Universal Sound Module

edited 10/14/02
Latest impression, not so terrible.

One big thing going for USM is it's efficent use of CPU. 16 tracks took under 10% on an Athlon XP1700+ with 512mb ram. It's sample qualities are still questionable but for checking out the occasional GM sequence it's worth having and it's free with Cubase VST 5.1.

Let's put it this way, I use it now and then whereas at the time of my prior review it seemed a waste of disk space.

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First impressions, bleh.
Second impression, bleh but I see some possibiities for net collaborations and jamming which is cool.

First off, it's free but this synth doesn't sound like it uses 70 mb of samples. Not horrible but come on, you can do a lot more with so much sample memory.

GM was ok until every manufacturer's designs were incompatable and sometimes didn't even meet the GM design. USM (which isn't even GM 1 compatible) might change things for the positive but the timbres are lacking character and with 70 mb of samples that's a real shame.

Pros: it works, the jam and collaboration potential is unique
Cons: 70 mb of samples? You'll never be able to tell

Several years ago there was an ad in the U.S. regarding hamburgers at fast food restaurants. An elderly lady looked at a bun and seeing little to no meat says, "where's the beef?" I expected much more out of USM.

Well intentioned and if the net jams are working possibly a good first step for Cubase 5 users.