KVR Audio

Bodhisan · Post by **Bodhisan** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:35 am

In the past couple of months, I've gotten a few fairly high-profiled and respected synths - including Spectral and MorphoX, which I have been using a lot and keep finding very intriguing sounds - especially tweaking the presets, which I think LP does a great job of not overdoing. I mean, while I also put Zebra2 - as many do - at the top along with Linplug, the infinite amount of presets are so incestuous that you're faced with 40 degrees of each sound (and I'm including all the free user banks), and it becomes quite boring.

Anyway, as much as I enjoy creating sounds - and tweaking them, I recently bought the Christmas-priced CrX4, and at first thought "I needed that like another hole in the head." But then I started to get what it can do, and while I've only scratched the surface, as a hobbiest composer, it defines "sky is the limit" more than anything I've been learning and working with. It's astounding. Of course I read the reviews before I plunked down my $65.99, and while the reviews were glowing, there was one point I disagree with. While a positive review, one person thought the sound was not geared towards a deeper sound, but more the cutting through sound. I'm here to tell you that its rich bass sounds are as rich as I've heard in any plugin - just FYI if you read that.

For me - and this is truly personal opinion, I know, CrX4 is the sleeper killer plugin that has fallen between the cracks. I mean, crikey, there really are no decent youtubes that show what the heck this synth can do - but that's kind of Linplug's weak link...incredible products (Octopus - lord, have mercy) but modest marketing.

Beware: while initially you'll be impressed with the plug-and-play aspect and unusually large (for Linplug) library of sounds, it takes playing around with the generators and loading the supplied wav samples or your own and fooling around with them to see the "sky's the limit." Plus, I love the added ease of their gator effect, which is here, as well.

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 3:04 am

Thanks very much for that. Does CrX4 have similar CPU demand as Octopus?

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 3:14 am

I won Spectral, MorphoX and CRX4n in the auction they just ran. I'm currently putting together a library for Spectral but will be getting into the other 2 in 2016. I agree. CRX4 has definitely fallen into the cracks. But then again, you really don't hear a ton about Spectral either. While CRX4 only has about 250 results in YouTube, Spectral only has a little over 700. MorphoX comes in around 225.

Now that I can do videos, I might create a CRX4 tutorial next year.

Linplug makes great stuff, IMO.

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:22 am

Morphox is a nice piece of kit.

Markku · Post by **Markku** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 9:59 am

Warning: I'm not expert in this stuff, so don't take this too seriously:

They said that part of Serum's exceptional sound comes from "controlled" aliasing in high frequencies. In other places I saw a text which said CRX4 can actually add aliasing (if user so wishes). Does that mean there is possibility to make "Serum-like" sounds with CRX4?

Anyway, what I do like is much nicer CPU usage in CRX4 than in Serum.

Bodhisan · Post by **Bodhisan** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 11:39 am

Markku - I don't use Serum, so I can't comment on the cpu/sound comparison, but I've never had an issue with Octopus's cpu, so...

Get the demo and see what you think! It does take a bit of time to download due to the supplied wav samples.

Markku · Post by **Markku** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 1:20 pm

I actually have CRX4. I don't have Serum, because in this machine it takes way too much CPU (at least Serum demo did).

I like CRX4 sound, but I'm not good enough in sound design to use advanced features like applying aliasing in oscillator in somewhat purposeful manner...

But CRX4 itself is not too heavy (CPU-wise).

I'm just interested, if CRX4 can generate Serum-like exceptional sounds. Someone much more capable might know...

AndreasH · Post by **AndreasH** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:08 pm

Love CRX4, too. It's full of inspiring sounds but i'm missing one feature: drag&drop audio files into crx4.

tremolounge · Post by **tremolounge** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:50 pm

Anyone know if CrX4 loads patches from Cronox 3/Sophistry? (I never upgraded.)

Lejurai · Post by **Lejurai** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 5:24 pm

Crx4 is great. Though I'm a bit cautious about buying their software anymore after they made their "plugin retire" -move

I just bought RElectro and couple of weeks later it goes "retired" without any future support. It sucks. Just makes me wait when rest of their software goes to retirement..

Bodhisan · Post by **Bodhisan** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:41 pm

That's probably why I'll never upgrade from Pro Tools 10. Everything works just fine the way it is; I don't need any future support for any of my functioning plugins. They could all retire and I'd be sittin' pretty.

TrekStar · Post by **TrekStar** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 9:06 pm

I'm soo tempeted I tell u. I'm keeping an eye on crx4 for a long time already. and it's current on sale for 99-30% bucks. trying to control my GAS...

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 9:27 pm

tremolounge wrote:Anyone know if CrX4 loads patches from Cronox 3/Sophistry? (I never upgraded.)

Mostly - although it would be good if it could support more than one level of data.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sun Jun 19, 2016 7:29 pm

Have the price of MorphoX and CrX4 been permanently reevaluated?

KVR database list MorphoX at $129 and CrX4 at $149, while Linplug website sell both at $99

AndreasH · Post by **AndreasH** » Sun Jun 19, 2016 7:56 pm

@Numanoid
Yes, they did it with their website relaunch.

Why do I love Linplug's CrX4?