The daddy of free synths (PC only, I’m afraid)

[andydes]

If you’re on a mac please look away now, because you are going to be seriously jealous.

I’ve been playing with the KarmaFX for a couple of weeks now, and it seriously kicks the arse (ass) of any other soft synth I’ve seen. Poly ibit? Don’t make me laugh Crystal? Pah! I’d even put it right up there with reason and albino (the only commercial synths I have).

It’s completely modular (if my understanding of these things is correct), with as many oscillators, samplers, filters, effects, LFOs, HFOs, envelopes, step sequencers etc. as you can cram in there routed in as ridiculous a way as you can think of. Simple stuff also sounds pretty good and isn’t too hard on the CPU. It’s also pretty easy to get to grips with, as long as you understand the basics of synthesis (or you can just play around with the presets).

The only downside is there’s no instructions, so you’ll have to reverse engineer a couple of synths from the presets to see how it’s done.

And to top it off, each module can show you what’s happening to the waveform as it goes through the signal path.

It’s donationware, so if you like it, consider sending the nice generous man a little wonga for his trouble (no, it’s not me, but feel free to send me money as well if you want).

http://www.karmafx.dk/index.html

btw, to anyone who already has this, have you worked out FM synthesis? I’m a bit lost on this one.

[jb61264]

The only downside is there’s no instructions, so you’ll have to reverse engineer a couple of synths from the presets to see how it’s done.

Thanks for pointing this one out...I'm going to download it today

Maybe you could write a manual and accept donations for writing the manual

[Michael-SW]

Awesome synth. You can also use the FX version and use it as a modular fx plug on any audio track.

[glu]

I am in love with karma synth. it's shown up on the forum a few times, and each time i think it's good because not enough people know about this wicked beast. I have held off from buying any soft synths because of karma synth and all the stuff from tweakbench.

[STRATEGY_510]

If you’re on a mac please look away now, because you are going to be seriously jealous.

I’ve been playing with the KarmaFX for a couple of weeks now, and it seriously kicks the arse (ass) of any other soft synth I’ve seen. Poly ibit? Don’t make me laugh Crystal? Pah! I’d even put it right up there with reason and albino (the only commercial synths I have).

It’s completely modular (if my understanding of these things is correct), with as many oscillators, samplers, filters, effects, LFOs, HFOs, envelopes, step sequencers etc. as you can cram in there routed in as ridiculous a way as you can think of. Simple stuff also sounds pretty good and isn’t too hard on the CPU. It’s also pretty easy to get to grips with, as long as you understand the basics of synthesis (or you can just play around with the presets).

The only downside is there’s no instructions, so you’ll have to reverse engineer a couple of synths from the presets to see how it’s done.

And to top it off, each module can show you what’s happening to the waveform as it goes through the signal path.

It’s donationware, so if you like it, consider sending the nice generous man a little wonga for his trouble (no, it’s not me, but feel free to send me money as well if you want).

http://www.karmafx.dk/index.html

btw, to anyone who already has this, have you worked out FM synthesis? I’m a bit lost on this one.

I'm not a sound design kind of guy (because I don't really know how to do synthesis and there's other things I need to learn first).

On that note, how are the presets?


STRATEGY

[mdk]

btw, to anyone who already has this, have you worked out FM synthesis? I’m a bit lost on this one.

I had a quick play, it seems like you can route it like you route the note pitch controller..fiddle the knobs..there you go

I do find the routing slightly weird with karma but overall its a great plug, and for the price its unbeatable.

* edit * yeah..the FM is definitely odd..it does FM'y type stuff but its not really like any FM im used to...

[Meef Chaloin]

its amazing..but i keep getting audio drop outs

[bstalz]

Are all those little squiggles moving in real-time??
No wonder you get drop outs...

[Meef Chaloin]

hmm interesting, seems like its only in live 6 that it does it

[franknputer]

That is cool! I just gave it a quick try in v6.b21 - noice!!

[Meef Chaloin]

That is cool! I just gave it a quick try in v6.b21 - noice!!

you didnt get any drop outs?
i really hope it doesnt do that in the final version for me, i really wanna use this synth a lot, think ive found the one...now i can ditch the hundred others ive got.

[mdk]

some patches were heavy on the cpu (L6 b21)...up to about 50% for just one patch..but no dropout problems..

[Nod]

Don't forget that DJSynchro, a visitor to these parts, did an awesome skin for the synth...



And it looks like Kasper's got some tasty new upgrades/bugfixes just around the corner

[djsynchro]

The 2d skin will be included in phuture downloads, there's a new version of KFX coming out in a couple of days.

[mdb]

Thanks for posting this man. This thing is a monster.

I like the fact that you can load a sample in it too. Very nice. Routing things is a bit strange. But yeah, this thing is pretty much bad ass.

Thanks again.