Karanyi Sounds offer the Minipol virtual analog synthesizer as a free download for a limited time.
Nothing ushers in a holiday quite like free stuff. If you’ve been searching for a new sound maker to while away the hours, look no further.
Minipol is available for free download after subscribing to Karanyi Sounds’ newsletter.
For the uninitiated, Minipol is a virtual analog synthesizer. It is a subtractive synthesizer, which you undoubtedly have at least a dozen examples of. However, it has some neat features to help set it aside from the pack.
Minipol houses four oscillators, each with its own independent gain controls. Each oscillator has its own waveform, your expected sine, saw, square, and pulse waves. All of these can be independently panned as well.
There is a single filter, which is a state variable by design. You cannot select the filter’s slope, which is a bit of a bummer.
There are also effects included, with a delay, reverb, tone, and chorus present. These all mesh well with the synthesizer’s overall tone and are a welcome inclusion.
Minipol’s smart randomization feature is a novel take on preset randomization.
Naturally, you can have it randomize all parameters, but you can also set it to only randomize a single set of parameters. This is a great way to quickly get inspiration for new sounds.
The controls are kept to a single page, with no additional tabs or menus. For quick ideas or bread-and-butter sounds, Minipol can do quick work.
You cannot cross-modulate or apply FM or RM to the waveforms themselves, which sort of hampers making more complex textures. But for the price, I can’t complain.
Also packaged with Minipol are 300 artist-designed presets. If smart randomization is too random for you, then you’ve got a plethora of sound choices to make without having to get down to sound design.
Minipol is available for Windows and Mac computers. Supported plugin formats are VST3 and AU. Apple Silicon compatibility isn’t supported at this time, at least as far as I can see. Mac users will likely have to run it in Rosetta.
Download: Minipol
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Last Updated on April 9, 2023 by Tomislav Zlatic.
