![](https://www.audiotechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/The-Deputy-Mark-II_Main-pichi.jpg)
Full Bucket Music: The Deputy Mark II
German programmer and software engineer Björn Arlt began building VST plugins under the name Full Bucket Effects in 2010. Being a musician, and a synth enthusiast from a young age, he was drawn to analysing and building software synths. He now offers both synth emulations and effects as freeware through his website.
The Deputy Mark II is a software-based polyphonic ensemble synthesizer, designed in the tradition of classic string machines and early ‘polyphonic’ synthesizers. It attempts to emulate an instrument that could have been built in the 1970s — in an era where technical and economical restrictions may well have have impacted the overall architecture. Production choices appeared as a compromise between which features musicians expected, what they were willing to pay, and what fitted in a single box. The result is the Deputy, which by today’s standards is a fairly limited instrument — but not without character.
The Deputy consists of three major blocks: the polyphonic Poly synthesizer section; the monophonic Mono synthesizer section; and the Main section hosting global effects, the mixer, and keyboard-related controls. On top of these, the Deputy Mark II has an additional section containing controls for program management and ‘tweak’ parameters.
Tweaked Parameters:
- Number of Poly voices (12, 32, 61) to reduce computational load
- Split point between the keyboard zones
- Ensemble mode (mono or stereo)
Poly section:
- Up to 61 voices polyphony
- Two band-limited frequency divider-driven oscillator banks
- Sawtooth and PWM waveforms
- 2-pole multi-mode filter and ADS envelope per voice
- Global ADSR envelope for paraphonic modulation
- Resonator bank (3 zero-delay feedback filters)
Mono section:
- Single VCO plus sub-oscillator and noise
- 4-pole zero-delay feedback lowpass filter
- ADSR envelope and LFO
- Output of Poly section can be send to filter input
Features:
- Polyphonic string/synthesizer (Poly) section and monophonic synthesizer (Mono) section
- Built-in Ensemble and Phaser effects
- Flexible keyboard assignment for Poly and Mono section
- Resizable user interface (not N version)
- All parameters can be controlled by MIDI controllers
- Plugin supports Windows and macOS (32 bit and 64 bit)