The FreeST Mutiny is an old-style Polysynth, designed to create retro, analogue-type sounds. The kind of sounds keyboardists used in the days before MIDI. The VSTi is not based on any particular synth model, but was created with an ethos of 1970s simplicity - everything on the front panel, no hidden parameters, what you see is what you get.
I wanted the synth to be musical and have a practical, useful sound set – presets which could go straight into recordings without much tweaking. I feel the presets are a big part of what this VSTi is about.
The Mutiny doesn’t have a vast array of features. There are two main oscillators, each equipped only with saw, pulse and triangle waves. A sub-oscillator adds either a dropped octave or a raised fifth (depending on how its switch is set), and like the two main oscillators, is detunable. There’s also a noise oscillator with its own independent filter.
The main filter section (which also includes cyclic flanging) is universal, acting on all tone oscillators at once. Other modifiers such as the portamento, pulse width modulation and preset overdrive, also act universally. In common with early polysynths, there’s no velocity sensitivity. LFO depth should respond to your input keyboard’s modulation wheel (provided your mod wheel is set to use the standard Controller No. 1), and pitch bend should respond to your input keyboard’s pitch wheel. You can set the synth to operate monophonically by toggling the Poly button.
So it’s all very basic, but that’s the idea. So many instruments strive to give the musician more and more scope, but I don’t believe the average musician wants to spend half his/her life learning how to program a new synth and creating sounds. For me, it’s always been about playing, and that’s what I think the Mutiny enables. If you want, you can use the Mutiny entirely as a preset synth. The knobs are there to twiddle if you wish to modify the patches, but if you can’t be bothered, you’re still gonna get highly usable, high quality sounds.
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE MUTINY…
Any real time changes you make to the settings whilst your VST host is set to record the Mutiny, will replicate on playback. For example, if you change the filter settings during record, the filter settings will change in the same way during playback.
The Mutiny is monotimbral, but you can open as many instances as your computer’s resources will permit.
Please be aware that the main filter’s Resonance can feed back and this may create very high volume howling sounds. The volume of the individual oscillators will have no effect on this feedback – you will only be able to control it by backing off the Resonance.
The Active EQ section is a powerful component in the Mutiny’s trademark sound. It can boost as well as cut frequencies. The Sub control will be particularly useful for those aiming to replicate the deep rumble of an old analogue synth through a big speaker system.
The Overdrive (OD) switch adds a preset level of distortion. You can tailor the amount of distortion by raising or lowering the volume of the oscillators, then compensating with the master volume.
If you move the Pitch Bend knob with your mouse, you will detune the Mutiny, and if you don’t return the knob to its dead centre position, the Mutiny will be out of tune with other VST instruments. The best way to ensure the Mutiny’s tuning is reset after Pitch Bending is to centralise the Pitch Bend wheel on your MIDI input keyboard. This will return the Mutiny to standard A440 pitch.
There’s no inherent facility to load or store presets. Your settings can, however, be saved as part of a VST song or arrangement.
DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION
The FreeST Mutiny is supplied as a VST plug-in only, and is downloaded as a simple, ready-to-use .dll file. After downloading the .dll file, place it in your VST host’s VstPlugins folder. Most VST hosts will then detect the instrument automatically. If you normally have to add your VSTis manually, please use the same process to add these.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Before downloading this VST synth, please be aware that it is freeware, created by a hobbyist and not a professional organisation. Every effort has been made to ensure that it works effectively and fulfils its role well. However, it is in no respect guaranteed bug or problem free, and is downloaded and/or used at your own risk. In opting to download or use the FreeST Mutiny you absolve its creator of any responsibilty for any problems you may encounter as a result.
DOWNLOAD NOTICE
The software is no longer available from this, its original release venue. It was hotlinked here both via Google Sites hosting and via GitHub.
Google - "the cHaMpIoN oF aNtI-cEnSoRsHiP" - decided to censor everyone's files on Google Sites by deleting every last one of them. Except... when Google itself deletes shit, it's no longer called "censorship" - it's called "sunsetting". How cute.
Then Microsoft informed me it would lock me out of GitHub if I didn't cave to its bullshit "2FA" surveillance racket. So the GitHub has gone too. These were not the first hosting options I used for VST instruments on this blog, and there's a point beyond which one has to draw the line on repeatedly re-uploading and re-linking totally free contributions, on an unmonetised site.
