Creative Chords and More Free Patches: Sounds and Presets
In the lead-up to Xmas, we often find ourselves being grateful for all we have received throughout the year. Well, I hope you’ve saved some of that gratitude for some of the developers featured here today, as we give you not one, not two, but three free banks of sounds!
Sounds and Presets 17/12/25
Creative Chords for Massive X by Native Instruments
With just a week until Xmas, it is only fitting that some of these lovely music tech companies drop some free gifts our way, and that’s exactly what Native Instruments has done with this new expansion pack for their Massive X instrument.
Described by Native Instruments as their flagship synth, although that crown might shift to Absynth 6 with its re-emergence last week, Massive X is very much a flagship quality synth that can turn its hand to almost any genre or style.
As with most such synths, there is a good amount of preset packs available for it, each tailored to specific styles or users, with the likes of Cinematic Hits, Melodic Techno, Darkwave Pads and Synthwave Leads being some of the obvious ones.
Now there’s a new addition to the range, and in the spirit of the season, they’ve made it free of charge! Creative Chords does exactly what it says on the tin and makes use of the Chord Mode in Massive X to deliver inspiring collections of notes that serve as song starters and beyond.
I found myself getting very lost and inspired when flicking through the considerable number of options available to me, and whilst these might not be for everyone, if you don’t like them, at least you didn’t lose any money in the deal!
You can grab Creative Chords for free by signing into your NI account, clicking here and then following the instructions to download via Native Access. You can check out other Massive X Expansion packs here!
Retrograde for Cherry Audio Mercury-8 by Cherry Audio
What’s this? More free stuff?? Why yes, indeed it is and this time courtesy of those lovely people at Cherry Audio. Hot on the heels of their latest synth plugin release, Mercury-8, comes this collection of 100 new presets for the synth.
Created by the sound design team who did the factory presets for Mercury-8, Retrograde contains a wide range of patches for this excellent recreation of the classic Jupiter 8 analog synth. The pack contains sounds that are both distinctly retro, but also some that are more contemporary.
Covering some thirteen different patch types, there is a real abundance of quality here that will have you rediscovering this new instrument all over again! And because Mercury-8 supports the Europa MIDI mod sysex format, if you have a hardware Jupiter-8 with that kit installed, these sounds will also work there too!
You can grab these sounds directly from Cherry Audio by signing into your account, adding them to your basket and then updating your Mercury-8 via their Sync application!
Tyrian Tine for Kontakt by Ocean Swift
But lo, what wondrous sight do we see here? Why, it’s even MORE free stuff! Be still, my beating wallet, for ye shall not be troubled! Ocean Swift have themselves released something devoid of billing for us to enjoy this yuletide season!
Bells are synonymous with Xmas and Xmas music in particular, so it seems rather fitting that Ocean Swift have delivered us Tyrian Tine as a lovely, and free, instrument for Kontakt. It features an asymmetric dual layer engine that pairs up a wavetable oscillator with a sample-based one.
The sample oscillator draws from a range of sounds taken from bells, kalimbas, music boxes and other metallic sources and then combines them with the wavetable oscillator to deliver all manner of bell-like tones with all sorts of characteristics.
You can mix the layers, modulate through a number of sources and destinations and conjure up both seasonal and decidedly unseasonal metal-like tones. It comes with 73 presets, utilising 34 samples and 11 wavetables and even has an FX section.
Better still, it is fully compatible with the free Kontakt Player as well as the full version and also features NKS and NKS2 mappings for hands-on control with Komplete Kontrol and Maschine! Pick this free pack up from Ocean Swift’s website.
Spiral Motion for Moog Messenger by Anton Anru
If I could, I’d be asking Santa to bring me a Moog Messenger for Xmas and stuff it into my stocking in time for the big day, but I couldn’t wait, so I already bought one not long after seeing and playing it at Superbooth ’25 this year.
The first true Moog synth of the new inMusic era, the Messenger left us in no doubt that the brand is in safe hands, as the Messenger truly embodied everything a Moog synth should. Huge sound, intuitive interface and a good, solid build, despite the naysayers on that latter point!
More recently, they delivered a free editor and librarian application that will, very soon and via a future update, also be a plugin so that you can fully automate your Messenger’s settings directly from your DAW. True 21st century Moog!
And now we have a delightful new sound bank for it from Anton Anru. There’s a good amount of room to store these presets on board, but that’s the beauty of the new librarian. You can easily bounce banks of sounds back and forth.
Spiral Motion contains 64 varied arpeggiated patches that span mild and playful to downright dirty and aggressive. All patches are velocity sensitive, and you can add expression via aftertouch as well as grabbing hold of the many controllers on the synth’s interface and making them your own.
There’s something for everyone here. Sadly, unlike the previous banks we’ve discussed here today, they’re not free, but a mere $24.95 from Anton’s website. Oh, and be sure to back up your presets from your Messenger before sending these over!
Dominion for GForce Bass Station by Zardonic
Last, but by no means first, we have a new bank of sounds for GForce Software’s superb software recreation of the Novation classic, the Bass Station. Created for them by Zardonic, this bank of sounds is proper in-your-face stuff!
Anyone who has used a Bass Station knows that it’s not just about basses. This iconic synth is capable of many more types of sounds, way beyond its original remit back in the day of being an affordable 303 substitute.
In this collection, we’ve got huge bass sounds, sharp and powerful leads and a whole bunch of sequences that push the very limits of what the Bass Station is capable of. It’s a rip-roaring collection of sounds, and you can buy it directly from GForce Software’s online store for just £14.99 + VAT. You can also check out audio demos there, too!
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