U-He Podolski Goes VST3 (+100 New Free Presets)

U-He has announced that their free Podolski virtual synthesizer is now available in VST3 format for Windows and Mac OS. The latest version of the plugin also includes an additional set of 100 patches made by The Unshushable Coktor.

For those of you who are not yet familiar with Podolski, let’s just say that it’s one of the hidden gems of the freeware world. The synthesizer was first released as a free gift for the visitors of Musikmesse 2005 and was since then distributed as one of the freebies on the cover CD of Keyboards Magazine (later known as Sound & Recording Magazine) until 2009. After going completely offline for a few years, the synth was re-released as a free download for everyone (distributed via U-He’s official website) in 2012. The 2012 version of Podolski came with a fully refurbished GUI and a collection of factory presets crafted by none other than Howard Scarr, a sound designer who (beside other awesome projects) provided the U-He Zebra patches for The Dark Knight movie soundtrack.

Podolski is, in a way, a lightweight version of the FilterscapeVA synthesizer featuring one oscillator, one filter and fewer modulation sources. It does, however, come with a fantastic arpeggiator module (quite similar to the one used in U-He Zebra) and it is extremely CPU friendly on modern day computers. Oh, and it does sound very good!

Thankfully, U-He has a habit of keeping their old software updated (even the freebies!) and we are now introduced to yet another improved version of Podolski. The latest version of this fantastic little synth is available in VST3 plugin format for PC and Mac based DAWs (in addition to VST 2.4 and AU), the idea being that U-He developers are looking to test this relatively new format before applying it to their other products. In addition, Podolski now comes with 100 brand new presets made by The Unshushable Coktor. These new presets are essentially a collection of analog synth classics that sound great out of the box, but are also more than useful as a starting point for building your own custom patches. Btw, it’s worth pointing out that the new presets will also work in other plugin versions of Podolski (you don’t need to use the VST3 format if you don’t want to – simply download the latest installer and install the presets to your Podolski folder.

Some of the other highlights of this great little synth are a resizable GUI (you can reduce the default size to 70% or enlarge it all the way to 200%), adjustable GUI brightness and full MIDI learn support. You can download the latest version of the installer in the KVR Audio forum thread linked below.

Download

Podolski is available for free download via KVR Audio (18.8 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/VST3/AU plugin formats for Windows & Mac OS).