Quanta 2 vs Vaporizer 2

Quanta 2 is a granular synthesizer plugin for shaping imported audio samples into playable sounds. Its grain engine can produce up to 100 simultaneous grains per voice and works with AIFF, WAV, Broadcast WAV, FLAC, MP3, and Ogg files in any sample rate, bit depth, or channel configuration. Two virtual analog oscillators and a noise source add other sound sources, with dual filters that can run in series or parallel. Modulation includes four envelope generators of up to 99 steps each, two LFOs, sample and hold, and four assignable macros. Chorus, stereo dual delay, and reverb are built in. Quanta 2 supports MPE controllers, MTS-ESP microtuning, and TUN-format tuning tables. Desktop plugin formats are VST3, AU, AAX, and CLAP; the iPhone and iPad version is AUv3 and is sold separately. A fully functional demo has a 20-minute session timer and disables saving. The listed desktop license is $99 as a one-time purchase, with no subscription or DRM. A 2026 update added real-time recording and additional filter modes.

Vaporizer 2 is a free, open-source synthesizer and sampler workstation for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It brings together wavetable, additive, FM, subtractive, and sample-based sound generation, with a granular mode. Four alias-free wavetable oscillator banks support up to 24-oscillator unison. The editor can draw wavetables with Bezier curves, edit cycles, and import Serum- and Icarus-format files. Sampling supports WAV, AIFF, OGG, and MP3, as well as loop points, key tracking, and sample-to-wavetable resampling. The product page lists more than 780 wavetables and single cycles and more than 410 factory presets. Modulation offers 25 sources, 220 destinations, five MSEG envelopes, and five LFOs; MIDI Polyphonic Expression is supported. It is available as a standalone app and in plugin formats including VST2, VST3, AU, AAX, CLAP, and LV2. The README specifies at least 1 GB RAM and a CPU supporting AVX or SSE2. The maker lists lifelong free updates.