Vavra, from the developer The Usual Suspects, is a plugin that supports emulations of the Waldorf MircoQ.
I’ll come out and say I have a heavy bias regarding the work being done by The Usual Suspects. Osirus, OsTirus, and Vavra, today’s focus, all feature quite heavily in my productions.
There is something about the sounds of these synth emulations that goes a cut above some of the other soft synths in my arsenal.
Vavra emulates the Waldorf MicroQ, an unusual wavetable synthesizer with a fully digital signal path. To this end, if you have the proper firmware files to take advantage of it, you have a mighty and nostalgic synth.
The synth itself has a selection of common waveforms as well as some built-in wavetables. These aren’t likely to wow users looking to make the hot new Color Bass or dubstep tracks, but you can make some unusual and wonderful sounds with the synth.
I don’t have any presets installed with my version of Vavra, but you can readily find free banks all over the internet if you know where to look.
As with all things from The Usual Suspects, it is heavily recommended to read the official manual of the synth. This is in part because all features are emulated on a 1:1 basis, as opposed to the more creative interpretations you might see with other emulations.
On the plus side, this means that any programming tricks you find are likely to translate over identically.
Interestingly, I find Vavra works best, not for the trance and dance stylings it might have been intended for.
Instead, it is a wonderful ambient pad machine. The motion you can impart on the waveforms, the dual filters, and the stunning chorus and delay makes for a potent combination if you’re dialing in those 1990s digital pads.
Vavra works on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and I’ll confirm installs on all 3 operating systems.
Just for a lark, I decided to install it on a Steam Deck alongside Renoise and saw zero issues once the file paths were properly defined. If you feel like supporting The Usual Suspects, I heavily recommend it, as it nets you early access to alpha versions of upcoming releases.
Download: Vavra (FREE)
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