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IK Multimedia Offers FREE Synthwave For SampleTank

By 19 Comments3 Mins Read
IK Multimedia Offers FREE Synthwave For SampleTank

IK Multimedia announces Grab a Synth giveaway, offering the Hitmaker: Synthwave for SampleTank as a free download through March 31st, 2021.

The Grab a Synth giveaway runs until March 31st and requires you to take part in a short survey. In return for your participation, you get a free copy of Hitmaker: Synthwave ($49.99 value) and 15% off the preorder price of the new UNO Synth Pro.

See also: Inphonik Releases FREE PCM2612 Retro Decimator Unit

First things first, the short survey is indeed a short survey. All too often, offers that include a short survey leave me thinking, just take my money, and let’s end this. But it’s literally five questions about your synths and no typing.

Hitmaker: Synthwave is a collection of retro instruments, samples, and beats. On opening Synthwave, I was surprised to see that it offered 13 sound categories, considering I’ve paid more for less in the past. Although, most categories contain only a few instruments/presets.

It has the expected synth bass, lead, and pad sounds, along with some synth sweeps and plucks. Not as expected were the guitar, organ, brass, and woodwind categories. The remaining categories are made up of arpeggios, chromatic, drums, and sound FX.

For me, the drums, pads, basses, and sweeps are the best of the bunch. There are 10 Synthwave drum kits, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them for this style. The sound quality is great, plus each kit has some MIDI grooves triggered by set keys.

There are also 10 synth pad presets, and a couple of them are really nice with some creative modulation. Between the four sound categories that I highlighted, you have the foundations of some awesome Synthwave tracks.

Looking at the categories that I didn’t praise, I wouldn’t say all is lost. Some of the arpeggios are great for adding texture, and I’m sure the rest may be of more use to others than they are to me. I just picked out the sounds I felt were most authentic and better suited to creating something unique.

Overall, if I paid $49.99 for Hitmaker: Synthwave, I’d have few complaints, so grabbing it for free is a no-brainer.

It’s not a deep dive into sound design; it’s a quick and easy library that could either help you start or finish a track. And, if you had to make a convincing Synthwave track using only this collection, you absolutely could.

There are no download issues to report, although you need to have (or download) Sample Tank 4 Custom Shop first.

More info: IK Multimedia (Hitmaker: Synthwave is FREE until March 31st, 2021)

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James is a musician and writer from Scotland. An avid synth fan, sound designer, and coffee drinker. Sometimes found wandering around Europe with an MPC in hand.

19 Comments

    • Mike B

       on

      So that is one of the big complaints a lot of people have with IK Multimedia – they don’t provide the download for an unlimited time. You will still be licensed for it and own it, though.

      My workaround is to download the sample pack files (both for Mac and Windows) and then upload them to online storage. I wish I didn’t have to, but it is what it is.

      Reply

  4. rex roll

     on

    At least it’s easy to get and you don’t need to download entire banks this time.Be care of the 1 year timelimit of free downloading though.

    Reply

  7. Numanoid

     on

    There is a great deal on Sonivox stuff this week at AiR, Solina Redux and Stratum Transwave Synth both cost just €10 !

    These plugs have never been sold so cheap before AFAIK.

    Plugin Boutique do not have this sale, I am hoping they would add it, they I would get Audio Thing plug on top of that

    Reply

  8. Numanoid

     on

    This is a great giveaway, thanks a lot for the info and thanks to IK. The survey was done in 30 seconds, and the download was quick But there is one thing that annoys me a lot with IK and their samples, it hogs valuable harddrive space. Why don’t they use a lossless audio format, like Kontakt (that uses NCW). When I pack this product with WinRAR I get a 40% reduction in size. So basically had IK used a lossless audio format, that is how much less space it would take on the harddrive as well. It adds up in the end for those owning the full monty Sampletank or Syntronik we are talking tens or twenties of GB that could be saved had IK used a lossless audio format.

    Reply

  9. Michal Ochedowski

     on

    Wow, that was indeed very fast and easy to deal with. Super short survey. Thank you for letting us know about this offer. I also extend my thanks to user that mentioned free Valves plugin at ADSR sounds.

    Reply
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