Music producers and sound engineers looking to create 8-bit chiptune sounds for their productions will be thrilled with the AudioThing miniBit 8-Bit Synthesizer, a software instrument that's designed to emulate the sound of '80s game consoles and retro computers. The plug-in includes 128 factory presets and a preset randomizer for quickly breaking through writer's block. There are 18 waveforms, custom waves, and a sub oscillator that generates a square-wave pitch one octave below.
The miniBit 8-Bit is not band limited and will produce aliasing for authentic 8-bit tones. The built-in bitcrusher provides even more noisy and retro sounds. An 8-step sequencer is included with multiple destinations including pitch, volume, filter cutoff, resonance, wave, and sample rate. Using the sequencer is reminiscent of early trackers and wavetable synthesizers. The miniBit 8-Bit is compatible with Mac and Windows and works within most major DAWs that support VST, AU, and AAX formats.
- 18 waveforms + custom waves + sub oscillator
- Poly and mono mode with glide
- 2-pole low-pass / high-pass filter
- Pitch and volume envelopes
- Delay and bitcrusher effects
- LFO with multiple destinations
- 8-step step sequencer with multiple destinations
- 128 presets + preset randomizer
- The Custom Waveform Editor features 32 steps and 8 waveform slots per preset.
- You can draw your waveforms by clicking and dragging on the editor. You can also use the built-in examples as a starting point.
- Each preset has its own set of custom waveforms—if you want to use a custom wave with another preset, you can use the Copy/Paste buttons, or you can disable Update Custom Waves in the global settings.
- miniBit features an 8-step sequencer that can be used to automate several parameters: pitch, volume, cutoff, resonance, waveform, and downsampling.
- Sequencing the waveforms will generate sounds reminiscent of early trackers and wavetable synthesizers.
- Each track can also be randomized using the dice buttons on the right.