SampleScience currently offers more than a dozen plugins and sample packs for free. This is much more than I remember creating! It shows the cumulative effect of small tasks repeated regularly. In this newsletter, I'll explain the thought process behind these free plugins and why I created them.

Before I start, keep in mind that these plugins are only compatible with Windows 8.1/10 and up and macOS El Capitan to Mojave. There are not compatible with macOS Catalina and up unless you use some workaround. This is due to an incompatibility between Catalina and the framework that I use to create my plugins. Some people had success running the Windows versions of my plugins on Linux using Carla.

606 Koncept: This is one of the plugins I'm most proud of. The idea was to create a TR-606 plugin with as many options as possible. Knowing that the TR-606 sound is quite thin compared to modern standards, I use an additive approach where you can layer the same drum sounds at different pitches easily. I think I could expand the concept further by tuning the different pitches to different keys. That would be great!

UltraBasic: I created this plugin with the academic field in mind. This is the only plugin I know that generates as many noise colors. With the added pure basic waveforms, you got the perfect plugin to test equipment and other audio processing plugins. Perfect for geeks and academics!

French Violin: This is basically a test to see if there would be any interest in classical instruments done in the "SampleScience style". To my surprise, there is a strong interest in it and the feedback I got for it has been great! An improved version with round robins is in the work.

Nu Guzheng: As far as I know, this is the best free guzheng plugin currently available. Its rich sound will surely seduce you. The idea with Nu Guzhen was to create a plugin out of a public domain guzheng jam session. The result turned out really good! A lot of sonic refinement, audio correction, and editing went into it.

Rusty Piano: Just like Nu Guzheng, Rusty Piano is based on a long piano recording that had to be cleaned and enhanced. Each note had to be tuned and a lot of distortion has been removed. The result is different from what we usually hear in most virtual pianos. Its grungy tone suit genre like rock and roll, lo-fi hip-hop, and improv jazz.

Analog Waveforms: A misunderstood plugin for sure! Analog Waveforms is a rompler with a detailed and complete analog synthesizer set of basic waveforms. I created it for geeks like me who like to compare analog signals with digital signals. Each note of a Dave Smith's Mopho has been sampled for 10 seconds and looped. You can use it with UltraBasic to compare the basic waveforms of an analog synthesizer with its counterpart.

Part 2 is coming up next week (Monday, September 20).

Have a great creative week!

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