pHATmatik Pro

To be honest I hardly use this VSTi in the intended method. It is nice for what it does and is great for mangling loops. But for me the real use is to pull those loops apart. My host has supported drag and drop since I first bought this VSTi, so my primary use has been to pull an Acid loop into PhatmaticPro, edit the slices, then pull those slices over into Battery. I have created some very nice kits using the combination of PhatmaticPro and Battery. Not drum kits, but scratch kits, vocal kits, effects kits, etc. Another alternative use for PhatmaticPro is to extract the “feel” of a loop to a MIDI file. PhatmaticPro not only breaks a loop into slices, it creates a MIDI information to play those slices in correct time. That MIDI information can be use in some host as a source for creating a groove template or feel. Start with a loop that has a nice funky feel, and end with applying that feel to sequenced drums or arps. I will defer to other reviewers as to how well it works for playing loops.

Pros:
More than just a loop player.
Drag and drop ability.
Ease of use.

Cons:
Occasional stability issues.
Customer support is sometimes a bit unfriendly.
Slow updates.
Future PC update is in question.

Note: There are no presets so my preset rating is an average of the other ratings.

Robert

I bought it in the very early days. But honestly I didn't use it much till recently, as my previous host didn't support drag'n drop.

I used to have some problems with it, but bitshift had provided good and responsive replies during our correspondence. My personal experience with tech support is pleasant.

Even today, with several competitiors available, it's still pretty good at what it does. Simply slice and go, and some crazy mangling is right at the fingertip. Drag and drop the MIDI or sliced audio into the sequencer(as long as your host supports dragn' drop) and you're all set.

Updates are rather slow but they do keep coming. Even though it's sad there's no plan for further development for the Windows version beyond v1.2, it still stands as a good loop slicer as it is.

Some implied features never got implemented, such as time-stretch function(bitshift mentioned it a long time ago). But I see it as a possible bonus, so I'm not that disappointed.

Pros: straightforward and ease of use. Can save slice points in the wave files. Great MIDI drag'n drop feature.

Cons: the file broswer is less than convenient(addressed with 'favorite folders' in 1.1, but still not perfect). No visible plan for further development on the Windows Platform beyond v1.2.

pHAT is PHAT!

absolutely love it, its my favorite plug. Its like having recycle inside your sequencer.

the only thing is that the interface is a little twiddly. Its sometimes hard to make precise edits to slices. Parameters are hard to adjust in certain cases.

But its a year of fun, easy. I sometimes get lost in the possibilities when using pHAT.

Its one of those rare pieces of software that beckon you to use it. It doesn't get in the way of your work, like some other plugs. And after a while it sort of becomes the loop, in a transparent kinda way. Like, I just say to myself 'Self, I have a sliced loop on audio instrument 4!"

And a huge thumbs up to the folks at bitshift. You have never seen customer support until you buy pHAT.

I have had a couple crashes with pHAT. But they were mostly because I forgot to assign more memory to Logic when a new subversion came out. Because pHAT uses the RAM dedicated to Logic.

mitz

This piece of software is fantastic - when it works. I'm running it on XP (with a P4) and as a previous reviewer noticed, it's extremely unstable. I have great problems assigning midi learn, I often have to shut down Cubase and restart to get it working, but when it works I can get on with mangling loops! I also find that the sound stutters, with gaps between each slice, so I increase the sensitivity and get a different kind of stutter, which is very annoying. My CPU spikes a lot when using this software. I wouldn't even attempt to use this on the fly whilst running other VSTi's as my system won't take it. I can only use this on it's own to create new loops which I then have to export and import back as a wav file into my sequencer. If the developers could sort out the reliability of this product, I would award it top scores all round!!

Support is seemingly non-existent, getting a response to an email takes.....well, I've not had a response to the mail I sent two months ago, I guess that says it all

This has got to be one of the coolest plugins out there especially if you're into beat chopping and manipulation. Before this, I was confined to using Recycle (which is still a sweet program) and having to dump the samples manually into Fruity Loops. With Phatmatik Pro I can audition, chop, and manipulate the loops and whatnot right within FL and it's priceless for catching something on the fly before the inspiration leaves ya.

Of course Phatmatik can be used on samples other than drum loops but that's primarily what I use it on so thats where my bias may lay. The only comparison to this VSTi is the self-contained Fruity Slicer (from Fruity Loops) and possibly Bomb That Beat. The main difference is that this program is so close to Recycle that if you've used it before, you'll have no problem migrating to Phatmatik Pro. And as far as stability, I have never once had an issue to date (knocks on wood).

All and all this is must have plugin especially for y'all drum choppers out there.