AudioRealism

ABL3 is very good and fun to use. There does seem to be an improvement to the sound with their Feb 2022 update. The ability to simply use the piano roll is really nice. Though for some of my projects I do opt for using the onboard sequencer and then muting and unmuting parts. Onboard distortion and clipping is very convincing. I still feel like outboard distortion offers much more realism.

I'm happy to have ABL3 if I want to meander around some acid techno or other 303 heavy genres.

*Disclaimer: I'm a songwriter, producer, and educator. My writing style may read like a billboard ad, but my user review is sincere and authentic. I only appraise a product I consider extraordinary, hence the high rating. I don't work for the developer. In fact, I rarely work at all. :-) I hope you find my review useful. — Tommy Zai.

INTRO

ReDominator by AudioRealism is a super fat sounding virtual synth, which is modeled after the classic Alpha Juno 1/2 (JU-1/2). I actually had the JU-1/2 in the late 80s, and I can say without hesitation that this fine emulation brings me back and still inspires me. Actually, I remember foolishly selling my hardware model, opting for the newfangled digital offerings of the day. ReDominator has eased the pain of letting that synth go.

ReDominator delivers the unmistakable Hoover Sound* that was made famous by early Roland and Korg synths. However, it was the top 10 hit track "Dominator" by Dutch techno pioneers Human Resource that resurrected the sound. "I'm bigger and bolder and rougher and tougher, in other words sucker there is no other — I'm the one and only dominator. Wanna kiss myself!" It's no wonder this synth is called REDOMINATOR! And, what is the default patch called? LOL I have created tracks for the 90s techno-rave scene featuring this sound, and I have also used that vacuum tone on countless other tracks. This synth will deliver Mr. Hoover to you and much, much more — I quickly discovered a full-featured and powerful polyphonic synth that is capable of sweet basses, leads, pads, and all kinds of sweeping atmospheric soundscapes.

*There are several thick swirling carpet cleaning presets, and it's not difficult to create your own:

1. Choose the sawtooth waveform.

2. Evenly space oscillators by an octave.

3. Apply PWM.

4. Crank up the chorus effect.

FAVORITE FEATURES

• Vintage Interface.

• Fun to program.

• More fun to play.

• Love the sliders and knobs — tight and responsive.

• 200+ patches. .. a few duds, but countless good ones.

• Complex envelope generator.

• Sawtooth variations.

• Low aliasing waveforms.

• Moderate CPU hit.

• Innovative, responsive developers (responded to my inquiry within an hour)

OTHER THOUGHTS

• What will AudioRealism bring back to life next? Psss, I miss the pads on my Juno-106 and the lushness of my Oberheim synths and rackmounts.

• AudioRealism satisfies our audio obsessions, i.e., the wet, filter TB-303 bass, TR drum machines, and now the Hoover Sound a la Alpha Juno.

SUMMARY

ReDominator looks analog, sounds analog, and with the right controller — feels analog – a very specific, wonderful classic analog synth, which can deliver a wide range of sonic timbres from thin bite to fat punch to swirl. I'm not saying this is the last synth you'll ever need or that it's the ultimate "go to" instrument. There are more appropriate Swiss army knife soft synths out there. However, what I am saying is this — for the price, ReDominator is unbeatable for what it is and how it sounds! I highly recommend this synth to any eMusician, producer, film/video scorer, DJ, sound designer, and any other kind of audio tracker, who is looking for "that sound" and a whole lot more. Tommy Zai gives ReDominator two big, fat thumbs up. Thank you, AudioRealism, for resurrecting a classic synth that never should have died! Viva la ReDominator.

I'm giving this synth 10 out of 10. I'm doing this because it's perfect for the purpose it was created, and beyond! I try to rate synths in relation to the average review at KVR, for the sake of fairness. I also only tend to review synths I really like. I wish we could rate out of 15 or 20 because the standard of softsynths in general has sky-rocketed in recent times. I'd give this 19 out of 20.

ABL pro is advertised as a "303 on steroids" and is the stuff of dreams if you're looking for classic Roland-style monosynth sequences and mutant acid lines. Two oscillators with all of the analog waveshapes and an LFO which can go audio-rate and be patched in as a 3rd oscillator feed a lowpass filter that can squelch and scream. The main filter design is more in the vein of the MC-202 than the 303 (and really is a dead ringer! No pun intended ;), but a "legacy" filter is provided with a 18db/oct slope which squelches instead of self-resonating.

If you've wanted to make authentic acid-lines with PWM and sync or stacked oscillators, this is your ticket. The synth engine, combined with the built-in sequencer, just has that certain magic to it which gets my head nodding and my face grinning. Like the straight-up 303 emulation ABL 2, the sequencer speaks Acidese fluently, and is as vital a part of the sound as the actual filters and oscillators! Alternatively, you can switch off both the sequencer AND the mono mode, and use ABL Pro just like any other softsynth, though having a fairly modern computer might be a good idea if you want to really exploit that.

Really, it always comes back to the sound. It's evocative of the past, yet expands into new territory. Features such as a waveshaper (which brings in varying amounts of wave folding), filter and oscillator FM, ring modulation, control signal patching and the audio rate LFO and lizard-tongue quick envelopes make this my go-to synth for tricked out acid.

I don't much care for the 303-style sequencer programming, and would welcome with open arms a graphical editor or piano roll interface, but this is made up for by providing extensive controllable randomization which seriously always inspires me after a bit of clicking around. Again this takes the oldschool acid technique of having the 303's batteries die and the pattern memory being filled with random, chromatic weirdness, and pulls it squelching and pulsating into the modern DAW. The ability to choose the density of notes, ties, and accents, choose to leave certain aspects of the pattern alone, automatically create relevent variations, and lock the randomization to different scales and modes really makes this a winner in my opinion.

In the oscillator department, much care seems to have gone into getting that characteristic Roland sound, especially the squarewave with it's complex spectrum and meaty bass. There are no perfect digital waveshapes here, and the result is something organic that changes timbre with pitch like the original hardware did.

All in all, an oldschool techno masterpiece with mileage way into the future. The bottom line for me is that this is a synth which has provided the spark of inspiration which ended up with entire tracks built around it. You can't ask for more than that!

I use the AudioRealism Drum Machine many months. This is the best Roland Drum Machine Clone. It is simple to programming for a great Drum-Sounds. So if you need a TR909,TR808 or TR606 in your music productions, the VST is a very good investment! The Price a small!

You can use every knobs Events very easily in host (FL-Studio,Cubase....). Programming the Pattern are very simple. You can import old ReBirth RB-338 and 909 Sysex. The Sound and effects are very hard and great! You can use own Wave-Sampler in this Drum Machine! The PCF (Pattern Controlled FX) can
be used to automate any of the drum machines parameters! Very great!

The Documentation are ok. Customer Support was great. You can use the Basic Presets-Bank - was ok! The Best for ACID-Sound and House Combination are AudioRealism BassLine2 and ADM.

If you use AudioRealism Drum Machine and search nice free Pattern and Midi-Files- are you mus visit my private website: www.happytb303.com
You can found many free Pattern for TB-303,TR-909 and TR-808!

This is now my favourite synth, it sound absolutely fabulous, the filter is first class, and thanks to his three oscillators (in fact you can choose to use the LFO as a 3rd oscillator) you can make a perfect Minimoog impersonation, somewhere between the Arturia minimoog V and the Gmedia Minimonsta....and i own both
A lot of people think this thing is a 303 emulation on steroids, but imho it's a lot more!!
I use it for everything, basses of course but also Drums!!It can make huge 909 like kick drum thanks to his very very snappy envelop...
The integrated sequencer is a welcome bonus for those classic "comp sequences" from the 70's and 80's and of course for those classic Acid Line and with a little tweaking it can act as a really cool arpeggiator.
The cpu usage is very low (on my macbook pro) when used as monophonic synth, but it can go very high, when switched to polyphonic mode, so be careful..
I also own the "classic" Audiorealism Bassline which i also love.
The customer support is top notch, Mike Janney is really quick to anwer..

The two products are completely cross platform, including mac OSX universal binaries which for me is an huge plus...
ps: sorry for my English..