Acustica Audio Alice 9 is an upcoming Synthesizer plugin for macOS and Windows that is an original synth and not an emulation of a classic.
Just before the end of 2024, the Italian company Acustica Audio entered the Synthesizer plugin market with two releases: Thing, a Roland Jupiter-8 emulation, and the free synth TH2. Both synths have been well-received by the community and sound very good.
Acustica Audio’s next synthesizer plugin, Alice 9, will be released in April. The developers have already provided a preview.
Acustica Audio Alice 9
Alice 9 is an upcoming new Synthesizer plugin for macOS and Windows. According to Acustica Audio, it will be an original plugin, not a clone of a classic Synthesizer from the past, but with the DNA of the previous TH8 synth.
Visually, the synth reminds me of vintage Roland or the latest UDO synths.
Four oscillators will be at its core. The first two use sampled waveforms from vintage and modern synthesizers. The developers said it’s a mixture of traditional waveform generation and sampling, but it’s not a sampler or a wavetable synth. In a dedicated menu, you can choose from sample waveforms.
Both oscillators also feature parameters for the sample start, a range knob, VCO 2 tune, and mixer. On the other hand, VCO 3 and VCO 4 seem to be classic oscillators without a sample source. Additionally, you have VCO modulation, including PWM and a dedicated VCO mixer.
Then, you have a multimode filter, two envelopes, two LFOs, and a VCA section modulable with an LFO. It also has a multi-FX processor to refine your sounds, including saturation, tone filter, chorus, delay, and reverb.
There is also an advanced arpeggiator module and various playing features such as portamento, modwheel assignments, and more.
First Impression
At first glance, it looks very much like another classic subtractive Synthesizer. The features are not blowing me away. Even though you can already hear some sound snippets in the preview, I’m curious to hear what the release version will sound like.
Acustica Audio Alice 9 will be available on April 10, 2025.
More information here: Acustica Audio
