Triple Cheese ~ Cross-platform Synth


Triple Cheese: Luscious and cheesy, winner of the 2006 KVR Developer Challenge, is a truly unique freeware synthesizer. No traditional oscillators or wavetables, no FM or phase distortion and no analogue modelled filters here. A touch unusual and a little cheesy, Triple Cheese is quite capable of some surprising sounds.

Triple Cheese avoids classic synthesis techniques—no subtractive, frequency modulation (FM) or additive synthesis. Rather, it employs various types of comb filter, often in series, to generate and modify sound. Think of the comb filters as very short chromatically tuned delays. Three modules are arranged in series and either generate their own sound, or process the output of the previous module.

The features for each module can result in sounds that might seem a little “cheesy” or retro (think early 1980s digital synths). But when pushed, you will find Triple Cheese creates some surprisingly lush sounds.

  • 8 different modes per comb filter module (11 modes total)
  • Polyphonic (up to 16 voices), duophonic, monophonic (retriggered) or legato mode
  • VCA with amplitude modulation, pan
  • Skinnable User Interface
  • 170 factory presets

triplecheese-fullui-1150x565

u-he.com/products/triplecheese/

Rakarrack ~ Guitar Effects For Linux


Rakarrack is a richly featured multi-effects processor emulating a guitar effects pedalboard. Effects include compressor, expander, noise gate, graphic equalizer, parametric equalizer, exciter, shuffle, convolotron, valve, flanger, dual flange, chorus, musical delay, arpie, echo with reverse playback, musical delay, reverb, digital phaser, analogic phaser, synthfilter, varyband, ring, wah-wah, alien-wah, mutromojo, harmonizer, looper and four flexible distortion modules including sub-octave modulation and dirty octave up. Most of the effects engine is built from modules found in the excellent software synthesizer ZynAddSubFX. Presets and user interface are optimized for guitar, but Rakarrack processes signals in stereo while it does not apply internal band-limiting filtering, and thus is well suited to all musical instruments and vocals. Rakarrack is designed for Linux distributions with Jack Audio Connection Kit.

rakarrack

rakarrack.sourceforge.net
sourceforge.net/projects/rakarrack

WhySynth ~ DSSI Softsynth Plugin


WhySynth is a versatile softsynth which operates as a plugin for the DSSI Soft Synth Interface.

Features:

  • 4 oscillators, 2 filters, 3 LFOs, and 5 envelope generators per voice.
  • 11 oscillator modes: minBLEP, wavecycle, chorused wavecycle, asynchronous granular, three FM modes, waveshaper, noise, PADsynth, and phase distortion.
  • 10 filter modes.
  • flexible modulation and mixdown options, plus effects.
whysynth

smbolton.com/whysynth

Bristol ~ Audio Synthesis Emulation


Bristol is synth emulation package for a diverse range of vintage synthesisers, electric pianos and organs. The application consists of a multithreaded audio synthesizer and a user interface called brighton.

Features:

  • Over thirty emulators to mix and match
  • Multitimbral engine
  • Simultaneous splits and layers of different emulators
  • Distributed graphical user interface and engine
  • ALSA Audio and MIDI support
  • Jack Audio and MIDI support
  • OSS Audio and MIDI support
  • LADI Session Manager support
  • JACK Session Manager support
  • Text Based Command Line Interface option
  • Monophonic key preference note logic option

bristol.sourceforge.net
sourceforge.net/projects/bristol

KOMPLETE START ~ Audio Production Suite


Step into music production with KOMPLETE START – a curated selection of studio-quality instruments, effects, utilities, loops, and samples for the low price of nothing at all. Play over 2,000 customizable sounds – drums and percussion, bass, acoustic instruments, synths, pads and atmospheres, effects, and more. And did we mention it’s free?

komplete-kontrol

www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-start/

Yoshimi ~ Linux Software Synthesizer


Yoshimi is a software audio synthesizer, originally forked from ZynAddSubFX. Follow the links in the header for help with downloading and running it. You can also check out the manuals for detailed help, and listen to examples of music created with Yoshimi. Once you have it all set up, here are just some of the features you will find:

  • Three separate engines, each with distinctive characteristics, can be used together or individually
  • Sixteen engine kits for the ultimate in multi-layering of engines, or for synthesized drum kits
  • Vector Control, manage up to four independent sounds on any channel with faders or an X/Y midi joystick
  • Solo step through up to 16 sounds seamlessly while playing in real time (including vector sounds)
  • Microtonal Tuning, Scala-compatible scales and keymaps
  • Extensive Midi-Learn, capture almost all internal controls and many switches with ordinary 7-bit values, or NRPNs, or even 7-bit NRPNs, then edit the responses
  • Command Line Access, headless operation and high accessibility, for those with sight- or motor control issues
  • Rich variations of tone and timbre, Yoshimi provides the means to ensure no two notes are ever identical – just like in the real world
Yoshimi

yoshimi.sourceforge.net
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshimi_(synthesizer)

JuceOPLVSTi ~ FM Synthesizer VST


Classic game sounds in VST form. As heard in late 80s / early 90s sound cards. Powered by DOSBox emulation.

JuceOPLVSTi

bsutherland.github.io/JuceOPLVSTi
github.com/bsutherland/JuceOPLVSTi

Snd ~ Unix Sound Editor


Snd is a sound editor modelled loosely after Emacs. It can be customized and extended using either s7 (included in the Snd sources), Ruby, or Forth. Snd is free; the code is available via anonymous FTP as Snd tarball.

Snd

ccrma.stanford.edu/software/snd/
ccrma.stanford.edu/software/snd/snd/snd
sourceforge.net/projects/snd

Triceratops ~ Polyphonic Synthesizer LV2 Plugin


Triceratops is an analogue style polyphonic subtractive synthesizer plugin, for use with the LV2 plugin architecture, at this time there is no standalone version. An up to date version of the LV2 library is required along with a suitable host (e.g. Qtractor, Jalv, Ardour).

www.thunderox.com/triceratops
sourceforge.net/projects/triceratops

Swami ~ MIDI Music Composition


Project SWAMI, Sampled Waveforms And Musical Instruments, is a collection of free software for editing, managing and playing musical instruments for MIDI music composition. Current focus is primarily the SoundFont format, which is an open file format for digital audio “sample” based instruments.

Swami-2_0

www.swamiproject.org
sourceforge.net/projects/swami

Helm ~ Open Source Synthesizer


Helm runs in GNU/Linux, Mac OSX and Windows. Run Helm as a standalone synthesizer or as an LV2, VST, VST3 or AU plugin. Comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

helm_screenshot

tytel.org/helm

INFAMOUS Plugins ~ Linux LV2 Audio Plugins


These are audio plugins in the LV2 format, developed for Linux. Most are suitable for live use (exceptions are noted in the description).

  1. Cellular Automaton Synth
  2. Envelope Follower
  3. Hip2B
  4. Cheap Distortion
  5. Stuck

github.com/ssj71/infamousPlugins
ssj71.github.io/infamousPlugins/plugs