A free, open source supersaw, hoover and acid synth for Linux, Windows and macOS (VST3 and standalone app, built from one codebase).
Status: first release candidate. The engine is tested offline, and the VST3 and standalone are built for Linux, Windows and macOS (Apple silicon) by GitHub Actions. Not signed yet, see the install steps in the release notes.
By Studio 87.
Download: the latest release has one zip with a real installer for Windows, macOS (Apple silicon) and Linux, plus a PDF manual. Works in any DAW that loads VST3 (Ableton Live, Bitwig, Reaper, FL Studio, Studio One, Cubase and others).
Good for: free VST3 supersaw synth, trance and hardstyle leads, hoover and rave stabs, acid bass, supersaw chords, JP-8000 style supersaw sound. Linux VST3 synth, Windows VST3 synth, macOS VST3 synth.
Manual: PDF with interface tour, opens in the browser
The SupurrSaw editor (v0.3.2).
- 3 layers. Each one is an oscillator or a loaded sample: Super Saw (JP-8000 style), Super Square (PWM), Saw, Pulse, Triangle, Sine, Sample.
- Real instruments (optional pack). Grand piano, FM electric piano, "Moist Keys" (a bright house piano processed from the grand), trumpet, solo violin and violin, viola and cello sections, played from the wave list of any layer. 30
Instruments and hybridspresets mix them with synth layers. - 0% detune gives one clean oscillator. Push the detune range further than the original when you want.
- Sub oscillator you can switch on for any sound.
- Hoover: pitch envelope dive, PWM and an LFO on the pulse width and on the detune.
- Hard sync with a sweepable slave (envelope and LFO) for talking leads.
- Noise with its own high-pass, and distortion before or after the filter (screech).
- Acid: 18 dB and 24 dB ladder filters, plus HP and BP, an acid mode and a second filter.
- Mono safe: low frequencies are summed to mono, and the engine checks the mono sum.
- Mod matrix, three LFOs and drawn envelopes, wave lab with single-cycle waves you draw yourself.
- FX: drive and crush, mod FX (chorus, flanger and phaser, each remembers its own settings), delay, reverb, opto leveller, OTT, squeeze, dance master, limiter. The displays show what each one does.
- Pitch wheel, mod wheel and MPE. Pitch bend with a range of 1 to 24 semitones, mod wheel to anything in the matrix, and MPE (per-note bend, pressure and slide) so one note of a chord can bend alone. Pressure, Slide and Bend are sources in the mod matrix.
- Drag to modulate. Open the Mod tray, drag a source (LFO, envelope, wheel, pressure and so on) onto a knob and set the amount, like Serum 2 and Vital. Rings on the knob show what moves it.
- Kit mode: play drum kits from the keyboard (built-in genre kits, edit your own on the Kit page).
- 180+ presets in banks A to G (128 slots each), with favorites, your own order, search and tags.
- Factory banks:
presets/factory/holds SysEx files with the factory banks A to D. Import them on the Presets page (Banks, Import .syx) to get the factory sounds back after you overwrite a bank, or use Restore factory on the same page.
The plugin is in plugin/ (JUCE 8). Its window is the SupurrSaw interface from ui/supurrsaw-playground.html, shown in a web view, with the fonts bundled so it works offline. The sound comes from the same C++ engine as the tests.
cmake -S plugin -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --config Release
Linux needs the usual JUCE packages plus libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev and libgtk-3-dev. Windows uses WebView2 (included in Windows 10 and 11). GitHub Actions builds all three systems on every push: open the Actions tab, pick the latest run of build plugin, and download the artifact for your system.
Presets, saved waves, exports and the log live in your user folder under Studio 87/SupurrSaw. The Files button in the plugin opens them.
g++ -O2 -std=c++17 -o demo tools/demo.cpp
./demo # renders hoover, acid, reese and supersaw demos as WAV files
g++ -O2 -std=c++17 -o presets_test tools/presets_test.cpp && ./presets_test . # renders and checks the built-in presets
The built-in assets/samples/choir_stab_classic.wav was made by Studio 87 and ships with the synth. Other third-party sample packs must never be committed to this repository; put those in your local waveform library. The one exception is the CC0 instrument pack described below.
The multisampled instruments are inside the plugin, nothing extra to download or install: Grand Piano, FM Piano, Moist Keys, Trumpet, Solo Violin, Violin, Viola and Cello sections. Pick them in the wave list of any layer, or start from the Instruments and hybrids presets.
They are stored in assets/instruments.bin (about 25 MB, short mono FLAC files in one file) and compiled into the plugin. You can still add or replace instruments: put a folder with an instruments.json and FLAC files in Instruments inside the SupurrSaw user data folder (~/.config/Studio 87/SupurrSaw/Instruments on Linux, %APPDATA%\Studio 87\SupurrSaw\Instruments on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/Studio 87/SupurrSaw/Instruments on macOS). A folder instrument with the same name as a built-in one wins.
tools/make_instruments.py builds the sounds from two public domain sample libraries by Versilian Studios / Sam Gossner: VCSL (Kawai grand piano, TX81Z FM piano) and VSCO 2 Community Edition (trumpet, violin, viola and cello). Both are CC0 1.0, which allows this. The samples are converted to short mono FLAC files, the real pitch of each note is measured, and the sustained instruments get seamless loops; Moist Keys is the grand piano processed to a bright house piano. tools/pack_instruments.py packs the result into assets/instruments.bin. Credit to Versilian Studios / Sam Gossner, please do not sell the raw samples on their own.
AGPL-3.0-or-later (the JUCE framework is used under the AGPLv3). You can use, change and share it, and anyone who shares a modified version must share the source under the same terms.
Free to use.
☕ Free and open source, made by one person. If it helps your music, a coffee on Ko-fi keeps it coming. 💜
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Roland, Korg or any other brand mentioned. Names are used only to describe sounds and compatibility.