Sinus Plus 2.0 is the latest version of the freeware organ virtual instrument for Windows.
Iliadis Instruments claims Sinus Plus isn’t your typical Hammond B3 emulation, which I’d agree with.
However, denying the shared common lineage behind such a virtual instrument is hard. As with everything else from the developer, this is a free instrument, but it goes beyond the aims of a digital organ.
Sinus Plus functions primarily as an organ, first and foremost at least.
You’ve got the various drawbars and can coax sounds out to hit the notes of a home organ, transistor organ, or any other electronic instrument in the same vein.
However, it goes well beyond just using sine oscillators to approximate an organ.
When you look at the effects section, you’ve got vibrato and chorus, reverb, and a rotary speaker emulation. For the most part, these are your typical culprits when looking at an organ emulation.
Where Sinus Plus departs is the inclusion of phase distortion. Made popular by Casio’s CZ series of synths, you can push Sinus Plus well into some fun synth territory. It coaxes out glassy pads, warm brass sounds, fuzzy strings, and a fair bit more.
Of course, there are drawbacks, as there are with any instrument. The interface is a bit dense but easy enough to navigate.
That said, there is an even bigger elephant in the room, so to speak. Sinus Plus is Windows-only, which is fine; that’s nothing new in the world of freebies.
However, since this is a SynthMaker plugin, you’re restricted to 32-bit VST as the sole plugin format.
Now, it is certainly worth exploring Sinus Plus. Few instruments approach the same sort of timbre and combination of functionality.
I would advise you to temper your expectations. This is a wonderful free instrument, but you’ll need a 32-bit host, a bit bridge, or something along those lines to get it up and running.
Aside from that, I’d love to see a dedicated phase distortion synth by the developer in the future.
If you like organs, you might as well give Sinus Plus a shot. It goes above and beyond what you might expect from a normal Hammond B3.
Download: Sinus Plus (FREE)
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10 Comments
Easy
onInteresting. The previous version of this is my favourite organ plugin. I have all the free organs you can find, like Hanon B70, but also the super realistic Adam Monroe’s B3 paid (but not too expensive) plugin. Still I found myself grabbing almost always the Sinus Plus. I love the metallic tone that you can get out of it. It’s like something between a 70s string synth machine and hammond organ. It needs some adjusting to get the sound right and then to go through some amplifier plugin. At least the previous version was a bit too clean without some further prosessing. But it’s ok. The coloring is the fun part and we have all the tools. A strong recommendation
if your system can handle the 32 bit plugins.
FuegoC
onI appreciate that you left a detailed comment! I always love seeing people share their passion for plugins that aren’t the typical big hitters
mx
ontrue!
Bruno de Souza Lino
onThere are no drawbacks with this instrument. Only drawbars.
Jack
onI’m waiting for the 16 bit version.
JWP
onStrange the dev chose to stay in 32 bit. Flowstone Alpha is 64 bit and quite stable. When I clarified what the license is with the Flowstone dev he said anyone that paid for the last stable is legally allowed to use the alpha commercailly.
Converting the project might be a hassle, however, probably not as bad as SynthEdit; as Flowstone doesn’t allow 3rd party modules (primatives).
MRG
onFrom what I read here and there, it should be possible in most cases to convert SynthMaker projects into Flowstone format, there might be some scripting differences and there was bugs in very early versions that didn’t help. Not sure how it fares nowadays. Some people still output both 32 and 64bit versions of their FS creations (see Quilcom output, very interesting synths and effects).
Uhm, ackshully… SynthEdit conversion from 32bit to 64bit was worse -because- of the 3rd party modules (the SEM files), as they had to be recoded/recompiled and often the original authors gave up on the platform before the 64bit versions finally came out. Little of those modules were opensource, so no possibility to fix that.
JWP
onYup, I’m a 15 year SynthEdit dev.
New 3rd party developers are redoing much of what was lost and the newer versions of SynthEdit has many 3rd party modules come stock.
A new dev has also brought spectral processing to the table, and I’m hoping to push some simple projects.
MRG
onA remaster of MinimogueVA and Arppe2600va would sure be interesting to see.
David
onTe link is dead.