This week’s guide to amazing patches for your synths includes a free bank for Hydrasynth, a wealth of sounds for KORG’s modwave and a new bank of sounds for XILS-Labs KaoX.
Every Wednesday, I scour the internet looking for inspirational patches and presets for your synthesizers, hunting down bargains or banks of sounds that will soup up your creativity. I truly hope that I succeed in that venture, but do let me know in the comments below if you know of any sounds and presets I may have missed! On with the show…
Analoguesque Random Experiments – Free Randomised Hydrasynth Patches
ASM’s Hydrasynth range of synthesizers took the synth world by storm when they debuted five years ago although, strangely, they have not followed it up other than to release more versions of the same instrument. That said, it’s a tough act to follow!
I’ve already featured sounds from Analoguesque Sound Designs before in this column but they’ve just released a new bank that is not only free but makes full use of the randomisation feature of the Hydrasynth.
The random button has become a staple of modern synth design. It’s a great way to find a jumping-off point in your own sound design work. Some randomisation features literally randomise every parameter which, in turn, makes many of the results unlistenable or just plain unusable. But not the Hydrasynth.
It only randomises features that would make good sonic sense and the end result is that almost everything you get is something you can work with. And it is this that inspired the bank in question here. Random Experiments includes 128 patches that all began life as random patch generations. They’ve then been tweaked to make them perfect.
Once again, Ian Wilson has come up with a great bank of superb sounds to go with his other free banks and are a must for any self-respecting Hydrasynth owner.
Marc Barnes Sounds Modwave Collection
KORG’s recent range of original synths includes an homage to their DW 8000 in the form of the modwave which delivers wavetable-based synthesis and motion sequencing. It’s been a real hit for KORG and recently received a Mk.II update with more bang for your buck.
Like our previous sound designer, I’ve featured Marc Barnes Sounds here before, and with good reason. Aside from being a wonderfully decent chap, Marc can also turn his hand to some great sound design, a job he squeezes in between his day job and being the keyboard player and MD in Scotland’s leading wedding band, currently on tour in Italy!
Marc has been a huge fan of these recent KORG releases and is also involved in the beta testing team, so he knows these machines intimately. Ooh er! Seriously though, he has been able to coax many great sounds out of the opsix, wavestate and modwave.
With four banks available, your modwave will absolutely love you for feeding it these patches, and so will your ears. Marc makes full use of all the modwave’s unqiue features to come up with some truly inspiring and immensely useable patches.
Each of the four volumes are available separately for a mere £8.99. There’s also a bundle of Vol.1-3 for just £19.99.A cross all four volumes you have over 130 custom performances and more than 260 custom programs that cover a wide range of styles and genres. The KORG modwave is also currently on offer at our affiliate partner!
Digital Alchemy Patches for XILS-Labs KaoX
When French developer XILS-Labs released KaoX it was, quite possibly, the first attempt at properly recreating Yamaha’s legendary first foray into FM synthesis. However, it didn’t stop at simply delivering a 1:1 version. It reimagined the concept and sought to take it beyond its original remit.
The Yamaha GS-1, upon which KaoX is based, was Yamaha’s first commercially available FM synthesizer. Unlike its later, more famous (and affordable) siblings, the GS-1, along with the later GS-2, CE-20 and CE-25 instruments, used cross-modulation FM synthesis, as opposed to algorithmic FM.
The difference was that instead of a number of configurable operators, the GS-1 used four pairs of operators to cross-modulate each other. The end result, whilst still distinctly FM in nature, was a richer, warmer tone than is often attributed to the method. XILS-Labs decided to take this as a platform on which to build something more complex.
They added virtual analog and two, of what they call, Chaotic oscillators along with multiple filters, LFOs and four DADSR envelopes for a truly powerful sound design experience. Then they doubled it up with two of these synth engines!
And it is this powerhouse that Alessandro Cardinale has used to concoct Digital Alchemy. Alessandro has worked with the likes of Steinberg, Native Instruments, Arturia and many more. He is a professor of sound synthesis and has released in excess of 70 sound libraries, consisting of over 10,000 sounds and counting.
Digital Alchemy brings all of Alessandro’s skills to bear on this unique yet powerful instrument. Sounds range from glassy, biting FM tones to warm, enveloping timbres that betray its analogue elements to the max.
Best of all, the pack is available now for just €14, down from €29, and works on both the full version of KaoX as well as the free Player version! The full version is currently on sale until the end of August 2024!
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