Ten Great Soft Synths Under $100

Green Oak Crystal
(Windows VST, Mac AU/VST)
Free, www.greenoak.com/crystal

Crystal is a semi-modular soft synth that combines subtractive and frequency modulation (FM) synthesis methods with over 90 parameters that you can modulate. It includes built-in effects and a band splitter for processing sounds through effects by frequency bands. Crystal has quite an active online community at tech.groups.yahoo.com.

LinPlug FreeAlpha 3
(Windows VST, Mac AU/RTAS/VST)
Free, www.linplug.com

This is the free version of the Alpha 3 virtual analog synth plug-in, which has gotten a lot of props from retro-heads for its authentic sound and vibe. Compared to the full version, FreeAlpha has eight voices instead of 32, fewer oscillator options, glide speed adjustments based on absolute time as opposed to a rate, no master tune, and pitch bending fixed at two semitones up or down. A full comparison chart is available on LinPlug’s site.

Apple GarageBand Jam Packs
(Mac)
$99 each, www.apple.com

For Logic Pro, Logic Express, and GarageBand users, Jam Packs are complete construction kits that contain both Apple Loops and soft instruments you can play from a MIDI keyboard. Remix Tools offers 2,000 hip-hop, house, R&B, and trance loops, from vintage sounds to the latest electroclash. Symphony Orchestra has 2,000 strings, bass, percussion, and keyboard (including a Steinway grand piano) sounds. Perhaps the best value, World (reviewed May ’06) has 3,000 ethnic sounds, including most-wanted selections such as Flamenco guitar and Indian sitar, as well as more exotic picks, including Afro-Cuban upright piano, Latin accordions, and Tibetan singing bowls.

iZotope iDrum
(Mac AU/RTAS/standalone)
$70, www.izotope.com

This Mac-only virtual beat box makes it super-quick to dial in patterns on its matrix-style user interface. If you get tired of the hundreds of included free samples, just drag any AIFF or WAV audio file (up to 2MB) into one of the drum channel strips, and you’re off.

NUSofting Modelonia
(Windows VST)
$79, www.modelonia.com

Windows-only for now, this unique synth plug-in uses physical modeling to emulate all manner of plucked strings and blown instruments, but that’s just the beginning. The plucked and horn models can interact and cross-modulate one another, letting you come up with some truly unique hybrid sounds.

KeyToSound Remedy
(Windows VST/RTAS, Mac VST/AU/RTAS)
Free, www.keytosound.com

Last month, we reviewed KeyToSound’s flagship product, Nexsyn, but you can get a good earful of their sonic philosophy with this free soft synth, complete with arpeggiator, two oscillators, FM modulation, pulse width modulation, and five-voice polyphony. Hmm . . . five voices and PWM? Given the price, it’s clear they’re not out to make a — ahem — profit.

rgc:audio Square I
(Windows VST)
$35, www.rgcaudio.com

This brainchild of wiz René Ceballos (who also designed Cakewalk Rapture, reviewed Sept. ’06) is a simple but powerful virtual analog beast with three oscillators, pitch drift randomizing, pulse width modulation, and a random wave selector. Its effects include LFO-controlled auto-pan, stereo delay, stereo spread, and 2-band EQ. Keyboard’s editors thought its overall character favored ’80s-style electronic pop and ambient music — think Depeche Mode meets Tangerine Dream.

SoundFonts ORGANized Trio and MrTramp
(Windows VST)
Free, www.soundfonts.it

In our last big roundup of hardware and software “clonewheel” organs (Nov. ’04), an early version of this plug-in held its own next to big dogs like Apple/Logic EVB3 and Native Instruments B4. Now in version 3.1, it’s gotten better still. All the ingredients are on hand: drawbars, key click, harmonic percussion, vibrato/chorus, overdrive, and a highly tweakable rotary simulation.
If Wurlitzer electric piano is the vintage sound you’re craving, check out MrTramp. Like Trio and MrRay SeventyThree (a killer Rhodes emulation), MrTramp uses physical modeling exclusively. You can change the characteristics of the mallets, reeds, and onboard tremolo.

Big Tick Cheeze Machine
(Windows VST, Mac AU)
Free, bigtick.pastnotecut.org

Hungry for the swimmy, trippy sound of classic analog string keyboards like the ARP Solina, Crumar Performer, or Korg PE-2000? The Cheeze Machine won’t let you down, and includes phaser and ensemble effects for when you want extra Cheeze.