synth
Generates sound from oscillators or algorithms rather than from recordings.
ADLplug— Jean Pierre Cimalando
FM synthesizer based on OPL3 and OPN2 sound chip emulations. Synthesis of melodic and percussive instruments, support for dynamic parameterization and automation.
amsynth— Nick Dowell
Simple software synthesizer for Linux, macOS and Windows, inspired by classic analog hardware monosynths.
Andes— Artem Popov
Andes is a software synthesiser plugin in early stages of development. The core of Andes is an original oscillator which uses a pseudo-3D version of Perlin noise to produce distinctively digital sound.
Audible Planets— Greg Recco
An expressive, quasi-Ptolemaic semi-modular synthesizer.
Banana Split— Jesús Valdez
An FM synthesizer with one oscillator (sine/saw/triangle/square), ADSR envelope, and built-in reverb, delay, chorus, and distortion effects.
BassLineMatrix— OTODESK
Algorithmic MIDI sequencer and built-in synthesizer that generates genre-specific basslines and chord progressions across 23 electronic music styles
Bifractalizer— Andrew Kotov
An audio plugin that fractalizes and defractalizes sound 😺
BlackBird— Dmitry Khrykin
Analog-inspired software synth with its own voice, filters. modulation and envelope.
Braids VST— masseyis
Polyphonic VST3/AU plugin porting Mutable Instruments Braids macro-oscillator
Chipper— Austin Naremore
A multi-chip retro synth VST3 emulating classic game and computer sound chips (NES, Game Boy, SID, YM2612, OPL, and more), with register-aware, emulator-backed chip behavior.
Chorus Ex Machina— Peter Eastman
Physically modelled chorus synthesizer, able to sing realistically in a variety of languages.
ChowKick— Chowdhury DSP
Kick synthesizer based on old-school drum machine circuits
Dexed— Pascal Gauthier
Synthesizer closely modeled on the Yamaha DX7.
DigiDrie— Bart Brouns
A monophonic vector-synthesis synth with 4 phase-locked CZ-style oscillators, morphable macros arranged in a 3D cube, and per-parameter left-right stereo difference control.
dm-GrainDelay— Dave Mollen
A granular delay effect, written in Rust and compilable to LV2 or MOD Audio plugin formats.
dm-TimeWarp— Dave Mollen
Granular delay, looper & sampler plugin with time stretch capabilities
Drawwave Vocoder— 008takeshi
Vocoder instrument where the carrier wavetable, band gains, and LFO shape are all hand-drawn with the mouse
Duck Synth— Jesús Valdez
A JUCE-based C++ synthesizer plugin implementing basic additive synthesis with two oscillators, ADSR envelope, waveform selection (sine, square, triangle), reverb effect, and output volume control.
Ensoniq® SD-1/32 VST/AU Emulation - Free and Open Source— Sojus Records
A bit perfect Ensoniq SD-1 VST plugin based on MAME emulation
EP-MK1— Miguel Moreno
Real-time physical model of an Electric Piano.
Equinox— Oliver Rasmussen
Subtractive synthesizer and sampler plugin
Firefly Synth 2— Sjoerd van Kreel
Semi-modular synth.
Gamelanizer— Luke M Craig
A real-time audio effect plugin inspired by the processes of traditional Indonesian Gamelan music. Accompanying material for the DAFx19 paper.
GlitchNexus— OTODESK
Granular glitch multi-effect plugin with a cross-modulation engine and a 16-step sequencer for controlled destruction
gRainbow— Strange Loops Audio
Granular synthesizer that uses pitch detection to choose harmonically matched grain candidates from a sample, producing MIDI-playable, polyphonic textures without the inharmonic artifacts of typical granular synths.
Helm— Matt Tytel
Polyphonic semi-modular synthesizer with a flexible modulation system.
Inharmonic— mogesystem
A metallic-sound synthesizer using "piano inhamonicity model"
JS80P— Attila M. Magyar
A MIDI driven, performance oriented, versatile synthesizer.
JuicySFplugin— Birch San
SoundFont synthesizer for playing General Midi music using sf2 files.
LayerEngine— samplaman
Quad-layer granular synthesizer for sound design and atmospheric textures, with per-layer position/pitch/density jitter, filters, spatialization, modulation and a global FX suite (chorus, delay, phaser, limiter).
Lumen— Kazi Ahmed
Wavetable synthesizer that turns dropped-in images into sound — brightness becomes waveform, image structure becomes harmonics
Macro Oscillator— Reece Mitchell
Compact synthesizer built around the Mutable Instruments Braids macro oscillator engine, with multi-stage MSEG modulation
Magical8bitPlug2— yokemura
Magical 8bit Plug 2 is a software synthesizer to generate the tones like the old 8bit game consoles (NES / Game Boy style sounds). Developed from scratch with JUCE.
Mika Micro— tesselode
Small, expressive subtractive synthesizer.
Minaton-XT— AnClark Liu
A monophonic, subtractive, beefy analogue style bass and lead synthesizer. Ports the original Minaton by Nick Bailey to DPF (DISTRHO Plugin Framework).
Modern Distortion Synthesizer— Colin Raab
A polyphonic wavetable synthesizer featuring four sources (two wavetable oscillators, a noise generator, and a sampler) with per-voice, per-source filters, envelopes, and distortion.
Monique— Surge Synth Team
Monophonic, realtime, subtractive-synthesis bass-and-lead software synthesizer.
Nyasynth— Aaron Kofsky
Nyasynth is a recreation / modern port of the famous Meowsynth (cat meow synthesizer). A fun, meme-inspired VST3 instrument with cat vocal synthesis. Available for Windows and macOS (ARM + Universal).
OB-Xf— Surge Synthesizer Team
OB-Xf is a continuation and modernization of the last open source release of OB-Xd by 2DaT and later discoDSP. It is inspired by the venerable Oberheim OB-X.
OctaSine— Joakim Frostegård
Frequency modulation-based synthesizer plugin.
Odin— TheWaveWarden
12-voice polyphonic semi-modular synthesizer. Earth shattering basses, exquisite leads or mad FX, Odin's got them all! Use the classic sound of analog waveforms - or draw your own.
Odin 2— TheWaveWarden
24-voice polyphonic synthesizer with filter emulations and a modulation matrix, supporting classic analog waveforms and custom-drawn waves.
Oi, Grandad!— Modular Samples
Four-voice granular sampler with modulation and resynthesis capabilities, built with HISE.
OPNplug— Jean Pierre Cimalando
FM synthesizer based on OPL3 and OPN2 sound chip emulations. Synthesis of melodic and percussive instruments, support for dynamic parameterization and automation.
OwlBass— PentagramPro
An additive single voice bass synthesizer.
Quetzalcoatl— Modular Samples
Quetzalcoatl is an 8-layer sample playback plugin (rompler) for Mac, Windows & Linux. Features multi-stage crossfading, wavetable mode, wavefolder, extensive modulation/sequencing, filter, and a large built-in sound libr
Resonarium— Gabriel Soule
An expressive, semi-modular, and comprehensive physical modeling/waveguide synthesizer
SquelchBox— Vlad
A FOSS TB-303-style acid bassline synthesizer plugin
Surge XT— Surge Synth Team
Hybrid synthesizer featuring many synthesis techniques, a great selection of filters, a flexible modulation engine, a smorgasbord of effects, and modern features like MPE and microtuning.
Synth1.0— Lluís Estapé
Serum-inspired polyphonic wavetable synthesizer with 16-voice polyphony, oscillator warp and morphing, unison, an LFO engine, step sequencer, 3-band EQ, reverb and a 2x-oversampled saturation FX rack.
Terrain— Aaron Anderson
A Wave Terrain Synth
The Archaeologist— larrymarmalade
Generative resampler / memory instrument — listens to your playing, archives it, and re-excavates fragments as degraded, transformed memory objects
Tunefish— Brain Control
Tunefish is a tiny virtual analogue synth that was originally developed for the 64k intros of the demo group Brain Control.
Tuning Workbench Synth— Surge Synthesizer Team
A simple JUCE synth which uses the Surge Synth Team's tuning-library to explore microtonal and alternate tuning systems.
UB_Poly16— PPsRetroVault
16-voice virtual-analog polysynth inspired by the Juno-106, with dual DCOs, hard sync/ring mod, and a step-sequenced arpeggiator
Ultramaster KR-106— kayrockscreenprinting
A synthesizer plugin emulating the Roland Juno-6, Juno-60, and Juno-106.
Vaporizer2— VAST Dynamics
A hybrid wavetable additive/subtractive synthesizer and sampler workstation plugin.
Viola Ex Machina— Peter Eastman
Physically inspired synthesizer for stringed instruments: violin, viola, cello, and bass, both solo instruments and ensembles.
Viruz2— Farbrausch
Farbrausch V2 Synthesizer System, Revived
VST2413— Keijiro Takahashi
FM synthesizer based on YM2413 (OPLL) emulator. YM2413 is well known as low-cost FM sound chip, used on Sega Master System and FM-PAC sound expansion cartridge for MSX. Well-suited for use in 'post 8-bit era style' chipt
Wavetable— Roland Rabien
A wavetable synthesizer plugin.
Xolotl— Modular Samples
A harmonic synthesizer.
ysfx— Jean Pierre Cimalando / Joep Vanlier
Hosting library for JSFX
ZynAddSubFX— zynaddsubfx
ZynAddSubFX open source synthesizer