Product Reviews by KVR Members

Now let me start of by saying that this plug-in truly deserves its name. T-RackS is a beast. It looks just like the hardware unit you never had the money to buy and actually sounds like it, too. So be prepared to let the T-RackS add color to your music, for it's far from being sound-neutral. But this particular coloration of the sound is actually very appealing and nice. And even if you're not a fan of subtle valve overdrive, this thing can give you some decent digital distortion.

Though some people nowadays seem to avoid remodelling old vintage gear, because they think it's not very useful to have rotating knobs when you only have a mouse to control these knobs, I think in this case the designer did a wonderful job. The only 'negative' aspect of the GUI is the repeated application of the T-RackS logo, but this of course is due to the fact that one can use each module of this suite on its own. This again is a very nice feature to save CPU load and screen space. A unique and quite useful part of T-RackS is the ability to patch the different modules in a different order (EQ-Comp-Limiter or Comp-EQ-Limiter-Clipper etc.). So this way you're free to use the whole suite and are still able to change a plug-ins (routing) position.

To start off T-RackS offers more than 100 presets. Some presets are changing parameters of every module in the effect chain (suite presets) others are for a specific effect only. The EQ-presets for example are split into FX (telephone, boom box etc.), generic and mastering and all really do what they say. Only the preset browser might need a rework for it's kinda hard to browse thru the different presets, when the scroll button makes movements way to fast. Maybe a scroll bar would be a nice little feature to add.

During my testing of T-RackS I ran into problems with the mono versions of the EQ, Tube-Comp, Multiband-Limiter and Soft-Clipper. Whenever I wanted to apply them to a track (this happened with mono and stereo tracks) the CPU usage jumped to 100%, while the stereo versions were using only 5-10%. So I couldn't use the mono versions at all. But the stereo versions worked quite well on mono tracks, too. Still it would be nice if this bug gets sorted out (and it is with the new version)

So if you're interested in an all-in-one mastering solution, this could be your toy. Maybe a mastering reverb would be cool but as you might know: SIR which is a free impulse reverb which does a pretty decent job there. Compared to other mastering tools like PSP's VintageWarmer, T-RackS adds more of its own color and character to the sound, and has more knobs to tweak (which btw doesn't necessarily make it harder to use). So if you like its sound and if you have enough money, for it’s not the cheapest bunny in the mansion - this could definitely be a good alternative to spending the same amount on two or three days with a good but busy mastering engineer in someone else's studio. And like I said, all in all this is a superb tool

Firium - the Adobe Photoshop of plugin eq's. What we have here is a linear phase equalizer with the ability to draw the eq curve and process the left and right channel separately, or even oppositional. So you can be sure that your mixes won't suffer from ugly sounding phase distortion. It delivers a sound colour that is very hard to beat, for you won't find it. The processed audio file still sounds so natural and only very extreme settings could change this.

A very helpful and simply unique feature to the Firium is the ability to match the sound of two audio files. First you load the source file (the one with the desired sound) and let Firium analyze its eq curve, then you load the target sound file (which should be manipulated) and let Firium do the same. Once Firium knows the eq curves of both audio files it can slip the source characteristic over the target file. This feature can be very helpful during the master process, when you want to have a consistent sound.

the Firium sounds invisibly awesome and is easy to set up. The documentation is good and extensive, and you won't find a better mastering eq with this sound and functionality (at least this will be a hard task). The little helper has grown up.

So you are mixing this song, using some dynamics and a reverb. But suddenly your CPU starts to scream at you and your computer reacts very slowly. Well some weeks ago this meant either: get a new computer or upgrade the old one. Now these times have changed. Sequencers like Tracktion and Logic already have a built in freeze function, which renders the used effects into the wave file. Now FX_MAX' fx-freeze offers this tool as a VST wrapper for all the other hosts, too. Even Tracktion users will benefit from this VST, for its approach differs from the built in freeze function.

But how does it work. Well you start a standalone program, browse thru your folders and search for all those VST plugins you'd like to wrap (since it doesn't effect the behaviour or CPU load of your VSTs you might as well wrap all of them). Fx-freeze now creates a new dll file [plugin name (z)] and places them into your plugin folder. Now make some music. If you start to run out of power, open some of your CPU Hogs and click on the little snowflake on the very left. Press play and let the magic begin. If you're using large sample libraries that store the content in your RAM, you should click on the right snowflake which cleans your RAM from the files that are no longer used.

Now the only thing that can stop you from using billions of effects is your hard drive space and speed. But since today’s HD’s are huge and fast this shouldn't be a problem for most of us. Only Laptop users should be careful, because every frozen plugin means another running audio track (in 32bit floating point quality). This is the only weakness of fx-freeze. The built-in freeze functions a la Emagic or RawMaterialSoftware don't increase the disk load or even reduce it (Tracktion merges all frozen tracks into one single audio file).

So if you have a sequencer like Logic you probably won't need this. If you have a freeze function similar to Tracktion's and want to freeze a track but still want to change the volume or position in the mix, this is the tool for you.

Did you ever ask yourself how this "produced" songs sound so loud and open, while all your attempts just make the song pumping and muddy ? Well your dreams may have gotten themselves an answer with this compression / limiting / saturation VST plugin. PSP's VintageWarmer isn't the usual bread & butter tool and it's necessary to learn how the controls affect the sound, but the very useful presets give you a good starting point, though a few presets introduce slightly too much saturation for my taste.

I tried a lot of mastering tools including, db-audioware's quantum-fx, logic's internal ad-limiter and mulitpressor but I didn't actually know how great a computer recording could sound, until I tried this beast. So even if you think your sound is good - try the demo of the PSP VintageWarmer and be sure to be surprised. Actually it sounds so good, I had to remix all my songs, using it. But it's not just useful for mastering purposes, you can apply (and I think you should) it to every single track, for it has multi band and single band compressions and does a wonderful job as 'sort-of-equalizer' and 'all-in-one-tool'.

The supplied PDF manual gives a good overview on how to use it, which includes an installation guide, explanation for every knob and switch, operation guidelines, signal-flow block diagrams and a very helpful faq (frequently asked questions) section. And once you know how the knobs function you'll be able to tweak your mixes in a way you never thought was possible.

You should also try out the other PSP effects... their all pretty damn good.(this review originally appeared on www.maulbeerbaum.de)

Wow... what a suite!! This FX Bundle has everything you need and in top quality.

The dynamics are georgeous and I love the guitar & bass amps. But please - do yourself a favour download the demo and try out the creative bundle - it's absolutly stunning - try "sweeping overdrive" & "snipper"

it even comes with a decent reverb and loads of other stuff. but let's go into detail:

Mastering Limiter: just put it at the end of your fx-chain and forget worrying about clipping - this beast sounds so smooth. and it adds no distortion at all.

Sweeping overdrive: If you think you're background vocs sound a bit boring just put this effect on them and you'll love em.

Bright amp: woah - is there a vibroverb living in my PC? totally stunning, just like all the guitar amps in this suite. btw: give the acoustic doctor a try on dry acoustic guitar

But now face it... you can customize all these effects and you can even build your own with the included workbench. Even if you don't know anything about audio effects at all - it's very simple yet powerfull...

IMHO - the only fx bundle that's nescessary

the only things missing are PDC and "automatic bpm" (so that you don't have to set the tempo slider manually when the song changes/ or has a different tempo) but this'll be sorted out in the next release I guess.

Edit: PDC is available but the tempo thingy isn't but will follow with the next update

Well I tested both Battery and DR-008 and decided to go with Battery for the GUI simply looks better and has all the features I need.

It's a superb drumsampler but I use it for other samples, too. For example I considered to switch to Pro Tools LE which only supports RTAS Plugins. Now I have the lovely M-Tron (which isn't supporting RTAS) and Battery witch will support RTAS (september 2003). It's so easy to recompile the tape banks for Battery and play them in Pro Tools.....*gg*
Making own sample banks is very intuitive, too.

But back to the original features. The supplied drumkits are very good and offer a large variety of sounds (most are not very big and have less layers on each hit then let's say DFH - which is a good addition btw) but they sound good.

The best imho are: 70's Funk (which I used in 'Longing for hotter days'), Vintage, Steveland's Vinyl Kit (this sounds gorgeous), Jazz and REAKTOR..... but the other's are good, too. and you can even take single cells from different kits and combine them to one.

the only bad thing I gotta say... is the way the layers can be edited..... for it's not graphically.. and sometimes difficult.

BTW: the custumer support is pretty good.... they even have updates which are not on their homepage... you just gotta drop them a mail.

All in all it was definitely worth my money.