Swamp XT

From the depths of the deepest darkest bog, rising from the steam and rot of a thousand years of murkiness... SWAMP. This synth is the sound of hesitancy, regret, sweaty brow worry, white knuckles... and morbid fear. These are the emotions that will come to your soul when you browse through the presets of SWAMP. I see visions of System Shock, SHODAN closing in... Rusted fields of crumbling iron, with the last flesh annihilator roaming for the lost child. Never before has a synth brought so many feelings and images directly to my speakers, with such minimal effort. Folks, Trent Reznor would of killed for this synth in 1994.

But how does it work? How does this aptly named "Magic Music Machine" work it's powers? To be honest, I don't completely know. It apparently uses the "Advance Wave-Transistion" method of synthesis like it's brother the Space Transistion Synthesizer-17 (also by HG Fortune and fantastic, known as "STS-17" usually). From what I gather it runs various PCM-Waves through its dual oscillator system. In turn, each oscillator is manipulated in real time by their own independant (and sometimes shared) set of modulation and filters; such things as "S&H1Sync", "LFO1 & LFO2 sync" , and other stuff like "Modulation Timbre". There are plenty of parameters to get lost in, you can spend hours just tweaking SWAMP; always finding new sounds constantly. But if programming's not for you, there are 3 LAZY?! buttons that each control various parts of the synthesizer. Pressing them randomly will initialize new sounds in SWAMP consistently, with minimal effort. But if that's too much work even, SWAMP comes with a vast library of presets to match any horrific atmosphere you desire.

As with all of HG Fortune's synths, SWAMP is a powerhouse of innovations and unique sound. The GUI is logical, the stability grand, and the implementation unmatched. And best of all, the price is so ridiculously low that almost anyone can afford to buy the full version (I did, and I'm a cheap bastard). If you need dark atmosphere, pads, or even decrepit shreaking leads, you would be a fool to pass this synthesizer up. It's a masterpiece of bitkit by a VST genius.Read Review