Psycle was the programme that made me understand how to utilize VSTs, and take the step up from hardware synths. So in my case it is a "killer app".

For anybody who has played in a band using it is a breeze, you load your instrument, plug it in the amplifier like you would your hardware synth by pulling a jack line from the synth to the amplifier. Want to use an effect?: Then it's just like in real life, you get out your effect box(es), get another cord, and reroute the cord to the amp through that.

Another astounding feature which I think puts it in a league of it's own among the DAW's is that it is more or less a portable application. It can be put on a regular USB key for use on different computers, all one have to do is to reassign the folder settings and reload the VSTs when plugging the USB into a new computer. It's fantastic in the work place where one usually don't have access to install programmes on the computers, you just have to plug in your USB to sneak yourself a 5 minute jam session when others go for a cig!

The tracker interface is to me very intuitive, and I must say I prefer it to for instance the setup found in FL-Studio or LMMS for song creation. I would however had hoped that it could be easier to do filter sweeps and fade in/out's. When one wants an instrument to stop, one simply enters "1" in the track. To fade in or out an instrument, couldn't it then also be a possibility to simply enter "2" (or another number for that matter) which would have faded the instrument over a given length of steps, instead of having to specify the volume for every single step of the fade in/out?

Psycle was buggy for a while, but the latest release works wonderfully on the XP platform. But it hasn't so far taken the full step up to the Windows 7 platform unfortunately. It works, but there are a lot of crashes so saving regularly is a must.

To conclude, if I had to choose one essential product for computer music making it would be Psycle. It is extraordinary easy to get into and use, and provides the assistance you need all the way from simple jamming, to song creation, and finalizing wav's.

WHAT IS?

Psycle is a complete modular music production studio. Its features are comparable to the most top-rated sequencers out there, and its sound engine is really awesome.

It was created and developed by fellow Arguru (R.I.P.) until version 1.0. So far, some other developers worked on the source code, and now its hosted by [JAZ] and some other guys, whose works very hard in order to bring us some cool and stable new versions!

Psycle and its source code are FREE. What more can we say?


THE PROGRAM

People familiar with Buzz (not my case) may find Psycle somewhat similar, at least in concept. You have an array of machines (that's how the VSTs and native plugins are called inside the prog), and you throw it at the work area, linking all them by virtual wires. Psycle has internal machines (a complete set of instruments and FX) stored as native plugins and suports VST/VSTi as well.

The interface follows the concepts of a tracker software. Trackers are somewhat old progs that cames from the golden days of such computers like Amiga and even MS-DOS PCs. The music is done in vertical tracks on numeric patterns. All these maths seems to scare off some users, so trackers remains kinda underground. And the hexadecimal numeric system present in these progs (used to control parameters, automations and so) looks totally alien for the musician used to piano rolls and MIDI bars.

On the other hand, there's a "machine view" screen, since Psycle is a modular tracker. At this screen, the machines can be linked in conventional and crazy ways, and the machine number can be limited only by the available RAM.


PROS

- Awesome sound engine, if sound quality is crucial for you. At the time I discovered Psycle, I was using Sonic Foundry's Acid 2.0, and I was impressed how Psycle WAV renderer are 1000 times better than the SF's loop tool. This was 2003. Now, the last version of Psycle (1.8.5 RC2) is really state of art, and can perfectly match those pricy/trendy soft sequencers! Congrats to the devs!

- Light CPU demanding. Anyone with a crappy computer (like my old Celeron 533/128mb) can make nice songs, but of course a good machine is recommended, if the user wants to work with those amazing VSTi in real time. If not, there always the "render to wav" option... ;)

- Almost bug-less behaviour. Psycle is almost 100% stable, because no prog is 100% stable. And altough some plugs may cause ilegal operations, it's more to do with the VST itself than the host. This means: if you use the native plugins, you can work various hours without any problem.

- Speaking about the native plugs, there are very good internal synths, that can produce the latest Trance hit, if operated properly. OK, it can produce the latest Electro-House hit too. :)

- The community is small but friendly. There's no "noob" question that can't be asked at Psycledelics forum. There are experient users kind enough to answer each doubt about this beast of power. And there's no elitism among them!

- The help file is still at production, but is very clear and comprehensive. A must, regarding to trackers.


CONS

- Updates are made at slow pace. Since Psycledelics is a relatively small community, there's not so many people involved in developing it, maybe because Psycle isn't so known as other soft trackers like Buzz, Renoise and Modplug. And altough [JAZ] and the guys work very hard to bring us that gem, I think if there was more people involved, the program could be even cooler.

- you must use another free track to do automations. Maybe the track really misses an extra column, but after all, there's 64 tracks you can use (the upper limit), so this isn't a big problem at all.

- So far, there's no compatibility with other popular tracker formats like MOD or IT. But it was planned in the past, and maybe we can have it at a near future.


CONCLUSION

If you want a free software, that hosts your VST/VSTi, has a tracker interface, a stable behaviour, a light CPU demand and can delivers quality audio files, Psycle is four you. However, the tracker concept is a little complex at the beginning, and its learning curve is not so easy. If you're satisfied with your actual sequencer, there's nothing Psycle can add to you, but if you're interested in dive on a different "world", Psycle may be for you.

Psycle is my 'back-up' sequencer for when I want to create more organic styled music instead of Drum and Bass.

The OBVIOUS: It's a tracker. You either love them or you hate them. Psycle probably won't change your mind about that one way or another.

The PROS:

- Modular Synth to Effect Chainging - this is where creativity resides in this program. True, there are other programs that have this feature, but for some reason, it feels more natural in Psycle. Add in keyjazz (I don't have a midi keyboard, so all my music is played via PC keyboard) and Psycle just become great for sound designing.

- Internal Synths - It must be said that the internal synths of Psycle are the best I've ever heard. The overall sound output of Psycle sounds so polished even before adding in mixdown tools. As well, they don't use up a whole lot of CPU either so creating an orchestra of smooth FM synths is no problem.

- Score-Styled Seqeuncer - This is the way to go. I personally don't care for 'playlist' editors as it's so easy to get into a rut and just throw a bunch of 'loops' up, replay the song while recording knob tweaks then call the song finished.

- Open Source - This pretty much almost garentees that it will be forever improved upon and eventually ported to whatever OS's people want to run them on.


The CONS:

- The sample handling (as of the latest version) isn't the best in the world. It sounds superb, but it lacks functions that many trackers provide in regards to samples.

- The Tracker - Something that just doesn't sit well with me is that in order to 'tweak' knobs in a pattern, you must waste a whole track for each knob that you simultaneously wish to fiddle with. While it's not necessary to tweak however many dozens of knobs your synths have at any given time, it does give a vibe of restriction which in turn damages the overall feeling of versitility of the sequencer. As well, there seems to be a missing column.

- VST compatibility - It must be said the Psycle does have problems with various VST programs. A quick look at the Psycle boards will tip you off that SynthEdit VSTs don't mix well with it for one reason or another.


The OVERALL:

Overall, this is just an amazing piece of software for creating music with. Even without the aid VSTs, Psycle has a very polished sound that is just missing from many other programs. How they achieve this very organic/analog sound is beyond me...and why they wish to give it away for free is also out of the realm of comprehention. Probably the most exciting aspect of Psycle (aside from it's sound) is the fact that it's always being updated and that it's very community driven in that aspect. As of this writing, a new version is on the horizon with features that just may peel me away from ReNoise a bit more often.