Product Reviews by KVR Members

This is a simple but nice-sounding synth that I received bundled in Mixcraft 5.0, but last time I checked it can be downloaded for free from the developer. I believe it is still bundled in 6.0. It is great for pads and basses. It can do a nice Solina string synth imitation. Overall, it kind of reminds me of an Oberheim Matrix. It is light on CPU and easy to tweak. Try layering Impulse with Synth1 for some nice 70's-80's synth washes. I'd rate it above such standard VA synths as TAL Noisemaker and Tyrell N6, but behind Synth1.

The Korg Mono/Poly is the most powerful virtual-analog soft synth that I have. The original hardware Mono/Poly was an excellent monophonic synth that was introduced at a time when poly synths were all the rage. To get some of the polysynth business, Korg enabled a polyphonic mode on the Mono/Poly where up to 4 voices could be played with one oscillator per voice and a shared filter section. This type of poly capability was half-assed and soudned like it. It was hard to fault the Mono/Poly as a monophonic synth, however. The software version cures the weaknesses of the hardware version. They polyphonic capability of the software Mono/Poly allows full polyphonic playing of what were previous 4-oscillator mono patches and there are integrated effects. Naturally, with the modern softsynth you have virtually unlimited program storage.

What kind of sounds can the Mono/Poly make? What CAN'T it make? The Mono/Poly can do imitative synthesis, including a surprisingly nice harspichord and an analog brass sound that almost sounds like real sampled horns. It's real forte is gated rhythm pattererns that would be at home in a Deadmaus track.

I usually play the various Korg Legacy synths from my laptop with the little Korg Microkey controller keyboard. I hooked the computer up to my big keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch, and it was a lot of fun controlling the Mono/Poly with the aftertouch.

Every synth has negatives, and the Mono/Poly's negatives are pretty minor. The blue panel is pretty but lack of contrast and small fonts can make it hard to read controls, and the signal flow isn't always obvious. I still get messed up in the loading and saving of sounds. I downloaded the pdf manual, but I can't say that I've spent much time looking at it. I suspect I'm not alone in this habit. It's easy to come up with a synth sound that is "too big for the mix", that is one that overwhelms the song.

Note: the Korg legacy synths including the Mono/Poly are multi-platform. I have run all of them with no problems on a Mac (Os-x 10.5 through 10.7) and Windows 7 pc. Two of the legacy synths, the MS-20 and Polysix have already made it to iOS (iPhone & iPad), so it might mean that a Mono/Poly for iOS might be right around the corner. I have the iPolysix, and I have barely touched it. I'm going to skip the MS-20 and wait for the Mono/Poly.

Overall, the Mono/Poly is a must have for most synthesizer players. Right now the various Korg legacy synths are available separately for $49 each. The Mono/Poly is well worth it.

Even though M-Audio Key Rig received a "best buy" award from Keyboard magazine when it was released; it really hasn't gotten the credit or the acceptance that it deserves in the music community. Key Rig is maybe the best "first softsynth" for someone just starting out in electronic music. It's also an excellent synth for complex pads and layered sounds. It's also excellent for getting a "quick and dirty" instrument sound for a particular track to keep the creative flow going without going through 2000 presets in your sampler's folder.

So I don't have to repeat the basics, take the time to read KVR's basic sofware description. In short, Key Rig consists of 4 modules that can be layered or can be assigned to different MIDI channels for different purposes.

The top module, the SP-1 stage piano has two separate sound generators. The first one allows you to select various acoustic and electric pianos. The second generator allows you to also select several basic synthesizer pads. So with this module alone, you can layer two different acoustic pianos, an acoustic and a Rhodes, a Rhodes and a Whirly, etc. This module like all of the modules has its own effects section that allows you to apply the most common electric piano effects. The acoustic pianos in this module aren't my favorites, but as elements in a layered sound, they are very useful.

The second module is the MS-2 Polyphonic Synthesizer. This is just a really neat sounding virtual analog synth that has a very ballsy sound. It covers most of the standard synth sounds, and it is ridiculously easy to program.

The third Module is the MB-3 Organ, a B-3 clone. This module has been criticized for using samples rather than physical modeling. I don't care what it uses. It sounds good like a Hammond B3 to me, and it layers well with the other sounds.

The last module is the GM-4 general MIDI module. This is the only disappointing one of the bunch for me; primarily because it truly has a basic GM standard without the GS or XG enhancements that I am used to. The choir sounds are especially good though. I never figured out how to get it to handle multichannel input.

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER. Let's say you want a big pad, a la Massive. If you want a percussive attack, you can use the SP-1 to layer a piano sound with a warm synth pad. Layer a more buzzy sound from the MS-2. Layer an organ sound from MB-3 with lots of low end, and finally add a different synth pad or orchestral sound from GM-4. All of this is coming into your DAW on one MIDI channel and all of it uses a surprisingly low level of CPU. If it were a Korg Kronos doing this, people wouldn't stop about how cool it is. Since it is a 7 year old software program, Key Rig just gets ignored.

I want to remind folks that Key Rig is dual platform Windows/Mac. For a long time Key Rig wasn't compatible with Intel Macs. That has changed. If you have an old copy of Key Rig gathering dust because you switched from a PowerPC Mac to a Intel Mac, just install the Key Rig software from your disk and get the updater from the M-audio site. The updater installs without an authorization code.