Product Reviews by KVR Members

Oooh...almost there. Sigh. Proclethya is a good-sounding synth (forget the effects-heavy presets!) that's just shy of greatness. It's pluses are it's easy to tweak, it's effects aren't half bad (they're serviceable), it has a nice graphic EQ, and it's arpeggiator is very good. Unfortunately, in this day and age where you can practically route any parameter in a synth's matrix, Proclethya only allows three or four (!) - Filter, Pitch, FM amount and Filter bipolar amount. I wish it could automate, for instance, the mix levels, pan filter Q or any parameter, really. Still, it is good for what it is and I do find it useful for sound design since it's so simple.

I love me some Cubase but there's been one annoying little issue they still haven't fixed even in 12.0, and that is the ability to easily increase or decrease the volume of the individual left/right audio waveforms. You really shouldn't have to jump through hoops such as exporting the waveform, adjusting it in an external audio program like SoundForge or Soundop, then importing it back in, or splitting the waveform in two within Cubase by rendering it in place as two separate files.

Venn's Utility does just what it claims - and it does it with ease. No muss, no fuss. Because it's such a lightweight plugin, you can just leave it live on a track to make future adjustments if you wish. It works well, has its own metering, and is free. Thanks, Venn, for providing this VST.

I had an opportunity to check out this synth today. It's interesting - with the depth and wealth of effects and modulations you can do with, I'm surprised it's often not mentioned in the same breath as, say, Serum, Sylenth1, Virus, etc. This sort of reminds me of the three Waves synths - very capable machines lost in the jungle of their company's more popular effect plugins. To be sure, a Moog imitation MPowerSynth is not. You won't get it confused with Diva, Minimonsta, The Legend, OB-E, or any of the thick-sounding virtual analog VSTi's out there. Not only does it not look analog-ish with it's straightforward clinical lines, but it's crisp sound is much cleaner. There's good and bad to that. If you want oak tree-thick, you have to apply one or more of their seemingly endless effects. If you want thin, bright and airy, it has that in spades. Mainly, I was impressed with this synth's versatility. In no time, I was able to cook up an interesting Cmin7 arpeggiation that'll do nicely as an ambient track. I'll definitely be using this synth more.

Yeah, I recently acquired this free plugin m'self. Very nice. The alto sax is a little on the thin-sounding side but that could easily be fattened up with a good compressor or EQ. The tenor sax is my favourite, though. It sounds beefy enough to use as is - with a little reverb, and maybe delay, to enhance it, of course.

I'll keep this brief. Being on fixed income, I, unfortunately, am perpetually low on funds. One of my favourite software synths of all time, which I no longer possess, was Sylenth1. I'd stopped writing music for a few years but just recently dived back into it. Out of curiosity, I sought out synths that were similar to Sylenth1. To my surprise, there are quite a few free 64-bit/step sequencer/note arpeggiator synths out there, some better than others in the sounds and programming department. While all the ones i tried out had their merits, I find that SuperTron 4 not only comes close to offering what Sylenth1 does but it sounds fantastic doing it., and that's probably due to its analog circuitry. The presets alone are a blast, especially the Bach one. Highly recommended if you're into pulsating, percolating, punchy synths.