Plugin developer Martin Lüders returns with version 2 of his PG-8X which plays brilliantly, sounds epic, and is totally free to download.

PG-8X is a virtual analog synthesiser that emulates the classic Roland JX-8P. The developer behind this great free synth, Martin Lüders, has just updated PG-8X to make it even better for the people lucky enough to find it.

The first improvement you’ll notice from the older version is the updated user interface that looks gorgeous and now stands confidently next to any premium synths. The flesh of the synth’s functions haven’t been altered much focussing mainly on bug fixes, but when you already have a great synth emulator why try and change it?

Here’s what you get with the free PG-8X 2.0:

  • Up to 12 voice polyphony
  • Two DCO’s with Saw, Square, Pulse, Noise
  • Hard Sync and Ring Modulation
  • Two exponential envelope generators
  • 24 dB resonant LP filter
  • HP filter (3 stages)
  • Stereo Chorus
  • Import and Export of JX-8P Sysex data
  • 6 key assignment modes:
    • Poly (re-assignment of voices)
    • Poly2 (round robin)
    • Unison (two voices in unison)
    • Unison2 (second voice shifted by 1 octave)
    • Mono
    • Mono2 (all voices in unison)
  • MIDI Learn: MIDI Controllers can be assigned by right clicking on the slider
  • Automatic adjustment of oversampling

You can download PG-8X yourself from here.

Check out how it sounds with a video of version 1 below: