Amsynth, or Analog Modelling Synthesizer, developed and maintained by Nick Dowell, uses a traditional subtractive synthesis approach to sound design, and can be run either as a standalone instrument or as a DSSI plug-in within a digital audio workstation such as Ardour or Qtractor. The left screenshot above is of version 1.6.3. Now at version 1.10.0, amsynth is widely available in many linux repositories for immediate installation. A new skin is also now available (right screenshot above), made by Turi Scandurra. It can be downloaded, with instructions on importing it to amsynth, at the link at the bottom.
Amsynth is a realtime, polyphonic/monophonic virtual synthesizer with touch-sensitivity and full MIDI control capability. It includes two oscillators, each capable of generating the classic waveforms: square-to-pulse, triangle-to-saw, sine, noise and sample-and-hold. Oscillator 2 can be synced to oscillator 1, and it can also be detuned: finetuning (plus or minus 4 semitones), coarse detuning (plus or minus 12 semitones) and octave detuning (minus three or plus four). Syncing the oscillators and adjusting the semitone detuning gives some interesting FM-like timbres. An oscillator mix knob allows control of the balance between the two, and turning it all the way to the left or right will isolate the one or the other. Ring modulation level knob is also provided.
A standard ADSR envelope is provided for both amplitude and filter sections. Filter and amplitude velocity sensitivity knobs are located in the lower righthand corner of the GUI.
The filter section includes 9 filter types: low-pass, high-pass, bandpass and notch (each at 12dB and 24dB settings) and a filter bypass option. An envelope strength knob controls the depth of the filter effect, in positive and negative. Filter keyfollow, resonance and cutoff are included in this section.
AmSynth has one Low Frequency Oscillator. This LFO can be completely off, or set to affect the pitch, filter and amplitude, or any combination of the three. The pitch parameter can be routed to either of the oscillators, or both. Waveform shapes include: square, triangle, sine, sample-and-hold, saw-up, saw-down and noise.
Together with the main volume and drive (distortion) controls, amsynth includes a plate-type reverb, a size knob to adjust wideness, stereo and damping knobs. Additional features include mono/legato/poly control, and a very broad portamento capability, which can now be set to "always" or "legato" mode. Panning control is also provided. Pressing "ctrl+r" hotkeys will randomize all parameter settings.
Fine-tune knob adjustments can be made by holding down the shift key as the knobs are moved.
AmSynth has unlimited polyphony capability, although 16-note polyphony is usually sufficient. Pitchbend function can be selected in halfsteps, up to 2 octaves. Microtonal scalings are now loadable as well.
Patrik's Bank 01 A bank of sounds created by Patrik. Right-click to download and save to your home folder's .amsynth/Banks directory before starting Amsynth. Updated 08 November 2020.
Patrik's Bank 02 A second bank of sounds created by Patrik. Updated 08 November 2020.
Patrik's Bank 03 A third bank of sounds created by Patrik. Updated 24 May 2021.
Patrik's Bank 04 Bank four by Patrik.
Patrik's Bank 05 Bank five by Patrik.
Brian's Bank 21 Soundbank no.21. Right-click to download and save to your home folder's .amsynth/Banks directory.
Brian's Bank 22 Soundbank no.22 (currently 70 presets). Right-click to download and save to your home folder's .amsynth/Banks directory.
Mixed Bag 01 A bank of sounds for use with multiple instances. Also to be placed in your home folder's .amsynth/Banks directory before starting. Each preset has two, three or four patches, each to be placed in a separate instance. New instances can be started easily by clicking on the File drop-down menu and selecting 'New Instance.'
Amsynth at Github.io
Etna Skin by Turi Scandurra (for use with version 1.8.0 (or later?)
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