Driftwood

Driftwood: a warm, hands-on polyphonic synth

Driftwood is the synth plug-in by Lessons in Live, made for Ableton Live and every VST3 host.

• Sound engine: four oscillators with FM and unison, a fat filter with four characters (Clean, Ladder, Acid, Vintage SVF), analog-style envelopes and three LFOs.
• Play and create: chords, a 16-step sequencer with swing, glide / portamento (Poly, Mono, Legato), six effects and a master EQ with live spectrum.
• Looks and sounds: seven skins, a resizable window and 105 presets with favourites.
• Clean top end: anti-aliased throughout.

What’s new in Driftwood 1.0.6

• Update notice: Driftwood tells you when a new version is out, with a direct download link (at most one check a day, no personal data sent; can be switched off in the settings menu).
• Click-free switching: turning an effect on or off, changing the filter type or mode, the delay time or the preset while notes are playing now crossfades smoothly instead of clicking.
• Browse presets while a clip plays: sounding notes glide into the new preset.
• Sequencer slides: with the play mode on Legato, a step at 100 % length slides into the next one, the classic 303 slide.
• Fixed: a note could hang after switching between Poly, Mono and Legato while notes were playing.
• Fixed: in some hosts, finished notes could keep a voice busy in the background.
• Safer preset-pack installation.
• The factory preset Fat Acid Lead no longer overloads on very high notes (new installations).

Driftwood 1.0.4

• Glide / portamento with three play modes: Poly, Mono and Legato (classic 303-style slides: overlap notes to glide). Find it in the Performance panel.
• Resize the window freely: drag the bottom-right corner (60 to 150 %).
• Favourite presets: click the star next to the preset name; favourites appear at the top of the preset menu.
• Fixed: a click when a short pluck sound was let go during its decay.

Already own Driftwood? It’s a free update: download 1.0.6 with the link in your order e-mail (or from My account › Downloads if you have an account) and install it over your current version. Your serial stays activated.

Earlier: Driftwood 1.0.2

• Install preset packs straight from Driftwood: gear menu › Install Preset Pack…, or drag the .dwpack file onto the Driftwood window.
• A tidier preset menu: one folder per category, and installed packs under PRESET PACKS.
• Open Preset Folder in the gear menu.

Formats and systems

VST3 and standalone app, for macOS 11+ (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows 10/11 (64-bit).

One purchase, both systems

Buying Driftwood gives you both the Mac and the Windows version and one serial number for up to 3 of your computers.

Try it free for 30 days

The download works as a free 30-day trial: install it and play. After the trial it keeps working in demo mode (a short silence every minute) until you enter your serial.