Ensembler

Here's my first review for KVR and I can't believe that it's the first review of Ensembler.

Let me just say that I love the sound of this synth. I just got back into computer music recently and I spent the first several weeks looking for a big, flexible synthy string sound out of a VSTi. I wanted somthing huge and lush. I couldn't find the sound that I was looking for with anything I tried, even after adding tons of chorus and hall reverbs or other effects. I liked the sound of Cheese Machine, Stringer, Crazy Diamonds, etc., but I was looking for something new and unique, not just an emulation. Then I found Ensembler, simply great at big, lush, unique sounding strings.

INTERFACE: The interface isn't beautiful, but it works and there are two versions of the GUI if one of them isn't comfortable for you. I found them both easy enough. I think the synth should automatically load its presents, but it doesn't for me. Everytime I load it into a host, I have to go through the process of finding and loading a bank (or program it from scratch).

SOUND: Beautiful. Spacey. Amazing bell type sounds. The best fingernails-on-chalkboard horror string sounds from any synth I've heard. If you do any type of soundtrack work, download this synth. All the sounds are amazingly organic, too. And even though it's really built for pads, I've heard some huge basses and cool leads.

FEATURES: This is more than a string synth. It comes with several types of oscillators. Once again, I love the bell-like tones this thing can make. It also has great sounding vocal type tones. And it even has an arp and a ton of built in effects.

DOCUMENTATION: It's actually documented with a PDF that explains the basic features.

PRESETS: Ensember currently ships with several excellent banks that were made during a competition, including presets by TC and many others. There are some banks dedicated to soundtrack type work, especially horror soundtracks.

SUPPORT: I haven't had any contact, but the guy at ConcreteFX is known to be pretty good to work with.

VALUE: Huge value and it's free.

STABILITY: It's not too stable on XT or Aodix, my two main platforms, but I still love it. If I play with a lot of presets or program it for a long time, I often need to reboot. If it didn't sound so awesome, I might not put up with it.