dsp56300/gearmulator
Low Level Emulation of classic VA synths & effects of the late 90s/2000s by emulating the used ICs observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
97/100
- Activity 98
- Release rhythm 95
- Longevity 100
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 5.5
- age_days: 1877
- days_rel: 35
- days_push: 13
- n_releases_24m: 17
Adoption not part of the score
1256 stars · 109 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded
Gearmulator is a low-level emulator of classic late-90s/2000s virtual analog synthesizers (Access Virus, Waldorf, Clavia Nord Lead, Roland JP-8000) that runs the original hardware firmware ROMs by emulating their Motorola DSP56300 ICs. It ships as free audio plugins in VST3, AU, CLAP, LV2 and FST formats for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Use cases
- emulate access virus ti synth in my daw
- free nord lead 2x vst plugin
- run original virus rom as a plugin
- emulate waldorf microq on linux
- roland jp-8000 supersaw emulator
- use old hardware synth without owning it
- host synth emulation on a second machine via dsp bridge
When to choose
- you own (or legally obtained) ROMs of the supported synths and want authentic sound in your DAW
- you need Virus TI, Nord Lead 2x, Waldorf microQ/Microwave II, or JP-8000 sounds without the hardware
- you need cross-platform plugins (Windows/macOS/Linux, x64/ARM) in VST3/AU/CLAP/LV2 formats
- you want to offload DSP emulation to a separate machine over the network
When to avoid
- you don't have access to the original firmware ROM files, which are required and not distributed
- you need a modern synth with a native GUI rather than faithful emulation of vintage hardware
- you need 32-bit plugin support
- you want a simple sample-based virtual instrument rather than a cycle-accurate DSP emulation
Facets
application · maturity active
audio-processing simulation plugin-system gui gaming-tools media windows cross-platform cpp synthesizer-emulation dsp56300 vst-plugins audio-plugins virus-ti hardware-emulation juce midi audio music-production macos linux
10 sources
- readme: https://github.com/dsp56300/gearmulator · fetched 2026-08-28 · d1d0d8189aeb
- homepage: https://theusualsuspects.io · fetched 2026-08-29 · 47123b2ae505
- site_page: https://theusualsuspects.io/docs · fetched 2026-08-29 · 40811e155fda
- site_page: https://theusualsuspects.io/docs/installation-guide · fetched 2026-08-29 · f053f9fb754e
- site_page: https://theusualsuspects.io/docs/patch-manager · fetched 2026-08-29 · 2c16ad512a09
- site_page: https://theusualsuspects.io/docs/midi-learn · fetched 2026-08-29 · f03799ae5a9c
- site_page: https://theusualsuspects.io/docs/faqs · fetched 2026-08-29 · fd4004006b79
- site_page: https://theusualsuspects.io/docs/demos · fetched 2026-08-29 · 7b103a3fb015
- site_page: https://theusualsuspects.io/docs/vsthost-configuration · fetched 2026-08-29 · 354807e54935
- site_page: https://theusualsuspects.io/docs/dsp-bridge · fetched 2026-08-29 · 75c0e66f7598
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| dsp56300/gearmulator | main | 97 |
For agents
markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="dsp56300/gearmulator")
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem