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Fusor

As well as the three individual synths, DCAM includes a shell instrument called Fusor that enables up to three synths to be stacked up together. It also features three insert effect slots per synth, three master inserts and three aux effects.

There are 27 quality effects to choose from, unexpected highlights being reverbs based on Overloud's Breverb, and the oddball Frequency Shifter and grain-based Freezer effects. The formant filter and chorus from Amber are also on hand as effect modules.

Fusor gives you yet more modulation sources to fool around with, including four LFOs, four envelopes (useful when pumping three synth instances through the same filter, for example) and eight macro knobs.

The step sequencer, Animator, has four sequence 'engines' of up to 128 steps. It can be used as an arpeggiator and/or modulation source, and features an Advanced mode with even more controls, such as modulatable offset knobs for the graph lanes.

Finally, key splits and fades can be created with Fusor's Key Map page. Although Fusor can't route audio between the synths, it still offers a monstrous amount of sound-sculpting potential through its modulation and effects processing capabilities.

Summary

Overall, DCAM is a great package, especially for experienced synth lovers, and it's capable of a huge range of tones, from hard and aggressive to those of the vintage variety, all with a fantastic quality of sound that puts it straight into the top tier of soft synths.

There might not be anything particularly revolutionary about DCAM – aside from perhaps Cypher's Beat function – but the quality, in-depth modulation and numerous neat touches all add up to make it an enticing prospect for synth maniacs.

Take a listen to what DCAM: Synth Squad can do