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How to install on Windows
A standalone app and DAW plugin (AAX / VST3 / AU) that emulates classic hardware synthesizers, samplers, and keyboards by running their original firmware on cycle-accurate CPU and DSP emulators.
Saved setup from 12 h ago
Will it work on Windows?
| Hardware | Emulation | |---|---| | Access Virus A / B / C | Motorola DSP 56300 56k emulator | | Access Virus TI | Motorola DSP 56300 56k emulator | | Akai S1000 | SFZero v3.0.0 sample engine | | Clavia Nord Lead 1 (Nordic) | Firmware-free clean-room C++ reimplementation of the DSP program | | Clavia Nord Lead 2/2X (Nordic 2) | Firmware-free clean-room C++ reimplementation of the DSP program | | Commodore 64 SID 6581 / 8580 | reSID cycle-accurate | | General Instrument AY-3-8910 / Yamaha YM2149 | Ayumi + Ym2149Synth voice engine | | Hammond B3 + Leslie (OpenB3) | setBfree tonewheel and Leslie engine | | MiniD | Analog monosynth model by discoDSP | | Oberheim Matrix-1000 | Firmware-free clean-room controller + CEM3396 voice model | | Roland JP-8000 (JE-8086) | H8S CPU and 4x ESP ASIC cycle-accurate | | Roland SC-88 / 88VL / 88Pro / SC-8850 / SC-55mkII | H8/500 and SH-2 cycle-accurate | | Tracker modules (XM / MOD / S3M / IT) | Fasttracker 2 and Schism Tracker replayers | | Waldorf microQ | Motorola DSP 56300 56k emulator | | Waldorf Microwave XT | Motorola DSP 56300 56k emulator | | Wurlitzer 200A (OpenWurli) | Physical modeling synthesis | | Yamaha DX7 | Firmware-free clean-room controller + YM21280 EGS + YM21290 OPS (VDX7) | | Yamaha OPL3 / YMF262 | Nuked OPL3 v1.8 |
56k emulator cores require their original ROM firmware to run (not included). ROMs are loaded from the application support folder at runtime. The SC-88 family needs a full image set per board, kept together in its own folder and identified by content. The Matrix-1000 EPROMs are only used, when present, to write ROM banks 2 to 9. The microQ can run with an embedded fallback ROM. The Akai S1000, AY-3-8910, DX7, Matrix-1000, Nord Lead 1/2/2X (Nordic 1 and 2), OpenB3, OpenWurli, OPL3, and Tracker cores are ROM-free. The files each core needs, with their sizes and hashes, are listed under ROM Files.
The Akai S1000 sampler loads SF2, SFZ, ZBP, and ZBB sample banks, as well as Akai ISO/BIN/CUE disk images, via the SFZero MIT-licensed engine with 8-point sinc interpolation, extended SFZ/SF2 opcode support, auto-slice drum mapping, CC20 global tuning, and discoDSP Bliss sampler format.
The AY-3-8910 / YM2149 emulates the 3-channel PSG used in the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX, and Atari ST using the Ayumi engine, with a voice layer re-implementing the Ym2149Synth firmware: soft volume and pitch envelopes, glide, vibrato, detune, noise delay, and transpose. Voices are controlled via CC 1–11 and patches are stored in a user bank.
The Commodore 64 SID emulates the MOS 6581 / 8580 chip using the reSID engine with 3-voice polyphony, oldest-voice stealing, and a full 50 Hz macro playback engine (wavetable, pulsetable, filtertable, speedtable). It loads GoatTracker .sng banks and .ins standalone instruments, with live MIDI control via CC 1 (vibrato depth), CC 22 (pitch bend range, 1–48 semitones), CC 64 (sustain pedal), CC 71 (resonance), CC 74 (cutoff), and CC 75 (pulse width).
The Hammond B3 (OpenB3) is the setBfree tonewheel organ and Leslie engine by way of OpenB3, with upper, lower and pedal drawbars, percussion, vibrato and chorus, overdrive, three Leslie cabinets with convolution cabinet bodies, a plate reverb, a keyboard split and .fxp presets in Factory and User banks.
The Nord Lead 1 (Nordic) is a clean-room C++ reimplementation of the 1995 Nord Lead 1 DSP program, bit exact to the original and checked against a real unit, so it needs no ROM. It has 48 voices, unison, morph, the arpeggiator and all four slots A-D, each on its own MIDI channel, with its own editor below the rack. Nord Lead 2 programs can be imported and exported. Nordic is hosted from ROM/Nordic.vst3 and ships only with commercial builds.
The Nord Lead 2/2X (Nordic 2) is a clean-room C++ reimplementation of the Nord Lead 2 DSP program, bit exact to the original and checked against a real unit, so it needs no ROM. It has 64 voices, unison, morph, the arpeggiator and all four slots A-D, each on its own MIDI channel, with its own editor below the rack. It reads Nord Lead 1, Nord Lead 2 and N2X banks. Nordic 2 is hosted from ROM/Nordic2.vst3 and ships only with commercial builds.
The MiniD is an analog three-oscillator monosynth by discoDSP, voiced from measurements of analog hardware: oscillator shapes and drift, a transistor ladder filter with a HI (high-pass) mode, filter and loudness contours, noise and VCA. It has Poly, Unison with 2, 4 or 8 voices, Double voicing, its own panel below the rack and a Factory bank of 49 presets. MiniD is hosted from ROM/MiniD.vst3 and ships only with commercial builds.
The Oberheim Matrix-1000 runs on a clean-room controller that needs no firmware, driving CEM3396 voice models with BLEP oscillators and 2x oversampling on six boards that wake up as more notes play, for 36 voices. ROM banks 2 to 9 are written once into .sy
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Compare yours with the README's “Hardware Cores” list above before installing anything.
Needs Git: winget install Git.Git
git clone https://github.com/reales/retromulator.git cd retromulator
No reports for Windows yet.
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