A non-programmable version of Synthmaster is scheduled for release early next month. There'll be both a free version with 150 presets and a $19 version with 600 presets. Could be useful for those who don't like to program their own sounds but want to expand their sonic palette cheaply. No word on whether add-on patch libraries can be used with this edition, but that'd be neat as there are some extraordinarily good (and cheap) libraries available for SynthMaster.

The addon patches that kv331 sell can be used with them http://www.kvraudio.com/f...c.php?f=1&t=400325

Isn't that the underlying tech of HeadCase and a few others? 32bit only?

No, it has nothing to do with SynthEdit or SynthMaker. SynthMaster is a synth made by kv331 Audio.

MyBad.

Despite the hokey name, Synthmaster's a great synth. I'd put it up there in the top tier alongside the likes of U-He stuff, only cheaper. Listen to the demos for the add-on libraries to get an idea what it's capable of, from classic Moog/Oberheim/Arp2600 to those annoying gated-chalkboard scrapes of glitch music. And the dev has been going gangbusters over the past two years adding features, so it's only going to get better over time.

It's easy to use too. I find some synths next to impossible to tweak, I change any setting and either it does nothing or totally f's up the sound. Synthmater, the adjustments work well, and I've been happily tweaking sounds to my liking. I am quite pleased with it.

I hadn't heard of this move, but I think it's an inspired marketing move.  For starters, it's a little like giving away the razor and selling the blades.  KV331 has a large and ever growing number of sound banks all modestly priced (and some of them *very* good).  It's easy to see how someone could try the starter for free or for nineteen bucks and end up coming back repeatedly for more sounds.
 
On top of that, it would be surprising if a fair percentage of the free-bee adopters didn't opt to spring for the full synth at some point once they started to appreciate the quality of this instrument. I'm a big fan of KV331 and wish them well on this.

Thanks Dave, that looks like another great free synth, $19 for 600 presets sounds like a great price too.

It looks like it may have enough in the way of control to be useful.

1) Edit 12 easy parameters assigned by the sound designers for each preset
2) Turn on/off the layer/global effects for each preset.
3) Edit Layer/master volumes

 
But I hope they are better at managing their Gantt charts than IK

Our current ETA on the release date of the player is 1st week of February. Let's hope that we can meet that deadline