Full Bucket Music releases Six-Traq, a free Sequential Circuits Six Trak emulation for macOS and Windows.
The Six Trak arrived on the scene in 1984, and, like many synths, it garnered mixed reviews. People generally seem to like the factory presets, built-in sequencer, and overall sound of the vintage six-voice synth (albeit not entirely Prophet-like).
However, programming and editing the Six Trak is a task that many found too tedious. Sequential Circuits chose to apply the parameter/value method of programming, meaning you get a single pot you can assign to any parameter by entering the correct value.
While it’s a space-saver, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and I can see why. The Six Trak provides MIDI In/Out, allowing you to control specific parameters via an external controller, which does make a difference.
But, the mixed reviews have left the Six Trak in the rare position of being a genuine vintage analog synth from an iconic manufacturer that isn’t as highly sought after as it could be.
Now for the good news: the fantastic Full Bucket Music team has created Six-Traq, an impressive emulation of the original 1980s hardware. Thanks to Six-Traq, we can enjoy the best vintage synth without the tedious bits.
While Six-Traq is a detailed emulation, it differs in a few ways, most noticeably, dedicated Oscillator, Amplifier, Filter, and LFO sections, providing a speedier workflow.
Full Bucket Music also extended Poly/Multi modes with Six-Traq offering up to 96 voices of polyphony.
The Oscillator section offers three waveforms and a white noise generator. The Filter section features a classic four-pole, self-resonating lowpass filter.
The Oscillator, Filter, and Amplifier sections each feature dedicated envelopes.
The Multi-Track Controller section at the top left side of the interface is almost identical to the original hardware. The difference is the addition of the Click and Sync buttons and the omission of the Legato button.
You’ll also find Stack Mode, the onboard sequencer, and an arpeggiator here.
The resizable GUI looks great, and if you want more hands-on control, you can control all parameters by MIDI CC.
Full Bucket Music isn’t new to hardware synth emulations and has already given us many awesome freebies, like Ny (a KORG Lambda ES-50 Polyphonic Ensemble emulation).
Six-Traq is available in AU, VST2, VST3, CLAP, and AAX formats for macOS (10.7 upwards) and Windows.
Download: Six-Traq (FREE)
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