Flanders Tech released Substitute Modular, a free semi-modular virtual analog synthesizer for Windows.
Substitute Modular is a FREE semi-modular virtual analog synthesizer for Windows VST3 (64-bit).
I will readily admit I likely have way too many subtractive synths. You probably do, too, and there’s no shame in that. They just multiply in my plugin folder, like rabbits during mating season.
Today’s offering is a little different than your usual freeware subtractive synths. Substitute Modular is a familiar face, especially if you’re deep in the world of SynthEdit. There are some welcome changes and restructuring to bring it more in line with modern standards.
The user interface has been entirely redesigned with a clean and flat design.
You’ve got a pair of oscillators with your usual waveforms, and you’ve got full control of the tuning and volume of each. These can be readily routed to a pair of analog-flavored filters.
You also have modulation sources through the dual mod envelope, LFOs, and your standard ADSRs.
There is also a dual LFO, which can be routed to a few destinations. It isn’t fully modular, but it hits on the flexible points that make a modular system fun to work with. I would love to freely route the oscillators to one another or to the filters for a little FM, but that’s alright.
The synth is rounded off with a quartet of effects. You’ve got your usual suspects like delay, chorus, and reverb. The shaper is probably my favorite of the bunch, adding some much-needed saturation or distortion to proceedings.
Substitute Modular has a few extra tricks up its sleeve with the chord generator and arpeggiator.
The chord generator works quite well and allows you to readily figure out the voicing and how many voices you want for a particular chord.
The arpeggiator has few controls comparatively, at least when compared to something like TAL-U-NO-LX. That said, it works quite well in most contexts. It’s nothing to write home about, but it arpeggiates whatever you throw at it, which is more than enough for me.
There are some trade offs as you might imagine. Since this is a SynthEdit plugin, Mac users are left out. Still, if you’re on Windows, Substitute Modular is definitely worth a look.
Download: Substitute Modular (FREE)
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Last Updated on March 7, 2024 by Tomislav Zlatic.
