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Product Reviews by KVR Members

All reviews by Deuce

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pHATmatik Pro

Reviewed By Deuce [all]
January 28th, 2003
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows

Well its been some time since this was released. Lets get the worst bit out of the way now. pHATmatik PRO has not been updated since release and since then new hosts have come out in which it has major problems....and I mean major - blue screen major! It also suffers serious Pentium 4 issues....big cpu spikes!

I raved on about the problems a couple of weeks ago and someone said that I should report it on the bitshift forum. I went there and see that I am not the only one with major issues and all of my problems have been reported already some time ago and it seems that people are crying out for these bugs to be fixed.

I don't find it very good that a product is released at version 1 and then no update to known bugs is ever seen. My advice...if you have a P4 or Cubase SX....then check the demo first to make sure it doesn't crash your pc...you might be lucky!
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daHornet

Reviewed By Deuce [all]
January 28th, 2003
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows

The synth is basically a faithful representataion of the synth it is emulating. The GUI is spot on. If you owned one of these you'll find your way around in no time coz it looks just like the original.

Now the sound and presets....I don't personnally dig the sounds/presets that daHornet is capable of and probably won't use it in any of my songs but not because its poor quality or anything, coz it not. Because the sound just isn't to my taste (I have the same views on Oddity!).

This is not a bad thing at all. Its a bit like saying that although a piano VSTi is excellent you don't like to use it in your songs because you prefer the organ.

My advice is to download the demo and give it a spin. If you had the original you will love this. If you fancy a grungy filthy lead line then you love it. It depends on your tastes really. If you want some industrial effect type sounds for something then it would probably be the synth you should turn to.

Features is rated high coz it has loads of them including midi learn which I particularly like in a synth.

Docs and customer support are very good. Infact, the developer hangs out at K-v-R so you always get a fast response to problems and queries - not that you will have any problems coz daHornet is rock solid on my system.

All in all this is a great synth and is great value for money. I do wonder why they only priced it at $30 coz most other companies charge over $100 for good analogue emulation VSTi's such as this.
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Dynamo

Reviewed By Deuce [all]
January 1st, 2003
Version reviewed: 1 on Windows

Well....its now 2003 and we still haven't had an update.
I think it sux. The CPU usage is the biggest in all my VSTi's and it crashes all the time. It needs an update just to be functional. While Reaktor users have seen engine updates and new ensembles we have had nothing. They have forgotten about Dynamo. Its a dead product so I recommend you don't buy it (well not at retail anyway). Don't be fooled...updates were promised but never came. Last summer they revealed Reaktor Sessions would be the update for Dynamo users and yes you've guessed it - we have to pay 99 euros for the privillege! Its irrelevant anyway because that update never materialised. My advice is too stay away from Dynamo and get yourself a few $20-$30 VSTi's instead of which there are plenty on the net. For example, ReFX JunoX2 is a much better Juno than NI Dynamos Junatic.
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Cheeze Machine

Reviewed By Deuce [all]
February 15th, 2002
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows

Worth having a look at/listen to:

[+] GUI is nice looking and very easy to program
[+] Nice sounds
[+] Great value for money (another freebie)
[+] Manual
[+] No crashes to date
[+] Standalone..if thats what you want

[-] Not many features
[-] Hardly any presets

I've used it a few times and I expect you will too so definately worth the download!!
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Tau Pro

Reviewed By Deuce [all]
February 15th, 2002
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows

Once you've got this you will never want another bassline synth again...it doesn't get much better than this!!

[+] Lovely GUI
[+] Great baselines
[+] Great value at on $30
[+] Detailed user manual
[+] No crashes to date
[+] Circ or Lin knob movement options
[+] Great sounding filters
[+] Low on the CPU
[+] Lovely FX included (delay, flang, chorus)
[+] Loads of waveforms to choose

[-] Not many presets but,[+]loads of presets available at KVR-VST

My advice...buy it...you will not regret it!
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Ticky Clav

Reviewed By Deuce [all]
February 15th, 2002
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows

[+] Nice GUI
[+] Docs were present and usable
[+] Great value for money (coz its free)
[+] Very stable
[+] A good emulation
[-] A good emulation of an instrument that in my opinion was crap to start with!
[-] Definately a one trick pony (its a clavinet)
[-] Crap presets (does not show someone like me what the instrument can achieve)

Can't say about customer support, but I'm sure its good being developed by Big Tick!

I'm sorry for the negatives but if you don't like the Clavinet in the first place (which I don't) then you won't like this VSTi. It you you are a Clavinet fanatic then you will love it! For free...who's to complain...I may use it one day.
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Pentagon I

Reviewed By Deuce [all]
January 26th, 2002
Version reviewed: 1.1 on Windows

Some people mention that they don't like the GUI. I absolutely love it! Not necessarily for its looks, but for the way it makes it easy to program sounds and find your way around. They will be updating the GUI soon anyway, so if you don't like it as it is you'll have the choice between two.

This synth sounds very good with its 4 oscillators and lots of waveforms to choose from including 4 user slots. The effects sections are very good and don't seem to put any added pressure on your CPU like they do with some synths. It is capable of creating sound wicked sounds...and I mean wicked!

Because the PI can be inserted as an effect you can also use it to effect your sound (e.g. use filters, built in effects, envelopes, LFOs and so on to warp/shape your audio). The voice modulator is basically a vocoder. You may find that this will beat most dedicated software vocoders in its capabilities because you will not find another vocoder with this many parameters to tweak your vocoded sound to get it just right.

The manual is one of the best and intuitive I've seen (will be good for beginners).

Presets are very very good and really do show you what this excellent synth is capable of (an aweful lot).

Customer support is very good. RGC always respond to your e-mails or postings on KVR-VST.

Value for money.....you'll be laughing!!

Stability: I've used this thing in Cubase, Vaz 2001 and Fruityloops and it hasn't crashed so far.

My advice...stop reading this post, dust off the credit card and buy this thing....you won't regret it!







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VAZ 2010

Reviewed By Deuce [all]
January 16th, 2002
Version reviewed: 1.02 on Windows

The user interface is very good, everything is clear and in a sensible order and it looks the biz. All sliders etc. can be controlled via a midi controller easily by right clicking on the slider, selecting assign, and twiddling your knob.

The way the VSTi integrates into your host is the best I've seen with any synth. When you load it up you get a Vaz 2001 box and clicking on it loads Vaz 2001 into its own window with its own scroll bars. This means that you are not limited to the size that the host permits/has available.

The sounds are very good as you'd expect from any top class synth (great leads, pads, drumsounds, bass, effects, phat sounds, thin sounds etc). You can recreate great sounds from all the classic analogue synths (e.g. Moog etc.).

Features are great! 16 synth multi-timbrality, 16 voices per synth, a mixer, a sequencer, can use DX plugins, VST plugins, lots of routing oiptions, up to 3 LFO's, up to 3 oscillator, 2 assignable ADSRs, lots of filters to choose from, arpeggiator (which is very very good), built in FX pludings (delay, Phaser, Flanger, Reverb, Chorus, Autopan) slide function, portamento, can use waveforms and modulate external audio. The list goes on...

VERY IMPORTANT: Vaz VSTi/DXi is a VSTi host itself so you can load up VSTi's/FX into each channel in Vaz's mixer. This is great if you use Cakewalk products (e.g. SONAR) because you can use VST Instruments and Effects in SONAR through the Vaz Mixer.

The forum is very useful and you always get a response from the Vaz team within the day. There are loads of top tips and user patches/banks too on the site. If you post bugs reports they are always fixed in the next release.

The preset sounds that come with Vaz are available on their support site and are very usable.

I have been using this synth for about 2 months and to date it has never crashed - it is very stable
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