About GForce

With an emphasis on vintage synthesizer modeling, GForce Software is a collection of small, independent developers united by a love of music and sound, development of interesting and valid products, a commitment to support, and with the aim of offering unrivaled sonic quality within the virtual instrument arena.

All of our virtual instruments have been individually engineered, without relying upon core code libraries, giving each its own unique characteristics and sound. Our instruments take the spirit and sound of its hardware counterpart and add features to the original specification so that the user-experience is enhanced within the software environment.

GForce Software Ltd was formed in 2000 by Chris Macleod and Dave Spiers, both of whom had a wealth of previous experience in the Music Industry across a number of disciplines, and were seeking to create an umbrella under with they could realise products they themselves wanted or needed.

The first product was the M-Tron, an emulation of the classic hardware tape playback instrument, the Mellotron®. This was at a time when the sounds of the hardware original were terminally unhip and although this was initially made only for friends and fellow musicians, once word of its existence got out, the phone started ringing with requests to make it available commercially.

This was followed by the Oddity, again an emulation of a vintage instrument, but created in league with Ohm Force and utilising state-of-the-art component modeling technology to achieve the most realistic analogue synthesizer emulation possible. The Oddity continues to be a huge success and together with long-term work colleague and fellow GForce associate, Jon Hodgson, the virtual OSCar synthesiser was subsequently developed.

The impOSCar was recognised as a milestone in virtual synthesis development. The filters, in particular, have been praised by the intelligentsia and on the strength of audio demos alone, they were subsequently licensed to fellow plug-in supremos, Spectrasonics. As a result, Stylus RMX and Omnisphere now contain a variant of the impOSCar filters.

After the impOSCar, having watched the plug-in world make several contentious attempts at emulating the iconic Minimoog®, the decision was taken to give this instrument the GForce left-field treatment and together with Ohm Force the Minimonsta:Melohman was conceived as a radical alternative to what had gone before.

The Minimonsta takes the notion of software instruments as static, non performance tools and turns it on its head. With patch morphing, triggered by the user-defined Melohman Octave, the musician can creative truly dynamic performances, as unique as he or she wishes. This feature, coupled with the instruments’ stunning sound quality, dispels the myth that (a) all emulations are the same (b) plug-in instruments are non performance tools and (c) it is possible to create unique products which, while containing more than a passing nod to the past, still have their eyes firmly fixed on the future.

In 2007, the Virtual String Machine continued this left-field and retro philosophy as those who have both heard the instrument and witnessed the Easter Egg will attest. An analogue replica string ensemble (or ARSE as we tried so hard to call it) might not sound particularly 'cutting edge' but those that have witnessed the variety of sounds on offer from this machine understand that immediacy and character are here in abundance.

Certainly the critics and users seem to agree because, as with all the previous instruments, VSM also won the coveted Future Music Platinum Award.

Indeed the immediacy and simplicity of VSM became the ethos behind the update to the original M-Tron, the M-Tron Pro.

Utilising our G:sampler engine we developed a specific set of controls tailored to ensure that all the inherent sound qualities found in the original M-Tron are retained whilst taking these tones in to a completely new realm. M-Tron Pro is unique. Nothing else in the market has the quite the same nostalgic sonic qualities coupled to a specific set of sound sculpting parameters.

Maybe that's why our products always take longer than anticipated?

Maybe that's why bands including Radiohead agreed to beta-test the M-Tron Pro on tour?

Maybe that's why the release of the M-Tron Pro saw many of our original users from 2000 happily update?

As we move from 2008 to 2009 we remain grateful to all our customers for allowing us to continue to bring our own vibe to what's become a crowded arena since those pioneering days of 2000. It is because of you that we can strive to bring products which we hope offer you a unique and interesting twist to music making.

Put bluntly, while software synthesis is as fresh and exciting as the early days of hardware synthesis -  before the suits shoehorned the industry into a certain mindset - we have an obligation to try and be different and remain true to ourselves. After all, the pioneers who brought us the tools that truly inspire us, even today, each walked the less trodden path. For us to play safe would be a betrayal of that spirit of adventure and risk depriving the free-thinkers of unique and inspiring tools.

The GForce Team

About GForce

GForce Personnel

• GMedia Music
• Chris Macleod
• Dave Spiers
• Ohm Force
• Jon Hodgson
• Art Gillespie
• Ian Legge