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All Reviews by BLynx


By BLynx
On 2nd December 2008
Version: 1.0.1

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GForce impOSCar

The impOSCar is a landmark on VSTi synths, and probably the one closest do delivering the "analog sound" most of us seek. However, it's not exactly an analog emulation per se, because the original OSCar had digital oscillators.

The basic sound is very pure and warm, rich in harmonics and very clean, but under the hood we'll find that the oscillators also support additive synthesis - something you don't get on your everyday VSTi. This is very useful for harsh sounds, synthetic bells, experimental noise and for advanced sound design. The thing with the oscillators is that they have that full-range-but-not-icepicky sound so rare in synths today - it is a colour of its own, like Eddie Van Halen used to say, a "brown" sound...

The next stop is the "Drive" feature - something I abuse on my day-to-day music making. But, just like the original, it doesn't distort the sound - it is merely an overdrive to change the harmonic response. Very useful for thick basses and leads, and the reason I don't care about the lack of an "Unisson" option.

The filters are also at an league of its own. The Separation knob is unique to this design, and splits your filter in two, giving you more control over ressonance. The basic 24db/oct lowpass is turned with two 12db/oct filters, for example . You can also crank the Q knob and use Separation to turn a bandpass (or lowpass+bandpass, or whatever) into a very rich formant filter.

Other than that, the interface is very easy to use after you get a grasp of it. I'd reccoment this software to anyone trying to learn analog synthesis, because everything is at your face, and harder features are very inviting to experimentation. The patch library contains a large number of quality sounds, and the manual explains the harder functions in detail.

Summing these three main features I must say that, in my opinion, this is the best sounding VSTi ever written.
 
    

By BLynx
On 13th November 2007
Version: 2.0

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Ugo Rez

This is my favourite freebie VST, and being a man of few synths this means a lot in my book. I spent a lot of time downloading demos and tweaking synths to know exactly what I want, and my veredict is that ReZ could easily be your workhorse synth. The usefulness of Rez comes from the fact that it's very easy to get good sounds without it getting on the way of your creativity. It's a fantastic synth for composing and prototyping.

Being a monophonic single-oscillator synthesizer doesn't limit it as you would think: quite the contrary, you can get a good variety of sounds without difficult. The sound is very good and is showcased by the presets.

Soundwise it's very good too. The effects are the big secret here, just like old synth string machines. The sole oscillator offer enough variety and tweakabilty and the filter is really outstanding for a free product (actually that's where Rez got its name from). My favourite thing about it is the Drive function used to fatten up the sound, something I miss on some commercial synths. The arpegiattor is very easy to use and fun too, and the graphical envelopes are the icing of the cake.

I am giving a 10/10 on all categories simply because it just works perfectly and does everything it promisses (and more).
 
Last edited : 13th November 2007     
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