Product Reviews by KVR Members

Don't expect anyone to hear this and be fooled that it's the real thing, especially if it's prominently featured. But it can sound quite interesting nonetheless. I actually often use a bunch of effects on it to make it sound even less Rhodes-like, and I think that often works a lot better.

The low and high ends sound probably the least Rhodes-like of all, but the high end is really unique sounding, totally usable if you get creative with your effects.

I have the Native Instruments Rhodes and AAS Lounge Lizard, and they both sound more realistic than this, but I still keep finding uses for 4Front.

Totally recommended, and hey, it's free.

This is another great, free, simple, extremely CPU-efficient plugin from GVST.

The resonance sounds great, from barely noticeable to screaming, and having both the low cut and hi cut in one plugin really simplifies things when you're trying to dial in just the right amount of resonance at just the right frequencies. On a bass instrument try setting the low cut at anywhere from 40-60, and the high cut somewhere around 400-600 and then dialing up the resonance. Or do an aux/send and do more extreme settings plus adding some distortion. Either way, it's often a great way to help your bass cut through a mix in the low mids. Just keep in mind that lots of resonance will increase the "peakiness" of your bass signal, so you may want to address that with a compressor post-filter.

I know a lot of people, myself included, often high pass (aka low cut) almost everything in a mix that is not really a bass instrument, or more accurately, anything that doesn't have a whole lot of energy under 200 hz, plays more of a supporting role, and doesn't really need to sound "real" and/or full-bodied. Synth pads, backing vocals, upper register melodies, higher-octave tuned percussion, pretty much all percussion except possibly membranophones etc. It just frees up so much room on the bottom end for bass, kick, piano, guitars, vocals etc. This is where having a low-CPU bandpass filter is indispensable. And having a simple interface with easily tweakable controls makes it all that much easier to get in the habit of automating filters to open and close as the mix dictates.

One thing that I think could greatly improve this product is a trim that goes down to complete silence, as GFader does. I currently have either GBand, GFader or both, loaded on the majority of my audio and instrument tracks. It sure would be really nice to reduce that to just one. Maybe in the next version?

I've been using this for a while now, and it's nothing spectacular, but often you really don't NEED a delay to be spectacular, do you? One thing that IS great about this delay, and about all of GVST's products that I have tried so far, is their remarkably low CPU consumption. I have been searching, so far in vain, for a stereo delay (preferably free) that does not use an inordinate amount of CPU. This is not a stereo delay, but I have found that I can load TWO of these things and still get much lower CPU consumption than almost all other stereo delays! So I just create an FX (aux) channel, do a pre-fader send to it, pan the orignal hard L, and the FX/aux hard R. Splitting the signal to L/R also has a lot of other advantages as now you can apply different EQ settings to each, differing amounts of distortion, phasing etc.

Some people may look at this delay and be turned off by the fact that it has to be set in ms, rather than having tempo-synced beat choices. I get that. Tempo-synced beat choices are very convenient when that is exactly what you want. But being able to set in ms can also be a huge boon. First off, you should have an Excel spreadsheet already set up to perform beat/BPM calculations for you, so that does not become a barrier to creativity. The original calculation is simple: 60,000 / BPM = a quarter note in ms. So at 120 bpm, 60,000 / 120 = 500 ms. From there you just subdivide further to get the value of an 8th (250), 32nd (62.5), 128th (15.625) etc. And this is where there is real power in using ms instead of tempo-synced beat choices. Instead of a simple quarter note delay, why not try nine 32nds? Or thirteen 64ths! Part of the power of delays (and reverbs) can be in filling in the little "nooks and crannies" that lie between the "normal" note subdivisions. It's all still tempo-synced, but it sounds a LOT more interesting.

I was initially turned off by this delay not having a simple, single wet/dry knob. But what it has is actually better, if slightly more work to use sometimes. It has one knob dedicated to wet (effect), and one knob dedicated to dry (dry). So in the same way that a binaural pan plugin gives you more control over stereo placement than a simple pan pot, this delay acutally gives you more control over the wet/dry ratio. When you combine that with feedback modulation and other ways of differentially modifying the wet signal in relation to the dry (i.e. through signal routing + filters/EQ or other FX), it actually gives you great flexibility over the final sound.

Another great use of this is as a pre-delay, in conjunction with a reverb. I have a number of reverbs that I really liek the sound of, but that have no pre-delay. Annoying. Just throw GDelay on before the reverb and set it for about 4-8 ms and voila, perfect predelay with hardly a dent in your CPU.

GVST makes a lot of great, free plugins that are very understated in their features and especially their GUI. They don't look very appealing. But if you really learn how to be creative with them, they are great little plugins that are ever so kind to your CPU. Please also check out my review of GDuckDly, GFader, and GBand for more tips on getting the most out of these free plugins.

I LOVE this delay.

It is absolutely awesome for sound design. The drive just sounds really good. The ability to dial in just the right amount of feedback to get a delay line that goes on for days is just incredible. Try using it on some pitched samples to create awesome pads and arpeggiations. Try loading multiple instances of it and panning each in different spots. And use automation on the feedback, resonance and drive to get pads that BREATHE. The results can be truly amazing.

BUT it is murderous on CPU. 10% CPU on a machine with 8 GB RAM and i5? That's ridiculous.

So my suggestion would be NOT to use it for doing simple, real-time delays, unless you have buckets of leftover processing power. The CPU load is just too high. You can find much better, much more CPU-friendly options than this for doing basic stereo delays. But if you're looking for a delay for "offline" delays (i.e. doing sound design stuff that you can export/render), you can get a LOT of mileage out of this free badboy. Very Excellent.

Don't let the simplicity of this plugin distract you from its great utility.

When I first saw this, I was like, why the hell would I need a fader plugin when I can just use / automate my channel faders in my DAW? You might be wondering the same thing. If so, read on.

I'm a big fan of song templates. Every single track has an instance of G Fader loaded on it at -6 dB. All channel faders are set to -9 dB. Between these two things, I can add oodles and oodles of tracks before I even start to come close to clipping, and therefore I just don't have to worry about levels much at all until I get closer to mixdown. I just crank up the output on my interface if it's not loud enough. I'll write any needed individual track volume automation to the G Fader lanes (which are already set up in the template, which is a HUGE time/sanity saver). Like, say I know I want the hi hats to come down 3 dB in a certain section. Or I want a snare to fade out to nothing at the end of a section – stuff like that. Once the track is more developed, I'll start adjusting levels between instruments on the channel faders. Once that's roughly where I want it, then I might also write bus level automation To a GFader at this point as well, like in a section where I need the chords/keys to come down so a solo-type instrument can come up. I'll just drop the whole bus 2 dB or so. Etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, once it comes time for final mixdown, you can sit and tweak track and bus fader levels to get the right balance, but all of your RELATIVE volume changes are not affected. Those volume rides stay! I used to get really frustrated with volume automation because if you start writing it too soon, you could end up spending a ton of time later REwriting it after you have a better idea of the final track/bus levels. OR you get sick of dealing with that quagmire, so you put off writing volume automation until the very end, which means that you're trying to cram into 15-30 minutes what could / should have been many hours worth of detail work and small decisions.

You can even use multiple instances to great effect, which is not even a problem CPU-wise, as I've never had an instance of GFader go above a tiny tiny percentage of overall CPU. Like say you need a bunch of volume rides on a vocal part, either the main vocal, or the FX return level. Up and down 1-6 dB a few dozen times. But then you realize that you also want that same part/effect to get SLOWLY louder over the course of a few bars. Just throw on another instance of GFader to do that gradual fadeup, all while leaving your original rides intact. Perfect.

GVST's other free plugins are very worthwhile as well. GBand has great resonance.

All Alan Vista instruments are good. I especially like the melodic ones (marimba, bells, crotales, xylophone, vibraphone). If he came out with an MBira, I would be in heaven. Freeware at its best.

With this specific one, though, I can only get the hi hats to work. What am I doing wrong?

thanks, .