discoDSP releases Retromulator multi-hardware synth bit-accurate emulator

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discoDSP has released Retromulator, a free plugin designed to bring classic hardware cores back to life through authentic low-level emulation.

Featuring eight classic synthesizer and sampler cores in one plugin, Access Virus ABC/TI, Waldorf MicroQ, Waldorf XT, Nord Lead 2X, Roland JP-8000, Yamaha DX7, and Akai S1000, it is built on Gearmulator, an open-source synthesizer emulation project by the dsp56300 team.

Hardware Cores:

  • Akai S1000 sampler — SF2, SFZ, ZBP, and ZBB sample bank playback via the SFZero v3.0.0 engine with 8-point sinc interpolation, extended SFZ/SF2 opcode support, discoDSP Bliss sampler format (.zbp/.zbb), MIDI CC support (mod wheel vibrato, volume, expression, pan), sustain pedal, and pitch bend. No ROM required.
  • Access Virus ABC and TI emulation with SysEx patch loading and ROM preset extraction to bank combo.
  • Nord Lead 2X (N2X) emulation with per-program SysEx navigation, edit buffer patch support, and output level correction by summing DSP A and DSP B voices at full scale.
  • Roland JP-8000 (JE-8086) emulation with ROM preset extraction, patch browsing, multi-performance bank loading, and AU MIDI latency fix running at 44100 Hz.
  • Waldorf MicroQ and XT emulation via dsp56300 cycle-accurate DSP engine with folder-per-bank ROM loading.
  • Yamaha DX7 emulation via VDX7 — full hardware-level emulation of the Hitachi HD6303R sub-CPU, Yamaha YM21280 EGS (Envelope Generator), and YM21290 OPS (Operator) chip set with 16 KB firmware ROM and 32 KB factory voice data.
  • SRC (sample rate conversion) with high-quality Rolloff 0.97 / Beta 9 settings.

New in 1.1:

  • JP-8000 .pfm performance bank loading support.
  • SysEx preset and bank export with embedded patch names.
  • Virus ABC/TI SysEx cross-detection on patch import.
  • Nord Lead 2X SysEx patch name support expanded from 10 to 20 bytes.
  • Per-synth remembered file chooser directory.
  • Fixed SysEx hang when using external patch editors.
  • Fixed Linux and Windows build issues.

Firmware & ROM Management:

  • ROMs NOT included.
  • Browse dialog accepts .bin, .mid, and .zip files; ZIP archives are extracted flat to the ROM folder with automatic multi-synth detection — all recognized firmware files are saved in one pass.
  • Required ROM files per core: Virus ABC/C — virus_c.bin (512 KB), Virus TI — virus_ti.bin (6–9 MB), Nord Lead 2X — nord_lead_2x.bin (512 KB), Roland JP-8000 — jp8000.bin (512 KB), Waldorf MicroQ — micro_q.bin (512 KB), Waldorf XT — xt.bin (256 KB), Yamaha DX7 — dx7_rom.bin (16 KB + 32 KB). Akai S1000 requires no ROM.
  • Assembled ROM binaries are written to the ROM folder and source MIDI/IC dumps deleted, so subsequent launches load instantly from a single .bin.
  • Firmware-missing browse flow on synth type change with synth-specific instructions.
  • Per-synth patch name extraction and bank/program combo selectors.
  • AAX, AU, VST3, and Standalone plugin formats with DAW state persistence.
  • Resizable editor window with aspect ratio enforcement and in-editor corner resizer for AU host resize support.
  • Window size persists across DAW sessions.
  • DAW notified of state changes on preset and synth updates.

Price:

Free (with optional tech support license) and available for Windows, macOS (including Apple Silicon), and Linux in AAX, VST3, AU, and standalone formats.

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