Food comas. Empty wrapping paper. Or whatever you’re celebrating, hopefully you’ve got some time off to grab a slew of free synth-y gifts available to download right now. Need a soundtrack? 1987 and Atari ST have you covered.
There are some great free gifts, so I’ve selected some of the best.
MFA Tactum for Max for Live
The absolute must-download (if you’ve got Ableton Live 12 Suite) is Manifest Audio’s superb new Tactum synth. It’s a 2-oscillator “stochastic” monosynth. Basically, inventor Noah has taken his exploration of probability and uncertainty and applied it to synthesis: each note becomes an event with per-note randomization across envelopes, filters, modulation, and effects. It’s a beautiful idea, and something smart sound designers would already do — adding those little variations opens up an instrument and makes it sound more organic. Building this stochastic idea into the synth architecture is an idea I hope inspires others, as this seems to have endless possibilities. (I’d say that’s even a mathematical certainty!)
You get seven “circuits” — Noise, Metal, Texture, Waves, Bits, and Boom — and each of those has two dedicated effects. It’s brilliant for percussion but also wobbly-good melody lines. It’s absurd that this is free.
Noah and Manifest do have a charity in mind, though, so if you feel like this should cost money, send that money to people in need — something we should all be making space for now. They recommend the fine folks at World Central Kitchen which right now is doubling gifts to Gaza.
If you missed it, last year’s Percotone freebie from Manifest is another favorite.
Manifest Audio also has a Boxing Day holiday week sale on now through January 2.
Manifest Audio OSCx for Max for Live
Wait, there’s one more from Manifest Audio. OSCx is just a simple mapping dial that sends automation, modulation, or other data to any Open Sound Control target via UDP. And if you don’t already have it (or didn’t update it), it’s included in Mod Squad Free. That’s a handy utility for OSC.
Free 4-bit wavetable goodness from Fors with Junior-Lite
As you may have guessed, this is a freeware Lite version of Junior. That’s a Nintendo Game Boy-inspired instrument — not an exact recreation, but inspired by the 4-bit classic. This one is plenty powerful even without the modulation tables and noise generator of its sibling, including features like buffer transforms.
This landed in December with the others, but it’s free forever, because, as Fors say,s “demos are boring.” Well, it got me interested in Junior!
BPB (Bedroom Producers Blog), one of my favorite sites, has a detailed write-up of this one — and there’s no better place on the Internet to find free plug-ins, including here on CDM.
Fors releases Junior-Lite, a FREE 4-bit wavetable synth plugin
Free Bloom Bass Groove (with code)
Plugin Boutique has a nice new sample-based bass phrase player — the idea being, you start with a recording of a pro bass player’s performance and adjust that to taste. (Spoiler: this method still works far better than generative AI, and is no less flexible. Just … going to point that out. Pay musicians, basically.)
I am grabbing this because I love what happens when you use this as a source for plug-ins that completely mangle the results.
This is the “lite” version, but it’s still very capable. When you check out, enter code PB-XMAS-25 and the cost will magically reduce to zero.
Free generative MIDI effects from Sonic Bloom
Sonic Bloom is always giving back to the community; here’s another instant classic and goodness for Ableton Live Suite (Live + Max for Live) users. Madeleine writes in her newsletter, “As an early Christmas present, I have put together a new set of generative MIDI effect racks for chords, basslines and melodies, which I have showcased in an upcoming German course on MIDI effects in Ableton Live.”
And check Sonic Bloom for more educational resources, collaborations with Max for Cats, and details on how to book trainings.
Backspin for Max for Live
Our friends at Isotonik Studios offer up this one as a free gift. It’s a deep, deep Max for Live concoction created by developer Andrew Norris, for tape stop, wind-down, rewind, and backspin DJ effects — with a ton of details and extras:
- Three essential effect modes: Stop, Rewind, and Backspin
- Speed, Friction, and Spin Length controls for precise effect shaping
- Auto Mute options (Off/Temp/On) for seamless transitions
- Lock to Quantize integration for perfect timing
- Auto live audio recording with adjustable buffer length
- Save spins to disk for later use
- Full MIDI mapping and Push integration
Isotonik’s 30% off / 12 Days of Christmas sale is still going on through the end of the year, but this isn’t the late holiday sale round-up post — it’s the everything’s free post — so, moving on!
Free Caelum Audio sample pack
Look, I don’t often cover sample packs, but this involves Satan and puppy dogs, two of my favorite things. Yes, it’s after Christmas, but Satan is really worth invoking all year round, plus it seems to exist in a netherworld between Christmas and Halloween, Nightmare Before Christmas-style. (The creator notes: “I had my first child in late October and was too busy to put this out on Halloween.”)
Congrats! And here y’all go:
Again, really, who needs AI or even a Splice subscription when you’ve got Beer Can Kit, Chainsaw Massacre, and Satan Claws?
Free SampleScience Retro Cazio
Who doesn’t want more Casio MT-100 in their lives? Normally $20, this is free now as an AU and VST/VST3 plug-in for macOS and Windows. It should check out as free, but if not, enter code MERRYCHRISTMAS.
And an Atari ST playing you Christmas music
This is s a bit of an Atari classic. Developer Greg Kopchak (It’s All Relative) put together this demo for Christmas 1987 (the ROM is also downloadable):
“This disk has been put together using Music Studio, Degas, Neochrome, and Picswitch. The songs are all patched to play on any polyphonic sythesizer set to channel 1. The songs and pictures were culled from Atari BBS’s across america. Thanks to the unknown authors of these works. A special thanks to Randall Kopchak for the colorization of the Koala pics used on this disk. The song player on this disk is the Alite player. We will also have a disk of songs patched for the CZ-101 in solo mode in the very near future. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Greg Kopchak November 7, 1987”
The hardware pic at top is (CC-BY) Blake Patterson via Flickr, from Christmas 2022 — but an Atari ST is forever.
I hope everyone gets some deserved time with loved ones and a break, and some music in your lives.