reFX Nexus by reFX is a Virtual Instrument Audio Plugin for macOS and Windows. It functions as a VST Plugin, an Audio Units Plugin, a VST 3 Plugin and an AAX Plugin.
| Product | Nexus |
| Developer | reFX |
| Price (MSRP) | €250 |
| Type / Tags | Synth (Hybrid)Synth (Sample Based) |
Plug-in, App & Soundware Format(s)
| Instrument(s) |
Operating System Availability
| Operating System |
Latest Version |
Download | Released |
| 3.0.18 |
- |  |
|
| 3.0.18 |
- | |
Miscellaneous Information
| Copy Protection | Online Activation (Challenge / Response) |
Max. 6 items
Latest Version Changes [view all]Nexus is a next generation ROM synthesizer. Nexus delivers complex, ultra-fat, contemporary soundstorms. A powerful and flexible architecture is the foundation that supports the immediately useful and spontaneously engaging design of the instrument. Every aspect of Nexus was built to produce music of the highest quality, quickly, with the least amount of fuss.
New in Nexus 3
New Librarian:
- Completely new librarian. It's large so it can fit all the content available for NEXUS3.
- It features three columns for easy navigation, and displays counters for folders, categories, and presets.
- Color-coded tags, bookmarks, favorites, and a dedicated location for user presets.
- Easily find what you're looking for with instant sound preview, search-while-you-type, filter by category and tags, and so much more.
New Arpeggiator:
- Time for an arpeggiator overhaul.
- Access all sixteen layer arpeggiators, in addition to the main arpeggiator.
- Extend the pattern length up to 256 steps and play the most complex patterns you can come up with.
- Throw in improvements for more comfortable editing and experimentation, and the result is the best Arpeggiator you can find on the market.
Effects:
- Fully revamped effects page. Now with visualization of the signal-flow to give you real-time feedback.
- You see what you hear and you hear what you see.
- Four insert effects, four equalizers, filter, reverb, delay, impulse, and limiter. Color-coded for navigating incredibly fast.
- All on one page. No clicking back and forth countless times to get to the desired result.
New Sequencer:
- NEXUS3 features a brand-new sequencer mode. It's easy. It's intuitive. Give it a try.
- Nothing stands between you and those chords you've always wanted to put down.
- Create the most complex patterns with multiple notes per step and set the velocity individually. Zoom in on the x-axis or the y-axis to make fine adjustments or zoom out to have an overview of the full pattern.
New Vector-Based GUI:
- Sharp and crisp. Always. Resize to what is convenient for you.
- No matter the resolution of your screen, NEXUS3 always looks good.
New Macros, More Modulation:
- Four quick-access macro controls and a total of 20 modulation slots.
- Convenient and easy to use.
New Cloud-Sync Feature:
- Automatically store your favorites, bookmarks, user presets, and settings in the cloud.
- Getting back your content when installing NEXUS3 on a new computer has never been easier.
Fast, Easy on the Resources:
- NEXUS has never been faster and better.
- Preset loading times and CPU performance have been vastly improved.
Compatible with NEXUS2:
- NEXUS3 is compatible with your existing NEXUS2 library. Load your old beats into your DAW and load the sounds you've had before.
- Upgrading has never been smoother.
More Sounds:
- NEXUS3 expands the factory content by more than 350 new, high-quality, hand-crafted presets.
- Because one can never have too many sounds.
Online Activation:
- Yes, we've heard you. No more dongles or other third-party tools required.
- Activate NEXUS3 online - it'll only take a few seconds and you're good to go.
reFX Cloud App:
- Installing NEXUS3 and expansions is now easier than ever before.
- Click the icon of the product you'd like to install. Done.
Summary of content:
- Electronic documentation (online).
- 2,799 sound-presets divided into 22 categories.
- 2,238 multi-samples (~18 GB uncompressed).
- 211 impulse responses.
- 119 arpeggiator-presets.
- 95 effect-presets.
- 52 trancegate-presets.
Reviewed By Innocent30102
August 30, 2018
I really love this, it is so helpful in music production. The developer must keep up the good work.
Read ReviewGOOD SAMPLE BASED SYNTH
This is a bit like Omnisphere in that it uses sample librarys and manipulates the sounds with effects, it has some great sounds but as they are sample based you cant really tweak them much, other than basics like reverb, delay and gate etc - you cant get right into the 'core' of the sound and change it liek you can on proper synths that create the sounds themselves.
it has a nice thick sound and most of its presets are great.
the user interface is nice and comes in white or black, its CPU usage is minimal but higher than average for sample based playback.
this synth can be bought as a hardware synth too.Read Review
This is a bit like Omnisphere in that it uses sample librarys and manipulates the sounds with effects, it has some great sounds but as they are sample based you cant really tweak them much, other than basics like reverb, delay and gate etc - you cant get right into the 'core' of the sound and change it liek you can on proper synths that create the sounds themselves.
it has a nice thick sound and most of its presets are great.
the user interface is nice and comes in white or black, its CPU usage is minimal but higher than average for sample based playback.
this synth can be bought as a hardware synth too.Read Review
Reviewed By cyphersuit
March 3, 2010
Review Nexus 2.02
Sample player with tweakable sounds and a high quality effect library. Very low cpu use whilst sounding amazing.
User Interface
PRO: Crisp and clean and quite easy to use.
PRO: ARP and Trancegate have a really nice and easy to use GUI
PRO: Comes with different skins.
CON: You have to pay for extra skins which is kind of a let down.
Sound
PRO: Sound quality is really nice, often due to the use of Arts Accoustic Reverb (which is great), delay and other effects. Obviously they can be turned of - Nexus still sounds good then.
PRO: Loads of different sounding expansions available
CON: The standard presets are definitely focused around trance/dance mostly.
Features
PRO: Comes with intuitive-to-use arp, trancegate, effects, mod-matrix. Sounds are much more tweakable than in Nexus1.
PRO: Layers of sounds and sequences can be turned on/off individually.
PRO: Arts accoustic reverb on board, plus loads of other effects of a very high standard
Documentation
PRO: Manual is great and easy to read. Has many Pro-Tips.
CON: No vid tutorials I know of
Customer Support
PRO: Has been brill so far for me.
Value For Money
PRO: Often said to be to expensive all I can say is, that I would buy it again and be happy again. I also like how I get new soundsets on a regular basis on a planned schedule.
Stability
Didn't crash one on me while loads of other vsts did.Read Review
Sample player with tweakable sounds and a high quality effect library. Very low cpu use whilst sounding amazing.
User Interface
PRO: Crisp and clean and quite easy to use.
PRO: ARP and Trancegate have a really nice and easy to use GUI
PRO: Comes with different skins.
CON: You have to pay for extra skins which is kind of a let down.
Sound
PRO: Sound quality is really nice, often due to the use of Arts Accoustic Reverb (which is great), delay and other effects. Obviously they can be turned of - Nexus still sounds good then.
PRO: Loads of different sounding expansions available
CON: The standard presets are definitely focused around trance/dance mostly.
Features
PRO: Comes with intuitive-to-use arp, trancegate, effects, mod-matrix. Sounds are much more tweakable than in Nexus1.
PRO: Layers of sounds and sequences can be turned on/off individually.
PRO: Arts accoustic reverb on board, plus loads of other effects of a very high standard
Documentation
PRO: Manual is great and easy to read. Has many Pro-Tips.
CON: No vid tutorials I know of
Customer Support
PRO: Has been brill so far for me.
Value For Money
PRO: Often said to be to expensive all I can say is, that I would buy it again and be happy again. I also like how I get new soundsets on a regular basis on a planned schedule.
Stability
Didn't crash one on me while loads of other vsts did.Read Review
Review Nexus 2 version 2.0.1
User Interface:
Im going to say right from the off that Refx Nexus has revolutionised the way i work with music.The user interface is very pleasing to the eye due to the various skins that can be purchased,although when you purchase Nexus 2 you get 4 free skins and the Dance Volume 2 expansion which is great.Navigation within Nexus 2 is made easy with a single mouse click to access the various features within.There is nothing to confuse the user as within a couple of hours of using Nexus 2 you'll soon be very familiar with the instrument.
Sound:
The sound of Nexus 2 is non other than brilliant,the quality rivals many top hardware synths without a shadow of a doubt and possibly sounds better than most.
Added in version 2 are the excellent e.q facility which are:
new EQ types: lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandpass2, notch, peak, lowShelf, highShelf,Q factor for each band
free frequency (20-18000hz) for each band
separate gain (-/+24db) for each band
on/off switch for each band
these features alone make Nexus 2 a winner.
Features:
Nexus 2 comes with a ton of new features and i in particular love the way i can mute different layers within any given multi-sample preset,you can transpose and detune any given oscillator which then brings endless possibilitie's to new sounds being created.You can also create an empty bank and save and rename those edited presets to your own banks.The arpeggiator is totally user programmable and there is a great arpeggio library included.my favourite feature is the shuffle feature within the arp page as i regurarly use the 66% shuffle option which adds great value to the way i work.
Nexus 2 now has 2 MultiFx and the new Phaser has 16 stages and sounds truly amazing..i could go on but you have to try Nexus 2 to really find out what it can do.
Documentation:
Documentation is well explained.(Enough said)
Presets:
I myself own about 10 of the available 20 expansions and plan to purchase the Dance Volume 3 expansion in the week however again all expansions are of the best quality and developed by the best sound designers around and all credit is due to Refx for the sheer quality of sounds provided.
Everything is there from Electro to trance and from the down right gritty industrial to the chilled out spacey stratosphere expansion.There is something for everyone here and scope to then edit and re arrange those sounds into something totally different.
Customer Support:
The Refx customer support is one of the great things about owning Nexus as they are on hand every day on the forums answering user problems and you can also submit tickets for any other support.
I like the fact that the people who designed not only Nexus but even the sound designers are there to offer advice so for that reason support is 10/10
Value For Money:
For what you get with Nexus version 2 i think the price is second to none and when you buy various expansions whether it be 1 or more you instantly get a 15% discount when you go to checkout so for me this is really good value for money
Stability:
There are only 2 occassions where Nexus 2 has crashed for me using 2 presets,however this is expected in a new product and as always will be rectified with later updates and does not cause much for concern.I cannot deduct a point for this reason as it is very new and the problem only lie's with the muting and unmuting of a certain preset.Other than that i can run easily 10 instances of Nexus on my machine not that i need that many.All in all the stability for me makes Nexus 2 a winner.
Overall:
If you don't own Nexus 2 then Get it! It's already improved my workflow to no end and is probably my favourite piece of gear now that it's at version 2 and the fact that Nexus now uses a copy protection dongle which holds your licence makes it more attractive and it's also a very welcome addition to an already great piece of kit.I for one would recommend Refx Nexus 2 to anyone making electronic music as from the start it oozes creativity with fantastic results and i hope this review has been helpful
cheer Rob LeeRead Review
User Interface:
Im going to say right from the off that Refx Nexus has revolutionised the way i work with music.The user interface is very pleasing to the eye due to the various skins that can be purchased,although when you purchase Nexus 2 you get 4 free skins and the Dance Volume 2 expansion which is great.Navigation within Nexus 2 is made easy with a single mouse click to access the various features within.There is nothing to confuse the user as within a couple of hours of using Nexus 2 you'll soon be very familiar with the instrument.
Sound:
The sound of Nexus 2 is non other than brilliant,the quality rivals many top hardware synths without a shadow of a doubt and possibly sounds better than most.
Added in version 2 are the excellent e.q facility which are:
new EQ types: lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandpass2, notch, peak, lowShelf, highShelf,Q factor for each band
free frequency (20-18000hz) for each band
separate gain (-/+24db) for each band
on/off switch for each band
these features alone make Nexus 2 a winner.
Features:
Nexus 2 comes with a ton of new features and i in particular love the way i can mute different layers within any given multi-sample preset,you can transpose and detune any given oscillator which then brings endless possibilitie's to new sounds being created.You can also create an empty bank and save and rename those edited presets to your own banks.The arpeggiator is totally user programmable and there is a great arpeggio library included.my favourite feature is the shuffle feature within the arp page as i regurarly use the 66% shuffle option which adds great value to the way i work.
Nexus 2 now has 2 MultiFx and the new Phaser has 16 stages and sounds truly amazing..i could go on but you have to try Nexus 2 to really find out what it can do.
Documentation:
Documentation is well explained.(Enough said)
Presets:
I myself own about 10 of the available 20 expansions and plan to purchase the Dance Volume 3 expansion in the week however again all expansions are of the best quality and developed by the best sound designers around and all credit is due to Refx for the sheer quality of sounds provided.
Everything is there from Electro to trance and from the down right gritty industrial to the chilled out spacey stratosphere expansion.There is something for everyone here and scope to then edit and re arrange those sounds into something totally different.
Customer Support:
The Refx customer support is one of the great things about owning Nexus as they are on hand every day on the forums answering user problems and you can also submit tickets for any other support.
I like the fact that the people who designed not only Nexus but even the sound designers are there to offer advice so for that reason support is 10/10
Value For Money:
For what you get with Nexus version 2 i think the price is second to none and when you buy various expansions whether it be 1 or more you instantly get a 15% discount when you go to checkout so for me this is really good value for money
Stability:
There are only 2 occassions where Nexus 2 has crashed for me using 2 presets,however this is expected in a new product and as always will be rectified with later updates and does not cause much for concern.I cannot deduct a point for this reason as it is very new and the problem only lie's with the muting and unmuting of a certain preset.Other than that i can run easily 10 instances of Nexus on my machine not that i need that many.All in all the stability for me makes Nexus 2 a winner.
Overall:
If you don't own Nexus 2 then Get it! It's already improved my workflow to no end and is probably my favourite piece of gear now that it's at version 2 and the fact that Nexus now uses a copy protection dongle which holds your licence makes it more attractive and it's also a very welcome addition to an already great piece of kit.I for one would recommend Refx Nexus 2 to anyone making electronic music as from the start it oozes creativity with fantastic results and i hope this review has been helpful
cheer Rob LeeRead Review
This VST took my attention when I've discovered it, it is so well done and easy to use. The presets sounds awesome, but I could use a little more as a built- in presets, even if they use the same ROM samples bank, which is quite good (around 4 Gigabytes). The look is also nice...looks like a Akai 1000.... but sounds better ;)
I really like the feel that the sounds have, mostly in their own ambiences. Nice gate sounds, arpegiator, delays and reverbs (for a synth...obviously).
The sounds are really inspiring, which is probably the most important feature in any instrument. The sounds are fat without being too mid-bassy. They are definite and clear without being too airy and fuzzy. The ambiences are large and deep...which is my kind of stuff. I have been able to use it in many soundtrack situations. I also have some expansion libraries that sound also great.
The VST is very stable, I didn't have any crash with it, even when many instances of the VST were open in my DAW. It doesn't ask much to the CPU which is not of big importance for me since I work on a very powerful CPU.
Overall this synth have all the good reasons to be in the top ones. I hope that the company will continue to develop it for a long time, as it is one of my favourites ones.
Definitively a good thumb's up!!Read Review
I really like the feel that the sounds have, mostly in their own ambiences. Nice gate sounds, arpegiator, delays and reverbs (for a synth...obviously).
The sounds are really inspiring, which is probably the most important feature in any instrument. The sounds are fat without being too mid-bassy. They are definite and clear without being too airy and fuzzy. The ambiences are large and deep...which is my kind of stuff. I have been able to use it in many soundtrack situations. I also have some expansion libraries that sound also great.
The VST is very stable, I didn't have any crash with it, even when many instances of the VST were open in my DAW. It doesn't ask much to the CPU which is not of big importance for me since I work on a very powerful CPU.
Overall this synth have all the good reasons to be in the top ones. I hope that the company will continue to develop it for a long time, as it is one of my favourites ones.
Definitively a good thumb's up!!Read Review
Discussion
Discussion: Active
AMAZING!!!!!
Great
Still can't figure out how to get the preset packs to load, can someone help ?
http://youtu.be/-KqZryTDL8E
Thanks
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Oh Amazing, this is a killer VST.. ordered mine already :)
@ DJ.DUCEdaKEEYS go to system and add the files from the import menu
CANT SAY ENOUGH GOOD THINGS ABOUT NEXUS. THE ONLY VST YOU WILL EVER NEED
How do i download? :)
How do I download? :D
U Buy It.
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The best one !!.
It Is a Powerful Synthesizer, We Love It^^.
Anybody know where I can find any good reviews on this? Gotta get it, but want to read up on it a little more before shelling out $300+ Thanks.
I want it.
finally got it yesterday with the annual Christmas discount ;) (Y)
How do I get Nexus into studio one 2.
I really hope you can enable moving the license from the key to computer. I'm tired of using usb hubs on the go. Other elicenser and iLok developers have achieved this, why can you?
Where can I buy and download nexus???? is that hard to find?
I really love this, it is so helpful in music production. The developer must keep up the good work.
cant find.
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