Retro Synth overview in MainStage
Retro Synth is a flexible 16-voice synthesizer that can produce a wide variety of sounds.
Retro Synth provides four different synthesizer engines—Analog, Sync, Wavetable, and FM. Each engine can generate unique sounds that are difficult or impossible to achieve with other types of synthesizers.
Retro Synth is very easy to use, with many identical controls found in each synthesizer engine.
If you’re new to synthesizers, it might be best to start off with Synthesizer basics overview, which will introduce you to the fundamentals and terminology of different synthesis systems.
If you’re new to using plug-ins in MainStage, see Add and remove plug-ins in MainStage.
The first step in creating a new sound is to choose a Retro Synth synthesizer engine. Your choice should be guided by the type of sound you want to generate.
Choose a synthesizer engine
In MainStage, click the name of the synthesizer engine that you want to use:
Analog: Use for classic synthesizer sounds, such as leads, pads, and basses. See Retro Synth Analog oscillator.
Sync: Use for aggressive synthesizer sounds, particularly leads and basses. See Retro Synth Sync oscillator.
Table: Use for clean digital synthesizer sounds, such as pads and basses, and evolving effect sounds. See Retro Synth Table oscillator.
FM: Use for classic digital synthesizer sounds. Of note are bells, electric piano, clavinet, and spiky bass sounds. See Retro Synth FM oscillator.
Your choice of synthesizer engine changes the controls available. Most of these changes are seen in the Oscillator section.