Is ReFX Nexus2 worth getting?

[faun2500]

I tried nexus and liked a lot of the presets. But after awhile I wanted to edit things to get them sounding how I wanted but it is very limited in this respect.

After reading a lot of user feedback (and warnings) about how the company treats its customers I am glad I didn't buy it.


Camel audio alchemy suites me much better and I am going the analog hardware route now (moog, DSI, Korg) and am loving the sound.

[5Lives]

Interesting thread! I own a lot of synths, including Omnisphere, Zebra, and others that were mentioned on this thread. I also have a Blofeld and in the past, have owned a Virus TI, a Tetra, and a Slim Phatty. What I have learned about myself is that I am primarily a songwriter and composer - not a sound designer. Even with the synths I own, 90% of the time, I use a preset and tweak the basics of it (filter, envelope, effects, occasionally oscillators). In fact, I am using the synths almost like ROMplers. Nexus seems like essentially a preset machine with some limited tweaking capability (filter, envelope, effects) - and the presets sound absolutely fantastic. To a songwriter like me, that is great because when an idea comes, you want to get ideas down fast or you want a big inspiration bank to help spark ideas. I know a lot of people tend to frown upon using presets, but similar to loops, they do help the creative process immensely. And why not? Does it change the end product? Rihanna's Umbrella is based on a Garageband drum loop - and yet remains a fantastically written pop song.

I am about to try the Nexus demo - I think it's what I've been looking for.

I've been trying out Alchemy btw - to my ears, sounds worse than any other synth I've owned. Very thin and cold. Even the sound banks for it sound like that. Maybe it's just me.

[bbaggins]

If you already have Omnisphere and Zebra, I can't imagine why on earth you'd want Nexus. Compared to those, it's a one-trick pony.

Nexus is good for one thing: quickly generating generic, forgettable plain-vanilla throwaway EDM such as you might hear in the background for a nightclub scene on a low-budget TV show.

EDIT: When I read that previous paragraph back it seemed a bit harsh, so let me temper it by saying that there are a lot of additional libraries for Nexus that greatly expand its usefulness. However, it would cost you a couple grand to acquire them all and you still wouldn't have anywhere near the versatility of the killer combination of Omnisphere and Zebra.

[djanthonyw]

Omnisphere doesn't even include a regular piano...

The only thing I don't like about Nexus is the copy protection. I refuse to upgrade to version 2, but nexus is one of the only modern sounding plugin romplers available which includes great acoustic instruments that are comparable to hardware romplers.

[5Lives]

Exactly. I don't think Omnisphere is a replacement for Nexus (or vice versa) - nor are they trying to be. Nexus does have a lot of EDM-focused sounds, but also have stuff for pop, drums, orchestral, downtempo, ambient, hip hop, etc. Unless you are working in ALL of those genres, I don't see any need to say you need to buy all of the expansions. Just pick and choose which ones you want. I'd personally rather spend $65 on really excellent sounds that fulfill a specific need for my music rather than buying yet another synth or preset patch for Zebra that isn't as good.

Oh, and there's no reason you can't use Omnisphere / Zebra / etc. along side Nexus...

[nIGhT-SoN]

If you ask me I would rather go for Omnisphere. You can do your own sounds with it which makes it the best between them, at least for me.

[cyphersuit]

Totally different weapons, mate

[Trancit]

Nexus is a class of it's own for everybody, who's not interested in making presets from scratch, even if it is more editable than most postings here claim...

There is no other product on the market, which offers all of these edm genre specific (and of course much more) production ready sounds, which others , who don't own it, trying to reproduce for synths anyway...

One of it's biggest advantanges, which wasn't brought often on the table in threads like these:

It is an absolutely timesaver: Most of nowadays sounds in edm genres are very very complex and contain many layers which often much processing, especially the pads...
Many of these patches, if you recreate them with "normal" instruments are that much heavy on the CPU with higher polyphonie, that you have to bounce it/freeze it anyway... which disables a lot of flexibility, if changes are wanted/needed afterwards in production process...

Nexus way, working with sampled ready processed layers is much more flexibel and big respect for the sound designers of Nexus expansions... they all did a really good job...

About editing features: There are meanwhile many many user presets out there, commercial and free ones, which show very impressive, how different edited presets can sound with the editing features offered... in principle, the only thing in Nexus you cannot change individually are the soundsources in a patch... everything else is nearly editable like in most basic synths... coupled with the most perfect arpeggiator and trance gate I've ever seen in an instrument...

This thing is worth every penny and even much more and for everybody, interested in edm genre, the best purchase you could ever make compared to other products like Sylenth, Omnisphere and co...

Afaik there is no demo, but don't be frightened, you will not be disappointed and don't get scared by many others claiming about not wanting to be a preset user, trying everyday to come up with sounds out of other products, which sounds 90% similar to the ones you get with Nexus anyway right out of the box...

Why??? Because these types of sounds are essential for edm productions, which do not live from a genius composition, but from the kind of sounds used...

[zvenx]

Totally different weapons, mate

+100
rsp

[C-note]

Interesting thread! I own a lot of synths, including Omnisphere, Zebra, and others that were mentioned on this thread. I also have a Blofeld and in the past, have owned a Virus TI, a Tetra, and a Slim Phatty. What I have learned about myself is that I am primarily a songwriter and composer - not a sound designer. Even with the synths I own, 90% of the time, I use a preset and tweak the basics of it (filter, envelope, effects, occasionally oscillators). In fact, I am using the synths almost like ROMplers. Nexus seems like essentially a preset machine with some limited tweaking capability (filter, envelope, effects) - and the presets sound absolutely fantastic. To a songwriter like me, that is great because when an idea comes, you want to get ideas down fast or you want a big inspiration bank to help spark ideas. I know a lot of people tend to frown upon using presets, but similar to loops, they do help the creative process immensely. And why not? Does it change the end product? Rihanna's Umbrella is based on a Garageband drum loop - and yet remains a fantastically written pop song.

I am about to try the Nexus demo - I think it's what I've been looking for.

I've been trying out Alchemy btw - to my ears, sounds worse than any other synth I've owned. Very thin and cold. Even the sound banks for it sound like that. Maybe it's just me.

I really enjoy Nexus and feel it gives me a ready made palet of sounds to use in any song. I also use Omnisphere, Alchemy, Zebra UVI and many others including Sylenth, Lush 101, Dune, Tone2, Xils and the V3 Collection synths. Buy what you can afford that gives you inspiration. The argument that some synth is a "Rompler" and therefor a one trick pony is nonsense imo. By virtue of the fact that Nexus for example has thousands of sounds available means variety and most likely in the case of a songwriter - saved time and effort. Any plugin that helps me get my song ideas down in a creative and timely manner is worth the price I pay.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[cryophonik]

Nexus is good for one thing: quickly generating generic, forgettable plain-vanilla throwaway EDM such as you might hear in the background for a nightclub scene on a low-budget TV show.

I hear far more bland forgettable throwaway EDM and other styles of music from non-Nexus users and even from Nexus haters than I do from Nexus users. The tool doesn't make a song forgettable trash, the composer does.

[5Lives]

+1 to a lot of the recent posts above.

Also, Nexus DOES have a demo if you happen to have an eLicenser Key handy. It is a short demo period, but if you try it on a free weekend, you should get an idea of what it can do for you.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[bbaggins]

Omnisphere doesn't even include a regular piano...

Nexus has a piano?