Unique

Although synthesizers have been used in popular music ever since the 1960s, the 1980s are usually considered to be “the Golden Age of synths”. One can hardly think of the 80s without hearing a cheesy synth soundtrack to accompany the mental images of neon and perm hair.

But even if synths were overused back then, their sounds were revolutionary. Although electronic music took many different turns since those early days, there are still many producers who love to add those unmistakable early synth sounds into their mixes. Of course, collecting vintage electronic instruments is an expensive hobby, but one could always explore software alternatives, such as Unique.

Unique offers a great variety of analogue synth sounds, neatly arranged in a library of over 300 presets. You will find them sorted into categories like Bass, Drums, Lead, Piano or Strings, but there’s also one category called Erotique, probably to remind you that the 80s weren’t a Golden Age only for synth music.

But Unique’s main feature is the Filter section found in the main interface. You can adjust parameters like drive and resonance, but you can also use vowel filtering, in order to make your electronic leads sound like they were speaking. Each note you play on the keyboard will then then try to imitate the sounds of the vowels of your choice; even when you’ve selected a drum or bass preset, the synth will try to adapt the sound accordingly.

Unlike other Sugar Bytes plugins, Unique’s interface has a simple, rugged design, reminiscent of the “classic German industrial design” (according to the developers). This makes for a very user-friendly virtual synthesizer, where each section can be easily identified and manipulated.

With so many parameters that can control such a large library of sounds, Unique is definitely a plugin that you can use to create songs that are one of a kind.