Today's find is a drum machine, and I will say that up front so nobody goes in expecting a melodic synth. VD-1 from vdsp-audio is a lo-fi drum machine built around a simulated fixed-point DSP chip, and the limits of that chip are the whole point. It runs at 44.1 kHz with 24-bit words, and because everything is simulated, your renders come out deterministic. Same pattern, same sound, every time.
The part that hooked me is that you can swap the hardware. You pull out the DSP chip and drop in a 16-bit or 12-bit version, change the delay RAM or the converters, or add a sample ROM, and each swap changes how the thing sounds. Firmware swaps too, in about two seconds, and your patterns survive the swap. There are five firmwares to play with: STOCK, FM, ROM for sample playback, PHYS for physical models, and CHIP for 8-bit console and SID-style drums. That is basically five drum machines living in one box.
The sequencer is no joke either. Sixteen tracks, up to 64 steps each, per-track lengths, parameter locks, 64 pattern slots across four banks, song mode, and four LFOs per track, plus track and master delay, reverb and dynamics. You could build a whole industrial track's rhythm section in here and never touch another drum plugin. The CHIP firmware especially has my attention. Grimy little SID-style hits under a distorted bassline is exactly the kind of ugly that works.
The honest caveat: this is a drum machine, not a melodic synth. The ROM firmware does sample playback, but the core sounds are synthesized on the simulated DSP, so if you need pads and leads, look elsewhere. The good news is it runs on Windows, Linux and macOS in VST3 and CLAP, plus AU on Mac, so almost nobody is locked out this time.
Price: pay what you want.
Check it out here: VD-1 by vdsp-audio