Product Reviews by KVR Members

I used to use pro tools M powerd then got a focusrite pro 40 and went to cubase that my girl got me as a gift. I really liked it as far as how it handled latency and MIDI but i don't do a lot of MIDI stuff.

Now a little while ago I had water damage in my studio my main computer and my I loc died now im on a laptop 2.3 ghz old I7 with 8 gigs of RAM. so I switched to reaper so far Its what I did not like in cubase but I lacks a few things.

overall if you get over the customizations and just use it to get some music done you cant complain. often fanboys just like all the stuff you can do.

The problems that I come across With using this DAW can be considered minor and major for who uses it. For one The MIDI control on reaper is not what you would consider the best in any way. Its overall control of MIDI is fine but its ability to make it easy and quick are just lacking. I dont have to use MIDI much because of the styles I mix and I usually just get sent tracks to mix so when i do need a synth its basic minor stuff so the controls are not a huge issue but sometimes I want it to be more indepth.

the other problem i notice is this high latency makes reaper crap out when i use alot of high latency stuff on a project say a combo of like my verbtone my stripbus on every channel and a instance of specter on the reverb channel I notice it kinda starts to crap out. cubase does not do that. I wish i was willing to get a new i loc but I dont have a million usb inputs to spare so I would rather not. so im stuck with reaper.

personally if they could fix those two things i would give it a ten I have gotten alot more work done alot quicker and alot easier because of its basic set up I like to think of things as do what works not what everyone else does keep it simple mix in mono use eq and compression to separate and some reverb or delay to give depth and your good so reaper is perfect for me. sometimes though i need some MIDI and sometimes.

all in all though its a bang for a good buck I use it not thinking of the price or look but on what i can do with it and so far its great glad i have it and I probably will not switch to anything else I love supporting smaller developers like sknote, klanghelm, eareckon, and cockos all of them great great developers and I do love the stillwell plugins that reaper has. I plan on buying a lot of those because of using reaper so that's another great product i hope to soon own. but bills and living in LA are not cheep ha but yea great program some small things that really are not to much of a problem. And usually things get resolved quick with reaper its got a huge do what the fans want kind of feel to it and for me its just right.

I really love this compressor for its versatility and its vintage sound and feel can sound ugly as hell or just smooth and clean. I really just like the look the feel and the way I can really just dial in perfect settings.

it sounds great looks cool performs really well nothing much to say I love it. I got it about a month after it first came out last version i noticed a weird click on limiter mode but that is gone on this update so yea on that nice job. and the Vu meter he has is dope i use it all the time gives me a quick nice way to see how my music is feeling since I tend to mix at a low level.

multiband stereo made this this perfect

I have used this reverb for a while now and really liked it there are few reverbs. I like and only actually use reverbs from two companies, this is one of em :)

Alright to start out with this thing sounds sweet and warm. I mean that as in it never has the problem of having way to much high end building up when i use it. and actually very natural sounding the room sizes and the easy to use interface make it quick to work with. The CPU hit is very small for a reverb of this quality and all the cool effects you can do with all the extra control on the bottom really just make it the Swiss army knife of reverbs.

Those are all things that made me love the last version. Now what we have here is a added control that has found its way In at least 3 payed mixes I have had since its update on the site. The new multiband stereo control on this is amazing. it has added some depth and clean control to whatever you put it on. I put it on a aux for some drums and it really helped give the drums a nice room feel but with the solid control of where parts will go. In the mix this helps with many things including phase issues you might have with a reverb that might have been set to wide for some random reason. I have used this for songs in rock, metal and rap. I find when a song or part of a song might have to much edge on it the new muliband stereo mode on this things really helps add some almost organic life to a mix that is to dry. I use it when I have to master something that is to dry sounding and just needs some air and wet flavor. I find it mixed ever so slightly in there with the multiband control set to help keep the balance songs come together quicker and easier.

The only thing that you should be aware of is that when you lock the stereo control and save and close a session. I notice that when I open the session the controls stay where I set them but the lock button is no longer selected this is the only problem I have found and I reported it to the developer and Got a quick response so that will probably be fixed very soon.

Over all this thing is amazing and one of my VERY FEW go to reverbs. it is stable and never causes any problems on my computer and I am super happy with this thing I do not plan on ever removing it from my computer.

The best eq for audio restoration I Have ever used

I have used this eq for about 6 projects now 3 audio cleaning for a podcast of a good fiend of mine and 3 for use of the master mix of some classical guitar of some guitar students.

I'm going to start with this. The eq will lag up like crazy when you have this set to maximum. that might sound like a problem but its not. This thing is so amazingly transparent i have been able to get rid of hum and hiss with just this eq alone and still keep the tone of the voices. what i do is is set the delay to minimum when i am picking frequencies to cut. Honestly to me you almost cant tell the difference between the sound of different latencies its always amazingly clean and clear. But I set it back to max just to have the most effect when i cut. besides that i like how when you change the resolution of the eq it shows what I like to think of as the true band of the eq always nice to know what the difference it but still very smooth and clean.

The analyzer at first before I used it I thought might not be useful but i have to say its almost like a frequency analyzer that is set to show you how much the frequencies are cutting through. Its super easy to read and i love how it has helped me find frequencies that are standing out a little to much.

The way that the eq bands work at first might be a little odd to get to know how to use. Once you play with it for a little bit you really get why its done the way it is. i have been able to set it like a hum remover or style it almost like a pultec style eq. I really like how i have full control of the curve in every way.

overall this thing looks nice, the features are really easy to figure out and it sounds just amazing. I have replaced my audio cleaning plugins with this because i find i can get the results i want with this a lot faster and cleaner sounding. As for mixing I personally chose to use this as a mastering tool but with minimum latency you can still have high resolution and use it in a mix when you want some linear phase eq on parts.

as for mastering i have it set up to be with my specter from sknote. i find both of them working together really gets the job done in a quick easy smooth way. overall i would say this is one of those rare gems that really needs to be looked at and given a lot more praise than you would think. The price is amazing when you want the ultimate linear phase eq with total control of the whole eq curve of the way it will use i would say spend the 19 bucks and get this baby

the only negative i can think of is that the brick wall limiter part kind of distorts easy. I don't have to worry about that personally because i mix at good levels and when I record or get mixes form other people i try to get them at good levels besides that i would say its a great tool. If anything would say just put more of a transparant limiter on the end and this thing would be perfect. I am going to be using it on my projects that have any audio cleaning from now on though.

okay the theme of my reviews lately have been about subtlety. this one takes the cake.

now if you want a change that will turn day to night this can do that but in a natural way. meaning its effect is very smooth and subtle. the high end i find really never sounds harsh the harmonics it makes are very clean low end just seems to get a smooth boost high end gets just a more cut through the mix sound and the modes it has are nice for when you want to A make the original signal just boost B mix the new and old together (B is my favorite) or C just replace the harmonics there. its easy clean and almost no CPU hit. what you wont hear is a harsh ear splitting boost that just sounds like a super narrow eq boost. what i use it for is actually helping add just a touch of whatever is not coming out as much as i would like. Lets say you have noise hum or hiss that you cant get rid of and a eq boost just adds more noise this is the tool just a small bit of it really helps bring out the parts you want. that and the smooth hi pass filter and tilt knob make this one of the best exciters i have used. also the most natural. i don't know about you but I don't do a mix so that people can pinpoint what i used and this is like a stealth tool.

as for cons non that i can think of. maybe that it at times seems a little to subtle but that's the real strength of this tool. Its just like cooking. You don't want everything to be over seasoned then it will just taste bad

Subtitle is the key when it comes to real tape emulations like this one.

When you just insert it and fiddle around with it until you made a huge change on just one insert you might not like what you hear unless you want the extra harmonics that is. What I like to do with this is set the master bus as tape A and the rest are just connected to it that way I can change them up without effecting the others. Personally I like it on the first insert. with the setting almost not doing anything almost that is. when you do your whole mix with it thinking subtitle is the key you will find that over all the drums have a nice smooth punch but a clean round tone to em. the vocals are nice and dynamic but with a smooth control. Overall the mix has a nice clean glue to em dynamic but smooth and clean without getting out of control.

now when you turn off the global bypass you will really hear this baby in action. it dose more than smooth out the transients and cut some high and low end it really helps add a little extra harmonics and controls the mix without you noticing. even mixes that were done without roundtone sound nice when you just stick it in there and try to go for a smooth transparent effect.

overall i love this product, CPU is light and the effect can be subtle or extreme if you want it. Its not for beginners who want to hear a huge difference right way almost nothing sounds good when that happens the controls are easy to use and not hard to figure out. and when put everywhere on a mix there is a huge difference remember to level match so not to trick your ears. this overall gets full ten out of ten for me one of my favorite plugins and the customer service is top notch. I have not been disappointed with any sknote plugins and hope that you will give this a good thinking.

P.S. i am not paid to say anything about any developer, its just personal opinion so please don't start bashing. Things work for people who take there time to learn to use there tools if you cant use it maybe you did not give it a fair shot or maybe you wanted something else.

Smooth clean and very nice to look at.

this is a non colored eq plain and simple. The thing I find really nice about this eq is the built in lmiter is the same type of limiter that they use on there limiter plugin. It is perfect for when I am sweeping frequencies. The over all control and feel of this really just speak for themselves. smooth and clean. i find it really hard these days to find a eq that just does what it does and really well for a good price, this my friends is that eq. all i can really say is its clean easy to use sounds very natural, and i love the high and low filters built in, some times i just put it on a track to clean up the low end mud before they start building up.

the few things i would say could make this even better is a A/B function and maybe a mid side option if you are into that. Personally I try to get the song sounding the way i want without a bunch of super technical stuff like that. Whenever i get a chance to mix be it paying or just for fun, and I do get paid mixing gigs often i'm not just saying that to sound cool I'm poor like most people in America. This is my go to clean eq. I bought the whole bundle and have been nothing but happy with both the products and the customer service. I use this for mostly cutting small amounts to shape the sound and when i want a colored sound i go for one of my vintage emulation stuff i have a lot of those mostly from one or two small developers.

For your money you will not regret buying this or any Eareckon products I have there reverb to and i really like that to i use it on aux tracks often.

the thing to keep in mind when using anything from the ANALOG87 series is they are to be used in ways to help shape and enhance your mix. subtle compression to add snap, minor eq to help bring out the elements of the mix and a smooth clean limiter that actually does not destroy the dynamics of the song.

overall this is one of very few companies that has earned my life long loyalty.

Alright first off lets just get this out of the way this thing sound as amazing as you want or as shitty as you want and always in a very good way.

The controls are more in-depth than you might thing but also very simple the input in where you get to decide how much in going into the tube amp modeling, and the output lets you choose the out coming volume, but there is a lot more to it than that. The body on it to me really adds some dirt to the whole thing when cranked all the way up its almost like a over saturation of the signal really nice in little doses all over the mix. but what i really like is its overall control of the whole signal it acts like a compressor tube amp and transient controller with some nice smooth eq's in it. What i like putting this on is just about anything that i feel needs a little extra to really cut through. On the drum bus it is just amazing, the eq can control ether the attack decay or overall signal. meaning you can give the longer transients more of a sparkle or give the kick and snare just the right amount of snap to em without ruining the whole drum sound. the power control is very interesting at full it acts like a clean tube amp but at lower values you really hear very realistic tube "distortion" not so much saturation but straight on way way to hot tube sound like the tubes are being blown. the snap tune and spank really have to be used to know how they work but when you do try em they are amazing. also the different tube modules are very nice i find A to be a much more high end and gritty sounding module. While B is a warmer smoother one when done right. the saturation modes are very smooth and clean or dirty if its needed. basically this is one of the most in-depth tube emulations I have ever heard. the CPU load is not bad ether i can use it all over my mix with no problems. now the dynamics section i find just perfect for bass or that over compressed sound you want. also just amazing on bass both DI and miked up. some nice little bonuses i find is how you can control the signal however you want no matter how loud or soft i find it very useful when there is bleeding on track sent to me that i want to get rid off the decay control makes a very smooth and nice vocal or drum sound. guitars also benefit.

One thing i forgot to mention is the color control i find it controls the harmonics generated ether full on full harmonics or just part to minimum harmonics.

Overall I can honestly say i would pay a lot more for what this thing does. The developer has really just outdone themselves with this one its nice if you want to make a trashy punk mix all the way to a smooth clean classical guitar recording I highly recommend this and there is always a refund if you don't like it but you will love it.

this is one of those rare gems that you just wont want to get rid of after you get it.

Okay first of the price is hard to beat. Also we are talking about 32 and 64 bit Windows And Mac. I know this is just a VU meter to some but let me tell you its not just that the trim control on this thing add a very nice left right volume control as well as a mid side control. The thing that makes this different from other trim control meters is that the way you set the meters for mid side and left right volume stay the way you set them even after you switch the mode. Very rare and usful. The meters can be completely customized though the set control and the VU PPM numbers. also clicking on the meter will turn off or on the digital number. the skins are very nice and clean looking for any style. it has a mono or a stereo instance and it very smooth and clean.

The only thing i can really think of that could use improvement would be a adjustable size for the overall window. If there is one i apologize for not noticing. other than that this thing is rock solid

Overall the looks feel and way it performs are far beyond the small price range. Great plugin and amazing price I also own the new compressor that came out by him and have to say that to is something to talk about but that is for another review.

after using it for a good long day i must admit i feel like it is smoother when bypassing or adding a new instance. the range meter is awesome i actually needed it a lot today, one thing after i hit about -35 db on the range meter it gets really sensitive and makes it hard at times to dial in a low setting. on my computer holding shift helps a lot though it could be made to respond more smother throughout the whole knob.the knob as far as i can see goes from 0 to -60db than to about -150 when i hold shift then to infinity.

overall extremely pleased and Range knob is a good addition and i like having the new option that is not often needed for me but like today sometimes necessary when being sent tracks that where less than clean. great update on the developers part and overall the whole bundle is smoother when bypassing or adding new instances on my PC.

in my opinion maybe extending how much it can be reduced by could be something some people may need i don't but i might one day you never know. besides that the only gripe is that it gets over sensitive at low low levels but that is understandable considering usually at that point not many people are going for -56 db of gain reduction.