Ummet Ozcan has announced the forthcoming release of Genesis Pro, a powerful synthesizer VST plugin that will only cost one euro.
February just became an exciting month to be an aspiring music producer – especially if you don’t have any money. Because for those of you in the know, the wait is finally over. After spending eight years making it and teasing it on social media, it looks like Ummet Ozcan is finally ready to release Genesis Pro – his long-awaited, ‘ultimate’ software synthesizer, for the price of 1 Euro! Which is great, because if the features list and first-look video are anything to go by, this thing could sell for 200 times that.
See also: Top 10 FREE Synthesizer VST PluginsUmmet Ozcan’s reasoning behind the synth and its price tag, whether you are a fan of his music or not, should be an inspiration to us all. As Ummet explains in the first-look video, he “did not spend too much time in making tutorials or helping out upcoming producers” because of his busy schedule, and he sees Genesis Pro as his opportunity to make up for this and contribute to the music industry. And in terms of its design, this certainly seems to be the case: it is intended to be useable by and satisfying for beginners but has real levels of depth and features that advanced sound designers crave. Refreshingly, it has features that appear to be there for the sole purpose of making things easier for newcomers and introduce them to the techniques and possibilities of sound design. The way Genesis Pro is designed and the fact that it is being put out there for a price anyone can afford is symbolic of what Ozcan is trying to do with it.
Which all sounds very nice, but is it any good? Well, it certainly seems to be a powerful synthesizer. These are some of the main features, and we are only scratching the surface. In fact, according to the developer, it will take you a year before you fully know what the synthesizer is capable of.
The Genesis Pro can do Subtractive, Phase Distortion, FM, and ROM synthesis. It boasts three oscillators that can generate sounds independently or simultaneously. You can morph seamlessly between them in real-time with a dedicated slider. Each oscillator can have a filter applied to it. There are eight filter types and five saturation modes to choose from. Genesis Pro also features a 32-step sequencer, an arpeggiator, and has the ability to load external custom MIDI sequences. It lets you split these sequences between the upper and lower keys of your keyboard, and even lets you split the keyboard so you can play one instrument with one hand and another with your other hand.
There’s a massive variety of modulation capabilities. You can modulate any knob on the interface, and every knob animates in real-time to show you what’s going on. There is a “connect everything to everything” feel to it, which is even more apparent in the modulation matrix function and the fact that the five ASDR envelopes can be connected to over 100 destinations.
Genesis Pro also has a mastering section (with a filter, limiter, more saturation, and a stereo widener) and an impressive array of fourteen built-in effects, including a whopping twelve types of distortion, an eight-stage phaser, delay, ‘hyperspace’ reverb and a vowel filter (accompanied by an amusing graphic on its central screen). To top it off, for ease of use, you can assign commands from CTRL+1 to CTRL+8, and there is a ‘Picasso mode’ with an extensive range of aesthetic customization options – though it already looks very slick.
Are you not entertained?
However, these weren’t the features that excited me or stuck out to me the most. The things I loved the most were the dynamic link, the alpha knob, intelligent chord mode, and the x-gen tone generator.
The dynamic link opens up the Genesis to the rest of your DAW – you can use it to apply any tool in your arsenal to what’s going on inside the synth – for modulation, or for using sound signals (including your voice) to trigger events in the Genesis. The alpha knob acts as a master knob for anything that you care to assign to it – click a few buttons, and all of a sudden, you can control lots of knobs at once using the alpha. The intelligent chord mode and x-gen tone generator are two of those features I mentioned earlier, that seems to only be there to make things easier for the less advanced. The intelligent chord mode is exactly what it sounds like – you can assign a complicated chord to be played using only one key.
Finally, the x-gen tone generator is what, most newcomers will probably be the most excited about. It is a screen where you can choose from either ‘soft tone,’ ‘hard tone’ or ‘plucked tone,’ and each time you click your preferred option, the tone generator will make your sound softer, harder, or more plucked. Then you can move to the effects and layering screen for further options. What’s not to love about that? When you click your preferred option, the relevant knobs and functions on the interface light up to show you what’s going on. So not only does Genesis Pro do the job for you via an algorithm, but it also shows you what’s it’s doing as it does it.
While there is no specific release date yet, the Genesis Pro is slated to be coming out this month. If this synthesizer does manage to fulfill what it sets out to achieve, then it will surely be worth both your time and your money. There is an argument to be made that it doesn’t do anything truly new or unique, as some people on the internet have been saying. And this is perhaps true – there may well be other synths out there that have the same or similar features. But does this truly matter, when the product in question is this packed with features, this thoughtfully designed, and this cheap?
Whatever sound you want to synthesize, there’s a good chance that it can be done with Genesis Pro. In fact, the synth itself seems designed specifically to help you create as many different sounds as possible. Do yourself a favor and give it a go, because if the previews are anything to go by, this is the first truly must-try piece of software of 2020.
More info: Genesis Pro (not yet released, expected in 2020)
More articles:
- Layers Is A FREE Orchestral VST Instrument By Orchestral Tools
- RoughRider3 FREE Compressor VST Plugin By Audio Damage
- Top 20 Free VST Plugins Of 2019
Last Updated on February 5, 2020 by Tomislav Zlatic.
