Acustica, who have created numerous freebies in the past, just released a free synth called THING TH2.
Exclusive “Christmas gifts” from Acustica are nothing new, and this year, they’ve got a versatile synth to offer, which is derived from another one of their synths, THING-8.
THING-8 is Acustica’s emulation of the Roland Jupiter 8, a classic synth from the 80s used all over records from Calvin Harris, Prince, deadmau5 and many more.
While THING-8 has a ton of features and sounds, it’s quite pricey at €229. THING TH2 on the other hand, delivers the sound of THING-8 for absolutely free – in a “new and compact format”.
THING TH2 can be both monophonic and polyphonic to suit different needs. And it comes with over 120 presets “created by industry professionals.”
The presets do sound great based on the above user demo, they have a lot of character and analogue warmth. Some remind me of the classic Blade Runner and the like.
At the heart of this plugin is the VCO (or oscillator, if you will) which can be set to either square, sine, triangle, or what looks like another rectangular shape.
There’s also a sub-oscillator to add some “oomph” to the sound, which you can set to either a square or sine wave.
You can then sculpt the sound with the filter (VCF), which features key tracking, 6 versatile filter types, and also a hi-pass filter.
THING TH2 offers a few modulation modes, including PWM (aka pulse width modulation), an LFO, and an envelope.
What’s interesting to note is that the VCO and VCF envelopes seem to be controlled simultaneously, which is unlike a lot of soft synths we’ve seen.
So, as far as I understand it, you can’t dial in separate envelopes for the VCO and VCF. What you can do though, is change how much the ADSR envelope (which has 8 modes) affects each one.
Then comes the LFO, which has 6 different modes and can be applied to the oscillator, filter, and VCA, each with adjustable amounts.
The “Master” section allows you to switch between mono and poly modes, adjust the portamento time (“Gliss”), and fine-tune.
It also contains a unison control with a “Super Stereo X2” mode to add some depth to your synth sounds.
And the last thing to mention is the “Age” knob which seems to add some variations to the sound, such as pitch fluctuation and some grittiness.
THING TH2 is available as a VST3, AU, and AAX plugin for Windows and macOS.
Download: THING TH2 (FREE)
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