Attack PhenOmen is a free virtual analogue synthesizer in VSTi plugin format for Windows based DAW applications, currently being developed by Phonics.
The plugin is currently developed by Nick Johnstone from Phonics, although the initial version of the instrument was created by Johan Bryntesson who is also known as yobare. If you have any suggestions or feature requests regarding Attack PhenOmen, feel free to share them in the comments section below and I will forward them to the developer. Several updates have already been introduced since the first release (more than six updates in one week), significantly improving the CPU performance and fixing several bugs.
Attack PhenOmen contains 60 raw waveforms from the Virus C synthesizer, along with a smaller selection of analogue style waveforms which were sampled from the Cheetah MS-6 analogue synthesizer. The plugin also features a mod matrix, three filter types, a noise generator, etc.
The factory sound bank currently contains only 16 presets, so feel free to submit your own patches to the developer! I’ve played the instrument for a couple of minutes and some of the included sounds are pretty cool for modern EDM style tracks, although this synthesizer is almost begging to be programmed because there are quite a few parameters to tweak and play around with.
On a related note, all of the previously released VST plugins by Nick Johnstone are now available for free download on his PhonicsAudio website. Some pretty neat tools are available on the website, including the powerful Entrancer virtual synthesizer which was built as an entry for the KVR Developer Challenge 2009. You’ll also find some cool effects there, as well as an interesting free VST plugin host.
Another interesting instrument you should check out is Vaccin, which has just been released by Johan Bryntesson (the same developer who made the initial version of Attack PhenOmen). It reminds me quite a lot of the good old Novation V-Station, both in terms of design and available features. It definitely looks like it could be a cool instrument for re-creating some classic electronic music sounds.
Download
Attack PhenOmen is available for free download via KVR Audio (2.3 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit VSTi plugin format for Windows, made with SynthMaker).
