Superwave P8 - Review

Specs: (from superwave website)

• 64 Patch memory
• 8 Voice Polyphony
• 2 x Oscillators (8 Different wave forms)
• Superwave (7 waveforms per voice)
• 2 Resonant Filters (Low, Hi & BP Filter)
• ADSR for Amps and Filters
• 2 LFO's
• Modulation with Routing Options
• 2 Delay FX
• Portamento
• Poly / Mono
• MIDI CC Control

Review:
The Superware P8 VSTi plug-in is a freeware instrument that was (apparently) developed using the SynthEdit development tool.

Initially when I opened up this synth I wondered why it's freeware? (not that I'm complaining!). Its definitely one of the best freeware VSTi's available when it comes to PHat analogue sounds. The interface is fantastic and very well laid out.

All the sliders, buttons and knobs are controllable via an external controller. However only some of the elements seem to send MIDI out back to the controller (once again I'm not complaining). When using an external hardware controller, the synth responds very good even though i could hear "stepping" in some of the parameter changes. I haven't spent a lot of time testing this and it might have been something "environmental" that caused it.

The sound it produces is really fantastic. I have been using it throughout my projects. If you use FL Studio's layering and a few of these puppies together you can make some serious noise!

The CPU consumption of this VSTi is relatively light. I have used it in a project with 8 of them playing simultaneously without getting any dropouts or major CPU Load. This included a bit of automation but nothing heavy.

Just to stress test it a little, I actually automated ALL slider and knobs on a single instance (only excluded some buttons) in a 4 bar loop, playing 4 note chords at 1/4 intervals. This whacked my CPU a little harder (up to about 35% usage at Peak values) But i doubt it if any projects would record as much automation in such a small time frame. Also something to keep in mind is, I only have an AMD64 3000+, 1Gb of RAM and a M-Audio 2496, so nothing fancy there.

Overall this VSTi is a definate "must have" or at least a "must try!". Its only 1.4Mb and is available at the Superwave P8 website