FREE THUMP ONE Review

Toybox Audio’s Thump One is a free kick synthesizer, I’m glad to finally get around to covering this one as I was too busy when it launched. Thump One follows a similar style as Kick 2 with a large envelope window for fine control over your kick’s contour. You don’t get the pitch/time information displayed like in Kick 2, but you do get a unique envelope per the various synth controls. The UI is minimal and purple, quite a different vibe for getting into a creative zone.

There are eight main controls, for shaping the pitch, tone, drive, buzz, level, and a secondary oscillator. Most controls have a secondary control for further shaping. As mentioned you get a unique MSEG per main control, allowing you to give lots of motion to these various tonal elements. If you’ve made kicks with anything, you should be familiar with punch and lelvel. Table, drive, and buzz all give you control over the oscillator shape. Table lets you morph through various oscillator shapes, while drive and buzz add distortion. The secondary oscillator can be used to add an octave or fifth, or even as an effect with options like FM, noise, bendy, and dirt.

Thump One has a surprising amount of depth for so few controls, and in many ways can be a great alternative to Kick 2 and other kick synths. I’m not sure if it offers the surgical precision for use in all kick design, but it seems very fun for all sorts of creative kick design or any sort of experimental kick sound. You can even randomize the whole synth by clicking its name, which sometimes leads to interesting kicks and basses. The presets are also great hosting a variety of useful kick sounds. Being free, there’s no excuse not to pick this one up, It’s very solid for kick design and may in fact get you to your designed results faster than paid alternatives. I’ll have to work this one into my mixes from time to time as a creative alternative.

You can pick up Thump One for free from Toybox Audio’s website here: https://www.toyboxaudio.com/