Access Virus A, B & C

1997-2002 DSP-based virtual analog. The A is the original aggressive Virus character; the B and C add filter modes, polyphony, and the saturation/distortion stages. The chip-level emulation runs the same firmware, so factory and user banks play back correctly.

Access Virus TI

2005 expansion of the Virus line, with more polyphony, more parts and a deeper mod matrix. Higher CPU than the A/B/C cores; useful when you need the TI-specific patches (HyperSaw, three oscillators with sub, expanded effects).

Akai S1000

16-bit hardware sampler whose converters and filters shaped late-80s and 90s production. The core runs on SFZero 3.0 (MIT) with 8-point sinc interpolation, extended SFZ/SF2 opcode support, and discoDSP Bliss formats (.zbp/.zbb). Loads Akai ISO/BIN/CUE disk images directly, with folder browsing, auto-slice drum mapping, global retune via CC20, and full CC routing (mod wheel, volume, expression, pan, sustain, pitch bend).

AY-3-8910 / YM2149 PSG

General Instrument AY-3-8910 and Yamaha YM2149, the sound of the ZX Spectrum 128, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST and MSX. Runs Ayumi by Peter Sovietov, with a voice engine ported from Ym2149Synth by trash80. 3-voice polyphony, switchable YM2149 / AY-3-8910 engine, CC 1–11 control mapping over tone, noise, envelope and arpeggio, and .ay patch files browsed from a folder with Factory and User banks, MIDI Program Change and < > preset navigation.

Clavia Nord Lead 2X

The 2X revision of the Nord Lead 2, with dual DSP56300 for higher polyphony and unison. Direct firmware execution, so 2X SysEx patches load and behave like they do on the hardware.

Commodore 64 SID

MOS 6581/8580, the chip behind C64 chiptune. Runs reSID by Dag Lem (GPLv2) with the 8580 model and high-quality RESAMPLE sampling. 3-voice polyphony with oldest-voice stealing, full macro playback engine (wavetable, pulsetable, filtertable, speedtable) at 50 Hz PAL frame rate, and live MIDI control of cutoff, resonance, pulse width, vibrato, and pitch bend. Loads GoatTracker .sng banks and standalone .ins instruments (GTS3/4/5, GTI3/4/5).

Hammond B3

Tonewheel organ with Leslie speaker, based on OpenB3 by Michele Perrone, which builds on the setBfree engine. Upper, lower and pedal drawbars, percussion, vibrato and chorus, overdrive, reverb and three Leslie cabinets (122/147, 145 and 16 Vibratone) with horn and drum speeds, ramp times and mic distance. Presets are .fxp files in Factory and User banks, selected by MIDI Program Change, and a keyboard split plays pedals, lower and upper manual from one keyboard.

Moog Model D

The Minimoog has the voice many of us first fell in love with: a fat bass that sits under everything, a lead that cuts through any mix, a filter you can play like a second instrument.

The CA-72 by Idle Foundry rebuilds a 1972 Model D from the inside. Every board was transcribed from the service documents into SPICE netlists, and the real-time model was derived from those simulations and calibrated against a real instrument, so the oscillators drift, the ladder filter sings and the mixer breaks up the way the original does.

Its front panel opens right below the Retromulator rack. LO, HI and ULTRA quality trade CPU for detail, and offline bounces always render with the 4x engine. DOUBLE, SPREAD and ENTROPY add a detuned twin, stereo width and the small differences between two real units. Presets are .fxp files in Factory and User banks with .fxb bank import and export, selected by MIDI Program Change, and every panel control answers a MIDI CC.

Oberheim Matrix-1000

Six-voice analog rack from 1987 with 1000 patches, built around the Curtis CEM3396 voice chip. The core runs the original firmware on an emulated Motorola 6809 board, which drives six CEM3396 voice models oversampled 2x. Banks 2 to 9 are read from the patch EPROM, all 96 patch parameters are mapped to MIDI CC, and both LFOs can sync to the host tempo or MIDI clock.

Roland JP-8000

The original supersaw, seven detuned saws stacked on one oscillator. Beyond that: full VA architecture, motion-control ribbon, and the trance-defining filter and amp character.

Roland Sound Canvas

The 88emu core boots the original Sound Canvas firmware on emulated Hitachi H8 and Renesas SH-2 CPUs, running the same GS tone generator code as the hardware. Five boards are selectable when their ROM set is present: SC-55mk2, SC-88, SC-88VL, SC-88Pro and SC-8850. Capital tones, variations and drum kits are read from the loaded ROM, so the tone list is exactly what the selected board offers, including its native map count (SC-55, SC-88, SC-88Pro and SC-8850 maps). Standard MIDI files play back straight through the board, with a recent-files list and transport control, and can be rendered offline to 48 kHz 24-bit WAV or to MP3. Emulation by Giulio Zausa.

Tracker Core

Module player for XM, MOD, S3M and IT files. XM and MOD play through the Fasttracker 2 replayer, S3M and IT through the Schism Tracker player, with Nuked OPL3 for Adlib instruments. Several files, a dropped folder or an .m3u file make a playlist that is stored in the session. MIDI notes drive the transport: C0 restarts the song, D0 stops it, C#0 and D#0 step through the playlist, and note 24 + n starts at position n. Tempo can follow the host or incoming MIDI clock, and a module or a whole playlist can be rendered offline to WAV or MP3.

Waldorf microQ

Wavetable synthesizer with three filters per voice and the Waldorf modulation matrix. Loads original microQ patches and wavetables, giving the digital-analog hybrid character without resampled approximations.

Waldorf Microwave XT

PPG-lineage wavetable synthesis with analog-modeled filters. Where you go for sweeping wavetable scans against resonant filters.

Wurlitzer 200A

Electric piano core based on OpenWurli, a per-voice physical model of the tine, pickup, and tone-bar assembly, ported from ~3,000 lines of Rust to C++ for this plugin. Models the instrument rather than sampling it, so velocity and sustain interact like the real thing.

Yamaha DX7

Six-operator FM, 1983. Emulated at the chip level via VDX7 (Hitachi HD6303R sub-CPU, Yamaha YM21280 EGS, YM21290 OPS), so original ROM voice data plays unmodified. It's the actual DX7 sound, not an FM-style approximation.

Yamaha OPL3

YMF262 FM chip, the sound of early-90s PC gaming and Sound Blaster. Runs Nuked OPL3 v1.8 (Nuke.YKT), cycle-accurate. Loads SBI instrument files with folder-based banks and zip import.

ROM Firmware

 

Supported Platforms

Universal Binary 2: Native Intel and Apple Silicon.
Standalone Application: No additional software required.
ProTools AAX. Apple Audio Unit. Steinberg VST3.

System Requirements

Credit and Licensing

Retromulator is released under the GPLv3. Full source code is published at github.com/reales/retromulator. Retromulator is an independent project with no affiliation with or endorsement by any of the synthesizer and hardware brands it emulates, including Yamaha, Clavia, Access, Roland, Waldorf, Akai, Wurlitzer, Hammond, Moog, Oberheim, Commodore and General Instrument, whose names are used here only to describe the hardware this product emulates.