Log InCreate An Account
  1. Plugins
  2. »
  3. User Reviews

Product Reviews by KVR Members

All reviews by womble42

Review Something or Find Reviews

ManyStation

Reviewed By womble42 [all]
March 31st, 2005
Version reviewed: 1.06 on Windows

Well - I shall be the first one to review this and put forward my comments on it.

Firstly - I was looking for a "rompler" style synth that game me some more natural sounds - I own EVE, which contains a lot of vintage sounds and some good "odd" synth swirly sounds but perhaps not a lot of "bread and butter" sounds. I then followed a trail from EVE to Wusikstation, picked up "The Second Wave" and then took up the discounted offer of buying Manytone.

Well - I am very impressed. The interface reminds me of of the good old synth workstations (korg etc.) and for the first time I can see me actually programming my own presets.

And the presets? They are fantastic - honestly, I paid about £40.00 for this synth (my triton cost me about £800!) and this contains a huge range of presets - going from guitars, basses, synths, pianos and much much more. The basses and guitars need special mention - I don't own Halion or Kontakt but I must say that these are the best that I have heard on a soft synth. The tremolo guitar is awesome - worth the money alone.

Essentially you have loads of sounds to create your own presets from and its also very easy and clearly laid out. The effects are also very good - The Second Wave soudns give you an idea of what you can really do - plus the matrix (again used in some presets) could you allow you to program deep evolving passages of sounds from one button!

CPU hit? Well - I run a Pentium 4 3.0ghz (HT) with 512 ram and I notice some issues when running on High quality mode, but this maybe due to the lack of ram. This has been addressed slightly in the new patch and I will be purchasing new RAM shortly. However, if you put the synth into normal mode it plays fine.

The people at the Manytone were very helpful when ordering and overall cannot praise this enough. It's a really good "workhorse" and could be the staple synth for a lot of my songs. Excellent work!
Read Review
Rhino

Reviewed By womble42 [all]
April 3rd, 2003
Version reviewed: 1.01 on Windows

When I downloaded the demo of this beauty I was, to be frank, blown away by the quality of it. I have to say that up until now, the VSTi's I had (albeit cheaper ones) didnt have that "hardware feel about it".

I will admit, that I am more of a preset user/tweaker than a sound creator but............the sounds on this baby are just amazing. They have so much quality and thickness to the sound and there seems to be a lot of potential here to do a lot of great things with it.

Big tick up until now hadnt really released a A+++++ products (IMO), but with this synth they have stepped up to the plate in a big way. I bought it for 80 euros (60 quid) and I would say that its a bargain at that price!!

Buy it now!
Read Review
Crystal

Reviewed By womble42 [all]
February 15th, 2003
Version reviewed: 2.1 on Windows

Well I feel I have to add to the glowing/growing database of reviews for this baby.

I really do not understand why this is free! Yes, it was a CM mag exclusive for a while, but that was only for a month or so.

The sounds are incredibly varied, warm, and most importantly interesting - I would even say that nothing I have tried yet (and to be fair I havent seen absynth etc..) sounds like this.

Just a couple of things though -
a) Its v. complex (to my eyes) so; preset fiddlers like me may get a bit scared about dabbling!
b) It doesnt sync very well to ACID 4.0......but there again, not much does!

Basically, this is fantastic - download it, put it on one of the temp-sync presets and just feel the ideas flow!
Read Review
Junox²

Reviewed By womble42 [all]
September 9th, 2002
Version reviewed: 1.5 on Windows

I agree with all previous reviews on this puppy -
It has remarkbly good sound quality at such a cheap price. The interface looks deceptively simple, possibly leading you to think that there isnt much to this synth - but one listen to the presets provided (plus there are some good ones on the net) and you realise that there is a lot to it.

I would suggest that this for the more harder dance fans out there - as said before, great hoover sounds, phatt bases and good leads. I can also see this being used for some good incidental fx's as well.

Glad to see that reFX reacted quickly to the Acid 4.0 problem and it now works fine in my software.

Top marks - Great Sound/Great Value and its easy enough for plebs like me to program!!!!
Read Review
Beast

Reviewed By womble42 [all]
September 9th, 2002
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows

I'd already bought the Juno 2x(see my review on that puppy) and was look for something else that could cater for the slightly more abrasive side of the sonic arsenal.

This baby certainly does it and, like the Juno, has very impressive depth of sound.

I would agree with a previous reviewer that this does have some common areas with the juno, but it does also have excellent distortion/delay/reverb filters which can give some excellent depth of sound.

The interface is very clear and simple, the presets are excellent examples of what can be done and it hasnt crashed once yet.

It has great potential for basses, leads and some down right nasty/naught spot effects.

Great value for money
Well done reFx.
Read Review
Space Synthesizer / Effect

Reviewed By womble42 [all]
September 2nd, 2002
Version reviewed: 1.2 on Windows

This was one of the first soft sytnhs I purchased and boy is it a powerful beast. In some ways that is it's strengths and weaknesses as I find that some of the sounds just completely overpower and fill up the mix. Having said that, these can be tweaked and other fx can fix this. There are lots of filters/oscilators etc.....too tweak and for lazy people like me, the presets are excellent. This synth from initial impressions is good for inicidental fx/fills/and spot sounds to help embelish a song rather than actually create a song but - like I said before, I am a "preset editing type person" and I am sure that with careful programming there is a lot more to this baby.

One thing though - This works fine in Fruity Loops - but does nothing in Acid 4.0 but, too be fair, the program has just been released so I would hope that this will be fixed. I am emailing the software people now and will update on my response.

Overall - good synth, maybe to be overpowering but - a great synth at a great price.

Addendum.
I have just had several emails from the author of the program,confirming 1) That he will check the Acid 4.0 problem 2) That he is fixing it 3) That he has now posted an update!!!!

fantastic support, thanks for all your help......please buy this synth!
Read Review
Cheeze Machine

Reviewed By womble42 [all]
July 24th, 2002
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows

This is a great little instrument for inspiring pad sounds - Yes, the presets are a bit limited and some of the sounds arent that great but I am sure with some tinkering you can get some nice results.

I have used some plug-in fx to lift the sounds and that has certainly helped.

At the end of the day......its free!!!! It may give you some ideas .......but dont expect it to blow your mind!
Read Review