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Full Bucket Releases FREE Oxid Synthesizer

Full Bucket Releases FREE Oxid Virtual String Machine Plugin

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Full Bucket Music released Oxid, a freeware virtual string machine plugin for Windows and macOS.

I don’t know about you, but I love the sound of the classic string machines. There is something about that ethereal tone that just makes me feel like making a bunch of ambient-tinged krautrock.

The good folks at Full Bucket are back at it again with another sterling plugin, shortly after the recently released Ny Polyphonic Ensemble (also freeware). Oxid is very much in line with the sounds of yesteryear, and it might just be one of the finest free instruments released this year.

So, what is Oxid? Just another virtual string machine?

Oxid is taking inspiration from the ARP Omni-2 string synthesizer, a notable departure from their usual Korg emulations.

The interface is that very familiar ARP color scheme with orange, white, and black all over the place. There are quite a few controls as a whole present too, meaning you’ve got some means to shape and tweak the sound to your heart’s desire.

You’ve got the standard feet section with an 8 and 4-foot option for the main string synth. Beyond that, there’s an additional 8 and 16-foot section for the bass voicing of the synth. You can certainly reach down deep and make some truly rich pads when mixing them together.

In addition, there is a wonderful chorus that has all of that washiness you might expect of an old-fashioned BBD chorus. You also have a phaser and delay, which sound fantastic in conjunction with the sound sources.

Overall control of the synth is fairly simple, with a single ADSR filter on the filter, a resonant low-pass filter, and a LFO for modulation purposes. The sound itself is killer, and you can definitely coax some nostalgic sounds out of the Oxid.

The amplitude has a single AR envelope, which works just fine for my purposes. You can change the panning of the synth, strings, and bass voicings if you really want to as well.

All said, this is a splendid addition to the Full Bucket oeuvre. I downloaded it as soon as I saw it come across because I’m too stubborn to go VSM-3 from GForce while it’s on sale.

You’ll need a Windows or Mac computer to run Oxid. It is Apple Silicon native; I used an M1 machine to test it. Full Bucket provides a universal binary, so Mac users should be well covered.

Download: Oxid (FREE)

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Liam is a producer, mixing engineer, and compressor aficionado. When not mixing, he can be found pretending to play guitar, as he has been doing for the last 20 years.

8 Comments

  1. MRG

     on

    It’s a Full Bucket plugin. It has become a synonym to perfection, as if there was such a thing. If this is what you need, you got it. Plain and simple. In one word, perfect.

    “This bucket is filled with the BEST PLUGINS nobody had ever seen, nobody knew how GOOD those plugins are except ME.” – Donald T., nov 2023, possibly.

    Reply

  3. Numanoid

     on

    I look forward to try this out, FMB hasn’t let me down yet :-)

    And interesting moves from GForce, ImpOscar 2 free with Computer Music, and Virtual String Machine at 70% off

    Reply

  4. Easy

     on

    I like the sound of this very much but it’s not so nice to play because the volume sometimes allmost cuts off like there’s some weird random tremolo or something. It’s got something to do with the attack of the note and relation to the next note you play it gets choppy. The attack and release makes it even worse. Maybe it’s some kind of faithfull re-creation of the early poly synth
    but it’s not so musical. I hope it’s only a bug because I like string machines.

    Reply

    • MRG

       on

      I could be wrong, but…
      The Bass section is strictly monophonic and sorta legato-ish, you need to release the key to retrigger the bass.
      The Synth section is paraphonic, but it holds the ADSR until you release all keys.
      The String section is also paraphonic, but retriggers the attack with each keys, so you need to make the attack faster to reduce the effect.
      Those are the quirks. Sweet, sweet quirks.

      Reply

  6. MRG

     on

    I do wonder about the behaviour of the synth section, when you do octaves, ex. C3+C4 I’m pretty sure you hear a C5, is it harmonics? a osc divider artefact, expected? or a bug? :) Can’t find anything in the doc so far. Not sure about the Omni’s behaviour yet.

    Reply

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