Rigid Audio

To say Rigid Audio's Sodium is an exercise in sheer frustration is the understatement of the year. The pluses are it clocks in at a mere 250MB, and this is a Kontakt library! A lot of the sounds aren't bad, either. The problem is the sequencer. It's like pulling teeth. You can't just sequence all 32 steps and have them play like that. Nope. You've gotta press 'A' then 'B' to accomplish that, and then it STILL doesn't play all 32 steps back to back or in a loop. Also, you can't just import a difference drum sound in a slot. You have to use whatever the kits give you. This means you can't audition each individual sound. You have to take the kit as is, no variation possible whatsoever. Lame! Audiomodern's Playbeat is what Sodium needs to aspire towards as that can import wave files. Both machines do allow you to flam and pan each drum step in their respective lanes with Sodium giving you more options like multi-effects and reverb. And Sodium's odd drum trigger layout on your keyboard leaves much to be desired. Still, that's where it does have Playbeat beat. With Playbeat, you can't press a key to trigger the sequence. I use a virtual input in Cubase with my Presonus interface to accomplish that. It's a little convoluted and time consuming, but it is what it is. No VSTI's perfect.

Bought this on an offer with RIgid Audio, have to say am very impressed, their best Kontakt instrument yet and they've got some great ones, I think what makes this is the modulation possibilities and the sheer variety of morphing electronic sounds, definitely great if you like making music of a slightly stranger bent, also has an electronic folk feel to the sounds too..

Nice percussion tool, easy UI and good sounds and at the present offer price ($6) its a no-brainer to purchase. I would have given it 5 stars but as there is no manual/documentation some of its usability is hidden and even after playing around with it I am unsure what some of the keys and clickable icons do. Come on Rigid Audio gives us some documentation.

This is probably the best from RA so far. Had a free upgrade to v1.1. And there will not be enough days to get through all the sounds.

Really going to be used a lot as so many useful sounds. One small blip is the dark lettering that is hard to read on the buttons until lit. Maybe make these lighter.

At the current price. Its a no-brainer.