Russian developer Vasily Makarov (who gave us the Marazmator synthesizer last year) has announced the release of Brandulator, a tempo-synced arpeggiator/resonator effect that distributes the input along three lanes of parallel comb filters that behave in accordance with harmonic laws specified by a large number of musical scales and chord formulas archived within the plugin.
Version 1.0 was significantly buggy, but Vasily has already fixed a few things, such as a massive gain spike upon startup, posing a substantial threat to your monitors… and your hearing. There are still a few minor issues with the GUI, but if you can look beyond that, Brandulator is a wonderfully musical effect that springs to life once you trigger your DAW’s sequencer and process sounds though it. Drum loops, synth leads, even pads and ambient soundscapes suddenly take on a whole new rhythmic and harmonic context when processed through Brandulator’s sound engine.
See also: Top 50 FREE VST Plugins Of 2015!The “Rand” button will re-tune each of the sixteen steps in all three channels in accordance with the selected scale. You can also determine the root pitch of the scale and the octave range with a small handful of controls at the bottom of the interface, along with additional controls for output level, depth (which is actually controlling the feedback filter), glide/portamento, and detuning of the comb filters.
I’m really impressed by the vast assortment of musical scales available in the drop-down menu below the “Rand” button. Brandulator might not be very flexible in terms of its overall sound, even though you can create flanger effects by increasing the level of glide and detuning, but it’s enormously flexible musically!
So far, I’ve had a blast feeding sounds through Brandulator in tandem with Alex Hilton’s A1TriggerGate, another great freebie which will add a bit of “pizazz” to Branulator’s output. Aside from a few minor bugs, I personally feel that Brandulator is one of the best free plugins of 2016!
Brandular is available for free download via KVR Audio (32-bit version 802 KB download size, 64-bit version 1.6 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32 & 64-bit VST plugin format for Windows).
12 Comments
Tomislav Zlatic
onThanks for another great article, Bryan! And you’re totally right, it seems that Brandulator will be one of the top freebie picks this year.
Bryan Lake
onNOOICE!!
Esol
onMarazmator was totally wierd. :P
But this sounds like a cool plugin. Will have to test this one out.
Vasily Makarov
onAs part of the Marazmator, called me a “filter pipe”, which is the process of single channel of Brandulator )
Esol
onHi Vasily. I didnt mean that Marazmator was bad in any way, just a bit strange. But strange in a good wat. Its a cool synth that i love to experiment with. Going to test out Brandulator. I know i’ll like it. :)
Vasily Makarov
onVersion 1.2 is available.
Fixed bugs in DSP block, as in the work of controls, and optimized graphics.
Kosm
onMarazmator is amazing. Any synth/sound-generator with a RANDOM button that actually makes “new” sounds and that “works” is amazing! Like Atlantis’s random button!. Wishing for more vsti with these excellent features and usable (for all modern styles) SOUND. Brandulator here we come!! Thanks BPB!
Vasily Makarov
onLiterally soon will have a new free version of Marazmator. Follow the news.
Timoithy
onMy antivirus says it contains a virus: https://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/threat/encyclopedia/entry.aspx?name=Trojan%3aWin32%2fSpallowz.A!cl&threatid=2147697481&enterprise=0
Vasily Makarov
onProbably your antivirus does not work properly.
See for detalies https://virustotal.com/en/file/1d710e016f72efcea8bc8c5e0420c9cb7047032e20b761347efcd85e8668e709/analysis/
Wojtek
onI just have Marazmator that I like . However I use often NutSeq vst now . There are a similar sounds from music Of KRAFTWERK ” . I am fascinated with this vst .
WOJTEK
onI downloaded Brandulator and tested , but unfortunately this vst didn’t work . That means the sound wasn’t . I don’t know why , because my other plugins works good . No problem. I use a MIDI controller Arturia MiniLab and without a DAW program. Although I have system Windows 7 Pro. 64bites but all vst’s are 32 bites. I like to use any good effects to my music .