Acustica Audio Alice-9 Is Next-Level Sample Synthesis and it Is LUSH
4,1 / 5,0 | 
Acustica Audio Alice-9 combines sample-based oscillators with virtual analog synthesis into a ‘90s-style super soft synth. Is this your next favorite synth plugin?
Acustica Audio Alice-9
Effects plugin developer Acustica Audio surprised everyone when it released Thing late last year. A Jupiter-8 software emulation, it sounds ridiculously full and analog. Now the same team is back with Alice-9, a new sample-based synth plugin that promises to do for 1990s-style sample synthesis what Thing has done for VA.
Acustica Audio Alice-9: Proprietary Oscillators
Part of the same Marea line of virtual instruments, Alice-9 (also called AL9) replaces the usual VA oscillators with a new type, SCO. Standing for Sample-Controlled Oscillators, these go beyond traditional samples and wavetables, delivering what Acustica Audio says are “dynamic, time-evolving waveforms with natural drift, modulation, and analog-like behavior.”
The four oscillators (three and a sub) are powered by hundreds of high-resolution, long-form waveforms, including vintage analog tones and more unusual ones like orchestral textures, rare instruments and hybrid timbres. These give the instrument a sound that recalls sample synthesis instruments of the 1990s and 2000s.
If you prefer more basic VA, you can also run oscillator three in DCO or virtual analog mode.
Acustica Audio Alice-9: Circuit Modeling+
Alice-9 uses Acustica Audio’s MUST technology (that’s Modular Unified Synthesis Technology), which combines circuit modeling with convolution-based processing. That plays out here as the four SCO oscillators, analog-modeled filters (non-resonant highpass and a multimode filter – currently lowpass-only with more models slated for future updates), two envelopes and two LFOs.
You also get an arpeggiator plus effects, including a saturator/compressor with OTT settings, tone adjustment, chorus, delay and reverb. Alice-9 also features a Superstereo function for expansive stereo fields, an Age control that can presumably even affect the samples in the oscillators, MPE and over 500 presets.
Price and Availability
Alice-9 looks like another synth winner from Acustica Audio. While I loved the sound of Thing, it was hard to get too excited about yet another analog emulation. However, the hybrid approach here has me really excited. And it’s surprisingly affordable right now. Hopefully, we’ll see a freeware version of Alice-9 as well like Acustica did with Thing.
Alice-9 is currently available from the Acustica Audio website. The regular price is €249, but there’s an introductory price of €169 until May 13. The site also gives a code for an additional 41% off the sale price, bringing the intro price to €99.71. It’s available for Mac and PC in VST, AU and AAX formats.
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4 responses to “Acustica Audio Alice-9 Is Next-Level Sample Synthesis and it Is LUSH”
“MUST” Technology = more nonsense from the most overhyped, worst programmers on the pkanet.
Yeah, looks utterly uninspired and boring like all their other overpriced vsts
They deserved that certain conflict with that one group in particular. Now, they’ve barely learned anything from that event.
It looks ok but it sounds f’n horrible! 20+ mins of listening to that was comparable to finger nails on chalkboard! That’s just my honest opinion.