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Full Bucket Music releases Six-Traq, FREE Sequential Circuits Six Trak emulation

By 12 Comments3 Mins Read
Full Bucket Music releases Six-Traq, a free Sequential Circuits Six Trak emulation for macOS and Windows

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).

YouTube video

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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James is a musician and writer from Scotland. An avid synth fan, sound designer, and coffee drinker. Sometimes found wandering around Europe with an MPC in hand.

12 Comments

    • MRG

       on

      Some would say, a bucket full… (still waiting for a Polysix, Mr. Bucket ;-)

      Such a deceptively simple synth, but the multi-track trick (sic(k)) makes it a beast.

      Reply

  2. Peter Dillon-Parkin

     on

    I had one of these, but had to sell it. I still miss it. Not for much longer. Mr Full Bucket deserves an award! Especially as it’s easier to use. Sigh…

    Reply

  5. Phil H

     on

    Having been one of the three global guys responsible for selling this thing, I’ll paraphrase Dave who said that We didn’t do as good a job on that as we could have. The front end of the envelopes was on the wrong planet, although not as bad as the 600 where all the resolution was scaled tighter later on the knob. When as synthesists will tell you, most of a sound’s interpretive value is in the attack stage.
    For the trivia buffs the chip in this, the Multi Trak and the Max was “free” as Sequential designed the chip not for a proprietary synth/keyboard, but for our back door neighbors, Atari. Which explains some of the game sound presets, the third envelope and six independent LFOs.
    Six part mutlitimbral, even monophonic, led to many interesting and slapstick demos from Switced on Bach clones to the theme from Hogan’s Heroes. Some fun now.

    Reply

    • MRG

       on

      In an alternate universe, the Atari ST used those chips… *salivating*
      Do you know if those demos are floating around the interwebs, either as sound/video or even better as SYX files?

      Reply

  6. Numanoid

     on

    For those with the original machine, it can be of interest to have a look at this MIDI editor.

    ctrlr.org / six-trak-editor

    Reply
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