio driver is needed to route audio to and from your DAW. For more information or to purchase a copy of Creature From The ID, visit the official Giorgio Sancristoforo website.

Six-Traq

By Full Bucket Music

Price: Free

Website: https://www.fullbucket.de/music/sixtraq.html
 

After sharing a preview of Six-Traq a few months back, Full Bucket Music has announced that the software instrument is now available for free. Six-Traq closely simulates the classic Sequential Circuits Six-Trak synthesizer from 1984. It offers extended poly and multi modes with up to 96 voices polyphony, an oscillator with three waveforms, an additional white noise generator, and a classic self-resonating four-pole lowpass filter. Six-Traq also has individual envelopes for the oscillator, filter, and amplifier, an onboard sequencer and arpeggiator, a SysEx import/export feature, and supports MTS-ESP by ODDSound. Thanks to MIDI Learn, all parameters of Six Traq can be controlled by MIDI CC, and it was written in native C++ code for high performance and low CPU consumption. 

Six-Traq is available free of charge from the Full Bucket Music website, but donations are accepted to keep the site running. The software is available for Microsoft Windows in VST2, VST3, CLAP, and AAX formats and for Apple macOS in VST2, VST3, CLAP, AU, and AAX formats. A version of Six-Traq is also available on the official website for users with older Windows versions or older Macs, the only difference being that it has a non-resizable user interface. 

FuncBud

By Cem Olcay

Price: $5.99

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/funcbud-generative-sequencer/id6502771916
 

Cem Olcay has released a new AUv3 MIDI sequencer app called FuncBud, which generates sequences using simple math functions. FuncBud can be used to create math functions with the function builder and then chain and repeat them to create complex sequences. For example, a simple “x + 1” function would sequence all the notes in the scale in order, but using different formulas and chaining them allows users to create more interesting results. Since FuncBud is a MIDI app, it does not generate any sound independently and requires an audio app for output. For more information on how it functions and to purchase a copy, visit the App Store.