Audio Damage has introduced Basic – a three-oscillator monophonic software synthesizer for Mac & Windows.
According to Audio Damage, Basic is designed with ease-of-use, low cost, and simplicity in mind, and offers ‘an aggressive tone and self-resonating filters that ‘scream’ when pushed’.
Features:
- Three alias-free wavetable oscillators with six waveforms each, and oscillator sync.
- A pair of cascaded filters featuring MS20-style lowpass and highpass, and a bandpass of our own design.
- A four-waveform tempo-syncable LFO with waveshaper.
- ADSR envelopes for amplitude and filter frequency.
- User-definable soft-saturation.
- A simple and easy-to-understand workflow, inspired by the classic topology of vintage analog synths like the Minimoog, SEM, and MS20, but with modern usability.
- Touchscreen-friendly and highly visible user interface.
- DRM-free, for easy installation and updating.
Audio Damage Basic is available now. It is priced at US $39 through Sept 4, 2014. After that, $49.00. See the AD site for an audio demo.
According to AD, this kind of low cost monophonic synth do not exist on the market. On windows, there are countless Free alternatives. And on Mac: http://www.sinevib.es/torsion/
Torsion is a great example, as is Automat on the Mac – but both are AU only, and AD was looking to provide a product that could work across the spectrum of DAW’s (ProTools notwithstanding). And yes, Windows will always have more free options, in part due to platforms like Synthedit, and in part due to the proliferation of PCs vs Macs.
From the education side of things, recommending and instructing from a “starter” synth that nearly anyone can use is nigh impossible. The TAL products are the only ones that really come to mind, but the SH-101/Juno architecture is still limited compared to the 3 OSC w/ sync features of Basic. They sound great, but you’re missing a big chunk of things with those.
https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/08/22/stagecraft-releases-subtractive-vst-addiction/#more-58450
I’m not sure about this one.
On the one hand, it’s pretty damn basic. Or at least, the name implies it’s very basic. You can do good stuff with basic stuff, but you can also do good stuff with the thousands of different synths you already have.
On the other hand, I do like Audio Damage. And I do like the GUI. And I do like to throw my money at things I don’t need.
I think this is a smart move at the right price for this product. Thought I don’t think this hole is as big as they make it out to be. Several options were mentioned above, and Linplug Free Alpha comes to mind. The CM magazine version of CM Alpha is also free and has a few extra features.
Why? Because it has an incredibly clean UI that is perfect for quick sound tweaking. Complex modulation routing and pages of options have their place, but this fits the way I work when inspiration strikes — it supports the creative thinking process by not slowing me down.
True! And there is something to be said about having a lean, mean synth to use on more straight ahead sounds that doesn’t take up much system resources. And if a person get’s creative, layer a few instances of this synth into one grouped instrument and some pretty impressive stuff could happen.
I’d like to eventually see this compared to other simple softsynths like the (pretty awesome) FabFilter Twin 2.
All of Audio Damages products are usually well designed, sometimes esoteric, usually creative executions of previous and new ideas. I always look forward to their new releases. And they are great about return policies etc… don’t like it, they will buy it back no questions asked.
Use their return policie twice, and you’ll receive a msg by Chris Randall letting you know it’s not “no questions asked”. I’ve seen a few cases on forums, and they all tell the same story: Randall often loses it.
That being said, AD do make interesting affordable plugins and i own seven (7) AD plugins.
I guess I haven’t used it twice. :), full disclosure: I’ve known Chris Randall for almost 25 years, not well, but we were both on the “chicago” scene and have some mutual friends etc, and the drummer I work with all the time has played with him etc…, and in all my dealings with him, and I follow and engage on his blog, I find him to be an extremely bright guy with his hands on a lot of things. Of course he is opinionated, and would make a great intellectual debate sparring partner. and he probably doesn’t like people taking egregious abuse/advantage of the policy (probably more so now that their products do not contain DRM)….. But without someone being a total jag about it, I’m sure he would acquiesce to any reasonable return request. But again, full disclosure, I have used his products since he kindly gave some early protos to try out in a chicago studio way back when to try out, and I always find interesting uses for them, and I like the fact that his company exists in that they are very clear about their intents, purposes, and make non-middle of the road stuff. Not for everyone, (I don’t see Chris Lord-Alge firing up Tattoo or Axon), but along with Sean Costello, and some others, some of these small development teams are contributing a lot to the non-bread and butter ideas out there. I just don’t see Chris “losing” it without reasonable provocation.
links? i’m bored i want to see the drama.
yeah, i’d like to see it too.
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You actually make it appear so easy with your presentation but I in finding this topic to be actually one thing that I
think I’d by no means understand. It kind of feels too complex and
extremely broad for me. I’m having a look forward to your next post, I’ll
attempt to get the hang of it!