Hinton & Fairchild have released Donk Machine 2, a freeware FM bass synthesizer VSTi plugin specialized for creating bass sounds which can be used in various sub genres of house music.
Donk Machine 2 is an FM synthesizer featuring four main oscillators and one sub oscillator with variable modulation amounts and decay/sustain envelopes per oscillator. The plugin also features a global amplitude envelope and a useful FX section consisting of a distortion module, reverb, bitcrusher, a tilt equalizer and a handy master compressor for shaping the sound on the output.
The sound palette of the instrument is rather limited in scope, as the plugin is basically built with the purpose of creating something called a “donk” bass sound. I have to admit that I’m not quite familiar with this particular type of sound or the genres which make use of it, but here’s a more detailed explanation from the developer himself:
I have finished a new virtual synthesizer in VSTi plugin format and it is very specialized. About 8 years ago, I’ve made an instrument called Donk Machine and I didn’t even realize that it has been used by the hardcore and bouncy house, spanish house, russian donk and some other sub house genres as a staple of their productions. That’s why I’ve made a new version of this instrument and released it as a new and improved VSTi plugin for Windows.
It’s also worth noting that the plugin features 110 factory presets, so you can instantly take a listen to the various sounds which it can produce and see if it’s a good fit for you or not. If you’re looking for a more flexible FM synthesizer, take a look at our round-up of the finest freeware FM synths.
I’ve spent about 10-15 minutes testing the plugin and I’ve certainly liked what I’ve heard so far. Although quite limited in scope, this instrument is absolutely capable of producing some rather fine sounding bass patches. I’ll keep it in my VSTi plugin folder for further inspection.
By the way, Hinton & Fairchild have recently released another plugin called BIGROOMKIXSYNTH which is worth looking into if you’re searching for a tool to create your own custom kick drum sounds. They also have a another somewhat different FM bass synthesizer called FMetal.
Audio Demo
Check out the Donk Machine 2 audio demo:
Download
Donk Machine 2 is available for free download via Hinton & Fairchild (1.8 MB download size, 7ZIP archive, 32-bit VSTi plugin format for Windows, made with SynthMaker).
Last Updated on December 19, 2014 by Tomislav Zlatic.
