Hello there, here is the last article of 2020! What a hectic year 🙂 This time I wanted to give you a bit of a different concept by featuring a virtual instrument/VST plugin: SynthMaster One by KV331 Audio!
KV331 Audio is a Turkish software company that I have been following since the mid-2000s. Back in the day, I was a fellow music/guitar forums user and did my best to learn from people who had similar interests on Turkish internet forums.
Even though I’m not a keyboard player or an electronic music producer, I always had a massive interest in music/audio production in the digital domain. For this reason, KV331 Audio got my attention when it was first released. However, during those days, I didn’t really have a computer system that can handle virtual instruments and plugins successfully so, to be honest, I didn’t have a lot of clue about it.
Recently, I have been investing in some gear such as new guitars, speakers and computer components to upgrade my laptop. My Victor G451 laptop with Intel i7 4710MQ processor was struggling in some cases such as loading multiple plugins and some guitar effect software (Guitar Rig, Amplitube…etc).
Upgrading RAM from 8GB to 16GB along with updating graphic card drivers have really helped me to obtain very low latency without any stuttering.
That’s why I wanted to give SynthMaster One a try so I have purchased a licence for myself! 🙂
SynthMaster One is extremely easy to use wavetable soft synth. It can operate as a VSTi on both Windows and Mac also as standalone software on Windows.
Here in this quick article, I wanted to introduce this wonderful piece of software to you and also to provide you with a laid back preset walkthrough.
I spent hours with SynthMaster One and picked up around 200 presets out of 1250 factory presets and played random stuff to show you its capabilities.
This demo video I made is about 1 hour long and please note that I did not intend to perform or dive into crazy details that it has to offer. Just my favourite presets, so please click play below and have a listen to this excellent software synth!
I would also like to mention that I used RME Babyface PRO USB audio interface (@48 samples) along with my Keith McMillen QuNexus MIDI Keyboard.
Even though I’m not an electronic music maker or producer, I listen to a lot of genres including electronic music ones. One of my favourite electronic music genres is probably psytrance or psyambiance.
I am a massive fan of Carbon Based Lifeforms and surprisingly when I was doing this demo video, I noticed a lot of similar sounds and textures with this type of music!
As a piece of reference information, I am providing a simplified chart with you below where you can find out detailed abilities of this excellent product!
KV331 Audio SynthMaster One Tech Specs and Features
| Factory Presets | 1250 Factory Presets |
| Stereo Oscillators w/h up to 16 voices Unison | Stereo Oscillators w/ Unison/Voice Stacking: Parameters such as “voices”, “voices mix“, “detune curve“, “detune spread“, “pan spread“, “tone spread” and “phase spread“, every basic/wavetable oscillator is able to generate a rich “supersaw” type sound. |
| Basic Oscillators | Basic oscillators can synthesize Sine, Square, Triangle, Sawtooth, Pulse, Noise, single cycle waveforms. Featuring 17 different algorithms in the following categories: Spectral (LP, HP, LS, HS, BP, BS), Bend (Bend+, Bend-, Bend+/-), Sync (Rect Window, Half Cos Window, Cos Window, Tri Window, Saw Window), Pulse (Pulse1, Pulse2) and Quantize. |
| Wavetable Synthesis | SynthMaster One features true wavetable synthesis for the advanced sound design and comes with a rich wavetable library and you can extend that by placing wavetables under the Waveforms folder of SynthMaster One. |
| Semi-Modular Architecture | For each SynthMaster One instance, there are 2 oscillators with 2 sub oscillators, 2 Filters, 4 ADSR Envelopes, 2 LFOs, a powerful 16 step arpeggiator/sequencer and also 11 different effects that can be inserted on to 6 FX insert slots. The sub oscillators can be connected to the oscillators in 5 different modes which let you use it as a regular sub oscillator or do complex modulations such as ring modulation, amplitude modulation, phase modulation or frequency modulation |
| 2 oscillators, 2 sub oscillators, 2 Filters, 4 ADSR Envelopes, 2 LFOs | |
| Sequencer/Arpeggiator with 16 steps | |
| Filters | Zero Delay Feedback Filters: All of the 4 new filter categories in SynthMaster One are developed using the zero delay feedback filter technology. With advanced filter parameters like input gain, drive and acid, you can get that “analogue” sound from the filters! |
| Filter Types | Ladder: Low 12, Low 24, High 12, High 24, Band Pass, Band Stop |
| State Variable: Low 12, High 12, Band Pass, Band Stop | |
| Diode Ladder: Low pass 24 | |
| Bite: Low 12, High 6 | |
| Effects | Rich set of Effects: SynthMaster features 11 different effect types: Distortion, LoFi, Ensemble, Phaser, 6 Band EQ, Compressor, Vocoder, Delay, Chorus, Tremolo, Reverb. |
| 11 Types of Effects | Distortion, LoFi, Ensemble, Phaser, 6 Band EQ, Compressor, Vocoder, Delay, Chorus, Tremolo, Reverb. |
| Flexible Effects Routing | Each of the 11 effect types can be inserted on any layer insert or on any of the 2 global effect bus inserts. |
| 16 step Sequencer/Arpeggiator | The arpeggiator in SynthMaster One features classic arpeggiator modes such as Up, Down, UpDown, DownUp, UpDown2, DownUp2, AsPlayed as well as Sequence, Chord and Arpeggiate modes. Each of the 16 steps of the arpeggiator has its own Velocity, Note Number, Note Length, Slide and Hold parameters. |
| Microtuning | SynthMaster supports Scala tuning, so tuning can be set either for each preset or globally by loading from a Scala tuning file. |
| Preset Browser | SynthMaster features a comprehensive preset browser with separate search criteria for instrument type, preset attributes, music style or preset author. |
| Importing MIDI patterns as Arpeggiator Sequence | Monophonic or even polyphonic (chord) MIDI patterns can be imported into the arpeggiators in SynthMaster by just drag and drop of the MIDI file onto the arpeggiator view on the plugin window. |
Hope this quick article has been helpful along with the video I produced. I can totally recommend this synth if you are into electronic music. Very affordable, world-class sounds! Already a happy new year everyone!
Thanks for your time and see you next year with better, fresher content! Cheers 🙂