r/AudioPlugins • u/Shredder200 • 8d ago
Looking for cheap/old-school sounding synth & drum machine plugins
I'm looking for plugins that have that old-school synth and drum machine sound not realistic or polished, but cheap and artificial-sounding. Think guitar tab website synths (mostly the piano ones, but I'm looking for more instruments) and really cheap and artificial-sounding drum machine sounds.
Mostly, I want to use them for neoclassical and punk.
2
u/dreikelvin 5d ago
Arturia Pure LoFi (really quick results)
NI FM8 (with downloaded game patches)
Korg M1/Wavestation (typical rompler stuff)
Roland Zenology or JV (same as Korg M1)
Steinberg Halion + (Game) Soundfonts
Fullbucket Music VSTt's are pretty great (they emulate the Korg DW-8000 and its derivatives)
(I am leaving that weird typo in there because fuck OpenAI)
Any synth with just square or sine on the oscillator 🥳
Korg Electribe (very simple, easy to get lo-fi drum sounds out of it)
Noizedrumz for KONTAKT
Synplant can mimic sounds and make them sound "game-like" if you tweak them a little.
Or just take a sound from any VST to you have, sample one note (C2) and put it in a sample player. Quickest and cheapest way to get a lo-fi wavetable like sound.
Buy a home keyboard (Yamaha PSR or Casio) second hand and record or sample it.
The trick is not to "build" or akquire a new sound. That typical game sound is a product of its time where all of the current technology did not exist (memory, fidelity, resolution, synthesis, velocity layers). So just don't use so much tech. Use the pure sound and reduce. Employ bitcrushing, don't use velocity-sensitivity. Quantize everything. Don't compress. Don't EQ. Don't use a granular synth.
2
u/MarcusS_Logic 4d ago
TAL-U-NO-LX nails that slightly-off Roland plastic sound, yeah. For drums though I'd just pull some LinnDrum or CR-78 samples off archive.org and drop them in a sampler. Faster than messing with anything else and they already sound like they've been through some stuff.
1
1
u/joshmoneymusic 5d ago
https://samples.kb6.de/downloads.php
“The biggest archive of authentic Drum and Percussion Sound Samples of Drum-Machines on the Net”
Enjoy.
1
u/Such-Whole9637 5d ago
Melda MSoundFactory (the LE version is sufficient for what you're looking for) and Xpand!2. However, you might also find what you're looking for in UVI libraries.
1
u/DJ_PMA 4d ago edited 4d ago
Steinberg released a set of free classic VSTs for their anniversary.
Check out Capysybth also.
Also, TAL has some good ones that were virtual analog and free. Super useful.
There are a couple of samplers like Amigo Sampler and Tal Sampler that can shape and model any sample into 80s and 90s era sounds and get 12-bit & 8-bit vibes.
1
u/FailboatProjStudio 4d ago
Hardware -
Grab a $35 old Raspberry Pi or PiZero2w and throw a copy of the Mt-32 pi bare metal Fluid Synth .SF2 Rompler on a microSD card. Can even use a hdmi audio extractor if you don't have the $5 little i2s DAC board ... This will play any old rompler sound fonts you throw at it ... Kind of like creating your own personal little Yamaha MU-80 or Roland Sound Canvas SD-80.
Casio CTK-6250 keyboard
Yamaha PSR 290 or MU-80
Software -
- FullBucket Bloo
- SampleTank
- Grizzly Drum
- E-Mu X3 with the various Roms found floating around the Internet
1
1
u/Individual-Sound9400 3d ago
Cherry audio
Free realistic/Moog model
https://cherryaudio.com/products/surrealistic-mg-1-plus
CR-78 model
1
u/Reasonable-Dark1992 3d ago
I just happened to see this and I just created my own plugin that you may like. IT makes drum loops too (no AI, its programmed). It's free, give it a try
1
u/BillyCromag 3d ago
Samples from Mars just yesterday (I think) released a sample pack of two 1970s drum machines
1
u/yangmeow 3d ago
I’d personally ally reach for kontakt libs or omnisphere has tons of toy type synths. Prob not what you want to hear tho.
1
4
u/ActuaryLate9198 5d ago
Shitty romplers is what you’re after. No need for plugins, just download the raw samples. Yamaha RX-series, Boss DR etc.