Product Reviews by KVR Members

I don't really remember why I bought this. I guess I was looking for a versatile drum synthesizer for all four-to-the-floor kinds of things. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get much out of Tremor. I just can't get it to sound right, which is a pity because I really like the interface. It's nice and clean comes with a very nice pattern sequencer. Come to think of it, that's probably the reason I clicked purchase. I really wanted to get along with this plug-in.

Now let me tell you what my gripe is with Tremor. I'm definitely more of a musician than a sound engineer and I'll openly admit that I rely heavily on presets. I simply have no natural talent for "turning the knobs". I can do some tweaking, but I definitely need a good preset to start with. Unfortunately, Tremor does not have those kinds of presets for me. Even worse, when I browse through the presets I usually go like "ugh! ... what? ... seriously? ... yikes! ... hmm, mabye". Not exactly what you want to be thinking. Some of the kicks sound okay by themselves, but somehow they often fail to cut through the mix. Something seems to be missing, but I can't figure out what. Most of the snares sound like a joke to me. The hi-hats sound very unnatural and don't even get me started on the cymbals. Overall, the sound is extremely synthetic (judging from the presets). I can imagine that it's useful for glitchy, experimental stuff, but that's just not my thing. I prefer my drums to have some organic feel to them, which I haven't been able to squeeze out of Tremor. Bottom line, I don't even know where to start with Tremor.

That being said, there's a good chance that someone who's more into sound design and drum synthesis could do amazing things with Tremor. Maybe it's just not the right plug-in for me personally. Who knows? Tremor does offer many sound design capabilities and comes with an intuitive interface and extensive documentation. But after countless failed attempts, I've finally given up.

To summarize, as a general purpose drum solution, Tremor definitely fails. If you rely on presets or like your drums to have an organic feel, Tremor is not for you. However, if you're a glitch enthusiast and a keen knob tweaker, it might actually be a fun tool. Go ahead and try the demo to find out yourself.

If you're a fan of early 90s house and old school jungle/hardcore, this is an absolute must have. I've spent a shit load of money on VSTs and sample libraries over the last two years, and the $50 I paid for the M1 are easily among the most well spent. I'm just having so much fun with it. I don't necessarily use it for final productions, but it's quickly become my go to synths for sketching ideas. Sure, the sounds are absolutely cheesy and overused, but I find them very inspirational. Everything sounds familiar and all you need is right there in one place. You've got you're cheesy string and synth pads, cheesy bass and lead synths, all kinds of other cheese, and, of course, the famous cheesy pianos. Just add some drums, mess around a bit, and you've got yourself a track.

I'm not a big synth nerd, so I can't really tell you much about how the M1 stands up to modern synth technology. But I openly admit that I only got the M1 for the presets and the nostalgic feel. And for that purpose it's just perfect. So I'm giving 10/10 for the fun factor, the ease of use, and the very affordable price.