Product Reviews by KVR Members

SuperWave is one of those soft synths that has a distinctive sound. The UI is spectacular, of course, and the synth features are very well conceived, but what really makes this synth is the sound. Put simply, it is a great, great VA.

Loosely modeled after the Roland JP8000/8080, this synth comes with a great set of presets that do an excellent job of showing off its capabilities - and its full-bodied, warm sound. It's not a bread-and-butter VA sound like you might get in, say, a DreamStation, but it is highly usable and flexible.

I have had a few problems with the synth - stuck keys being the biggest, but the occasional crash also happens. Your mileage may vary.

Despite the fact that this synth was developed using SynthEdit, it really shines as a pro-level product. Why the developer gave it away free is a bit beyond me - but I'm glad he/she did.Read Review

This was the first modular soft synth I ever bought, and honestly I still think it is the best. I recently bought Reaktor, which is indeed very nice and strongly supported, but SynC Modular's ability to do DSP primitives all the way down the simple math - and do so with surprisingly good performance - is unmatched.

Quite literally, you can do almost anything in SynC Modular.

Programming it is relatively complex, not even counting the fact that DSP programming itself is a black art. I have no way to judge how it compares to Reaktor in this sense, but my opinion is that SynC could have benefited from some UI improvements.

Alas, SynC is no longer supported. NI, in a brilliant move, hired Dr. Sync to work on Reaktor, thus killing the one product that really could have made a dent in Reaktor's market.

There are not as many publicly available ensembles for SynC Modular, which is a shame but is understandable given there will be no further updates to the program. So, if you want out-of-box experience, you probably will be happier with Reaktor. If you want to be able to prototype literally any DSP algorithm in a visual language, SynC is the tool for you. It's for the hardcore DSP/synthesist enthusiast, not really the general artist-public.

SynC is still my favorite soft synth, bar none. Reaktor 4 made a dent in SynC's position, but SynC still outshines it in my view.Read Review

I'm no loop guru or master loop slicer, so take my review with some salt, but I have to say I found Cyclone to be a powerful tool. I won't describe its abilities, since others have done so adequately. What I will say is that when I load up a nice ACIDized perc loop and transform it into a drum kit, that I more often than not end up with some of the most musical percussion I've ever heard. The fact that it is MIDI controllable allows me to play that kit from my PX7 pads, which transforms Cyclone into a *brilliant* tool for my purposes.

Would I have bought Cyclone if it didn't come with SONAR free? Honestly, I don't know. I do know that if Cakewalk stopped bundling it, I'd be quite upset.

A few downsides - the UI took a LOT of getting used to for a novice looper like myself. I still get confused by certain things. Cakewalk could have done a better job, IMHO, at making this thing more intuitive. But, for the price, I guess I can't complain.

In summary - an essential tool for loopers, and a great tool for everyone else.Read Review

I've heard a lot of people complain about DreamStation, about this or that, but honestly I don't know why. Nearly every time I need a solid, bread-and-butter VA sound out of a soft synth, I end up using DreamStation. Lots of other VA soft synths have more features and are better at certain things, but none are as flexible and usable as DreamStation.

In particular, I've heard people complain the sound is thin or uninspiring. Frankly, I have no idea what they're talking about. I've gotten tremendous basses and nice pads out of DreamStation. And the brass! Wow, you can get a lovely Vangelis CS80-style brass out of this thing, complete with delayed vibrato.

DreamStation lacks only two things really. First is a mod matrix. DreamStation is a very simple VA model, with hardwired modulation, which limits the diversity of sounds it can make. Again, it makes bread-and-butter stuff wonderfully, but if you need a 'different' sound, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Finally, the UI on it is just too small! The knobs are so tiny that sometimes I have to squint to see them clearly. Not that it isn't a nice UI - it is, and very well designed. If it was about 50% bigger, it would be perfect.Read Review

Wow what a useful tool. I've seen VST-DX adapters before, but not DX-VST adapters! Plus, this thing can seamlessly turn a DXi into a VSTe, a VSTi into a VSTe, or any combination. It does so in an eminently flexible and transparent manner. It can even wrapper troublesome plugins in AudioMulch, so that the preset is actually stored in the AMH file (SIR is an example of one such plugin).

I was really surprised by the capabilities of this tool. At the price point it is a steal.

The only significant criticism I have about the product is the poor documentation and the occasional Japanese message box that appears! :-) Wouldn't be a complaint if I spoke Japanese, I guess, but it would be nice if the English version was all English.

The UI is very lovely and solid, although there are a few things that take some getting used to. It's a bit like FruityLoops in that certain Windows-ish conventions are thrown out the window and replaced with custom widgets and the like. It's not bad, just different, and requires a little learning curve.

All in all this is a great tool - and one I'm glad I own. I look forward to a bright future for the product.Read Review