Free Nocturna Wavetable Synthesizer VSTi Plugin (BETA)

Electric Cafe has announced the release of Nocturna, a freeware virtual synthesizer VST plugin (32-bit Windows only) with freely editable waveforms, developed using SynthEdit. The plugin is currently in public beta testing phase, with the final build expected for release on December 5th this year.

As already mentioned, Nocturna is a virtual instrument that is being developed using SynthEdit, which means that it is only compatible with 32-bit VST plugin hosts on Windows. The instrument is currently in public beta phase, with the latest beta build available for free download via KVR Audio (link in the download section below). The final version of the plugin, expected for release on December 5th this year, will be hosted by Elektric Cafe, a trance record label based in Montreal, Canada.

See also: Free Cybermath Wavetable Synthesizer By Ricardo F. Gomes!

Feature-wise, I was happy to see that Nocturna is not just another bread and butter virtual analog synthesizer, which is something that is unfortunately the case with a lot of freeware SynthEdit creations (don’t get me wrong though, there’s some seriously epic SynthEdit stuff out there as well). On the contrary, this freeware synth has some pretty cool features and it’s quite a shame that a large number of potential users won’t have access to it, due to the 32-bit only limitation.

To name a few standout features, Nocturna comes with two oscillator modules, each with freely editable waveforms (which can also be saved as TXT files for later use) and per-oscillator filter, detune, pan and volume ADSR controls. The synth also features an advanced 16-stage modulation envelope, a couple of sub generators, phase and frequency modulation, a wave generator, a couple of LFOs and a 4-slot LFO matrix, an XY envelope controller, legato and a built-in patch manager. On top of all that, you also get the FX section which is available on a separate panel, featuring a set of five built-in effects: EQ, reverb, delay, chorus and compressor.

The performance hit when using the synth is reasonably low for the most part, although the CPU hit can increase quite drastically when playing multiple notes at the same time. Feature-wise, the final version of the plugin should be pretty much identical to the current beta, however it is expected to iron out some of the bugs that are detected in the meanwhile. If you like Nocturna, join the public beta thread at KVR Audio and help make the final release as good as possible (or simply leave a comment below and I’ll forward it to the developer).

Nocturna (beta) is available for free download via KVR Audio, final version will be available at Electric Cafe on December 5th (4.87 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit VST plugin format for Windows).