Тhe Usual Suspects, you are the heroes!
Thank you so much!
I really love your products))

 

Maybe , just Maybe .. some "Groups" are also watching. ;)

 

I have followed several open source projects, and none of them have been as whiny as this one. For example, “Reshade” has many forks where (Crosire) was not asked beforehand; they were simply taken from GitHub and used... And no one shed a tear.
I think the main issue here is that the person using it has a bad reputation, which is why everyone is jumping on it.

 

I think his products are very good, especially the Discovery and Discovery Pro, as well as the Vertigo. I've also bought his products. As long as he doesn't commit any serious crimes, it doesn't matter whether I like him or not. I'm not joining the witch hunt.

 

You are inverting the facts : he get a bad reputation BECAUSE OF his behavior

Like Tone2
Like Acustica Audio
Like ...

 

It obviously is. Even if he hadn't before, after this he would (like @ItsFine said). The thread's title is accurate

 

I saw this retroemulator in a video, later realized discodsp involved, and they are known to make vsts that slow down computers for no reason. Still tried out of curiosity and wanted to try that dx7.
My mighty CPU, that can handle at least two dozen DSP65300 instances playing in a project, was slowed down by one retromulator playing a virus TI patch and no visual interface. I dont think I will be using it any further.

The "official" suspect releases are pretty good for my workflow, despite some small details like preset recalling in saved clips.
But I am pretty satisfied with what DSP65300 is doing!

call me a conspiracy realist but I really think the big hardware companies do not want people creating that 90s music again. That music was magical.

did not know kurzweil was possible but supernova and kurzweil also on my heart.

Robert Miles’ Children Recreated With The Original Vintage Synth #shorts

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 13, 2026 at 1:21 AM

I did not know about that, but at face value, the plugins I tested from this dev were very heavy, they gave me a hint of bad coding. Also the sound was ordinary, I think I checked the nord emulation, good interface, but thats about it.

 

That's no good.
I do recall using discodsp plugs long time ago, i wasnt impressed tbh.

 

NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT DISCODSP. they were good in 2008 but now they sound out-dated. ha ha ha!

 

They added the S1000 - no rom needed.

And yes. TUS are gods, ideological confusion notwithstanding.

 

There is no AKAI S emulation there at all — it’s just a very basic WAV/SF2 player. Why AKAI is mentioned in this context is hard to say, it feels like this product is some kind of nonsense and the hallucination of one of the AIs.

 

i always wanted a virus ti.. now i got one.. from the usual suspects... well.. YES!!!!

 

I just don't see the point in it. Usual Suspects provide the synths with GUI so you can make sounds and operate the instrument normally. This Retromulator thing just seems to load presets and doesnt allow access to synth parameters. So it's not offering anything at all really above the original work.

It does seem like a cynical move.

 

Last edited: Mar 13, 2026 at 8:08 AM

R2R has just given a lesson to the Disco-theque

 

yea, im not even pirating their stuff after this incident (im try before buy guy)

 

If you make something and it sells very well and you are making huge profits, you can be absolutely sure that someone will copy it or find a way to duplicate it . Everyone wants to make money, no stopping it. Look at all the popular Guitars being sold mostly just copies of Fender, Gibson, Guild, Gretsch and other guitars the world is flooded with so many choices with many of them made with cheaper parts and much lower prices. Accept it or not that is just the way it is.

 

This also has the advantage that competition drives prices down for the consumer. Furthermore, monopolists are absolutely detrimental to the economy. If a company goes bankrupt, you can often buy another product that is roughly similar. The Unusual Suspect even turned expensive hardware into free software—a remarkable achievement—and they haven't been sued yet.

 

Nor will they, because it's well-established settled law that making software emulators is not illegal. And they do not promote, recommend or facilitate distributing or sharing copyright firmware. Users have to make their own decisions as to what they are comfortable doing, and the intention is that users already have their hardware and the rights to use the software.

If you're not aware of the emulation activity online for archiving and preservation of legacy hardware and software such as old defunct computer systems etc that would otherwise be lost to history, it's a massive area, and almost all for old IP that is no longer commercially exploited by the copyright owners (eg, the companies no longer exist, or it has little market value and the companies don't really care).

 

Statement from "The Usual Suspects"

Over the past days we have seen discussions in the community about the release of Retromulator by discoDSP, which is based on some of our open-source emulator projects.

Our project is released under the GNU GPLv3 license, which allows anyone to use, modify, and redistribute the code. This includes use in commercial products, as long as the terms of the license are respected. This is fundamental to open source, and we intentionally chose this license to allow experimentation and innovation.

At the same time, the emulator project was only made possible by years of effort from a dedicated group of volunteers, choosing to contribute their expertise so we could reach the state our project is in today. From the onset we all knew that this was going to be a passion project instead of a source of income. Our goal has always been to make our emulators available to the community in a transparent way, with a focus on authenticity, usability, and long-term preservation of digital synthesizers.

Each emulation we have released encompasses a full body of work, from core functionality, performance optimization, and an accessible UI unique to the feature set of each device. It is not enough to solve the purely technical challenge of emulation, they must be usable for both amateurs and professionals alike, at any level of production.

Following the community discussions around Retromulator, discoDSP made a donation of $1000 to the project. While we appreciate the gesture, we have decided to refund the donation.

We want to remain independent from situations where financial contributions could be perceived as influencing the direction of the project. Accepting a donation in this context could give the impression that some type of unique agreement or coordination with discoDSP has been made, which is not true, and not our intention.

"The Usual Suspects" remain independent, and our mission is unchanged.

Therefore, we believe that refunding the donation is the most transparent and fair approach.

We want to thank the community for the strong support, feedback, and contributions that help keep this project moving forward.


— The Usual Suspects