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MINISYNTON.

Minisynton 1.2 — user guide

Windows x64 · Original / Vintage / Silver · VSTi (VST2) or VST3i

Choose the format used by your project; select the skin inside the editor. Every download contains a ready-to-use instrument, Polish and English instructions, a REAPER test project, a panel screenshot and license notices. No compilation is required.

1. Three skins inside one plug-in

Use APPEARANCE → ORIGINAL / VINTAGE / SILVER in the upper-right corner of the editor. Clicking a name immediately changes the appearance of the same instrument instance. Sound parameters, notes and the audio signal path are unchanged.

Skin Appearance and controls
Original Dark panel with rotary controls.
Vintage Wooden side cheeks, a cream nameplate and knobs.
Silver Silver panel with vertical faders.

These are no longer separate plug-in libraries. Download one file per format; all three skins are included. Each instance has its own appearance setting, stored with its state. In REAPER, save the project with Ctrl+S after changing the skin. Restoration after a fresh program launch was tested in REAPER 7.82/x64 under Wine.

The buttons below the header (Original, Soft reed, Bass, Lantern, Glide) still select a sound preset, not a skin. Use APPEARANCE to change the interface.

Replace the older library rather than installing another competing copy of the same format. A host should find one Minisynton VST2 library and one VST3 bundle at most. Both formats can coexist, but projects do not migrate automatically between them.

2. Install VSTi (VST2)

  1. Close REAPER and any other plug-in hosts.
  2. Extract your selected VSTi-VST2-Win64 download.
  3. Copy Minisynton.dll to a VST2 plug-in folder, for example C:\VST64\.
  4. In REAPER x64, open Options → Preferences → Plug-ins → VST.
  5. Add that folder to the search paths without removing existing paths. Select Re-scan.
  6. Use Insert → Virtual instrument on new track… and find VSTi: Minisynton VST2 (Minisynton DSP).

Do not copy the DLL into System32, SysWOW64 or a VST3 bundle. Do not change its extension.

3. Install VST3i

  1. Close your host and extract the selected VST3i-Win64 download.
  2. Copy the entire Minisynton.vst3 folder to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\.
  3. The final folder structure must be:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\
  Minisynton.vst3\
    Contents\
      x86_64-win\
        Minisynton.vst3
  1. Open REAPER, rescan VST plug-ins and insert VST3i: Minisynton (Minisynton DSP).

Windows may require administrator approval to copy files into Program Files. Do not remove the inner library from its VST3 bundle.

4. One-time update from version 1.0

  1. Close REAPER and other hosts.
  2. Back up the old library outside plug-in search paths, and back up important projects.
  3. Replace Minisynton.dll or the complete Minisynton.vst3 bundle with version 1.1 in the same format.
  4. Restart the host and rescan if needed.
  5. Open your existing project. Plug-in identifiers and existing parameters are retained; the new version reads version 1.0 state.
  6. Select a skin under APPEARANCE and save the project.

The replacement is needed once to install the skin selector. Subsequent appearance changes do not require reinstalling or reloading the instrument. Old projects with no saved skin selection start with Original.

The VST2 state format has been extended to include the skin. Do not assume version 1.0 can read a project saved again with 1.1. For a safe rollback, keep both the old plug-in and a project backup from before the update.

5. Play the first notes

After installing the matching plug-in, open the included Minisynton-test.rpp for VST3 or Minisynton-VST2-test.rpp for VST2 and press Play.

For live performance, select the track's MIDI input, arm the track and enable monitoring. REAPER's virtual MIDI keyboard can also be used. A microphone audio signal does not trigger the synthesizer. Start at a moderate listening level.

6. Parameters

Parameter Function
Square / Triangle / Sine Levels of three waveforms from one oscillator. When their sum exceeds 100%, the mix is normalized.
Attack Linear amplitude rise: 2–3000 ms.
Release Linear decay to silence: 5–5000 ms from full amplitude. Releasing a key during the attack can produce a shorter actual fade.
Glissando Frequency-smoothing time constant: 0–2000 ms. One time constant covers approximately 63% of the transition. 0 disables the effect.
Vibrato rate / depth 4–8 Hz, 0–100 cents. The modulation wheel adds up to 50 cents.
Tremolo rate / depth 4–8 Hz, amplitude modulation depth 0–100%.
Transpose −3 to +3 octaves, in discrete steps.
Fine tune −100 to +100 cents.
Output −60 to 0 dB; the default is −12 dB.
Velocity 0%: constant amplitude, like the original hardware; 100%: full MIDI velocity response.
Legato On: a continuous envelope across overlapping notes. Off: a 2 ms fade-down followed by a new attack.
Sine character / Sine color A small amount of third and fifth harmonics added to the sine. A tonal approximation, not a measured model of the hardware converter.

The envelope is attack–hold–release, not a conventional four-parameter ADSR. The middle stage lasts while the key is held. There is no VCF or built-in reverb.

Knobs — Original and Vintage

Drag vertically. Hold Shift for fine adjustment. Double-click to restore a parameter's default value.

Faders — Silver

Drag the handle or click the track away from it. The top is maximum and the bottom is minimum. Shift gives ten-times finer movement and prevents a jump when beginning a drag. Double-click resets the default value. The mouse wheel changes the value under the pointer; Shift reduces the wheel increment for continuous parameters. For Transpose and Legato, the wheel moves by one allowed step.

7. MIDI, presets and automation

  • One voice with last-note priority. Releasing the newest note returns to the previous note if it is still held.
  • Note input on all 16 MIDI channels. The instrument is not multitimbral or MPE-enabled.
  • Pitch bend: ±2 semitones. CC1: additional vibrato. CC64: sustain. CC120/123: release the voice with its release stage.
  • A4 = 440 Hz. The oscillator is limited to approximately 16 Hz–16 kHz, with an additional limit at low sample rates.
  • Stereo output is dual mono: the same signal in both channels.
  • Original, Soft reed, Bass, Lantern and Glide are five starting patches. Selecting one overwrites all 16 parameters. They are not an editable bank of five independently stored user patches.
  • Current parameters are saved with the project. Save custom presets using the host's facilities. Parameters support host automation. The generic VST2 parameter view may abbreviate parameter names.

8. Requirements and troubleshooting

Windows x64 on Intel/AMD, with a 64-bit host. This is not a 32-bit, ARM, native macOS or native Linux build. The C++ runtime is linked statically; Vintage and Silver also use the system GDI+ library. Binaries are not digitally signed. The panel is 860×530 pixels.

If the plug-in does not appear, check the format, search path and host architecture. If a previous scan failed, rescan failed plug-ins; if needed, clear the VST cache and scan again. If there is no sound, check the MIDI input and monitoring, select Original and make sure the three waveform levels are not all zero.

If the custom panel causes problems, use the host's generic parameter view. Tests were performed under Wine; native Windows with hardware ASIO and all DPI configurations have not been verified.

Dedication

In tribute to Grzegorz Wodzinowski, creator of the original Minisynton MGW-111-A. Digital interpretation of his design — Sławomir Frost.

Parameter labels in the plug-in panels are already in English. The appearance selector and parameter labels use English; the existing dedication text is retained.

Legato — OFF / ON switch (1.2)

In all three skins, Legato is now a switch rather than a knob or fader. Click OFF or ON. ON connects overlapping notes without restarting the envelope attack; OFF retriggers the attack on a new note. The parameter ID, automation and state are retained. Other knobs/faders work as before.

Updating from 1.1: close the host, back up the library and project, then replace the same-format library with 1.2. The APPEARANCE selector is unchanged.