Could Vaporizer2 be the pocket money power synth plugin that won’t break your CPU?

Vast Dynamics has released Vaporizer2, a new plugin synth that promises to combine high performance with low system CPU resource usage. More than that, it also comes at a very tempting price.

This is a hybrid wavetable additive/subtractive instrument and sampler workstation. The wavetable engine is said to be “state of the art”, offering four independent alias-free wavetable oscillator banks  with up to 24-oscillator unison.

You can take a look at the spec list below and find out more on the Vast Dynamics website. Vaporizer2 runs in VST/AU formats and costs $40/£32/€35, and there’s also a demo for you to try.

Vast Dynamics Vaporizer2 features

  • State-of the art wavetable engine with four independent alias-free wavetable oscillator banks with up to 24 oscillator unison
  • Low system CPU resource usage - even with more than 1.000 oscillators playing
  • Groundbreaking wavetable editor with a vast number of editing possibilities including frequency shift, smooth, clean, bend and bloat for single-cycles, parts of single-cycles or even whole wavetables
  • Easy-to use wavetable draw mode with smooth Bezier curves and snap to grid function
  • Mix-in, amplitude modulate, interpolate or normalize wavetable cycles
  • Generate FM, PWM, harmonic morphed / reduced, low pass / high pass / band pass / /comb / formant filtering and even hard sync wavetables out of an arbitrary single cycle waveform
  • Morphing and phase shifting of wavetable cycles
  • Import and change standard (Serum, Icarus) format wavetables - also simply via drag and drop
  • Additive synthesis section that allows to freely edit all harmonics and phases in real-time
  • Sampler section (wav / aiff / ogg / mp3) with loop points, loop start modulation and key tracking
  • Resample samples to wavetables with pitch detection
  • Intelligent polyphonic portamento / glissando (you need to hear it!)
  • Mono legato mode or polyphonic 4 / 16 voice modes
  • Three effects busses including 4 x oversampling and mono cutoff to preserve a clean low end
  • 10+ highly parameterizable effects including reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, bitcrush, eq, compressor, limiter, flanger, phaser, comb filter and more
  • All effect times and durations can be synced to DAW
  • State of the art filter section (30+ different types) with 4 x oversampled LPF (biquad, state variable and diode ladder implementations) plus high pass, all pass, band pass, notch, shelf, comb and scream filters – all with resonance
  • Very steep filter curves for punchy basses
  • Real-time filter response display
  • Innovative audio routing system for all sound generators, filters and effect busses
  • Five freely editable MSEG envelopes with loop function
  • Three LFOs with smooth generation optimized for lowest frequencies with ramp and phase that can be set per voice or global - can be synced to the DAW
  • Built-in arpeggiator that is freely editable and supports polyphonic modes and hold
  • Three step sequencers that can be synced to the DAW
  • All parameter knobs / sliders automatable
  • Comes with a daily growing number of presets – free regular updates on the website
  • Easy to use and intuitive user interface that is freely scalable and resizable even up to 4k and more with many drag and drop features
  • Life-long free update policy!
  • Plus: the sound is stunning!
Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.