HG Fortune

My system crashed. I lost all my settings and savings... STS-33 will be the FIRST VST I will re-load.

Just sayin...

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Still available for download as HGF NFG: https://archive.org/download/HGFortuneNFG/AvatarST-Pro-NFG.zip - full version, windows VST.
(from archive.org H G Fortune Nearly Forgotten Gems - H.G.Fortune passed away. His site is no longer available.).

This plugin is very valuable for the price it comes at. The Avatar ST synthesizer plugin costs 12 EUR / 15 USD. You get a whole world of ambient for it. A must have with (4) 2x 2x wave oscillators, sample&hold and 7 LFO's and step modulation (syncable to host tempo), granular transformation and 2x sound transforming 'mystification', reverb, filter, delay, equalizer.

The Avatar ST synthesizer plugin transforms sound with customizable settings of synthesis routines over 4 wave oscillators of which 2 oscillators have user loadable waves. It features a rich set of internal waves, and this Avatar ST synthesizer allows adjusting a patch with randomize buttons for the waves and 7 other groups of settings of a patch. Sound is constructed with logical settings in a clear construction of the synthesizer display panel.

The Avatar ST has many options to ambiently modulate sound. It it is very suitable for creating ambient soundbeds and soundscapes and sounds with tension. The Avatar ST does allow creating sounds with a shorter decay/sustain/release on the amplification and filter envelopes, although longer sustaining sounds more suitable as ambient sounds and pads are the thing that this plugin excels in.

The Avatar ST synthesizer plugin is stable, and has an understandable, not too long manual. It does not consume a very huge amount of CPU, although the manual suggests lowering release times for less CPU usage. If you want to make ambient sounds, (for as addition to) pads, get instant relaxation and tension with very customizable settings: the Avatar ST synthesizer plugin will blow your mind.

The sound this Avatar ST synthesizer plugin creates is beautiful and astounding.

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A wonderful versatile Machine. I spend several hours since the pre alpha in April 2012 and do 1500 presets for Ghost Machine Pro. Some you will find in fxb folder, shown on HGF home page in user content. In the folder Ghost Machine now 22 free SF2 files. Sound demos are in DATA Punks, Fault!er and Yé Yè folder. The links are on user content at HGF-Synthesizer home page.

You may load free SF2 files also from Percumat 2 folder for the four drum sections. Or try to load percussions in the sequencer part.

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Forbidden Planet is one of my favorite science fiction movies and the soundtrack has been a big influence in my musical career. As soon as I saw 'Altair 4' in my RSS feed from KVR I downloaded the demo and then bought the pro version. For those who don't know - Altair 4 is the so-called 'Forbidden Planet' in the movie by that name (from 1956).

The VST is a SynthEdit design made by HG Fortune for Windows only. It is not a general purpose synth, in fact it is aptly named 'The SciFi Sounds Lab' because it specializes in making certain types of sounds - typically those associated with science fiction effects. Especially, the classic Sci-Fi from the 50's and 60's which featured signal generators and theremins and stuff like that.

The manual that comes with the VST is not very complete - there is no block diagram and the description of the controls is a bit weak, but it's enough to get you started.

There are two resonators that generate ring modulated and FM modulated effects - or at least they sound like this to me. The effects have a variety of modulators and controls, a synchronizable delay stage and a reverb stage. No filters and only an AR envelope - this is a very specialized tool.

I would have like a randomize feature because this design is well-suited to that type of exploration. I used the 'MiniHost' VST Host randomizing tool to make my first set of presets.

I think a phaser/flanger effect would also make a nice addition to the output stage, but you can always follow the VST with your own effects...

Typical types of sounds that you are likely to make with this are: bell, bleeps, arcade noises, sample and hold sequences, inharmonic timbres, experimental sounds,heavy LFO designs, and weird and strange things. You probably would not design a violin or a piano!

- Jim Hurley, May 1, 2011Read Review

HG Fortune The Dreammachine 3 is a combination of a sophisticated algorithmic sequencer, a sample-based synthesizer with an extensive modulation section (several different types of LFOs, step sequence mod, XY mod) and a huge sample library.
The Dreammachine 3 allows you to produce complete ambient tracks, music beds, moods and accompaniments on its own. Musical contexts (progression) are created using the algorithmic sequencer, different samples per section and one-shot atmosphere and spoken interjections give the tracks structure and diversity, the complex modulation system makes for ever-changing sounds that successfully mask their sample-based origin and vary over time.

For further interaction there's a possibility to play parts via MIDI instead of the built-in sequencer.

The accompanying documentation PDF is very detailed and clearly explains the features of this instrument.

The Dreammachine comes with lots of carefully selected samples and presets that you can just load, let play and enjoy. As there are lots of possibilities, the presets are a good starting point for creating your own "tracks".

I consider The Dreammachine a very good plug-in and fully recommend it.Read Review

Arracis Gold Pro is a four oscillator step sequencer synthesizer with a large number of built-in sample waveforms which can be switched and modulated in up to eight steps per loop (host synced, common note values, dotted, triplet). The stepper can advance regularly or in an irregular fashion (e.g. every 5th step). The sound is then shaped by a resonant LP-HP filter combination, a "spook" effect (kind of a phaser-flanger-delay), a bass enhancer and a synced stereo delay effect with pan modulation.
Most modulation targets allow selection between two synced LFOs, two unsynced special wave LFOs, two slow LFOs and an S/H modulator source.

The user interface is beatuiful. Except for some parameter assignments where I wondered which dial belongs to which parameter first, it nicely fits the instrument

Arracis Gold Pro is well suited for eerie sound scapes, beautiful undulating pads, melodic sequence and arpeggio lines and rhythmic textures.
The wealth of parameters with sensibly tuned value ranges and its vivid sound shaping possibilities make Arracis Gold a nice instrument for live performance. Just feed it a single note or a simple melody and tweak the parameters for minutes and hours.

Arracis Gold comes with a huge selection of beautiful and expressive factory patches and lots of very detailed and varied waves.

My ratings:
UI: 8/10 (a bit of confusion is possible, otherwise really nice and clear design)
Sound: 9/10 (lots of interesting and surprisingly complex sounds possible)
Features: 9/10 (good selection of features with a limited number of building blocks)
Documentation: 8/10 (comes with a PDF document which explains every control element and what it does.
Presets: 9/10 (lots of expressive sounds and a broad spectrum of integrated waves)
Support: 10/10 (the author of Arracis Gold is very responsive. I reported an issue, a day later it was fixed)
VfM: 10/10 (This plug-in is more than worth the asked price [free / EUR 25,-)
Stability: 9/10 (rarely slightly unexpected sound possible otherwise rock solid for me, does what it's supposed to)

I really like Arracis Gold.Read Review

I've been playing with this thing since it was released and thus felt I should say some things about it.

This synth is primarily for evolving textures -- just play a minor-7th chord with it too! -- hence the 3 SoundFont oscillators; there's no virtual analog imitation here. That said, the sound, even without any audio effects, is quite splendid. The one SoundFont included in this package (and hardwired into the free version) has waveforms like "ManyClocks" and "Syn3Osc" that fascinated me to create a few presets including them. I find it strange that oscillators #2 and #3 were selected to be detuned from one another: read further below.

The third oscillator has a wave-sequencer in which, when used correctly, could bring a lot of interest to a song not dominated by bass. The inclusion of both low-pass and high-pass filters with their own envelope generators is a real treat, along with a LFO modulating each envelope. Somewhat I feel it would be even better if the envelope decay parameter had a longer range, to combine with a zero envelope sustain and hear a gradual increase or decrease of the cutoff frequency. The Inferno/Spooks section is essential for inventing sounds with an attitude! It was wise of Fortune to provide as many modulators as possible in that section; in addition the Super Modulation could be used to mess about with the Inferno and Spook mix levels.

The Super Modulation joystick is perhaps this synth's best-known feature to those who haven't heard how it sounds like. For the lazy composers out there, it would be enough to use two slow LFOs to move the joystick around. However, I recommend automating it, especially while a bunch of notes are held.

Alionoctis Pro comes with three banks, plus a so-called "Init" bank, each with 128 presets. The included presets are good for the most part, but too many of them fill in almost all the locations of the Super Modulation joystick. You could get great sounds using one or two destinations per joystick direction. The candidates are usually filters mix, direct-filter and pan-delay, since those don't otherwise have dedicated modulators. Take it from me: this is a great synth to create presets with; I can't say the same thing about many others which only have single-cycle waveforms.

Usually I don't make a big deal about the GUI of a VST plug-in; I focus much more on sound. It might turn off religious people, but it's actually quite harmless in appearance. Also this design is a step up from many of the author's earlier efforts.

As many of you already know, Fortune has an excellent reputation around here, and he's available via e-mail, so I don't have to say anything else about that. His website contains enough information about the products available, and has links to watch some cool videos, with his VST instruments in action!

There are a few things I discovered which are a tiny bit annoying. The note velocity-to-amplitude switch is left off by default; that means if you depend on that, and load in a project containing this synth without any further adjustment, all notes would play back at maximum velocity. Also sometimes, the button of the state of the third oscillator doesn't remember its setting. More than once I loaded in a preset and expected one sound for the third oscillator, but it was changed to some other sound, set in the first step of the wave-sequencer. Note that giving too much emphasis to the high-pass filter with a high cutoff frequency might make the output too quiet -- in that case, consider modifying the direct-filter knob! The Inferno Mix and Spook Mix knobs turned all the way to the right leads to harsh sounds! So watch your ears and speakers, people.

I had been a registered user before buying Alionoctis, but the full price of non-registered user is good enough, since you can't get these PCM waveforms anywhere else. Besides, with the Pro version you get the privilege of using any SoundFont sound you want, to mangle into the filters, delay and Inferno/Spooks section! Well, that's as long as you remember that this synth is great for playing chords with, and is not for heavy trance or phat bass or anything else like that.Read Review