Saturday, August 05, 2006

Virtual Instrument: Alsa Modular Synth



It is amazing how little fanfare some Linux audio applications are hailed with. The webpage for Alsa Modular Synth seems fairly basic, like another interesting little Linux project. Little does the viewer know they are about to experience one of the most powerful virtual synthesizers available. This full modular synth (with "modules" that allow one to build a complete synthesizer) has one of the fattest sounds and most realistic I have heard from a virtual synthesizer (I've been using them since the days of Vaz Plus 1.7). There are thick basses, lush pads, searing leads, all the cliches plus all the weird sounds one can dream up. There are some amazing sounds that remind me of Klaus Schulze in the presets.

One drawback is the presets. There could certainly be more. If anyone creates some, I would be happy to post them here. Give this application a shot as this is certainly an incredibly powerful tool for making music. Alsa Modular Synth is also JACK enabled, so it will work with everything else nicely.

Updates have been slow due to the business of the end of summer. Expect things to get moving again soon with special features, interviews, previews and more at Linux Rock Star.

Links:
Alsa Modular Synth Homepage
Alsa Modular Synth Documentation
Tutorial from Linux Format

Posted by DCZX @ 10:34 PM

Read or Post a Comment

AMS? is this the early 90's? Ams is dead, and quite horrible. Try om recently renamed to Ingen. http://www.nongnu.org/om-synth/

Far, far more usable. Also you can try out some lovely drum patches for it by downloading smack.

Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 7:20 PM #
 

AMS was last updated in 2004 and is hardly unusable or from the 90's. OM is definitely a great looking project. I have already been playing with it and will write on it in future posts. AMS also seems to be easier to use at the moment and is still a great app.

Posted by Blogger DCZX @ 9:58 PM #
 

Hi

This sounds really great. Does it chew CPU or could you comfortably run quite a few sounds/versions at once?

This Linux caper is really starting to look interesting. Is there an easy way to start out (until E-XT arrives)?

Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 5:04 AM #
 

Easy way to start out: Planet CCRMA at Home.

Posted by Blogger paul @ 10:30 AM #
 

I really enjoy this blog, but I think you should do more software tutorials, that way you can update more often, as well as help more people out. Linux is a great way to get more people to record music on a computer.

Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 9:47 PM #
 

Just saw the site, and I like the premise of it a huge amount. There simply isn't an awful lot of good, cheap (or GNU/Freeware) software out there for Windows and I'd love to get into a Linux based set-up. I've never used Linux/UNIX before and it all seems a little daunting to me. Maybe an idea for the site would be to do a complete beginners guide to Linux music products - you know, a discussion of the DAWs, Softsynths, sequencers and other software availble with screenshots and step by step guides? Any of the resources you link to seem almost academic in their design and approach (an occupational hazard I suppose!) and are very badly layed out. They also presume a good working knowledge of some flavour of *nix which is something I, and a lot of my musician friends, simply don't have. You could win a lot of people over from the darkside if you're able to demonstrate clearly whats out there and how to use.

Keep up the good work!

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Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 12:49 AM #
 

I love AMS and I think that what matters in the end is the sound; compared to any other modular soft synth available for Linux (including OM) AMS sound it's by far more consistent and more "analog" then any other.

The thing that is not an active project it's obvious a pity, but I hope someone with the necessary skills will enhance this extraordinary precise analog and modular sound simulation.

Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 6:47 AM #
 

Never ever used linux but that synth sure does look interesting".


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Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 12:57 AM #
 

thanks...

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Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 1:15 AM #
 

hi,
is there a opensource modular synth that can create standalone plugins (LADSPA ord native linux VST) ?
A software like synthedit for windows?

this would be great for the linux musician community

...

Posted by Blogger Unknown @ 3:55 PM #
 

Thanks for posting this review! I love this website and I’ve subscribed to it.

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