It’s obvious from the infrequency of my posts that blogging is not high on my list of priorities. :[

Due to my frugal and curious nature, I sometimes go searching the Web for free soundware. Recently, I downloaded a bunch of free VST instruments and effects. Now I’m going through them bit by bit to see which ones I like, those that I don’t, and those I will never hear because they lock up my PC. >:[

As a composer of a wide spectrum of genre, I’m open to just about anything, so its fun to see what others are contributing to the music making community either to promote a commercial product or to demonstrate their latest SynthEdit creation.

Pretending to be organized, I’m starting with the A’s and working down the list alphabetically. Tonight I’ve been playing with two that show some potential: LinPlug’s FreeAlpha 3.0.1, and Angular Momentum’s Freehand 1.0.

FreeAlpha has some nice synth bass presets which would serve quite well in Drum ‘n’ Bass electronica compositions. I’ve tried tweaking the easy to use interface a bit, but sometimes don’t get the result I expect based upon my experience in subtractive synthesis. I’m pretty sure that operator ignorance of the synth is to blame. Time for me to read the docs.

AM’s Freehand features a sexy (I’ve always been a sucker for the high-tech infrared look), intuitive interface that lets you draw the waveform for any of its 3 oscillators. Add fairly flexible source and destination modulation, stereo chorus and stereo delay, and you’ve got a cool little soft synth. I’m also pleased with how relatively few CPU cycles it consumes on my 2.4 GHz P4.

Just for additional kicks, I think that I’ll try to put together a short track using just these two synths. Be cool.