> Free software

There’s flavour in abundance with this month’s free software, taking its cues from the iconic sounds of classic video game consoles

It’s always exciting when we get to give away a synth, and this month’s offering is an absolute corker. Inphonik RYM2612 (VST, VST3, AU, AAX, Apple Silicon and Reason Rack) makes an excellent addition to your sonic toolkit and this £44 synth is yours absolutely free with this issue!

Boutique developer Inphonik (inphonik.com) has a love for the obscure and RYM2612 is a perfect example. Based on the sound chip found inside a number of classic games consoles, and most notably the original Sega Mega Drive, RYM2612 is an FM synth with heaps of character.

The OPN2 chip (YM2612) was designed by Yamaha to bring its own FM-operator-based synthesis system to a broader market, and to that end it’s essentially a self-contained 6-voice synthesis system with four operators per voice, stereo output DAC and sine wave LFO. Still, despite its popularity, it actually has a design flaw that results in low-level signals having exaggerated quantisation noise. This, of course, adds to the personality of the synth, and has been faithfully recreated in Inphonik’s emulation. Meanwhile, more undesirable limitations like the 6-voice polyphony have had a well deserved upgrade. Inphonik have kindy supplied some additional presets and channel strips. There’s 20 extra presets in both plugin and RePatch format, and also nine ready-made Logic Pro instrument channel strips. So follow along with us as we explore RYM2612!

> Step by step 1. Installation

1 To grab your copy of RYM2612 head to this month’s Computer Music download page (bit.ly/cm334downloads). With your issue to hand, answer the quiz questions to gain access and then follow the instructions to have your unqiue RYM2612 code sent via email.