Terrain VST Review

Just sometimes you come across some weird and wonderful free plugins in the music world, and whilst I had actually heard of wave terrain scanning synthesis before as it was in the last version of the Mutable Instruments Plaits to see a nice free VST3 and CLAP plugin was very nice. Also to be commended is the speed of development as 2 days ago V1.2.2 was released whilst the plugin official releases are only around a month old! For an overview check out this video below, but please be aware that presets amongst several other features have been added since this video looked at the plugin!

Now as a free plugin it is the bare essentials currently so the zip download just includes the vst3 file and the clap file and installation is simply about copying the required file to the correct location. Then fire up your DAW or host and get playing, and well, that is where the sparseness of the plugin becomes apparent. This doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with this approach it is very, very easy to grasp. The graphics are nice as well, simple but useful. Then we come to the sound, it can be harsh and digital sounding, but it sounds different enough to be useful in my opinion. Also it has great potential as the updates are coming thick and fast with preset support being a recent addition. I also have to say that the basic building blocks can be tweaked pretty easily with some FX. So whilst I wasn’t going to review this plugin at first, the rate of improvement means I think it is worth investigating, especially as it free and it is different and brings something different to the table, which having reviewed and looked at enough analogue synths this year already should not be underestimated.

Aaron Anderson Terrain wave terrain synth

8.8 out of 10

A nice new VST with great potential. I cannot wait to see how it grows! Sounds different enough to bring some life to your productions!

Stability

9 out of 10

No issues there at all

Ease of Use

8 out of 10

It looks and can feel quite simple, but there is still quite a lot to get going and make some different sounds/patches

Look & Feel

8 out of 10

Quite a simple looking plugin, but still shows what is going on nicely

Price

10 out of 10

Well it is free and opens source so what isn't to like?

Pros

Easy to use

Good price

A different synthesis method brings different sounds to bear

Cons

Still fairly simple though presets brings a lot to the table

The sounds can be pretty harsh compared to say analogue methods of synthesis

Really needs FX to shine in my opinion!

Buy this Product

Get from Aaron Anderson github