Chiptune Synths

ChipTone builds sound effects from layered oscillators, envelopes and effects with a lot more control than an sfxr style generator.

A classic free chiptune synth plugin with pulse, triangle and noise voices, pitch and volume sequences, and modern DAW compatibility.

Nanoloop is a music sequencer built around a grid rather than a tracker's note list, which makes it quick to sketch a pattern and hard to write anything conventional. It started as a Game Boy cartridge, where it synthesises sound on the console's own hardware, and also exists as a phone app.

Plogue's chipsynth SFC reproduces the SNES's SPC700 sample chip with its filters and effects, inside a regular DAW.

SunVox combines a pattern tracker with a modular synthesizer, and runs the same on desktops, phones and the web.

inSIDious is a detailed emulation of the Commodore 64's SID chip as a plugin instrument, covering both the 6581 and the 8580 and the quirks that separate them. Three oscillators, the chip's filter, envelopes and a sequencer for the fast arpeggios the SID is known for, with several hundred presets. It runs in the free Reaktor Player.