Explore New Sonic Horizons with Cookin: Additive Synthesizer by Tschery
As a musician, producer, or sound designer, you’re constantly on the lookout for new tools that can inspire and add a unique character to your tracks. The world of software synthesizers is vast, and amidst the myriad of options, true gems sometimes emerge that offer a fresh perspective on sound creation. Today, we’ll be looking at one such instrument – the Cookin additive synthesizer from developer Tschery.
Cookin draws attention with its simplicity and focus on sound quality, achieved through the principles of additive synthesis. This isn’t the kind of synthesizer that will impress you with hundreds of oscillators and modulation matrices. Its strength lies in its elegance and willingness to provide you with unique timbres “out of the box”.
What Does the Cookin Synthesizer Offer?
Cookin is a VST instrument designed for the Windows (Win32) operating system. This means that it easily integrates into most modern DAWs on this platform, allowing you to quickly start experimenting with sound.
At the heart of Cookin lies additive synthesis. Unlike subtractive synthesis (where sound is shaped by cutting off frequencies from a rich harmonic wave), additive synthesis builds sound “from the ground up” by combining simple sine waves of different frequencies and amplitudes. This approach opens up opportunities for creating extremely clean, ringing, or, conversely, complex and unusual timbres, which are difficult to achieve using other methods.
Preset Set: A Palette of Sounds
One of the key features of Cookin, especially for those who appreciate a fast workflow, is the presence of 8 built-in presets. While this may seem like a small number compared to commercial synthesizers, each of these presets has been carefully designed to demonstrate the capabilities of additive synthesis and provide musicians with ready-to-use sounds.
The sound palette of Cookin presets is quite interesting and varied:
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Some presets have a distinctive 8-bit character. They are perfect for creating low-fi melodies, arpeggios, or staccato lines reminiscent of classic video game soundtracks or modern electronic music in the chiptune style. These “8bit-ish stabs” can add a nostalgic feel or interesting texture to a track.
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Other presets demonstrate the synthesizer’s ability to create “nice pads” – soft, atmospheric, and voluminous sounds. Additive synthesis is great for creating lush, evolving pads that can serve as the harmonic foundation for a composition or add depth and space.
This diversity makes Cookin a versatile tool for different genres – from electronic music and ambient to hip-hop and low-fi production.
Who is Cookin Created For?
This synthesizer will be of interest to:
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Musicians looking for free but high-quality VST instruments.
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Producers experimenting with additive synthesis or looking for unique 8-bit sounds and atmospheric pads.
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Beginners in sound design who want to understand the basics of additive synthesis with a simple example.
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Anyone who appreciates compact and efficient plugins that aren’t overloaded with features, but simply do their job.
Conclusion
Cookin by Tschery is more than just another free synthesizer. It’s an instrument that, with the help of additive synthesis, offers a fresh palette of sounds, from playful 8-bit stabs to captivating atmospheric pads. Its simplicity makes it accessible even for beginners, and its unique presets can quickly become a source of inspiration for your next musical projects. If you’re working on Windows and looking for something new and interesting for your arsenal of VST instruments, be sure to try Cookin.
