Xen-Arts has released IVOR2, a significant update to their freeware IVOR microtonal subtractive synthesizer in VST plugin format for Windows based host applications.
The first version of IVOR was released back in 2012 and it was one of the very few microtonal virtual synthesizers on the freeware plugin market. It was fully compatible with MTS (MIDI Tuning Standard) which allows the user to microtune any MIDI note to any pitch across the MIDI range. It supported local microtuning (per patch), as well as global microtuning which was applied to all presets automatically.
IVOR2 brings a significant amount of new features and improvements, some of which will soon be applied to all other virtual instruments in Xen-Arts’ product range. First off, there’s the new user interface, not drastically different compared to the old one, but certainly nicer and more modern looking. In terms of new features, there are too many to cover in detail in this article, so I’ll briefly mention the most important ones below (the detailed list of new features and improvements is available on the product page linked in the download section at the bottom of this article).
The synth now comes with an advanced modulation source generator which (when set to ARO mode) can apply additional sideband spectra to the signal, leading to more complex timbres. Compared to the old version, the modulation source is now a separate section of the synth which can be used to modulate the filters and the two oscillators. In addition, the modulation source generator can be used to modulate the PWM and phase range of both oscillators, resulting in complex modulated timbres with multiple evolving parameters.
Same as the original IVOR, the new IVOR2 plugin was developed using SynthEdit and it will only work in 32-bit VST plugin host applications on Windows. If you’re running a 64-bit digital audio workstation, you could try converting your plugins to 64-bit using a third party tool such as jBridge (€14.99) or 32 Lives ($99).
Download
IVOR2 is available for free download via Xen-Arts (5.6 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit VSTi plugin format for Windows).
