SampleScience has announced the release of Synthetic Vortices, a free collection of ambient pads and soundscapes sampled from the Ensoniq Fizmo hardware synthesizer.
Synthetic Vortices contains a set of 90 audio samples in 16-bit WAV format. Also included are SFZ mappings for each sampled sound. The sounds were recorded from the Ensoniq Fizmo synthesizer manufactured back in 1998. The instrument used the Transwave synthesis technology to create organic sounds which weren’t available in other synthesizers of its era. It worked particularly well for creating evolving pads and cinematic soundscapes.
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These types of sounds are exactly the ones that are featured in Synthetic Vortices. You’re getting a lovely set of retro-sounding pads and ambient sounds, sprinkled with Fizmo’s lovely lo-fi sonic character. Some of the samples sound almost as if they were captured from an old 12-bit sampler or a noisy tape, but this only makes them more interesting to the ear. Add a bit of delay and reverb to the output followed by a low-pass filter to tame some of the noise and you’ll have a bunch of wonderfully lush pad sounds at your disposal.
The sample pack can work with any sampler or digital audio workstation capable of loading WAV files. SampleScience has also included the patches in SFZ format which you can use in a compatible sampler such as sforzando or Grace. Making your own mappings shouldn’t be hard, either, and you can take things to the next level if you own a more advanced sampler instrument such as Kontakt. For some sound design inspiration, check out the amazing Project Pegasus instrument library by our writer Bryan Lake.
On a related note, SampleScience has released a virtual drum module called Dr. Beat Box. It features the sounds of classic drum machines from the 70s and early 80s. Dr. Beat Box is priced at $12 USD and is available for Windows and macOS in VST, VST3, and AU plugin formats.
Synthetic Vortices is available for free download via SampleScience (176 MB download size, ZIP archive, contains 90 samples in 16-bit WAV format, presets in SFZ format).
Last Updated on March 12, 2023 by Tomislav Zlatic.
