Product Reviews by KVR Members

I was fortunate to get an assignment from Rob Papen to create a new soundbank for his Predator synthesizer, of which I was given a copy to work with. Honestly, I way underestimated this synth! Do not be fooled by Predator's comparatively low cost in comparison to Rob Panpen's other synths. This puppy has TONS of neat tricks and secrets hiding under the hood which are not readily apparent until you sit down and spend some quality time with it.

User Interface:

Very convenient layout. Everything is neatly orgainized into sections, which makes learning all the functions much more intuitive. Predator is actually quite a complex beast compressed into a relatively small space and there are quite a lot of options within the modulation and LFO sections. Clicking on a slot in the free modulation area will bring up a large menu, both for modulation sources and modulation desinations. I like this a lot better than having everything all on the screen at once.

Sound:

This is where Predator shines. You can create sounds that sit very well in the back of a mix and also sounds that slice through it like a hot knife through butter. The sound quality is most certainly professional and I have no complaints here. Predator has it's own unigue quality and a very modern sound. It does not pretend to be an emulation of an analog synth or a Virus, but what it does do, it does very, very well. I would recommend Predator as a great go-to synth in your arsenal. This isn't just a Trance synth, guys :). I got some nasty growling, metallic, Robert Natus-esque leads out of this synth that I wasn't quite able to do on other synths. This puppy can also do trippy, evolving soundscape pads with complex programming. Drum & Bass and Dubstep guys would love Predator as well. You really gotta check out the effects section. Rob Papen's synths have by far the best effects sections I have ever heard in a software synth. Dubstep style modulated delay speeds with an LFO modulated filter routed AFTER the delay in the chain... oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about :).

Features:

Like I said earlier, do not be fooled by Predator's relatively simple appearance and comparatively low cost. For starters, there are a very large number of oscillator waveshapes. You are not limited to just sine, saw, square and noise. There are all manner of esoteric digital waveforms for imitating such classics as the Ensoniq ESQ-1, Korg DW synths and other digital hybrids from the 1980s.
There is also FM capability, which adds a bit of extra edge to your sounds without outright emulating a DX7. This is great for gutteral, ripping high-passed leads and deep, digital sub basses.
The modulation section is the core of Predator's magic and the place where you will find all its hidden secrets. You have 2 slots for modulating effects parameters. Just about any source you can think of can be used for this. You also have 2 dedicated LFO slots. Then, you have an 8 slot free modulation section. With your sources you have all of what you would expect, but the magic lies in some of Predator's more esoteric options. "Offset" is a great and useful example. By routing this to an LFO, you are now able to do audio-rate modulation (very fast LFOs). You can modulate one LFO's speed via another LFO, the modwheel, aftertouch, or even one of the 2 free envelopes.
The Chord Play feature is a must-have for House and Techno folks. Simply play any chord, hit "learn" and that chord will be memorized and saved as part of your new preset.
The effects section is absolutely stunning. Not only are the effects themselves of high quality, but there are A LOT of them! Chorus, Flanger, Bitcrusher, Distortion, Comb Filter, Reverb, Multimode Filter, etc, etc. Each of these effects have a very large selection of parameters -- and each parameter can be modulated! Reverb size via an LFO? Yes. Delay speed via an envelope? You bet. Flanger speed via modwheel? Count on it :).

Presets:

This is the area where I think Predator could improve. The factory presets are quite good, yes, but there are many things Predator can do which are not shown in the factory sounds (audio rate modulations via "offset" parameter, very complex atmospheres, use of white/pink noise as a modulation source, heavily modulated effects, etc).

Value for Money:

Excellent :). For $150 USD, it's a great buy. Great sound, loaded with features and very stable. This would be one of my "deserted island" synths lol.

I shall do the honors of leaving the first KVR Cobalt review :). Frankly, I am rather suprised that no Cobalt owners wrote a review yet as Cobalt has been out for a while now. What you get for such a low price is WAY above and beyond what you would expect for something in Cobalt's price range. Personally, I feel that the quality of the current version (1.0) could easily compete with VST synths priced in the $49 - $99 range. Guys, this isn't fanboy rambling here...I'm one of the pickier reviewers and as a sound designer by trade, I have enough exposure to other synths on the market to have a clear understanding of how any given synth stands in comparison to its competition. If you lack funds but want decent toys, buy Cobalt for the steal price it goes for. One thing stands out with this synth. It only goes for about $25, but it is NOT some cheaply made piece of Synthedit junk. I recall that Leslie coded this puppy himself in Delphi.
On with the fine details.... The user interface is clean and very easy to navigate. Your oscillator, filter and modulation choices are all conveniently accessable via drop-down menus on Cobalt's single-page GUI.
The sound quality is very good and certainly has the character of those Korg DW series synths. You can dial in all manner of early to mid 80's Synth Pop type sounds that have the typical signature glassy quaility, thanks to the additional osc. waveforms. Cobalt is also very much capable of some rough and nasty sounds that would please musicians who specialize in Industrial, Hardstyle and other, edgy musical genres.
Features-wise, for the price, Cobalt excels. At this writing, there are about 26 oscillator choices. You have 2 LFO's that can modulate PWM (which ALL osc's have), osc pitch, filter cutoff and panning. For effects, you have a stero delay that also has a sync option. I would have liked to see dotted note values included, but for now you can work around that with careful settings in normal mode, though you would have to adjust accordingly depending on your song's tempo. The Chorus effect has its own character and the quality is actually quite good. Many synths in higher price brackets have a chorus effect that is just plain bad. Not so here. It even has a feedback option for decent stereo flanging. I think Leslie would do well to add a HP filter option to this effect so that you can use some wild flanging on a bass sound without the boominess you would get otherwise. There is one other feature that is missing in Cobalt that I think all the Trance/Techno guys would appreciate...adding "modwheel" to the modulation options for the filter. Maybe in a future update...
As far as the included presets go, the original factory set is a mixed bag. You have Leslies own, vintage-oriented sounds which are quite good and usable. Then you have a few of the other contributions which, though I liked personally, may not be very useful to more mainstream composers. Nonetheless, those presets make for a good creative whack upside the head for someone who likes to roll their own sounds. Nothing like thinking outside the box :). I recently contributed a new soundbank available on Leslie's website that would hopefully satisfy those with more standard personal tastes (though I got some wacky one's in there too, lol).
All in all, Cobalt is an excellent value for the money bound to please skinflints everywhere :). I recommend this synth both for seasoned professionals who already have the latest gear but need something quick and simple and for newbies on a tight budget looking for their first quality VST synth outside of what is offered within their DAW software.

Folks, if you are looking for a synth that breaks from the norm, THIS IS IT! Scanned synthesis creates sounds that are markedly different than what we have all heard before. These aren't hyped up claims...Humanoid Sound Systems has created something that IS different. SSP has a metallic character, but not in the same way that either FM or Phase Distortion does. Additive-like tones are possible, but with a cold, mechanical twist. Organic, warm, VA-ish textures are in here, too, but they move and breathe in ways unique to scanned synthesis.
Features-wise, I think the developer would do well to go balls out and add more features as well as a second oscillator for even more sonic possibilities in version 3.0. There is certainly enough in there right now to justify the price tag (which is very reasonable, BTW), but with any genuinely new form of synthesis, it makes sense to be able to manipulate it in as many ways as possible.
The user interface is practically idiot-proof. Anyone familiar with VA synths will be right at home with SSP's controls, but will be manipulating entirely new parameters unheard of in a VA synth on top of the usual filters, amplitude and pitch. I particularly like the way the MIDI hookups are set in SSP. Right-click on any knob and select MIDI learn, twiddle a knob on your hardware, then set the MIDI range for that hookup. Bam! Done! Couldn't be any more convenient :). These settings are saved individually on every patch. I think other developers should look to this idea for inspiration in their own works as it would save a LOT of time when creating patches, leaving musicians more time to work on composing.
As for presets, well, there are about 300 of them and they show Scanned Synth Pro's capabilities well. I did preset work for the 2.0 release and most of my contributions were for niche styles like glitch/experimental, filmscores, drum and bass, IDM, etc. I think some additional features might make way for more presets that would satisfy the Tranceheads, however, there are indeed many basses and pads in there that those folks might find useful.

If you want the best VST-based Commodore 64 synth, QuadraSID is the prime choice. There is one feature in QuadraSID that I don't think gets enough mention, but is a major contributing factor of that VGM sound-- the wavetable. In capable hands, this feature alone gives the user the ability to crank out all manner of classic C=64 drums, sound effects, high speed arrpegios and true VGM leads/basses. There are two soundsets out there that really make this apparent-- Torben "Metal" Hansen's soundbank at Pro-Sounds and my own, soon to be released set at ReFx (Bryan Lee Signature soundset-- shameless self promotion, I know lol. Anyhow...).
The sonic character in QuadraSID is very, very unigue as well. By turning on two waveforms in the waveform selection area, you get an absolutely gritty, dirty, digital and metallic pulswave that can be modulated via LFOs or envelopes. It does not sound like any typical VA pulsewave at all. You also get real galaway noise in this puppy. For those not familiar with that, let's just say it sounds nothing like your standard VA white, pink and brown noise.
QuadraSID is marketed as being a chiptune synth but its possible applications extend far beyond that :). In unison mode, you can dial in fat Trance leads and basses that are nothing like what you would get out of a typical VA. Creative use of the wavetable and multi-envelopes aid in molding unique special effects fitting for film and video game production. Minimal techno artists might find QuadraSID useful as well.

Wow...I'm rather suprised this synth has not been reviewed yet. What you get is very good for the asking price. For one thing, Firebird has anti-aliasing oscillators. This allows for the creation of convincing analog sounds as well as very clean, smooth digital textures.
You can get quite a variety of sounds out of this thing...it can sound like an analog synth, an FM synth (using the unique FM filter), a wavetable synth (by using the more motion based oscillators and modifying them and messing with the loops) and also timbres unique to the type of synthesis Firebird uses (Harmonic Content Morphing synthesis, I believe it's called).
There are some very interesting filter types in Firebird-- FM filters, an AM filter, 30db Lowpass (for those screaming acid lines), a vocal filter, a desamble filter, etc, etc. This allows for very different textures than most synths out there.
Most of the parameters in Firebird can be synced to host tempo-- a very important feature for those into ambient/electronica. Even the oscillator loops are tempo syncable.
Firebird comes with a couple hundred presets to get you started (for those who use presets). However, Firebird is dead easy to figure out and novices should be able to crank out new sounds from scratch in no time at all.
Although this synth is quite capable of more commonly used timbres (FM and analog), I think this synth is built more toward those who wish to stand out from the crowd and be different. It has found a lot of use in my DAW for creating etherial soundscapes, ambient textures and cold, futuristic tones. I've even managed to get some glitch-esque tones out of it through thoughtful programming.
Only cons I can think of is that CPU usage is moderate. Not a CPU hog, but not synth1, either. On my 3.6 Ghz machine with 2 GB ram, if I play a thick chord and turn on the FX, CPU usage is about 12%. Not bad, actually, but could be better considering this isn't a big synth with pages upon pages of menus and a snotload of oscillators per voice.
I recommend Firebird not only because of the price, but because of the synth's sonic character as well. If you dabble in the more futuristic and spacey music styles, go out and grab this puppy.