Sonata Screen Shot

Download

Stable 1.0
The full-featured Sonata VST soft-synth

Development 1.1 Alpha
No new features, but optimized to run more efficiently.

Listen

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Want to see your track featured here? Please contact us.

MP3s

  • Opening Tune
    Patches: Low String Drone, Symphony Strings, Whispering Pebbles, and Flute
  • Fire and Ice Tune
    Patches: Overdriven Bass, D50 Keys, Heavenly Vox
  • River Tunes
    Patches: Pipa, Dizi, Xiao, Bamboo Echoes
  • Chime Tune
    Patches: Silver Chimes, Eno Pad, Electric Bass

All tracks were made with Sonata alone, using factory presets and no external effects.

MP3 files are hosted by the Internet Archive and are in the public domain.

Sonata

Freeware VST soft-synth for leads and pads

Sonata is a VST soft-synth for strong single-shot leads and pads. The distinctive character of Sonata makes it adept at strings and lots of simple subtractive sounds, while also specializing in sparkly and glassy mallet sounds, deep basses, and warm and rich mid-range chromatic inventions.

Sonata features two separate but similarly controlled generators, one for the sound's immediate attack and another for the fundamental tone. Both consist of rich harmonic spectra which are filtered to provide desired overtones. Each possesses its own exponential decay envelopes for amplitude and filter, and its own ADSR envelope.

The output from these is then fed into a little black box—a complex setup of delay devices set relatively for each note that creates a complex comb-filtering effect. This stage shapes the sound, emphasizing desired frequencies and providing richer post-filter overtones, similar to the way an instrument's body will influence its sound.

There are three global effects: a cross delay, distortion, and a reverb.

Sonata produces sounds with consistent timbres in both high and low registers, allowing for better two-handed keyboard performance and ranged melodies. As a result, sometimes each note can get a little CPU-hungry.

Since Sonata's polyphony relies solely on processor power, a 2.5 GHz PC should handle about 20+ note polyphony without much else going on. 1.6GHz computers running other VST instruments should realistically expect only about 8.

Sonata is free and is currently available for Windows NT/2000/XP, and expected to run on Vista.

Reviews

Requirements

Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista, VST Host, 1.0 GHz Pentium or better (at least 2.4 GHz recommended), 256MB RAM.