Optik

It's a nice little VST, you can get some really good sounds out of it, especially if you need a punchy or really fat kick sound, you can make it with this little thing. I use it mainly for hip-hop, techno, powernoize, and layering with other samples, but it can be used for other styles too.


The Gui's pretty good, like in the review below mine, the sliders could be larger, but they're good enough. The interface isn't cluttered or anything. I kinda like that it's small, doesn't clutter the screen unlike other VSTs.


Overall, great VST that's worth a try. Plus it's a great value for the money (money? It's free!), it would be more awesome if maybe more presets were available, but either way, I'm very glad that I found Optik.Read Review

Summary: Optik is an amazing, focused drum synth. For percussive, noisy sounds out of the box, it can't be beat.

The user interface is your typical PM-style one. It has more advanced controls for each sound easily available by clicking the little box near the sound's title, the controls are clear and focused (though bigger sliders would sometimes be nice), and the look is polished.

As I said above, getting normal noise sounds, filtered noise sounds, metallic noise sounds, etc. are very easy to get out of Optik. I use Battery and DR-Fusion for a bunch of other things, but for your stock white/pink/brown/metallic based sounds, Optik delivers without much fuss. The controls for filters, noise type, filter width and such are readily available and there are no "do nothing" controls.

Never needed any docs so I haven't looked.

It comes with 16 kits, all of which are quite good at giving you a starting point for creating your own.

Never had to use support, so I can't really say anything about that.

Value for money is excellent (it's free!).

Rock solid in the stability department; never once had a crash or even an unwanted blip.

The only thing I wish PM would do is develop a "Pro" version of Optik. Take the noise/percussive focus and create a synth with more features (envelope drawing capabilities, more filters, a sophisticated modulation system, more noisy waveforms, the ability to create your own custom kits with more than the default number of slots, etc.) and load it up with a ton of presets and you've got yourself a great $99 dollar noise/drum synth.Read Review

i love optik. it's gui is awesome, as are others designed by pm. author responds to e-mails. similiar sound to drumatic, but simpler interface and more inspiring.

can get some great 808-type sounds, with hi-hats being really flexible, a great plus over just using straight 808 samples.

i'm giving a 9 instead of 10 for sound because the metal setting could have better use/different sounds. at best, you can get a chime sound out of it. at its harshest, prob good for industrial. i'd like to see the metal setting offer something unique...thanks jack!

guess i have to write more...i also use 'tron and really like that as well...filter/delay unit.

in short, optik is my "go-to" when creating tekno beats in my midi sequencer. i just love the snare/bass and 'hats are especially good.

the author has created a secondary parameters section for the drums which opens up tone/filter/release/click section. this allows you to fine tune your sound.

if you like "simple" but effective, this is your ticket. it's not loaded with complexities but rather streamlined to deliver the goods.Read Review