5 free (and unusual) vintage
synthesizers for KONTAKT

Gombulator

Developed in collaboration with Hungarian synth pop outfit The Gomb, Gombulator’s intriguing interface is based on the cover of the band’s 2016 ‘Breaks (And Amends)’ album. The soundbank behind it comprises multisamples of all six presets (piano, organ, trumpet, flute, violin and harpsichord) and the drum kit from the (early ‘80s) Yamaha PSR-15 portable synth, which have been processed and polished, then arranged contiguously around the ’crescent moon’ knob for sweeping through. Clicking the water, meanwhile, randomly triggers various sampled chords for accompaniment, and the whole thing hangs together nicely as an arty and rather lovely sounding curio.

Download Gombulator

Micro Pod 1 and 2

This pair of KONTAKT libraries from UK soundware developer Synth Magic lets you customise 38 sampled retro synth patches within a scripted interface that incorporates amp and filter envelopes, a ton of filter types, an LFO and more. It’s not entirely clear what instruments the samples draw on, although brief mention is made of “a Yamaha PCS500 home keyboard, Origin synth and 8-bit synth waveforms”; but what matters is the sounds Micro Pods 1 and 2 make, which are evocative, punchy and, thanks to the amount of tailoring on offer, impressively versatile.

Download Micro Pod 1 and 2

Hideaway Studio collection

Hideaway Studio Collection features a set of bespoke instruments created using Wilson’s own Delia Derbyshire-inspired ‘discrete tube synthesis’ technique, which involves “using nothing but old tube test gear and DIY tube circuits to build up new instruments note by note, layer by layer.” The resulting electronic experiments are supremely warm and organic in feel, from the spiky punch of DIY Tube Harpsichord to the dark Vangelis vibes of Warm Pentode Brass.

Download Hideaway Studio Collection

Free DW8000 collection

Enrich your KONTAKT library with this diverse set of multisampled patches from the Korg DW-8000 hybrid digital-analogue synth. The original patches and sampling thereof are the handiwork of KVR forum-goer dokidokipanic (aka Alex), and he hasn’t gone for any particular theme with the sounds, which take in strings, pads, percussives, keys, vocal-esque timbres, FX and more. Filtering has been applied in KONTAKT to do away with synth’s inherent noise on certain patches, delay and/or reverb are baked in, and the interesting character of the DW-8000 shines through from start to finish.

Download DW8000 Collection

Easy Life

Part of Cinematique’s Klang series of KONTAKT freebies, released in 2019 to mark the company’s tenth anniversary, Easy Life is built on a single sample captured from an EMS VC3 synth. The frequency-rich tone in question feeds into an arpeggiator and can be adjusted in terms of note length, low-pass filter cutoff and arp rate. The Fatness and Distortion buttons toggle added warmth and grit on and off; the arp features a random mode; and one-slider delay and reverb modules bring spatialising and echoes to the party, the latter with a choice of convolution models.

Ultimately, Easy Life is all about that central sample, which has been designed to be satisfyingly responsive to the provided parameters and arpeggiation, and sounds great in all manner of electronic music settings.

Download Easy Live

Photo credit: Gunda Schliep