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All Reviews by arke


By arke
On 8th June 2006
Version: X2

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NOVAkILL NEOkILLER X2

It won't do your high pitched arps or tarnce leads, but it'll do everything else!

NEOkILLER X2 is my #1 Go-To synth when I'm looking for basses, low leads, acid lines, or low effects.

User Interface:
PERFECT! It doesn't get any better. Everything is laid out logically, its easy to find, everything is right there.

Sound:
It really depends on what sound you're looking for. The Oscillators are very buzzy (since this is the sound BONES wants/needs in his music), and in the higher registers you get some nasty aliasing and atonal distortion. So this thing will not give you a nice tasty trance lead or string sound like PolyIBlit. However, it is VERY adept at basses and growling leads. I frequently use a heavily filtered pulse wave to make a sort of warm sub bass, and the saw wave for "acid sweeps" (I used to use Tau for that, but with NEOkILLER I just set the LFOs and it does all the sweeps for me). The filter is the standard SE SVF, I believe, which does its job fine. However, I only use the LP mode or, rarely, BP mode, since the rest passes through too many of the highs (yes i know, I can EQ, but thats not the point :)). The Distortion is absolutely wonderful. Turn up the Low Cut about a quarter of the way, and it screams in agony (or was it glee?)

Features:
There are a few things I barely ever use (self-sync, hard-sync, gate) and a few things I wish it had (detune for Osc1, second filter, amp env as modulation source) but overall I can't complain - it does exactly what I need for those basses and growling leads.

Documentation:
I think the best documentation for anything is the documentation which is not needed because its self-explanatory, so I've never needed it at all. However, I did look on the site and saw a manual, and looked over it. Wow! A really great Manual, including introduction tutorial, parameter reference with illustrations, and MIDI CC table. Really great!

Presets:
It comes with a few good presets which really illustrate its ability to do punchy gnarly low leads and, to a lesser extent, basses. I don't use them though, I find it much quicker (and funner) to load up the initial patch and start from scratch.

Customer Support:
I haven't had to deal with BONES about NEOkILLER X2 but I have a bit with other things, and that was absolutely great (quick, concise, and clear response).

Value for Money:
Its free, so by definition it has wonderful value for money.

Stability:
Not a crash since I've used it. And I've used it since before it came out (he released a public demo a while before).
 
    

By arke
On 6th March 2006
Version: 1.0

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SimulAnalog Guitar Suite

I was using FreeAmpSE before, which sounds decent but completely incapacitates my computer if i have anything more than maybe an Equalizer running beside it, which makes it harder for me. Then, I found this, and I must say, I've never been happier :D

User Interface
The individual plugins use the Host's default layout. Since there are only a few parameters, I prefer it this way as my host (FL) allows access to the parameters easier this way. In FreeAmpSE, I'd always have to move the knob, then say "last changed knob", etc. ... the only gripe is the values that are read but that is really such a minor problem its not even worth mentioning, really.

Sound
WOW!! Need I say more? ;). The JCM9000 has a great overdrive. And with great, I mean absolutely stunningly great. The Twin is equally great, but more with clean character than overdrive (especially since it doesnt have one, but tthats what the Tube Screamer is for). So, two amps, for different purposes, and thats really all you need! The BOSS pedals sound good, but I haven't played with those as much as I have with the Tube Screamer. I have a real Ibanez TS-9, and I gotta say they're really close. The Univibe Chorus, if applied lightly, really livens it up ... but its also capable of full-on head-screwery FX - quite versatile.

Features:
2 different amps, 3 different distortions, a few good effects - What more could you need? I'd like to see an emulation of a CS-3 or something similar but I'm not complaining, the regular Fruity Compressor does the job as well.

Documentation:
Not much, but its not needed.

Presets:
None. I don't use them really but I like browsing through presets to see what something is capable of.

Customer Support:
None, but they say that

Value for Money:
I'd pay for this :D

Stability:
Not one problem yet, and uses very little CPU too.

Documentation and Customer Support bring the score down somewhat unfairly, Documentation really isnt required and Customer Support ... well, they say that theres no support, but for something this simple, is it really needed? :D. So, I added up what I got for the rest, got the average of that, and set Documentation and Customer Support equal to that. My math was (9+10+10+1+10+10)/6=50/6=8.3 ... so 8 for both
 
    
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