Schmidt Vi: a twenty-five-thousand-euro monster synth, now in your DAW

I have been staring at this panel for a while now and I still cannot quite believe it exists as a plugin. Schmidt Vi is the software version of the Schmidt Eightvoice, that hand-built German analog monster that cost about as much as a decent car, and now it lives in your DAW for 179 euros.

Four oscillators per voice, each with its own wave shaping, ring mod and noise options. Two dual filters plus three VCFs with envelopes that have more stages than I have patience most days. The whole thing was modeled circuit by circuit with UJAM, so it is not a rough sketch of the hardware, it is the hardware's signal path rebuilt in code.

What sold me is the stuff the hardware could never do. There is a randomizer that throws out patches you would never dial in by hand, and half of them are genuinely usable for the kind of cold, grinding textures I live in. MPE support is in there too, plus the knobs actually show you real values instead of making you guess.

The honest bits: it needs an iLok account, and there is no demo to try before you buy, which stings a bit at this price. And it does not do the hardware's eight-part multitimbral trick in one instance, so you stack instances if you want that. Still, for a synth that used to be reserved for people with a spare twenty-five grand, this is the closest most of us will ever get.

Price: 179 euros introductory, rising to 199 euros. VST, VST3, AU and AAX on macOS and Windows.

Grab it here: https://shop.schmidt-synthesizer.com/products/c-vi