Harvest

It is a great tool, no doubt. But for now I still prefer other tools because the GUI is to small in my configuration. Please, make it resizeable to get the fifth star! :-).

INTRO
Harvest is a MIDI plugin sequence generator that can produce note melodies, chords, and rhythmic patterns.

CHEATING?
Let's get right down to it with a pre-emptive strike against the opposition. Is using Harvest cheating? I'll answer a question with questions.

• Is using a word processor instead of a typewriter cheating?
• Is using a nail gun instead of a hammer and nails cheating?
• Is opening up a dictionary or thesaurus cheating?

Harvest doesn't complete a composition and market it. It's a tool, devised to "Unlimit your MIDI." Does it succeed? In my case, YES! Harvest has quickly become one of my favorite tools. The learning curve is shallow. In no time, I was up and running, navigating about and creating. In a word — INSPIRING!!! I particularly find it useful for developing unique melodic leads and basses. It's also great at tweaking melodies and blasting through songwriter's block via randomizing. Here's where I plagiarized my workflow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thEsZGnA7No.

WORKFLOW
• Open a couple MIDI tracks, one for Harvest and the other for an instrument that Harvest controls.
• Select number of bars, note length, and quantization
• Input notes or select from a list of preset keys (scales/mode) and chords
• Use metronome to tap-out notes (all notes will be in key as per key selection)
• Lock-in desired notes and ReGen/randomize the rest. .. almost like playing poker. .. keep the good cards and ask for a few new ones. Only with Harvest you can keep asking for replacement notes until you nail it!
• Press record to print onto instrument track.
• Edit and shape as/if needed.
• Add more layers if desired.
• Add FX to taste.

FAVORITE Features
• Neat, clean, inviting interface
• Easy to use; fun to use; fast; musical
• Demolishes songwriter's block
• Subtly teaches music theory
• Interactive Piano Roll
• Humanize for some swag and swing
• Stable
• Updated frequently
• Responsive developer with good customer support
• Excellent video tutorials
• Good price.

FEATURE REQUESTS
• Stand-alone version
• Increase number of bars to 32
• Drag-n-drop
• Note locking issue identified by KVR Audio Member, Saffran: "Only two options to lock notes, click one note at a time or all notes. If you have 30 notes and want to lock 2/3, that's 20 clicks. Why can't any of them turn into lasso selecting when ctrl-clicked?"
• Streamline CPU consumption.

SUMMARY
Harvest has quickly become an indispensable tool in my virtual toolbox. No regrets whatsoever. It's extremely musical. If you're a songwriter of any genre, check this out. There's a free version, Harvest Mini. If you dig that, step up to big bro. unique workflow for writing music. Thanks, Harvest Plugins, for developing this amazing audio composition software.

I have really thoroughly been enjoying harvest. It's learning curve is like 0 to 60 and no time flat. Although I look forward to Future updates with maybe options to select and drag whole groups of notes or maybe you can do that and I just haven't figured it out. Either way I've been having a blast using it on ultimately leads and bass lines. Also it's great for re mixing MIDI files.

See The Revision to this review Below:

The only reason I am giving Harvest only two stars is because it only works with Abelton Live and FL. It would not be a problem, but the restriction appears in a small area so that I did not see this when I purchased it. Therefore, I can't use it since I use Sonar and Studio One as my DAWs. Many times when there are restrictions like this, it is made much more apparent.

I did install it and check it out, but it does not output to my synths in Sonar ... very disappointing. However it does look like a nice product. Just a warning read the specs carefully.

THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN REVISED ....

I have changed my rating to 5 stars for the following reasons:

1) From the review, I was contacted by one of the developers who understood the problem I ran into with not noticing the restrictions. It was great to have such a quick response. As they specify on their site, I could get a full refund, but I choose not to. I was told they were releasing an update shortly that would expand the support for other DAWs and that was enough for me. Also, it is great to have such a personal response and courteous exchange.

2) Sure enough today, there is a free update that has support for Studio One. I was happy to test it out. I had some confusion about how to get it to work with Studio One, but in about 15 minutes I figured it out. Watch the videos Harvest has produced. By watching I could easily understand how this works.

I'm very happy with this VST. I have other similar plugins, but just as in the case of Harvest they are all different and unique. The price really can't be beat.

I tried it with Sonar. It seemed to work, but I managed to crash Sonar. After my learning experience with Studio One, I went back to Sonar and got it to work with Sonar also.

The only minor problem I had was after stopping a generation I noted that the receiving VST (in my case Omnisphere) did not get a "note off" MIDI message. However, I just cut it off manually so not a biggie.

Great job and great customer support.