Infected Sounds has released Little-V, a freeware EDM-oriented virtual analog synthesizer in VST plugin format for digital audio workstations on Windows.
Little-V seems to be loosely inspired by the Novation K-Station, at least when it comes to the GUI design and its core feature set. The K-Station was one of the more popular portable hardware synthesizers that existed before the beginning of the analog synth revival era. Nowadays, most users would probably opt for something like the Arturia MicroBrute or one of its more expensive analog counterparts (such as the brand new Arturia MiniBrute 2 or the more advanced Korg Prologue), but there was indeed something special about these affordable digital hardware synthesizers like the Novation K-Station, Alesis Micron, and the Korg microKORG.
Hardware inspirations aside, Little-V is hardly any better than hundreds of other freeware virtual analog synthesizers out there. It uses the standard SynthMaker building blocks “under the hood” and doesn’t offer anything special in terms of sound quality, synthesis engine functionality, or the quality/variety of the included presets.
That’s not to say that Little-V is a notably bad virtual instrument, either, because it’s a relatively versatile VA with an OK-ish set of presets. However, it simply doesn’t bring anything new to the table, especially when compared to the excellent freeware synthesizers like the Tyrell N6, Fathom Mono, Cobalt, and others. It reminds me of other SynthMaker-made freeware virtual analog synthesizers like 4-Tune, Mini Bounce, and a few others. Instruments like these are worth checking out if you’re only starting with music production on the PC and need a few virtual synthesizers to play around with. But if you’re already covered on the virtual synth front, feel free to skip this freeware offering.
Being a SynthMaker-based plugin, Little-V is currently only available for use in 32-bit VST plugin hosts on Windows. The developer has stated that a 64-bit version of the plugin should be released in near future.
Little-V is available for free download via Infected Sounds (2.3 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit VST plugin format for Windows).
