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All Reviews by nuisance sonore


By nuisance sonore
On 6th January 2006
Version: 2

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Krakli Richman

This synth is a nice little surprise from krakli.
I've been looking for a long time for a synth with which I could practice piano using different sounds than the getting to be boring piano/rhode/wurly sound, and while this might seem like a simple task, in reality it isn't. Most synth can make beatifull sounds as long as you play one or two key at a time, but when you play complex chord, the sound tend to break down and distort; even very expensive synth tend do that and it can be a lot of work to get them to do the clean sound you want.
Not this one, you can play the most complex chord and it will still sound clean (if that's what you want, it can get gritty too but it's your own choice) while behing very expressive at the same time. A really nice player instrument, comes with a hundred very useable presets to get you started and it's real easy to tweak on the fly, interface is clean, just like the sound, with just the right amount of control. No documentation is really necessary, everything you need to know is right in front of you.
I was demoing complex FM/hybrid synth costing well above the $100.00 mark when I stumbled upon this one, and to my surprise, it's all I really needed regardless of the price (but it turns out to be free! can't beat that).
I know I should put "cons" in my review, but I really can't find any in the context of the use I put the synth through; it does what I want smartly and efficiently, cpu useage is quite low, it looks good and all the control I need for what I want this for are there with none of the bloat that would only be a distraction from my playing. Well, maybe midi learn would be a feature I would like as to control vibrato and filters from the keyboard directly.
The KVR rating is a bitch to do thought, like the documentation I don't even know if there's any as I didn't need and didn't look. Support? It works, I don't need support. So I put ten everywhere but I think rating shouldn't be mandatory, or be more flexible.
This one's a keeper, way to go Krakli.
 
Last edited : 6th January 2006     

By nuisance sonore
On 2nd December 2004
Version: 2.2.1

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Wusik Wusik Station

Wusikstation is the first commercial software synthesizer I’ve bought. Unfortunately for other developer, it looks like I won’t need any more soft synth for a long while.


Wusikstation is so versatile and has so many options for sound design; I have yet to reach the end of what can be done with it. Yes, it’s that deep; you have to consider that, on top of the generous sound library that came with it, you can also use your own sample or commercial one released for it, layer, pitch shift and filter them to your heart content to get formidable sound before even getting to the wave sequencer or the mod matrix. Wow.


New soundsets and accompanying preset are released almost on a weekly basis, faster than I can grasp it all as I’m still going through the soundsets that came with it in the first place, even though I bough extra sound library already.


Then you get to the most spectacular asset of Wusikstation which is, in my opinion, the developer himself. WilliamK works very hard to develop this instrument, he’s very attentive to customer request, either for help or new features, is constantly looking for ideas in ways to improve his instrument, and if/when you find an actual bug and submit a report, it actually get fixed. I personally posted a bug report and got a bug fix for it posted to Wusik website 40 minutes later.
A class act all the way.

Edited for version 2.

Well, the version 2 added some nice sound to the palette and a few more options.

Unfortunately it added problems for me. It broke compatibility with version 1 made project, so I have to keep version 1 installed and it's corresponding data folders and switch from one to the next when I open old projects. It's also has a strange problems when switching projects in Tracktion where the patches get mixed up if I switch projects without exciting Tracktion. Had to lower the rating for stability due to that. But I wouldn't go back to version 1 full time of course, the new features and option are just too sweet for that.

On the plus side, the new way to manage patch and soundset is really welcome, too bad the browser can't be detached from the main interface.

Wusik.com stopped the association they had with Simon Cann for the manual, and it's too bad. The new manual is seriously lacking if you want to go a bit deeper into programming this synth, it's updated once in a while but not near often enough and, frankly, I would expect better from pro product. One thing a synth like this one could use is a signal flow chart, I found it real easy to loose sight of the signal flow once you've reached a page of modulation in the matrix, especially since some modualtion sources are monophonic while others stereophonic and hence incompatible.
 
Last edited : 29th December 2005     
Latest 2 reviews from a total of 2