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Helm

tytel.org

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Don't forget Vital which is Matt's newer synth. It continues to be open-source as well.

https://vital.audio/

https://github.com/mtytel/vital

So what would be the difference between the two of them?

Vital is a wavetable synth, Helm a "traditional" subtractive synth.

Did vital have no updates whatsoever after release 3 years ago, or are the updates not open source?

There are some threads on the forum, but no answer to the question of whether any new code will appear.

https://forum.vital.audio/search?q=source

There's a good course on skillshare/udemy that teaches synthesis and sound design using Vital

https://www.udemy.com/course/the-complete-beginners-guide-to...

Vital is effectively NOT open-source, the source available on github is a single snapshot of the source as it was when 1.0 was released, it has not been updated since, and 1.5.5 is vastly different.

Another very powerful (but now old) free softsynth is Synth1 by Daichi Laboratory[1][4]. If you look around a bit you can find literally tens of thousands of presets for it[2], which then spawned the excellent Synth1 Librarian which helps bring some sense to this huge library [3]

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synth1

2 - https://archive.org/details/synth1_202202

3 - https://www.kvraudio.com/product/synth1-librarian-by-neutrin...

4 - https://youtu.be/__2AFeG4xII

Helm and Surge XT are great synths (and effects in Surge's case). When my nephew wanted to dabble in audio production, I used them to beef up his free copy of Ableton Live Lite.

My favorite VST is Surge: https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

This was the first subtractive synth I got really into. It's so good!

Matt Tytel also made an open source wave table synth called vital that I'm also in love with that you can find here:

https://vital.audio/

git repo is here:

https://github.com/mtytel/vital

Is what?

As I was already familiar with Helm it didn't strike me that it is not easy to figure out what it is from that home page.

It is a software based synthesiser mostly used as a plugin into a music creation application, usually called DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

There are tons of these, not as many that are open source.

It's also really good and the interface is really nice.

I don't use it much since Vital, by the same author, does most of what Helm does & more.

It's honestly so nice of him to make both of them available for free.

Thanks for that. A bit of it belongs in the title, regardless of what information the link goes to. For example..

Helm: open-source software-based synthesizer

Helm has some of the simplest modulation among free synths. All the modulation and its strength is visible out front without needing a mod matrix. Pigments is the best among non-free synths, but I would still use Helm if I didn't have all the softsynths I've collected since I depended on it years ago.

How is this different to the synths I can find in Logic Pro unless is it just open source ? This is a really cool project though.

Most digital audio workstations (DAWs) support instrument and effect plugins. The industry has largely settled on the VST interface for this [1]. On Macs it's a bit more complicated [2], I believe you can use VSTs, but there's also Apple's AU plugins and AAX.

Logic Pro should support AU but not VST I think. There's an entire industry that makes and sells these plugins, preset packs, sample packs, and other services. For example, Roland makes a pro VST/AU plugin called Galaxias [3] which requires a subscription but gets you access to near perfect software reproductions of nearly their entire synth lineup.

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Studio_Technology

2 - https://producerhive.com/buyer-guides/vst/au-vs-vst-differen...

3 - https://youtu.be/C3o-ATXh_AE

Synth designers are very opinionated, so they all sound different or make different choices that affect how different people get along with them. They're like DAWs that way. Lots of people swear by FL Studio, I can't stand it.

Give Helm a try. It's the only way to know if its opinions mesh with your own.

This is outstanding. Thank you for sharing a link to this program.

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