KVR Audio

RELISH · Post by **RELISH** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 11:49 pm

Hey guys, new poster here. Currently I'm a Reason user that's making the jump into the realm of vsts. I'm currently torn between purchasing Battery 3 and Stylus RMX... and was hoping you guys could provide some insight into which would be the better investment. Both seem to get amazing reviews (actually battery 3 doesnt have any reviews yet, i'm going by what has been said about v2). I dont really have a particular style that I produce in, although I lean towards electro-ish stuff if that matters. Thanks guys

Lusamars · Post by **Lusamars** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 11:55 pm

battery is an excelent drum sampler, with great kits, no loops. Stylus is a rompler based on drum loops, great sound quality. both have
fx.

Shane Sanders · Post by **Shane Sanders** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 11:58 pm

I own both and would say without hesitation that Battery 3 or any version of Battery would be the best thing to buy first because you get a lot more content in the samples (lots of which is electronic) and it'll force you to think/write drums rather than just react to canned beats (however wonderful they may be).

Stylus sounds great, but its main gig is to cut up a loop played by someone else. So if you need a kick and crash cymbal to be on the 3 of measure 4 while using one of the canned beats, well you're probably going to be out of luck unless you also want it to have residual hits from the hi-hat on that beat, too. And that's just the nature of loops, not a fault of Stylus at all. You get what is given to you and while interacting with what is essentially another player can be great, if you actually write your own material and want control over it, only a traditional sequencer and sampler will give you that.

I use Stylus as a jamming buddy when I don't have the energy to roll my own. So there's plenty of value in RMX, too. But not for a first purchase, imo.

afreshcupofjoe · Post by **afreshcupofjoe** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:04 am

Guru!

RELISH · Post by **RELISH** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:05 am

Thanks for the replies fellas. I have every intention of writing my own drum patterns, and didnt realize that Stylus revolved around using pre made loops (kinda akin to groove agent i'm assuming). However from what I gather, the sound quality of Stylus RMX is unsurpassed? In any case, looks like I'm gonna be purchasing Battery first... one other question though. I'm currently working on a 1.5 mhz G4 powerbook... I'm kinda assuming that Battery 3 is designed for the latest top of the line computers, do you guys think I'll benefit from maybe sticking to an older version of Battery (and perhaps save a few bucks in the process) or will it not really matter? thanks again

beej · Post by **beej** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:18 am

Shane Sanders wrote:Stylus sounds great, but its main gig is to cut up a loop played by someone else. So if you need a kick and crash cymbal to be on the 3 of measure 4 while using one of the canned beats, well you're probably going to be out of luck unless you also want it to have residual hits from the hi-hat on that beat, too.

Just had to jump in here:-

This is absolutely not true. Have you even seen the Sound menu sections? Thousands of single hits, arranged into sets of kicks, snares, hats, cymbals, claps and so on. These are proper single hit samples - it's a great resource. These are not kicks with bits of hihat, snares with no reverb tail etc like you might get from conventional sliced loops.

Plus you have Stylus' Kit Mode as well which you should check out, and the Groove Elements section is great for things like hihat loops to quickly get a feel without having to program them yourself.

There are so many ways to work with RMX. Yes, you can just groove along with some canned loops, but you can use it as a drum sample module, messing with your own bits of audio via Recycle, cutting up loops, using the loop raw material but programming your own patterns, and so on.

I very rarely just use canned loops, but RMX still has a tremendously useful library to me...

bermudagold · Post by **bermudagold** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 1:32 am

RMX kit mode and single hit mode is just as suited to original composition as battery as beej said and the sound is very high quality....cant compare battery sound quality cause haven't used it....problem is you cant import samples into rmx like battery so ur limited to their kits which are electronic and already wet with effects(but you can turn the fx off by the way)....if you want acoustic drum kits you have to buy their xpanders....if you want to use your own samples u have to record or find loops, buy recycle to "rex" them, and use rmx in slice mode.....if their someone elses loops you will have the hit overlaps and bleed overs in single slices that the other poster replied.....so it really comes down to how often you see yourself using ur own drum samples instead of provided kits and whether you're willing to pay extra for acoustic drums.....and as said already you should also check out guru

Shane Sanders · Post by **Shane Sanders** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 2:02 am

beej wrote:
Shane Sanders wrote:Stylus sounds great, but its main gig is to cut up a loop played by someone else. So if you need a kick and crash cymbal to be on the 3 of measure 4 while using one of the canned beats, well you're probably going to be out of luck unless you also want it to have residual hits from the hi-hat on that beat, too.
Just had to jump in here:-

This is absolutely not true. Have you even seen the Sound menu sections? Thousands of single hits, arranged into sets of kicks, snares, hats, cymbals, claps and so on. These are proper single hit samples - it's a great resource. These are not kicks with bits of hihat, snares with no reverb tail etc like you might get from conventional sliced loops.

Plus you have Stylus' Kit Mode as well which you should check out, and the Groove Elements section is great for things like hihat loops to quickly get a feel without having to program them yourself.

There are so many ways to work with RMX. Yes, you can just groove along with some canned loops, but you can use it as a drum sample module, messing with your own bits of audio via Recycle, cutting up loops, using the loop raw material but programming your own patterns, and so on.

I very rarely just use canned loops, but RMX still has a tremendously useful library to me...

I reckon words and qualifiers are important: "it's main gig is..." "...while using one of the canned loops...". Additionally, it won't do articulation things like Battery as far as I know. They'll be one shots and you'd have to have a messy bunch of them in your piano roll which gets really confusing really fast, imo.

RELISH · Post by **RELISH** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 2:05 am

well i've already gone ahead and purchased battery 3, been fiddling with it for a few minutes, and i think i'm in love already. that said, i'll probably get around to picking up stylus rmx eventually as well. what is this 'guru' you guys are talking about. care to provide me with a link?

Shane Sanders · Post by **Shane Sanders** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 2:12 am

beej wrote: Plus you have Stylus' Kit Mode as well which you should check out, and the Groove Elements section is great for things like hihat loops to quickly get a feel without having to program them yourself.

Great point on that one. Hats are hard to really get going sometimes.

susiwong · Post by **susiwong** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 2:53 am

Good luck with Battery, it's a great sampler with a very clever concept.
Even if it's a bit late, do yourself a favour and check out Jamstix (rayzoon.com).
It compliments Battery really well since the acoustic sounds are better in JS imho and it's no sampler but its main strength is creation of grooves in a very musical way.
JS can trigger any other drum module, also Battery.
There is a working demo, and it's great value for money. Get the addons too, if you're interested, they are very affordable.
And, if you buy JS you'll get JS 2 free when it comes out next year.
Cheers,
susiwong

Krakatau · Post by **Krakatau** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 2:55 am

RELISH wrote:well i've already gone ahead and purchased battery 3, been fiddling with it for a few minutes, and i think i'm in love already. that said, i'll probably get around to picking up stylus rmx eventually as well. what is this 'guru' you guys are talking about. care to provide me with a link?

http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?area=2

...i suggest you tough, to check out both GURU and BFD, (...BTW !!! )

RELISH · Post by **RELISH** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:53 pm

thanks a lot folks for all those suggestions. guru, jamstix and bfd all look like really great tools. only problem is i'm kinda broke right now and i'm trying to scrounge up cash for cubase 4 (which will probably hack and wheeze on my g4 powerbook).

spritex · Post by **spritex** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:59 pm

I chose Shortcircuit over Battery for drumsampler (and a general sampler).
You need to get the samples elsewhere, though.

FrankT · Post by **FrankT** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 3:15 am

susiwong wrote:Good luck with Battery, it's a great sampler with a very clever concept.
Even if it's a bit late, do yourself a favour and check out Jamstix (rayzoon.com).
It compliments Battery really well since the acoustic sounds are better in JS imho and it's no sampler but its main strength is creation of grooves in a very musical way.
JS can trigger any other drum module, also Battery.
There is a working demo, and it's great value for money. Get the addons too, if you're interested, they are very affordable.
And, if you buy JS you'll get JS 2 free when it comes out next year.
Cheers,
susiwong

Now that is an interesting one: While Battery3 has excellent kits and powerful onboard tweaking tools, it is definitely not suited for quick&easy jamming. So what's the vote between Battery3+Jamstix vs Stylus RMX ? Or are we comparing apples and pears ?

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Battery 3 or Stylus RMX?