Console Sound Modular Studio

I tried Console at the beginning of the year, following a link on the site of the CMX844 mixer. I was instantly impressed at it's versatility and focus.

At it's most basic level, it is a very easy to use modular Plugin host. It has no pretensions to fully competing with the likes of Buzz, SynthEdit or Psycle - it offers no onboard sampler or internal synth. It just loads and links VST/i's and DX/i's.

I like the simplicity of this! The GUI is simple - drag'n'drop the relevant plugs onto the work area and join the in's and out's as required, from an initial MIDI/Audio in unit, through your patch, to a final MIDI/Audio unit. The work area is clear and uncluttered, the plugs being displayed as fairly uniform boxes. The Plug-Editors can be brought up with a click as required, and either hidden again or 'minimized' Mac Style (just Title bar).

Functioning as a standalone app, a complex setup can be designed, then used as an instrument in itself, working well for live performance, both for MIDI and for Audio.

It also offers itself as any of VST, VSTi, DX or DXi plugins, which is a real gem. It means that in a rack in your normal host, you can hide a complex beast in just one slot! For instance, you can route all your MIDI to a single Console VSTi, then separate each channel within a Console Patch to run through a separate synth/fx chain, then mix them all together and supply a single stereo out. Chances are you wouldn't want to be that single minded, but the option is there!

I have found the program to be very stable, both as a stand alone and a plug, and that's running on a mid spec laptop with a nasty soundcard!

The big thing I would promote is the ergonomic simplicity..I couldn't go on about it enough - there is nothing hidden, and it does exactly what it says on the box. My rating shows a poor performance on presets.. this is due to it not having any! You are supplyed with a collection of mixers and a Stepsequencer plug, which are useful.

The only thing that seems lacking, really, is the documentation, which is a small collection of HTML files. To be honest, tho', I have not had to resort to them at all, since every thing works quite intuitively.

I realise that there is growing competition from the likes of Chainer and EnergyXT, and each has it's pro. For me Console is the better, for clarity, simplicity and overall design.

..blimey, rereading thah all seems like a lot of waffle!! All i can say is - at least try it. It is well worth the cash once the 30 day trial is up!Read Review