XS-1

This is a great VST. Combine it with Vienna, and selected soundfonts from Hammer etc, and you have a huge amount of music making potential!

Version 2 now saves settings, allows a channel to be "emptied", and has a sort of mouse-over help.

Interface: Is OK. Workmanlike, some oddities - why an "M" button for the effects? I queried the "positive and negative" reverb send settings, but apparently this range is part of the soundfont spec. A list of all loaded presets on the main window would have been good.

Sound: Good! Great claims made on the website, and certainly better with sf2s than Kontakt (which has clicky loop points), sound quality close to Halion (which however drops notes too readily). This VST will bring out the best in your soundfonts!

Features: Fine. I don't use envelopes. The portamento is useful, as is the pitchbend range adjustment, and the keyboard sensitivity adjustment. (Sampletank doesn't have these features!) The distortion could use some warmth. The reverb is just OK, but I have Cubase SXs reverb anyway. I would have liked more than 4 presets, allowing its use as a single VST for a whole song.

Presets: this is a soundfont player. Can't really be marked down for a lack of presets.

Support has been fine (email).

Documentation is not really needed for a VSTi of this type - it does what it says on the screen. Command-line format conversion utility should be integrated with main VSTi.

It seems to be completely stable, has a low CPU use, and at this price is a STEAL. Get it.

Alan HopeRead Review