By lightninrick
On 7th September 2008
Version: 5.12
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Wusik Wusik Station
Wusikstation is an intriguing product. It is by far the most rapidly evolving synth I own--it seems like hardly a day goes by without a message from William K, the developer, about a new feature or soundset or both. This rapid evolution is both a blessing and a burden; sometimes it seems like I spend more time keeping up with changes in Wusikstation than playing it! However, there's no question that the new features add plenty of value, and the user is under no compulsion to install every release.
The latest version is 5.28, and this review covers 5.12. This version is a very fine synthesizer indeed. The basic architecture is sample-based, with a variety of tuning, filter, LFO, EQ, and modulation options for each of four sample-based oscillators. A master mixer section allows each of the four sources to be combined at appropriate levels, and two effects to be applied as desired to individual oscillators and the overall mix. A modulation matrix provides futher flexibility; just about anything can be modulated by anything else, including an oscillator, an LFO, a MIDI controller, etc. To cap it all off, the synth does wavesequencing, which means it can do very complex sounds that evolve over time--very nice for pads in particular.
The basic sound quality of the instrument is superb. The tools for manipulating sound are abundant and excellent, and if you load a great sample into Wusikstation, you get a great sound out of it. That means that the real limitation on this synth's sound is the quality of the samples that are loaded into it. On that score, the developer offers users an absolutely massive set of sounds with a subscription (not "purchase" per se--what you buy is a subscription to download software, sounds, and updates from the website for a given period of time), covering just about everything from acoustic instruments to electronica, and these are frequently updated. However, not all the samples are of extremely high quality, and so not all the patches offered with the synth sound great. (I have looked in vain through the patches for a really good Rhodes-style electric piano, for example. Thank goodness for soundfont.it's Mr Ray 22...) It's worth taking the time to audition patches to find the really great ones, and there are more than enough great ones on offer to make the purchase worthwhile. Excellent third party content is also available in abundance, such as Manytone's fine bass sample sets. Finally, Wusikstation will load WAV files as well as its proprietary WusikSND format, and the developer has even included a simple but perfectly functional tool for creating WusikSND multisamples from WAVs. I've used this tool successfully to create Mellotron multisamples for Wusikstation usng the free Tanguiy sample set.
UPDATE on Oct 8 2008: The latest version of Wusikstation (5.6.2) offers SFZ file import. This opens up a huge world of very high-quality content, including soundsets created for such synthesizers as Dimension, Rapture, and z3ta+. I have tested this function with an SFZ version (created via the free SFZed file format converter) of the Splendid 256 MB piano soundfont, and the results are outstanding.
The synth ships with a couple of dozen skin designs, and most users will surely find something to their taste in that set. I find the layout to be increasingly easy to use as my familiarity with the synth grows, but anyone who hasn't encountered a modulation matrix before is well advised to read the manual carefully, as something as simple as setting up an LFO whose depth is increased by the mod wheel requires that modulation matrix. The interface offers no drag and drop functionality, which puts it behind a number of sample-based synths, and is a little fiddly--you have to click twice to select an oscillator and enable it, for example--but overall it's easy enough to work with, and contains few surprises.
I haven't covered a number of the tools that ship with Wusikstation, including the new drum machine, the arpeggiator, etc., etc., all of which work as advertised. Suffice it to say that this synth offers a lot of value for money. For many Windows-based users, this might be a very good choice for their first (or second, or third) commercial synth. Certainly the massive soundset and synthesis tools combined will enable a lot of music making without aditional work on the user's part. There aren't a lot of synths on the market that cover as much ground as Wusikstation, nor as well, and none that I know of at this relatively modest price point. The developer is also extremely responsive to user feedback, as a glance at the KVR forum will show, and version 5 especially seems very stable under Sonar. In short: highly recommended. |
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Last edited : 8th October 2008
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By lightninrick
On 5th September 2008
Version: 2.0
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Submersible Music Kitcore
Kitcore is sold in two forms: Kitcore and KitCore Deluxe. The difference between the two is in the number of drum kits and MIDI groove files included with the package. This review covers KitCore Deluxe v.2.0.
The first thing to say is that anyone who buys KitCore is well advised to pay the extra $50 for the Deluxe version, unless you have absolutely no interest in acquiring an additional 2000 MIDI groove files and something like 100 additional drumkits for the relatively little extra cash. The quantity of MIDI files alone offered with the Deluxe version is greater than a lot of standalone MIDI file offerings selling for more.
Both the MIDI Grooves and the Drumkits are well constructed, and the variety of kits included in the Deluxe version is truly impressive. Each kit represents a kit used by a well-known professional drummer, e.g. Michael Shrieve, Alan White, etc., with appropriate sounds for everything from rock to blues to country to hiphop and electronica on tap. Because drum sounds from different kits can be combined and saved as a preset, the flexibility is enormous. It's hard to imagine that someone who needs anything like a conventional acoustic or electronic drumkit wouldn't find a decent option in KitCore.
The kits themselves sound good to very good in general, with the cymbals being the weakest parts. While the cymbal samples provided are generally well-recorded, they simply don't have enough velocity levels to be as convincing as the cymbals in EZDrummer. The snares, kicks, toms, etc. don't have the same problem. In fact, if you combine KitCore Deluxe with EZD, with Kitcore handling the drums and EZD the cymbals, you get what amounts to a fabulous expansion set for EZD at a fraction of the price of a single EZX expansion. In any case, these kits work very well in a mix, and at this price the variety is remarkably good value for money.
The software works as a VST plugin, and includes a pad setup with individual volume, panning, and tuning controls for every drum sound, as well as an overall volume control. Each kit is accompanied by a decent-sounding percussion kit that is apparently the same from kit to kit.
A groove browser window offers the ability to audition MIDI grooves against the selected drumkit, which can be dragged and dropped to a MIDI track in your DAW when the right groove is selected. A very nice feature is a visual display of the current MIDI pattern. The patterns are apparently based on actual performances by the drummers represented by the different kits. In any case, the grooves are very convincing, and a very wide range of styles are represented.
Submersible Music's tech support is extremely responsive to requests for help and to bug reports, as I can attest from personal experience. I have experienced relatively minor bugs with the product, none of which can't be worked around fairly easily.
Summary: this product is easy to use, sounds very good, and will plug a lot of holes in most people's drum inventory. The value for money is excellent. Recommended for those who want plenty of good drums and grooves for cheap, and recommended also as an inexpensive high-value add-on to other drum samplers like EZDrummer. Songwriters looking to put demos in multiple styles together especially should find a lot to love in this package. |
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Last edited : 7th September 2008
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By lightninrick
On 13th July 2008
Version: 1.5.3
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Cakewalk z3ta+
This instrument shows exactly why--with all the terrific freeware instruments available--there are commercial synths out there that are worth the money.
I own plenty of freeware and shareware synths, and I use them all on my productions. But Z3TA+ is going to push a lot of that stuff out of the way in the very near future. The sounds this synth produces are deep and engaging--they immediately produce an emotional response in the listener. I have done side-by-side comparisons on works in progress using both z3ta+ and other synths to play pads and leads, and z3ta+ simply makes the music sound a lot more emotionally profound from the first note. Even with only two or three oscillators engaged, z3ta+'s sounds are complex and evolving from the moment the key is pressed.
Ear-catching sounds are a characteristic of this developer from the earliest freeware offerings (Triangle 1 and 2), to Pentagon, to this synth. Rene just seems to know what's going to make the ear vibrate in a way that makes the listener pay attention. The sound quality is brilliant and highly varied.
The synth ships with a massive number of differentiated presets whose emotional contexts are immediately apparent. I have no doubt that many users making electronic music will find everything they need for a typical production--short of highly realistic acoustic instrument emulations--in this batch of presets. The instrument is highly programmable, and those who need more can create it.
One feature that illustrates the depth of the instrument is the arpeggiator. Not only does the arpeggiator ship with a huge number of shapes, the user has the option to include any arpeggiated figure desired via import of MIDI files. Now that's an arpeggiator to reckon with.
In short, this synth offers tremendous value for money straight out of the box. Highly recommended. |
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Last edited : 27th July 2008
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By lightninrick
On 9th May 2008
Version: 1.0
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Manytone Music ManyBass
I am a previous owner of Manytone's Ultimate Bass Kit sample set, which has been my go-to bass sample set (in Wusikstation) for the last few years. I wondered if Manybass would be sufficiently better-sounding to make it worth the $120 purchase (four times the price of UBK, which is admittedly a tremendous bargain). Short answer: it is, and then some.
Manybass consists of a sample set and a playback+effects engine (based on the sampler engine from AraldFX) to play them. The samples are compatible with Wusikstation as well. The bass guitar sounds have a realism that's very exciting, and they are supplied in a range of articulations (picked, fingered, slapped, etc.) that can be layered into a multi-sampled keyswitched patch for performance. The range of sounds covers just about anything you would want a bass guitar to do in a song, and the basic tones are augmented with a very useful set of effects that includes amp simulation, cabinet simulation, compression, EQ, phasing, and so on. The value of these effects is increased by an "FX Wizard" that basically asks what you want the bass to sound like (punchy, soft, deep, etc., etc.) and then sets everything up accordingly. Fast, effective, and a good learning tool too--I wish more of my synths had this feature! The GUI overall is beautiful, easy to understand and use, and a pleasure to work with. Several dozen presets are supplied, with names that make it easy to understand at first sight what kinds of material they're good for.
The amp and cabinet modeling aren't very extensive--you get only three amp models, for example, though a much wider range of cabinet models--but what's here sounds very good and adds plenty of value to the package. The cabinet models in particular produce a wide range of tones that can fulfill any number of roles in a mix, and are well worth exploring for any given song. I happen to own the Line6 Gearbox Gold plugin (which itself sells for a price higher than Manybass), and of course the range of amp models, cabinets, and effects in that package far surpasses Manybass's; but if you don't own another amp modeling plugin, the one supplied with Manybass will work fine for a wide range of musical applications.
The application has been very stable for me under Sonar 6.2.1 and uses relatively little CPU. It takes a little while to load a sample set on my Athlon x2 4800+ machine, but that's par for the course with big sample sets. It's a lot faster than Wusikstation in this regard.
Manytone supplies additional soundsets on their website for free to registered owners, and the plugin will play Wusikstation soundsets in addition to the bass sounds supplied with Manybass. I'm looking forward to hearing what Manybass's effects section will do with some of my Wusikstation electric piano soundsets in particular. I have had occasion once or twice to email the developers, and they have replied promptly with useful information.
The volume level of the presets is a little low under Sonar, something that Computer Music noted in their review of the plugin also (for whatever DAW they were using to test). It's not a big problem, but I'd like it if the plugin put out a little more level.
That minor issue aside, this plugin offers excellent value for money. There are certainly a wide range of plugins available, at multiple price points, that produce great bass sounds. For that matter, free plugins are avialable that do a good job on a range of synth-y basses. But if you're looking for something that does bass guitar in particular superbly well, this plugin is well worth the moderate asking price. I can't imagine that you'd need anything else to do great bass guitar lines, except maybe a great bass guitar and a killer bass guitarist to go with it.
Update on May 21 2008: Manytone is having a sale on their Ovation Acoustic and Upright bass sample sets, and I decided to lay out the additional $39. These sets are of excellent quality, and add signficant range on the acoustic-sounding side to Manybass. The presets that come with this package, however, are not designed for Manybass--either Manytone's Manyguitar or Wusikstation is required. I own Wusikstation, and the presets sound great in that synth. (In fact, they show exactly how great Wusikstation can sound when the sample sets are top quality.) If acoustic bass sounds are a big part of your music, and you own either Wusikstation or Manyguitar already, this package by itself is an excellent purchase. |
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Last edited : 21st May 2008
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By lightninrick
On 21st April 2008
Version: 38-1
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Fuzzpilz Oatmeal
Oatmeal is in my opinion one of the best-sounding and most versatile freeware synths available. It sounds great on its own, and it layers beautifully with a wide range of instruments.
The supplied GUI is ugly and complex to the point of baffling, but alternative skins are available that do a very good job of making the instrument more usable. I've rated the user interface as "8" taking these alternatives into account--otherwise it would be more like "5" (usable, but barely).
The large library of 3rd-party patches for this instrument are a terrific bonus--in terms of number, variety, and quality of patches available, Oatmeal is competitive with many commercial synths.
The instrument uses a moderate to small amount of CPU, another factor that makes it useful for layering. It is thoroughly stable under Sonar 6.0 and 6.2.1, and runs very well in Xlusoft Chainer too. (Chainer is a useful way to set up layers using this and other soft instruments and effects, of course.)
In short, this is an instrument that can improve almost anyone's inventory of soft synths. The more I use it, the more I find new uses for it. |
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