Demonic Sweaters is a DIY drumming and music production blog. Explore gear reviews, original compositions, retro aesthetics, and hands-on advice for home recording. Whether you’re a seasoned drummer or just getting started, you'll find fresh insights, creative tools, and real-world tips to fuel your sonic journey—no hype, just authentic passion and practical knowledge.
What are soundfonts? To put it quite simply, a soundfont is a file that holds multiple samples and can be loaded into a Soundfont Player and controlled by MIDI. They are very useful in sampling large instruments.
For example, I created this soundfont of the Casio CT-370 keyboard and sampled every note in the entire thing. It took forever, but it was worth it—now I have a complete Casio CT-370 on my computer, and you can too!
This is a great soundfont player. It’s one of the better ones for Windows I’ve used. It has analog-style controls like VCF, VCA, LFO, mono mode, and portamento! I had a lot of fun using it on my new episode of "One Free Synth Plus Drums" and the CT-370 Soundfont.Keep in mind this is a 32 bit plugin. It'll work fine in Reaper, but programs like Ableton you will need a VST Bridge like J-Bridge.
Big Funkster VST Synth – Freeware That’s Got Serious Mojo
Episode 2 of my series "One Free Synth + Drums" features a standout pick: Big Funkster, a freeware VST that sounds far more analog than you'd expect. The tone instantly reminded me of my Behringer Model D—warm, thick, and surprisingly expressive for a digital plugin. It brings that Mini Moog-inspired flavor without the price tag or power cables.
Big Funkster is very capable of making some INSANE sounds. I found myself cracking up with laughter with some of the noises I was getting out of this thing while creating my track for the new episode of "One Free Synth + Drums".
The Big Funkster consistes of:
Three main oscillators, each with two sub oscillators
Independent ADSR envelopes for each oscillator
Per-oscillator tuning and fine-tuning controls
Tempo-synced LFOs for groove-based modulation
Three filters with ADSR control and flexible routing
Portamento and Mono Mode for buttery glide
Retrigger for consistent attack shaping
Wave Shaper and Flanger for added spice
Master Filter and Master LFO for overall sound sculpting
The interface feels intuitive enough that you can jump in and start crafting without second-guessing your signal flow. If you are familiar with the concepts of analog subtractive synthesis, then it should be easy to figure out pretty quickly.
It is a 32 bit plugin (this is another one from the golden age of mid 2000s free VSTs! Reaper can run it just fine, but if you want to run it in Ableton then you will need a VST Bridge like J-Bridge.
Download Big Funkster now via Plugins4Free and let it rip inside your DAW. It's Windows-compatible and plays nicely with most setups.
Six SenZe is an additive digital synthesizer with subtractive controls designed for Windows. It offers 7 waveforms that can be combined in six slots, along with a multi-mode filter, LFO, and several presets. I recently featured it in the first episode of my new YouTube series, "One Free Synth Plus Drums."
This synth delivers an impressive icy sound while covering diverse sonic territory despite its limited presets. The controls are intuitive and easy to use. As a 32-bit VST, it requires a VST Bridge like jBridge if your DAW doesn't support 32-bit plugins. However, Reaper handles 32-bit plugins without any trouble.
