Freqatic
Key Features
- Creates kick, snare, low and high tom, open, pedal and closed hat, and cymbal voices from FM synthesis rather than samples.
- Uses a three-operator FM architecture for each drum sound, with two modulation stages feeding the oscillator section.
- Provides independent low/high tom tuning and pan controls for wider or more separated tom programming.
- Gives open, pedal, and closed hi-hat articulations their own decay settings for more varied hat patterns.
- Includes oscillator tune, bend, and decay controls plus FM tuning, bend, attack, decay, modulation-depth, and FM/LFO settings.
- Adds drive, echo/reverb, pan, and volume in the output section for quick finishing color inside the instrument.
Description
Freqatic is a compact FM drum-machine instrument from g200kg for creating synthetic kick, snare, tom, hi-hat, and cymbal sounds inside a Windows VST host. Each voice is built with three-operator FM synthesis, so it is better suited to deliberate electronic drum design than to sample playback.
The separate controls for each drum family make the instrument practical for quickly moving from a starting kit toward sharper, more metallic, or more synthetic percussion. For toms, the high and low voices can be tuned and panned independently, while the three hi-hat articulations have their own decay settings.
Freqatic places oscillator tuning, bend, and decay alongside two FM modulation stages, each with tuning, bend, attack, decay, depth, and FM/LFO mode. That arrangement makes short transients and pitched percussion as approachable as more unstable, inharmonic colors.
The output section adds drive, echo/reverb, pan, and volume controls before the sound leaves the instrument. It is a legacy Windows 32-bit VST, so it fits best in compatible DAWs or older production setups where a small, direct drum synth remains useful.
Frequently Asked Questions
What sounds can Freqatic create?
Freqatic includes dedicated kick, snare, low and high tom, open, pedal and closed hi-hat, and cymbal voices. Each voice is created with three-operator FM synthesis, so the result is synthesized percussion rather than a sampled kit.
How are Freqatic's drum voices triggered?
The developer lists Kick on MIDI notes 35 or 36, Snare on 38 or 40, low Tom on 45, high Tom on 50, closed Hat on 42, pedal Hat on 44, open Hat on 46, and Cymbal on 49. Those fixed mappings are useful to check before programming a custom MIDI drum map.
Can Freqatic make more than straightforward drum-machine sounds?
Yes. In addition to oscillator tune, bend, and decay, the two FM stages provide modulation tuning, bend, attack, decay, depth, and an FM/LFO choice. This lets the instrument move from short conventional hits toward more pitched or inharmonic electronic percussion.
Which systems and formats does Freqatic support?
The current official page is for Freqatic v0.4, while the discovery listing identifies it as a Windows 32-bit VST. It is therefore best used in a compatible Windows VST host; the developer page does not list current macOS, Linux, VST3, or Audio Unit builds.
