Bedroom Producers Blog releases BPB 64, a freeware Commodore 64 virtual synthesizer for Windows and macOS.
BPB 64 is a sample-based virtual synthesizer that brings the sounds of the legendary Commodore 64 home computer to your DAW. The included patches were sampled directly from three different Commodore 64 units, all boasting different SID chips. I used the MSSIAH cartridge to program the patches and trigger the Commodore 64 via MIDI.
If you used BPB’s free Commodore 64 Synthesizer Sessions DELUXE library for Kontakt, you’d already be familiar with these sounds. However, the BPB 64 plugin takes the included patches one step further, with built-in effects and some clever Maize Sampler programming by SampleScience.
The sounds and the GUI design were handled by Bedroom Producers Blog, while SampleScience took care of turning the concept into a usable VST/AU plugin.
BPB 64 includes 37 multi-sampled patches, covering bass sounds, pads, leads, and the inevitable fast-paced arpeggios that make the SID chip so legendary. All sounds were captured raw, directly from the SID chip, so you’re getting the same infamous grit and lo-fi crunch that you’d get if you hooked up a C64 directly to your audio interface.
For those unfamiliar, the SID chip is Commodore 64’s audio chip. Unlike today’s sound cards and audio interfaces, the SID chip is a monophonic synthesizer with digital oscillators and an analog filter. The goal of this project was to use the SID chip to recreate some classic synth sounds as well as to sample iconic C64 leads and arpeggios.
That said, BPB 64 lets you tweak the included raw Commodore 64 presets to your liking. It includes a low-pass filter, an ADSR envelope, four built-in effects (delay, reverb, distortion, and chorus), and modulation. The modulation wheel controls the pitch modulation amount.
Use small amounts of pitch modulation to get the classic SID chip sound. Or, experiment with the built-in effects and modulation to customize the presets.
BPB 64 is available in VST and AU plugin formats for 64-bit digital audio workstations on Windows and macOS. You can download it for free by entering $0 at checkout (or donate any other amount to help BPB develop more plugins).
Download: BPB 64
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38 Comments
Z
onLooks great! Is it Apple Silicon native?
Philip formby
onIt sounds dope the filters are smooth as silk
Todd
onJust checked it with PlugInfo and yes it is Universal Binary 2! Hopefully the rest of the older BPB plugs will get updated to that as well. Great stuff!
BLK_rusha (sDuff)
onTHANK YOU!
Numanoid
onThanks, will check it out :-)
Rhythmic Robot has set Test Unit Kontakt synth free during christmas
rhythmicrobot.com/product/test-unit-kontakt-synth
ULR
onAnything about the c64 is instantly great! Thanks!
Pisces
onThanks Tom, respect!
bmovie
onThanks Tom, for this gift and everything you’re doing for the freeware community. Happy Xmas!
Numanoid
onKlavir, a Czech-made Petrof upright piano offered for free, to be used within the MNDALA 2 engine
mntra.io/product/klavir/
From a kvr thread
onNumanoid, that has to be the most confusing plugin site that you have ever sent me to in my 11 years on the internet. I’ll have another go on another day perhaps.
In the meantime Happy New Year to you and of course to Tomislav.
yzcoruhT
onWow! Thank you and Happy Christmas!
Chris S
onCool! TNX!!!
Numanoid
onI can’t easy MIDI learn the controls in the interface of Maize sampler made libs. Is this only a FL Studio problem ?
OldDoGO
oniZotope “Nectar 3 Plus” vocal processing plugin ($12.50) through 11 January plus you also get Melodyne Essentials for free and obviously the thenatan bells and brass.
Get it here- https://www.adsrsounds.com/product/software/izotope-nectar-plus-vocal-processor/
Tomislav Zlatic
onAmazing, thank you!
Brenny C
onIt’s not $12.50, it’s $124.50.
Gavz
onIt was $12.50 for a very short period – probably an ADSR mistake! Lucky if you grabbed it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AudioProductionDeals/comments/zrzrdl/izotope_nectar_3_plus_vocal_processing_plugin/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
PureFire
onWow nice work Tomislav, BPB and SampleScience and thanks so much, i want to try this, the sounds in the video demo take me back, but the plugin also still sound kind of futuristic.
much love and appreciation for everything Tomislav, BPB and well done, happy xmas to you and yours and all 🙏😊☘️❤️.
joshmelo
onSounds great, very quick to get what you want. Toss a good reverb on there and bam, sounds very modern and lush.
I will say it seems pretty easy to overload itself internally and create distortion, especially with polyphonic playing. Turning down the plugins volume fixes it.
FilFil
onThank you so much for this! Probably BPB’s best and most ambitious plugin so far!
Awesome sounds and presets. Instant disasterpeace vibes.
Todd
onThanks BPB for the ongoing freebies! Is this one Universal Binary 2 for native M1? Will any of your past releases be updated to UB2?
Todd
onOk…to answer my own question here…Yes it is UB2! :-)
Figrro
onAwsome plugin! Thanks for your hard work!
pacman
onSounds lovely!
Michal Ochedowski
onOSC Audio is offering a free plateVERB plugin.
Numanoid
onThanks for the info, that was an easy transaction :-)
oscaudio.netlify.app/software/plateverbmain
satychary
onHi Tom, WOW, thank you :)
Alex
onBPD, Tomislav, and SampleScience thank you so so much for this! It sounds amazing. Happy holidays and thank you so much for what you do for the community!
Phil
onGreat sounds! But why can’t I automate any of the parameters in Ableton Live 10?
Glide would be especially useful…
Leif
onAgreed, would be great to automate the knobs! Doesn’t work in FL Studio either.
Would also be nice to connect them to external MIDI controllers.
Phil
on‘Solved it’ by running two parallel track – one with glide and one without, then switching the volume between them. Bit fiddly, but I’m OK with the result: https://soundcloud.com/kraftkabel/snow-storm :)
Tomislav Zlatic
onGreat workaround! The current limitations are due to the platform we are using for development (Maize Sampler). Hopefully this will be fixed in future updates.
Bthelick
onoooooh its sampled?. that’s why you can’t do pulse width. that was the whole point of the c64 surely. Samples are never gonna do a SID justice sorry, I think that was a bad decision.
Numanoid
onI think it is an issue with the Maize sampler format, that parameters can’t easily be MIDI learnt. I hope that is something the Maize sampler developer think about updating.
Tom
onIs anyone else having trouble getting FL Studio to recognize the .vst3?
Mike
onThe SID chip isn’t monophonic – it’s 3-voice polyphonic…
Bthelick
onwas just about to type that. And the whole point of the SID was the pulse width modulation. With a simple sampled approach like this it can never sound like one (or certainly move like one) anyway.
Bthelick
onThe whole unique vibe of the SID was because it had pulse width modulation. This doesn’t! It misses the entire reason you would use it! its just baked into the presets statically. And the C64 certainly didn’t have delay etc. Anyone can add those later if they wanted, those knobs could have been used to give more accurate control over the sound like a real C64.
I might as well just use square or saw in vital, at least I would have the same variable control over PWM the sound as an actual SID.