Xphraze

The introduction of the Xphraze manual is titled "Your musical life is about to change".Strong words-and they're true.
Most of the goodies have been covered here,so I'll only add my opinions and cover some things I haven't seen mentioned.
I happen to like the soundbank and multisamples myself-the factory combis give you a lot of insight into what's going on,and there's a lot going on with any patch.The Wizoo bonus bank has some nice things-an excellent guitar combi for one.I was able to fool my bass player of 10 years ago with a quick little ditty I did using that-he thought it was my trusty old acoustic:)If you're depressed,load up the CanCan combi and watch your host's VU meters dance along with the sound.
The envelopes are a real treat-up to 128 breakpoints apiece,with adjustable curves between each point.You also have instant normalization of the amp envelope,and you can set up a loop.Nice...
With four lfos,four envelopes and a comprehensive mod matrix for EACH patch in a combi,you have tons of modulation possibilities.The phraze generator is so much easier to use than trying to set up the old Wavestation wave sequences ever was.
The vector synthesis abilities blow the sound design possibilities through the roof.As a former Wavestation owner,I'm overjoyed!
A really handy feature-especially if you're using Xphraze live is the Xmode/Xmix function.Xmode is the simpler one-you choose an octave of your keyboard,and the G,A,B and C keys will change the phraze buffers of the patches you choose to have controlled by it(you have up to four phraze buffers for each phraze).The Xmix takes it a bit further-you set the Xmix receive channel for something higher than 4(1-4 are for Xphraze's patches),and the keys between c1 and c4 will mute/unmute patches and change buffers for each.Very handy in a live situation,or for switching pre-programmed phrazes when you're recording tracks.You can also send program changes from 1-16 on channel 1 to switch buffers if you so wish.
It's a true work of art.If you're a former Wavestation(or wannabee Wavestation owner),you owe it to yourself to try out the demo.
Highly recommended:)Read Review

I gave a 10 on presets as opposed to others because I was not expecting them to be my source of sets. I always tweak my way through life. For what I use them for, learning what can basically be done with this machine, they were totally adequate.
I bought this synth 2 months ago and use it every day either creatively or for fooling about having fun.
I gave a 10 on sound becuae other than the fairly large array of supplied sounds, you can easily add your own.
I gave a 10 on documentation because it was very nicely written and clear.
The first week I had a problem with saving combis and posted overe at Cubase.net, and Michael Kleps answered my querry the very same day! Amazing support.
Overall I really enjoy this work of art and re4commend it to anyone. If you cant make great music with it you can at least have a ball trying.
If you can only buy one synth this can be the one. It's price is reasonable considering lots of players are conmparing it to Korg's line of hardware synths.
Sabitlity is a cool 10 in my book. I have a song Im writting that uses 4 instances of Xphraze, 2 at a time are played with 4 phrases in each, each using 4 stereo outputs and lots of effects. All this is stable on my P4 2.4G with 1G on Win XP. More than 2 instances running concurrently does seem to get the meter in the reds. But that would be asking too much.Read Review

User Interface: The interface is well laid out. I was tweaking and programming without ever opening the manual. It has a great visual of the values of each cell of the arpegiator steps.

Sound: Incredible clear high resolution sound. Very full sound. A huge variety of waves to build sounds. Honestly, this thing easily competes with my Korg Karma keyboard.

Features: Xphraze has a huge library of waves, very usable patterns, and effects. Each patch can be divided into four separate stereo outputs for individual processing.

Documentation: The book is easy to follow and thorough.

Presets: The included presets are very professional and usable. Wide array of pads, basses, and rythmic patches, and unbelievable Song Starter type patches. Also, there is a Bonus Set available. Soon there will be Xphraze Xpansions available. Tons more waves and presets.

Customer Support: Second to NONE. Mike is just about the best support you can find for software. Constantly available in various forums for help. Many don't know about the Xphraze forum.

Value for Money: As mentioned earlier, this thing definitly competes with some very sophisticated hardware synths, at a fraction of the cost. VFM = Incredible.

Stability: Rock solid. It has never locked up or bugged out on me.

Other notes: I noticed that Xphraze, different from my other synths, responds far better to musical control and playability. Very predictable and reliable. Xphraze has found it's way into nearly every one of my compositions.

Evidence Studio
St. Louis, MORead Review

I have to admit I am very impressed with this vsti synth. I would suggest that it is the first plugin synth which genuinely offers a "fresh" sound. While I obviously admit that the synthesis method is nothing particularly new, after wavetable synthesis has been arround for ages now, the quality of sound, cross rhythms etc, and the ease with which it is possible to find/create such sounds is a wonderful asset.

I would suggest that the strength of this synth lies in the more rhythmic elements, particularly in creating dense, rhythmically interesting pads.

My only real gripe is with the GUI which, while it is certainly functional, doesn't strike me as being particularly intuitive. Just my own two cents on that.

I would recommend that anyone particular interested in the creation of soundscapes etc using rhythmic, evolving pads will absolutely love this synth. Saying that, it is still quite competent for leads etc (not sure on base lines though?)Read Review

User interface: Logical screen layout, good and relevant context menus and keyboard shortcuts (try arrow keys in phaze/cell editor). Personally, I don't like the "organic" GUI style, but that's of lesser importance.

Sound: Being - basically - kind of a rompler, the sound depends a lot on the supplied multisamples. They are generally good, but some of them are not looped as well as they could be --- and there are IMO way too few of them. I am sure that Wizoo will release extra sample refills, but that's just more $ up my pocket. Filters are OK, but nothing special. All in all, good - but not remarkable - sound quality. The FX are not really worth using, though, but this is even mentioned in the manual.

Features: The phraze/cell editor and the modulation design (including the vector modulation) allows for some real extreme sound design. With the option of using your own samples, the possibilities are endless. Personally, I especially like to use Xphraze as a quick sketching tool for polyrytmic and odd sig figures.

Documentation: OK - good. Some keyboard shortcuts are undocumented, though.

Presets: Too few and too narrow selection. These days, I expect no less than 300-400 high quality presets with a commercial softsynth in this price range, and with Xphraze there should have been *a lot more* to demonstrate the sonic possibilities of this instrument.

Customer support: If not for Michael from reFX, who is very active on this forum, I would have given a 0 in this category. Steinberg has the worst support that I know of. So as long as Michael is doing the support, I give a 9. When/If Steinberg takes over, I'll be back to edit :-)

Value for money: OK - even though it should have come with many more samples and presets. The options of the phraze editor and vector modulation makes it worth the $.

Stability: Not a glitch so far.Read Review