The Shit Synth
A compendium of 48 circuit, wave, and sample-bent instruments from our extensive and rare collection that will give your music a truly unboxed (and grubby) edge. NB. Wash hands after use.

We’ve taken inspiration from some of our favorite music (think Radiohead, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Jon Brion, Throbbing Gristle, Joe Maus, Laurie Spiegel, Yazoo, et al.) to make something that we ask, “Is it just shit or ‘the shit’?” It certainly is a broad selection of 3 x 16 (see specs below) workhorse instruments wrapped in a single plugin designed to bring a cohesive approach to making your music more lo-fi, retro, edgy, and (dare we say it) decidedly AI-slop-free. From pianos to strings, plucks, beeps, bass, and pads.

This compendium has been lovingly sculpted by our composer and sampler in residence, Christian Henson, to take the hassle out of making your own existing sounds less refined. This plugin caters to those looking for an entirely new bank of Mellotron-style sounds in synths that have been long forgotten… and for good reason.

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Many of the instruments sampled have that all too troubling sound of electronic relics teetering on their last legs; a little bit shit, but… good shit if you know what we mean. Featuring synths from the much-loved Roland JX3P, Prophet VS, and lesser-known Wersi String Orchestra to stalwart electric pianos and acoustic instruments, which are presented in each of 3 distinct sound sources: analog, digital, and sampled. We have also slavishly wired up a truly haunting elegiac signal path using vintage Roberts radios, cassette machines, old channel mixers, and other outboard to give you a new, fresh, and original approach to the old, dusty, and long-forgotten.

The love doesn’t stop with the recordings, though, with a front-end panel that takes all the hassle out of breaking your own music out of the box. Featuring an innovative approach to side-chain compression, you’re able to “pump” any instrument live, with your left hand using a series of “side triggers” that you can quantize and edit like any other MIDI note while adjusting the aggressiveness of the strangulation of your sound.

Throw in additional cassette-style processing, spring reverbs from our extensive in-house collection of tanks, and control over a fragile overdrive calibrated to subjugate your music to an even more retroactive moronic morass. We’re certain you will feel the love that has gone into every sound sculpted within this collection, with numerous surprises and Easter eggs for you to stumble across and be inspired by. We have gone to a sonic place many wouldn’t dare to. One that has a distinctive meaty pong. Now wash your hands (whilst your listeners clean out their ears).

Product Specs

  • 3 x 16 Unique Instruments
  • Vintage (analogue) Analogue
  • Unrefined Digital
  • Sample Bent
  • Piano
  • E. Piano
  • Bass
  • Beeps
  • Plucks
  • Pads 1
  • Pads 2
  • Organ
  • Bells
  • Guitar
  • Strings (L-ong)
  • Strings (S-hort)
  • Brass (L-ong)
  • Brass (S-hort)
  • Woods (L-ong)
  • Woods (S-hort)
  • 5 x Side chain triggers
  • Main Encoder: LPF/HPF Cutoff Control
  • Secondary Encoder: Expression
  • FX Macro 1: Tape Effect
  • FX Macro 2: Hair (Saturation)
  • FX Macro 3: Spring Reverb
  • FX Macro 4: Pump (Side-chained Compression (pump) threshold control)

System Requirements

  • 8 GB or more of RAM
  • High-Speed Internet Connection
  • Up to 1 GB of free disk space
  • SSD (if installing to an external drive)
  • macOS Big Sur (11) through to Sequoia (15.x) (Apple Silicon and Intel compatible)
  • Supported Plug-In Formats: AU, VST3, VST2, AAX