Synful Orchestra is an orchestral VST plugin, and it is now freeware.
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not much for orchestration. While I enjoy listening to orchestral and symphonic pieces, my brain isn’t wired to write music that way.
Still, there is always some fun to be had when using orchestral elements. Synful Orchestra, a symphony orchestra simulator, is now available free of charge.
So what is Synful Orchestra?
What is Synful Orchestra?
Synful Orchestra is an orchestral VST created by Eric Lindemann. It received Electronic Musician magazine’s Editor’s Choice award in 2006.
However, despite its old age, Synful Orchestra received numerous updates over the years and still remains a useful virtual instrument.
So, imagine having a full symphony orchestra at your fingertips, but you can adjust things like the tonality of each and every individual section. That’s what Synful is striving to accomplish.
To this end, you can access orchestral elements like strings, woodwinds, and horns. There are some neat features to aid in increasing the realism of a given performance as well.
Solo instruments readily become sections, with dynamic positioning depending on how many simulated players are on stage. You can access natural divisi, which is great for chords and more complex harmonic passages.
It is less akin to a multi-sampled orchestral library and more like a deep physical modeling suite. You can adjust things like the transient of each sound while tuning the harmonic tilt of a sound.
The sound demos are convincing, but I’m not a classical musician. Some passages don’t sound natural, but the strings do a convincing job.
Download Synful Orchestra for free
Synful has been set free after 19 years, marking a new beginning for this particular software suite.
This isn’t a limited giveaway. It looks like being freeware is just the new normal for Synful Orchestra going forward.
So, you can download to your heart’s content, and a wide variety of systems are supported. Windows users will need Windows 7 or newer, and it is readily available in VST and AAX format.
Mac users aren’t left out of the fray either, with native support for Intel and Apple Silicon-based processors. Supported plugin formats for Mac are VST3, AU, and AAX.
I can’t speak much on the realism of Synful, but it looks to be a fun piece of software worth experimentation, at the very least. It might not replace your standard film scoring suites, but it could make for a compelling enough addition.
Download: Synful Orchestra (FREE)
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