Six-voice analog rack from 1987 with 1000 patches, built around the Curtis CEM3396 voice chip. The core runs the original firmware on an emulated Motorola 6809 board, which drives six CEM3396 voice models oversampled 2x. Banks 2 to 9 are read from the patch EPROM, all 96 patch parameters are mapped to MIDI CC, and both LFOs can sync to the host tempo or MIDI clock.
"The original Nord Lead from 1995, running on Nordic, a C++ reimplementation of the Nord Lead 1 DSP program. It was written clean room from the behaviour of the unit, is bit exact to the original DSP program and was checked against a real Nord Lead 1, so no ROM or firmware is needed. 48 voices, unison, morph, arpeggiator and all four slots A-D, each on its own MIDI channel, with its own editor below the rack. Nord Lead 2 programs can be imported and exported."
"Eighteen legends, one plugin. From 90s digital synths running bit-exact on an emulated 56k DSP, through FM and sound chips like the DX7, OPL3, SID and Ayumi, samplers and trackers like the Akai S1000 and FastTracker, all the way to the classic Wurlitzer 200A, Oberheim Matrix-1000 and Minimoog Model D, modeled from their analog circuits, and the Hammond B3 with its tonewheels and Leslie speaker.
Version 2.0 opens every sound parameter of each instrument on a board below the rack.
"A 303-style analog bassline and acid sequencer. Program patterns on a piano-roll grid, generate acid lines in a tap and play them on the built-in 303-style analog model with Devil Fish-style controls. With a Behringer TD-3 connected (every color variant: TD-3-BK, RD, SR, AM, BU, WH…), TDminator also edits its patterns and sends them to the hardware.
Version 2.0 adds the bassline, MIDI pattern switching and a 64-pattern factory bank. Patterns can be edited while they play: notes, accents and slides change on the next pass."
"https://www.discodsp.com/discoverypro/ A walkthrough of Discovery Pro 9.8: the new Wide unison mode, plus the 9.7 Chorus / Phaser and Unison editors."
TED-8 is the Oberheim TEO-5 as a plugin, built from thousands of measurements of a real unit. Every knob, every curve and every effect was recorded, compared and tuned until the plugin and the hardware sounded the same side by side. Then we gave it three more voices, a Poly Unison mode that stacks up to 6 voices on each of 8 notes (48 voices at once), a full modulation matrix and a cable to the real thing, so TED-8 works on its own in your DAW or as the editor and librarian for the TEO-5 on your desk.
HOW WE MODELED IT
TED-8 How we modeled it
We started with a TEO-5 on the bench and a lot of patience. One note at a time, one knob step at a time, we recorded what the unit actually does: how far the filter moves per step, how the envelopes curve, how fast each LFO setting runs, how each effect colors the sound. TED-8 follows those recordings rather than a datasheet, so a patch you dial in feels and responds the way it does on the hardware.
The little imperfections came along too. Each voice sits a few cents apart and a touch louder or softer than its neighbour, the way the voices of the unit do, so chords breathe instead of sounding cloned.
"The Minimoog has the voice many of us first fell in love with: a fat bass that sits under everything, a lead that cuts through any mix, a filter you can play like a second instrument.
The CA-72 by Idle Foundry rebuilds a 1972 Model D from the inside. Every board was transcribed from the service documents into SPICE netlists, and the real-time model was derived from those simulations and calibrated against a real instrument, so the oscillators drift, the ladder filter sings and the mixer breaks up the way the original does.
Its front panel opens right below the Retromulator rack. LO, HI and ULTRA quality trade CPU for detail, and offline bounces always render with the 4x engine. DOUBLE, SPREAD and ENTROPY add a detuned twin, stereo width and the small differences between two real units. Presets are .fxp files in Factory and User banks with .fxb bank import and export, selected by MIDI Program Change, and every panel control answers a MIDI CC."
"https://www.discodsp.com/roboto/ Roboto 1.1 adds a talk box mode: a plucked string sings through the mouth like a guitar or synth talk box, here on the built-in Talk Box Groove song. It works with every voice. Free for macOS, Windows, Linux and iOS"
"Rotobo is a singing voice synthesizer. Write a melody in the piano roll, type a word on each note, and Roboto sings it. The voice is synthesized with no samples, from a glottal pulse source, five formant resonators and shaped noise for consonants. Roboto is free and runs as a plugin or standalone on macOS, Windows, Linux, iPhone and iPad."
Piano roll where every note carries a word. A note named + sings the next syllable of the previous word.
Text tab that holds the whole song as text (word:note:beats), so songs can be typed or pasted.
Automation curves along the song for volume, pitch bend, vibrato depth, breath, formant shift and chorus.
Built-in songs in every language to try.
Import MIDI, karaoke MIDI (.kar), UltraStar, LRC lyrics, SRT subtitles and song text, from the menu or by dropping the file on the window. MIDI notes without lyrics are sung on "ah".
Musicalize button: plain lyric lines get a pentatonic melody, one note per syllable.
VOICE
Synthesized voice with no samples: a glottal pulse source, five formant resonators and shaped noise for consonants.
Sings in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Finnish and Swedish, with spelling rules for each language. Japanese kanji are read on macOS and iOS.
"Retromulator is a multi-core retro hardware emulation app and AUv3 plug-in that brings legendary synthesizer, sampler, and keyboard cores back to life through authentic low-level emulation. Each core runs its actual firmware, physical model, or sample data — delivering the unmistakable character of the hardware that defined electronic music from the early 80s through the 2000s.
— EMULATED CORES —
VIRTUAL ANALOG SYNTHS
Motorola DSP 56300 recreation (interpreter mode), built on the open-source Gearmulator by the dsp56300 team:
• Access Virus A, B and C • Access Virus TI / TI2 / Snow • Clavia Nord Lead 2X • Waldorf microQ • Waldorf Microwave XT
FM SYNTHESIS
• Yamaha DX7 — original chip set emulation, based on VDX7 by Charles Chiaccona
• Yamaha OPL3 — Nuked OPL3 cycle-accurate FM by Nuke.YKT
"Bliss 3.20 is out for macOS, Windows, Linux and iPadOS. The crusher gains five vintage sampler DAC models (SP-1200, MPC60, Emulator II, LinnDrum and Mirage) that alias with the pitch like the real hardware. Sampling gets round robins, silence trimming with a recording threshold, and program range capture that renders a whole bank of plugin programs in one pass. Zones can now be grouped and linked so one edit updates the whole set, with per-zone CC ranges and CC choke for realistic hi-hat control."
"New Commodore 64 SID 6581/8580 core — cycle-accurate emulation via reSID with 3-voice polyphony, oldest-voice stealing, high-quality resampling, and a full 50 Hz macro playback engine driving wavetable, pulsetable, filtertable and speedtable per voice and MIDI control of cutoff (CC 74), resonance (CC 71), pulse width (CC 75), vibrato (CC 1) and pitch bend.
Fixed DX7 master tuning offset — A4 now stays at 440 Hz on cleared battery RAM boot.
Fixed resampler stale rate on synth swap — switching to a synth with a different native rate.
Fixed OpenWurli tremolo depth/swing curve being non-monotonic at high settings.
Fixed OpenWurli noteOff not clamping to the valid MIDI range, which could leave out-of-range notes unreleasable."
[Note: although DiscoDSP gives credit to The Usual Suspects, it's my understanding TUS is not happy about it. From a forum:
"He basically took our source, put his own wrapper on it and is trying to sell it and use it to promote his own business. Can't prevent it, but frankly this is reprehensible IMHO.
Yes. He knows he cannot legally "sell" it due to the licensing model our code is published under. Therefore he sells "support" of "his development efforts" to include difficult things like "git clone" and other Arcane and extremely difficult stuff. sigh... I'd strongly advise anyone using it not to actually pay him for it, but that is just my opinion.]
What isn't clear is whether the UI is just the player above or includes the full editors by The Usual Suspects. I'm hearing it's just the player, which in effect might be an upsell for the full editors by The Usual Suspects.
That said:
"Retromulator brings legendary hardware cores back to life through authentic low-level emulation. The virtual analog synths are powered by a faithful recreation of the Motorola DSP 56300 processor, the Yamaha DX7 runs a full emulation of its original chip set, and the Akai S1000 sampler plays your SF2, SFZ, and Bliss sample banks with studio-quality interpolation. Each core runs its actual firmware or sample data — delivering the unmistakable character of hardware that defined electronic music from the early 80s through the 2000s.
Unlike traditional software emulations that recreate synthesizer behavior by approximation, Retromulator emulates the original integrated circuits at the hardware level. The virtual analog synths run on a cycle-accurate Motorola DSP 56300, the Yamaha DX7 runs a full emulation of its Hitachi HD6303R sub-CPU and Yamaha YM21280/YM21290 EGS/OPS chip set, and the Akai S1000 sampler runs on the SFZero v3.0.0 engine with 8-point sinc interpolation supporting SF2, SFZ, ZBP, and ZBB sample banks. Each core executes its authentic firmware or sample data exactly as intended.
Load the ROM firmware from your own hardware or sample banks from your library, place them in the designated folder, and Retromulator takes care of the rest. The result is not an approximation — it is the real hardware running inside your DAW.
Retromulator is built on Gearmulator, an open-source synthesizer emulation project by the dsp56300 team. We are grateful for their extraordinary work in bringing these classic instruments back to life."
OB-Xf is a continuation and modernization of the last open source version of OB-Xd by 2DaT and later discoDSP, bringing together several efforts going on in the audio space and combining them inside the Surge Synth Team infrastructure.
It is an amazing freely downloadable virtual synthesizer inspired by the venerable Oberheim OB-X.
The original Oberheim OB-X is one of the best analog poly-synths ever, used by Rush, Van Halen, Queen, Japan, Eurythmics, Ultravox, Tangerine Dream and many others.
It is a classic synthesizer with a timeless sound that continues to captivate musicians and producers alike. With its rich, full-bodied tones and expansive sound design capabilities, the OB-Xf is the perfect choice for those looking to add a vintage touch to their music.
The OB-Xf is a synthesizer that has been designed to recreate the sound and behavior of the Oberheim OB-X, OB-Xa and OB-8. However, the architecture of the original instruments was limited in some ways, so the OB-Xf includes a number of additional or altered features. Overall, the OB-Xf has been designed to produce a sound that is as good and as rich as the original OB-X.
Also, like many synths of the OB-X's generation, the OB-Xf has no internal effects so its sounds and textures can be greatly enhanced by the use of additional processing like chorus, reverb, delay, etc.
In this demo I will just let you hear what some amazing sound designers have made for this stunning synth simply by scrolling and playing some beautiful presets.
No additional effects or outboard processing here. What you listen is what you get!
"Explore the latest updates in Discovery Pro 8.16, featuring a superior oscillator engine, Polyphonic Aftertouch with MPE-ready routing, and the innovative Adaptive Filter Slope for dynamic, expressive sound design.
🎛️ What's New in 8.16:
Superior Oscillator Engine
Brand new analog modeled engine with warm character and richer harmonic content, especially in the bass range
Improved hard sync and FM synthesis with real-time discontinuity correction
Classic per-bank global switch to retain the traditional engine
Adaptive Filter Slope
Innovative dynamic filter character that responds to your playing style
Note and velocity matrix switching for expressive filter behavior
Accessible via filter presets popup for streamlined workflow
Polyphonic Aftertouch
Per-voice pressure routing for individual note expression control
MPE-ready for modern expressive controllers
Additional Updates
Consolidated oscillator menu with clarified phase labels
LCD status display for CPU protection state
Improved menu organization
Arpeggiator fixes
"Explore the latest updates in Discovery Pro 8.14, our most significant release featuring major sound design enhancements and workflow improvements.
🎛️ What's New in 8.14: Factory I Preset Bank Overhaul 128 professionally crafted presets by Kulshan Studios Complete refresh of the Factory bank with modern, production-ready sounds
New Filter Models Moog Ladder Filter - State-of-the-art analog modeling Oberheim SEM Filter - Authentic multimode filter with two variants:
Classic mode for vintage warmth Raw mode for increased resonance and saturation
Every knob, every curve and every effect was recorded, compared and tuned until the plugin and the hardware sounded the same side by side. Then we gave it three more voices, a Poly Unison mode that stacks up to 6 voices on each of 8 notes (48 voices at once), a full modulation matrix and a cable to the real thing, so TED-8 works on its own in your DAW or as the editor and librarian for the TEO-5 on your desk.
