Product Reviews by KVR Members

Right from the bat, let me say this: Dune 3 is my favorite VSTi.

I own Diva, Zebra, Synthmaster, Spire, VITAL, Surge XT and Sylenth1 v1*.

Dune 3 is the one I'll reach first, and often last as well, VITAL often coming as second. Dune is not the deepest of all those (Zebra arguably still is), and its user interface isn't the best either (VITAL has). But it still has a rich feature set, and its UI is still good and rather simple to understand for someone who already knows software synths. Plus its skins look great.

But what makes it really stand apart is its sound. It just sounds better than all the other synths, and yes that includes the legendary Diva. I don't know what Synapse Audio's secret sauce is, but the oscillators sound great, the 24 filters sound great and the myriad of FX sound great. Including the reverbs, which are often not so good in synths.

The latest release has added a patch generation feature based on a genetic algorithm: choose 2 or more patches and Dune 3 will combine them to generate as many new patches as you want. The result is often surprising. After playing with it, I think every synth should include a patch generator.

Is Dune 3 perfect ? No of course. The browser, right now only has a few categories. You can add new categories but a patch cannot belong to more than one category (for instance a gated pad has to belong to the gated category or the pad category). This improvement alone and the possibility to search several categories would be the functional equivalent of a search by keywords.

Also I wish Dune 3 allowed to input real time audio from the DAW instead of an oscillator. Finally, it lacks a granulator, but I guess that will be added to Dune 4 ?

Apart from that, there is really not much downsides to this synth. Due to the awesome sound combined to the super easy UI and the fact it's light on the CPU, Dune 3 is the definition of a workhorse.

* That's way more software synths than I need. But I simply never use Sylenth1 any more. I also own Dune 2 but I uninstalled it because Dune 3 is equal or superior in pretty much every way, and it comes with all the Dune 2 patches. BTW Dune 3 can read Dune 2 patches, contrarily to what is said in another review.

Just a reply to user pentapower below:

No REAPER doesn't access to your contacts. It has never done anything like this in the 6+ years I've used it and I can confidently say it never will.

Unless of course you've stupidly downloaded a torrent that has been mined with a Trojan from some shady russian source, instead of the official website...

Don't be fooled by its basic interface. This synth is very capable and has a great sound that will sit perfectly in any production. Because it's so lightweight on your CPU, you can use as many synth layers as you want without taxing your computer. Charlatan does exactly what every subtractive synth should do but nothing more. There is no arpeggiator or no effect included. Just add your favorite delay, chorus, and/or reverb to it and you are set for any real world production. Soundwise, you will get the same kind of sound as the old synths like the Juno, but you'd be hard pressed to distinguish it from one of the big boys.

Because it is so basic, Charlatan invites you to tweak your sound instead of browsing through hundreds or thousands of presets. I consider it the best synth to learn out there.

This one may very well be among the best 2 or 3 free synths out there, and I include beasts like u-he Tyrell N6 or synth1.

It's definitely the best synth you've never heard of anyway. It's a truely modular synth, that you program by adding blocks and patching them with cables. There are a few dozens of blocks. The interface is simple and clear, but the controls can be small if you have a high definition monitor.

From there, it's only positives:

+ the sound is phenomenal, up there with the best free AND commercial soft synths. As for free synths, I think it beats all the others I've tried hands down, .

+ despite this it's light in CPU. That's because the engine has been carefuly crafted in assembly language, .

+ it comes with a great presets browser and an amazing library of presets, some of the best pads I've heard.

+ despite being beta, it's stable enough that I've never experiences any crash. Make sure to always use a limiter after it though, as being a true modular, it can easily spit out super loud sounds.

- it can be a bit daunting at first.

What's not to like, really ? This one was supposed to be commercial as it has commercial quality, but somehow never did. The author was kind enough to offer it as a freeware. Thank you .

Right now the best sounding free reverb on the market in my opinion.

Can easily give a run for the money to many commercial reverbs.

Thank you Denis for this masterpiece.

edit: the above praise was posted in 2017. Fast forward to 2023 and Oril river is still my go to reverb for almost everything. Its Dim Expander A preset sits permanently on my master track and every Youtube video, every audio stream goes through it, giving them a touch of air and realism that makes everything better.