KVR Audio

quantum7 · Post by **quantum7** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 6:05 am

I just picked up an Akai MPK249 for a great sale price of $279 at GC the other day, and of the included software was AIR Instrument's Hybrid 3.....which I almost bought it months ago for $150 after seeing this on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP6395Ykv_E (I only didn't buy it since there was no trial demo.... but so glad since it came with the MPK249). I have to say that I was extremely impressed with it and it easily exceeded my expectations. Hybrid 3 seems to cater mostly to EDM so I took it over to a friend's studio in town so we could check it out together. My friend writes a lot of EDM and uses a lot of Nexus in his writing and has spent well over 1k on Nexus 2 expansions. Well, after a few hours of going through the hundreds of incredible Hybrid 3 presets, my friend actually started cursing about how much money he, "wasted" on Nexus and vowed to pickup Hybrid 3. I don't have enough recent experience with Nexus to agree or disagree with him, but thought it was both humorous, and a further testament at what I myself thought of Hybrid 3.

Why isn't Hybrid 3 talked about more? I never even heard of AIR until just late last year when reading about Vacuum Pro here on KVR. I've been reading about U-he's new Hive "dethroning" Sylenth, but my God, Hybrid 3 IMO absolutely annihilates Sylenth (although most synths sound better than Sylenth to my ears anyway). Again, why have I not heard that much on Hybrid 3? Is it because AIR has no trial demos, therefore not many people take a chance on purchasing it without a trial? It makes me wonder how many more great instruments are out there that I've not heard of.

dwozzle · Post by **dwozzle** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 7:03 am

Part of it I think is that their prices have recently come down, or have been on radical special, and like you found, they've been included as freebie add-ons with other stuff. They were pretty pricey before -- their roots are as PT-only products.

But I agree, though on paper there's nothing groundbreaking about Hybrid 3, it just plain sounds amazing. So does Loom, and Vacuum Pro, though Hybrid and Loom are the standouts to me. Great stuff.

bailees7irish · Post by **bailees7irish** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 7:21 am

I'd have a handful of the AIR Instruments in my VSTi folder if I actually owned them once I purchased instead of just rented them. The copy protection is lame in my opinion. If it isn't a simple serial number or only a dll (Aalto), I don't want it.

quantum7 · Post by **quantum7** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 7:30 am

bailees7irish wrote:I'd have a handful of the AIR Instruments in my VSTi folder if I actually owned them once I purchased instead of just rented them. The copy protection is lame in my opinion. If it isn't a simple serial number or only a dll (Aalto), I don't want it.

Hmm...it took me all of 2 minutes to authorize my copy with a serial # ...and I installed it on 2 of my PC's. As easy as it was to authorize, I'm glad AIR's stuff hasn't been pirated yet.

dwozzle wrote:Part of it I think is that their prices have recently come down, or have been on radical special, and like you found, they've been included as freebie add-ons with other stuff. They were pretty pricey before -- their roots are as PT-only products.

But I agree, though on paper there's nothing groundbreaking about Hybrid 3, it just plain sounds amazing. So does Loom, and Vacuum Pro, though Hybrid and Loom are the standouts to me. Great stuff.

Thanks for that info., makes sense. Now I really want to try out Vacuum Pro (hurry up AIR with those trial versions that you keep promising).

andreasg · Post by **andreasg** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 8:16 am

Hybrid 3 is so amazing and easy to use, i love this synth so much! i have the AIP 3 from airmusictech and it's worth every cent (except vacuum pro, but this is just because i have so much other virtual analog synths)

DJMashbot · Post by **DJMashbot** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 1:55 pm

I agree about vacuum and loom both being worth it. The instrument pack is a pretty good deal as you get those with velvet, and some groove and drum plugs.

Rajah · Post by **Rajah** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 3:05 pm

Are these developers (AIR) the same who went by the name Wizoo in another era?
That name behind the great Stienberg's Virtual Guitarist, Groove Agent... Latigo, etc?

budweiser · Post by **budweiser** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 3:23 pm

^^ yep, it's them, although the team may have changed a bit.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 4:18 pm

Could be that users buying Hybrid 3 are more interested in making music with it than talking about that they have bought it in forums.

There are many worthy synths that gets far less attention than Hybrid 3, as evident by these recent threads:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... d#p6027276
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... d#p6015163
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... d#p6010624
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... d#p5952562

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 5:32 pm

Hybrid is great, although a lot of the patches are pretty EDM oriented it's also a pad and soundscape monster when you get into it.

db3 · Post by **db3** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 5:39 pm

I've always liked Hybrid3. It has a nice soft saturated sound and comes with a decent section of presets for EDM. Pretty capable when you think it has 2 parts, each consisting of 3 oscillators, twin filters and a sequencer. Also the 40+ effects are decent as you would expect from Air. I bet there's some Wizooverb in there.

dwozzle · Post by **dwozzle** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 6:10 pm

This thread pulled me towards the AIR stuff when I was messing around this morning, and while I do really like Hybrid and Vacuum, today Loom just knocked me out, again. Amazingly rich and interesting sounds, fun to explore, just great. That's what got me interested in the AIEP in the first place.

Examigan · Post by **Examigan** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 6:53 pm

Not sure why its not talked about more, but I really like it. Sounds great and its easy to use. Here's a pad preset I made with it:
https://soundcloud.com/examigan/epic-pad

Rajah · Post by **Rajah** » Sun Feb 15, 2015 2:07 am

budweiser wrote:^^ yep, it's them, although the team may have changed a bit.

Thanks... I usually get some deal offers from AIR... They had Hybrid 3 for $49 sometime ago... And an upgrade to the Expansion pack for like $129... Guess I had my eyes focused on Strike 2 more than the other inst... Guess I may have to bite soon..

quantum7 · Post by **quantum7** » Sun Feb 15, 2015 6:40 am

OK, I finally got through all of Hybrid 3's sounds today, and again- WOW!!!

I almost want to take a year off of writing New Age to do an EDM album......which can be easily done with only using H3 IMO. Whoever programs their patches is freaking talented, that's all I know. Since New Age is my primary focus though, I'm thinking that Loom may be my next AIR synth, as from what I heard on the demos it would cater more to that genre than H3. Again, AIR's patch programers (and developers, of course) are geniuses IMO!

AIR Instruments Hybrid 3 - WOW! Why isn't vsti talked about more?