Spectra Additive ReSynthesizer by Synthetech Sound has been made available for FREE by its developer on the Reason Add-On Shop.
The audio plugin world is a pretty dynamic one – there are new companies popping up constantly, and whatever it is you’re making, chances are at least 20 other people are making it, too.
I’m mentioning this because it appears that Synthetech Sound, the creators of Spectra Additive ReSynthesizer, have shut down. Their website is down, it hasn’t been up since March, and their Twitter account hasn’t been updated since 2018. So that looks pretty dead.
As an act of true professionalism and love for the community, however, Synthetech Sound has shown where their priorities lie and have made Spectra Additive ReSynthesizer completely free.
Here’s how it sounds.
Like I said, the site is down, so there’s not a ton of information on what Spectra does, but here’s the basic gist:
- Drawable Sound Spectrum, Filters, and Waveforms;
- Drawable Harmonic Modulators, Harmonic Envelopes;
- 3x 16-stage Multiple Segment Envelope Generators, Spectral Analyser.
That’s pretty crazy – Additive is one of the synth types that I’m not super well-versed in, but Spectra seems to go beyond what a traditional additive synth offers and combines the whole thing with spectral processing.
You can draw your own waveforms and your own filter shape, edit the LFO waveforms, and morph the filters. If you’re more of a pickup-and-play type of musician, Spectra Additive ReSynthesizer comes with 400 presets to help you get started.
While having this for free is awesome, it’s still a shame we probably won’t be seeing anything new from Synthetech Sound any time soon. Spectra appears to be a very well-crafted, rich-sounding, and incredibly versatile synth – I can only imagine the manhours that must’ve gone into this.
If you own Reason, do yourself a favor and nab this. There’s a bunch of free stuff on the store, but comparatively, few that are this complete and feature-rich. Even if the company isn’t around anymore, we can still pay our dues by using its work to create awesome music.
Here’s a quote from the product page:
“Spectra is a powerful digital additive resynthesiser built exclusively for the Reason platform. Spectra’s ability to analyse and resynthesise any periodic, harmonic waveform via its inbuilt spectral waveform analyser means you may never exhaust Spectra’s sound creation possibilities.
If you have ever wanted to sculpt sound by drawing your harmonic spectrum, waveform or drawing a spectral filter response then Spectra may be what you’ve been waiting for.”
At least judging from their decision to make Spectra free, that appears to have been their goal all along, too.
More info: Spectra Additive ReSynthesizer (Reason Extension, available for both Windows and macOS versions of Reason on the Reason Add-On Shop)
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11 Comments
Numanoid
onGreat! Does this also work with the Reason version that has been free?
Brenny C
onThere is no free version of Reason – unless you’re talking about Reason Lite that came with Korg hardware.
Corti.Son
onHey Numanoid,
the synth runs in Reason Lite. Only some presets can’t be loaded because some devices are not available in the Lite version.
Numanoid
onThanks for the info. I am thinking about the version of Reason that was given away free with purchases at Plugin Boutique last year. Luckily I found out that this synth is backward compatible and still work with my Reason v10 :-)
J-Man Digital
onI’m assuming that I can run this synth in the Reason vst plug? I am going to log in to my Reason account and see if there is a way to get this to work as an add on in the plug in.
Majed Salih
onThank you so much !
BTW, Reason + is now for 3 $ for 3 months. Use the code 333 when subscribe.
Brenny C
onMeh. Sounds very basic, nothing fancy.
esi
onHi! Am I the only one that tries to download it and does not work? I push the Download button and nothing happens. Do you know what is going on?
Numanoid
onYou can’t download it directly. You have to download it via Reason.
esi
onthanks, Numanoid!
Numanoid
onNo problem :-) But this is why I am not using Reason more these days, because one has to be online to get to most out of it, some Rack Extensions will not work offline. I am still keeping my main computer for VSTs offline for the most time