Abyss 2 vs Dexed

ABYSS 2 is a synthesizer plugin for musicians and creative sound design. Its sound engine arranges tone colours on a gradient, allowing sounds to change as you move through it. Samples can be dropped onto the gradient to extract spectral tone-colours, while audio files or folders can supply custom palettes. The instrument includes more than 400 presets, including more than 200 new and more than 200 upgraded sounds. A modular effects engine provides four slots and 20 modules, and a poly-rhythmic sequencer shapes rhythmic material. ABYSS 2 supports MPE and comes in AU, VST3, and AAX formats for macOS and Windows. It is a plugin rather than a standalone application, with workflow focused on DAW parameter automation instead of MIDI Learn. A free trial needs no email or registration; after three days, trial mode adds occasional mild vinyl-like crackle. Activation uses a serial number inside the plugin.

Dexed is a free synth plugin and standalone app modeled on the Yamaha DX7. It runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, with VST, AU and LV2 plugin formats. Its sound engine follows the original DX7’s characteristics and includes Modern, Mark I and OPL Series engine types. Dexed also serves as a MIDI cartridge librarian for the DX7: it can load and save DX7/TX7 SysEx programs, save an individual program to a separate SysEx file, and exchange DX7 SysEx messages, including controller change. A single panel exposes 144 DAW-automatable DX7 parameters, and each operator has a real-time VU meter. Microtuning and MPE support were contributed by the Surge Synthesizer Team. Dexed is free software under GPL v3, at free. The project says documentation is minimal and cautions against expecting a perfect DX7 clone. Release 1.0.1 fixes scaling issues and rebuilds the Linux binary for older glibc versions.