Swiss Army Synth

A Little About PowerFX

It's really no secret around here that I have always been a big fan of PowerFX. A company that started off being primarily a sample and loop production company has grown into a sample and loop portal with an online library that is quite impressive.

In addition to their presence in the sample and loop marketspace, they have dove in to the field of plugins and virtual synths, beginning with what is still one of my favorite synths for simplicity, quality and tweakability, Dyad. They have also produced Miracle Drumlooper, an impressive and fun drum loop morpher, and the much acclaimed SoundShuttle, a VST plugin that acts as an interface between your tracking application and their online sound sample portal.

A few weeks back they brought up their next entry into their softsynth line, the Swiss Army Synth.

The Swiss Army Synth

The Swiss Army Synth is a simple, inexpensive, yet still quite powerful VSTi synthesizer made for sound designers and electronic musicians. And selling for only $19...well, lets just say that you are getting a pretty darn good value for your money.

The interface of this newest VSTi is really amazingly simple, yet remains very powerful. It comes packaged with a collection of samples ready to go...17 Bass patches, 15 Lead patches and 19 Pad patches are available, along with your own that you want to add in.

The audio engine has a limit of 256 polyphony voices powered by sample-based subtractive synthesis. The user has control over up to 12 key parameters and the primary gain control. All of these visually appear as faders and can be assigned to any control available on the users MIDI control keyboard. I personally use an M-Audio Radium 49 and assigning was as simple as right clicking, selecting assign, and start moving the fader around that you want to be assigned to that Swiss Army Synth control parameter. It was that simple.

On the whole this is a great synth for anyone, but, especially for new computer-based recording musicians on a budget. With a price of only $19 it will be a very powerful synth to really allow the user a wide variety of options and tweaking while being able to get their feet wet in computer-based synthesis.

If you are in need of a synthesizer for your DAW, definately give the Swiss Army Synth a look and listen.