Product Reviews by KVR Members

I originally thought nah but after trialling it instantly bought it, I use it more as a creative effect than a reference tool, but it's good at being both, has some nice room settings, I like it, and if your lucky you can get a discount for being one of the first 70 people.

All my PSP plugins are excellent and this EMT 2445 emulation is no exception.
Lots of variation available.
Very good plate, excellent value Reverb plugin.

The sounds in this library is amazing! I received it as a free gift on an event. Should give a try.

TAL-Sampler is probably my favourite virtual instrument. I have a strong preference for synths over samplers, yet TAL-Sampler is the big exception because I can approach it like a synth.

I record samples of my hardware synths (usually with the filter open and/or through various distortions) and I load them into TAL-Sampler as if they were complex oscillators, then I can mangle them by pitching them up/down the keyboard (like in the past, when multisamples were not common because of memory limitations), I can make delayed layers to build complex sounds, I can pre-filter (low and high pass) those layers, I can add the layers using the modulation wheel (by routing it to the layer gain in the modulation matrix)...

I have a lot of fun with it because I can do things I can't do with my synths (or they would sound differently).

The interface is quite simple (compared to the big software samplers) and it's quite fast to use. The only thing that takes a while is working on loop points (to be honest, finding the perfect loop points has always been a consuming task with every sampler), but once the loop is perfect you can save the sample as sfz and load it later already mapped across the keyboard with the correct loop points (I always do this when I record/import a new sample, so I can use it again later on other patches).

I really love it this plugin.

I received this product for free during a promotion. I'm not into trance (I prefer house/techno) and I have a strong preference for synths over sample libraries/instruments, so I'm a bit unfavourably biased towards a product like this; anyway I think this is a good tool if you want those "cliché" sounds.

I went through all the presets while playing with my keyboard and I was immediately drawn into making trance (or maybe EDM?) melodies/hooks, so I think this instrument does what it's supposed to do. Some presets may have a bit too much reverb for my taste (I didn't look into the controls avaible in the Kontakt instrument, but I'm quite confident it can be turned down), but the overall quality is very good.

Utopia is geared towards trance music, but I think it can be useful also for dance / pop music when some "trance" elements are needed. I think it's one of those "don't mess too much with gear and write actual songs" instruments.

Would I suggest this product? I don't know. I'm biased because I love using the actual synths synths, but if you like working with the Play Instruments serie and you're looking for a one stop shop for those sounds, Utopia may be a good choice (maybe also for people like me who prefer programming their synths: Utopia could be used as a writing tool and then the synths could be involved in a later stage of the production process, when the song has been written).

It's difficult for me to give a rating to a product like this, because it's not really part of my world... I was unsure if giving 3 or 4 out of five (maybe 3,5 out of 5? :P), but my overall opinion is positive, hence the 4.

Also, please keep in mind that I'm somehow spoiled when it comes to gear (especially synths), so my ratings could be different (lower?) from the average user...

I love compressors. Not that I have tons of bus compressors, but there are quite a few sitting in my VST folder, which are considered as one of the best by many many users. But Density mkIII is my favorite one. There are many reasons for that. First of all, for a compressor, that doesn't have any latency and look-ahead, it extremely fast in catching transients without any distortion (here I am talking about LIM mode, which is actually not a limiter, but just a very fast compressor with attack starting with 0.1 ms.). The "glue" factor is astonishing. I see that a lot of work and passion was given to this baby. There is no 'Ratio' control, the compressor does it automatically and does It well. It is versatile enough to handle any bus duties - drum bus, master bus. It sounds clean, but alive. You can add some mojo with the dedicated 'Color' control. I do mostly electronic music and it shines there perfectly. And It is free. Thank you Variety of Sound for such a gift.

Great stuff. Comes with an outstanding documentation and inspiring modularity. Very good performance and sound quality.

This is not a delay unit. It is a latency compensation device. You aren't using this to make echoes or chorus. Its a utility mostly useful for time alignment of tracks within a DAW which doesn't have automatic latency compensation, like many 'lite' or free DAWs. For that purpose, it is excellent. All the newbies who are still using cheap DAWs should definitely get this. It is the easiest way to time align all your tracks. There isn't another way to do it which is as reliable and easy as this.

Disregard the low review by folks who thought this was supposed to make echoes. Get Voxengo Tempo Delay for that, which is excellent.

Very cool piece of software, but it is nearly useless without a VST version... I understand it is free, but I would pay some money to be able to use this inside a DAW.

I've mainly used Fury for Guitar/Bass. I find it one of the most useful plugins to put in the chain before an amp sim. It has enough tone models and shaping tools it essentially lets you build your own guitar pedals and tweak the responses until perfection. However, the envelope, LFO, and mid/side features allow you to craft tones that most guitar pedals wouldn't.