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3.5/5. Vivaldi is a straight-forward 2-op FM synth, where you can layer up to 4 parts. Each part is made of very basic components: Three oscillators (carrier, modulator, LFO) and two ADSR envelopes. The envelopes control the level of the oscillators, but the LFO can be sent configured to multiple destinations extensively.

Unfortunately, if you want to emulate classic Yamaha-style FM, this is not the place. I tried to recreate the classic Brass sound, but the envelope or feedback just wasn't providing enough 'umph' on the attack. Even the extremely limited 2-op FM synthesizers Yamaha released are capable of this, as found in various OPL emulation plugins JuceOPLVSTi and vst2413, so it is down to differences to the architecture itself.

Though while not a strict emulation, it does its own thing rather well, and has a pleasant soft FM sound, with still being capable of its own flavor of harsher tones. Definitely more pleasant than other free FM plugins such as Uno FM or mda DX10.

I would recommend Vivaldi MX over the original Vivaldi, as it's essentially a free upgraded version (more polyphony, multitimbral etc.). Also, it's big brother Ganymed is a 3-op FM synth with 2 parts instead of 4.

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I love this spacey little synth. Great presets, and very extensible beyond that.

Excellent for "the sounds of space", or what space might sound like if it were not a vacuum.

Synth is named after either a moon, or some twinky man-boy from mythology, and sort of works as both.

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I love the Ganymed VST. I've used it more than any other synth in my recordings, which says a lot, as I have some bigger name synths in my setup. I found it surprising...I'd be searching for a sound in my head and this one had something usable over and over again.

The presets are great and the interface is user-friendly. Ganymed's patches served well as leads, but it also has patches, and some cool arpeggiated presets. I appreciate the work that Stefan Kuhn did to make this great synth...and he released it for FREE. It's worth checking out at the very least. Unfortunately, there is not currently a version for OSX, but if you have a PC, this is a must-have synth. It doesn't use much processing, but the sounds are relatively complex and polyphonic. This makes it a great soft-synth for live performance and it is flexible for seeking that perfect patch.

I wonder what it is like on Ganymed right now. Isn't that strange to consider? There is a moon out there, at this moment, spinning in the orbit of our solar system. It has its own geography...its own ecosystem...crazy.Read Review

I picked up VMX about 6 months ago and find myself using this now for everthing, Leads, powerchords, The greatest basses, the coolest bell and percussion sounds.A fantastic synth in all aspects but very daunting to the beginner in Fm synths (I scratched my head when I first saw it :P)

The Interface is a head scratcher at first but once you get used to switching between the pages to use the oscillators, envelopes, and modulation options it starts to get easier.

The Sound is what you make it, since its fm it can sound absolutly horrible but when you get to know what your doing this thing can make alot of different sounds, I have made trance leads, 303 leads, bells, huge harddance basses, rock style basses, snares/hats/etc, and plain ol crazy fx sounds. and also has a quality option to save cpu I am guessing though i never see a difference but on low quality it can sound like an old atari.

The features.....too many to mention but you can read above you know ;)...whats missing and I wish was there would be a built in arp...an arp with this would make wicked idm.

since theres no more development of these synths :( what you see is what you get documentation and manual wise but its not to hard to learn and believ me in this case practice pays off its a great sound maker.

Presets are good, could be better, but I am not complaining, the power chord preset hooked me in the first place. 32 presets from pads to bells and standard stuff aswell it will show you what can be done though alot more is possible imo.

well customer support in non existent so not much more to say... if you have a problem ask the forums I guess

this free synth was worth the download on this end, as you probably have guessed by now I love it I won't part with it until it no longer functions even then I'll buy an old pc just to keep running this synth and the others that are not developed anymore. I have a crappy computer a terrible OS (WME) and outdated hardware and this is super stable no crashes since ....ever.

Its a sad fact to know this beauty and its sister synths vivaldi original and ganymed will never me updated again, but it happens.

try it its a great sound makerRead Review

Ganymed was the first VSTi I ever played with, and it pretty much sold me on switching to a VSTi-centered workstation. I keep coming back to it for the Fairy Harp, Warm Bell Pad, Reso Guitar, and Pad 2 presets. Some of the other presets are strange for the kind of music I make, but they are interesting nevertheless. The more Indian-sounding presets might be right up your alley.

Ganymed--Vivaldi, too--has more versatility than I know what to do with. The presets alone convince me that it's capable of a plethora of interesting, even soul-stirring, sounds. Last time I checked, there was no manual, and I want one so badly that I offered to help edit/code the thing if it'll help get it out. (I try not to email developers of free programs, because I figure they're already giving away enough of their time without having to respond to tons of email; but I did write the author when I first downloaded Ganymed and got an immediate, very nice reply.) I want to understand how to tweak the settings to get sounds like those of my favorite Ganymed presets, so some tips on how to do that would be really nice.

Finally, I like the look: easy on the eye, smooth, well-organized, definitely classy.Read Review

Yes, it´s four Tens for this instrument:
One because it has the best and low end to its bass sounds that I´ve so far heard in a VSTI. Check out Bass 04, it´s mamzing.
One because it has an amazing number of presets, none of which are redundant
One because you can tweak the sounds till they´re totally weird, yet interesting...and still don´t sound like any of the presets.
One because at in low qualty mode (which still sounds very nice to me) it is rather easy on my cpu. Very good.
A decent nine because it offers all this and it´s still free. Strange, indeed.
The interface always makes me think of something you can eat, something meaty with cream in it...I wouldn´t want to play with it when I have stomach flu or a hangover, but it stil looks nice.

Anyway: My bass synth of choice from now on.
Cheerio :)

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I see myself using more and more Vivaldi, because it's one of those synth which is basically "useful". It has a strong FM character on its own, of course, but I have to admit that I've been surprised by how responsive is and how easy is to get tons of sounds from it.

It has some strongs points, one that this FM synth is the closes one that I've used to an analog in terms of easy of use and predictability on its structure, another is that it can sound FMish and surprisingly quite analog, so it allows to cover a wide palette of sounds (just check its internal bank), but one of the most importants is that it's a 4 layers synth which allows to create wonderful patches.

The interface is clear and has get the most of it's possibilities once you understand you got 4 tabs on right for the 4 layers and each one has its elements on the left tabs. The 3 levels of CPU use allows using lots and lots of instances on a medium machine. No documentation still, but it's support is premium.

I sincerelly recomend it, because being free is a real present, but sounding so fine, it's one of my favorites. Triangle II and Vivaldi are now my first choice of sounds, despite having several commercial synths. Impressive :-) Thanks Stefan!

Just check it! :-)

(No, still, no documentation, although I wouldn't mind.)Read Review

Vivaldi was a pleasant surprise. 4 OP FM synths can sound weak and boring but Vivaldi - in particular because of it's user interface - is easy to program and creates interesting timbres.

It has a fairly warm sound (for a digital synth) once you start working with the various tuning capabilities and can create fairly complex motion type pads along with good FX and simpler FM style sounds.

The down side is CPU useage which is pretty high when using up to 4 operators. It should be noted you can use as little as one although you can't expect much diversity unless using a minimum of 2 operators.

The presets are ok but you will be better suited programming your own.

Don't let the FM tag scare you off. The programming features are fairly narrow but in a good way.

It's free, it has an interesting sound to it.Read Review