Product Reviews by KVR Members

BM Vice is a drum plugin of considerable talent that would make a capable replacement for the likes of Battery or Groove Agent for those who don't want to spend hours sorting out their drums. Like the other instrument's in Ujam's Beatmaker series, Vice offers instant gratification with enough depth to allow you to tweak everything into something that is uniquely yours.

The basic workflow is that you pick a top level preset, find the right pattern and trigger it from your sequencer. Like all of Ujam's instruments, the pattern buttons are arranged in a keyboard-like fashion so it is obvious which key you need to use to trigger a pattern. It is super-quick and easy to establish a great sounding beat for you to work from.

Patterns are arranged in preset groups. Within each group you get a couple of intros, a few verse patterns, some chorus patterns, a few fills and a couple of outtros, all spread over two octaves of keys. All up, I think there are more than 1000 patterns. Similarly, there are several different kits to choose from. Each kit has two different kick samples, two snares and various other percussion sounds. Lastly there are effects, again organised into a bunch of presets. Each top level preset, then, consists of a kit, a pattern group and an effects preset and there is plenty contained within those top- level presets to get you going. But it doesn't have to stop there...

There are several levels at which you can customise BM Vice to get your own, unique sound. First up, there are four macro sliders. On the left side you can alter the balance between the kick and snare and how much the kick pumps (compression) and on the right side there are sliders for the effects mix and intensity. You can also select a different kit, a different group of patterns and a different effect preset.

At the next level down you have individual control of volume, decay, pitch and a low-pass filter for each individual drum sample. You can also swap sounds between kits to create your own custom kit, but only like for like. e.g. You can swap Kick 1 in one kit for any kick in another kit but you can't swap a kick for a snare. You can also select either a single output or multi-out (a separate mixer channel for each sample). On the opposite side of the GUI you can adjust four parameters in whichever effects preset you are currently using.

The last level of customisation allows you to add extra hits to existing patterns, using your host's sequencer. The two octaves below the pattern octaves allow you to trigger individual drum hits, which means you can change the preset patterns easily, or create your own from scratch, so that every part of the patch is uniquely yours. You can also drag 'n' drop any preset pattern into your sequencer to create MIDI from it.

OK, all of that applies to every Beatmaker plugin, what's different in BM Vice? It's the style - BM Vice is all about the 80s and is full of drum sounds from classic 80s drum machines like the LINN Drum. Of course, it wouldn't be the 80s without those classic Simmons drum sounds and massive reverb, both of which are present and correct in BM Vice, the former via a kit and the latter through one of the effects presets. The patterns are also geared towards 80s synthwave type music, although I have found them to be much more versatile than that. Like its siblings, the bests thump and everything sounds great, right out of the box.

What makes all the Beatmaker plugins so good is that you can put in as much or as little effort as you like, yet you will always get great sounding drums. That means you can start off with a preset and refine your drums as your project progresses, until the finished product is uniquely yours, not just a preset 500 other people are also using. For $69 they are all crazy good value.

BM Eden v2 has several enhancements over the original that broaden its usefulness and appeal considerably, making it a far more capable replacement for the likes of Battery or Groove Agent for those who don't want to spend hours sorting out their drums. Like the other instrument's in Ujam's Beatmaker series, Eden offers instant gratification with enough depth to allow you to tweak everything into something that is uniquely yours.

The basic workflow is that you pick a top level preset, find the right pattern and trigger it from your sequencer. Like all of Ujam's instruments, the pattern buttons are arranged in a keyboard-like fashion so it is obvious which key you need to use to trigger a pattern. It is super-quick and easy to establish a great sounding beat for you to work from.

Patterns are arranged in preset groups. Within each group you get a couple of intros, a few verse patterns, some chorus patterns, a few fills and a couple of outtros, all spread over two octaves of keys. All up, I think there are more than 1000 patterns. Similarly, there are several different kits to choose from. Each kit has two different kick samples, two snares and various other percussion sounds. Lastly there are effects, again organised into a bunch of presets. Each top level preset, then, consists of a kit, a pattern group and an effects preset and there is plenty contained within those top- level presets to get you going. But it doesn't have to stop there...

There are several levels at which you can customise Eden to get your own, unique sound. First up, there are four macro sliders. On the left side you can alter the balance between the kick and snare and how much the kick pumps (compression) and on the right side there are sliders for the effects mix and intensity. You can also select a different kit, a different group of patterns and a different effect preset.

At the next level down you have individual control of volume, decay, pitch and a low-pass filter for each individual drum sample. You can also swap sounds between kits to create your own custom kit, but only like for like. e.g. You can swap Kick 1 in one kit for any kick in another kit but you can't swap a kick for a snare. You can also select either a single output or multi-out (a separate mixer channel for each sample). On the opposite side of the GUI you can adjust four parameters in whichever effects preset you are currently using.

The last level of customisation allows you to add extra hits to existing patterns, using your host's sequencer. The two octaves below the pattern octaves allow you to trigger individual drum hits, which means you can change the preset patterns easily, or create your own from scratch, so that every part of the patch is uniquely yours. You can also drag 'n' drop any preset pattern into your sequencer to create MIDI from it.

OK, all of that applies to all the Beatmaker plugins, what is different about Eden is that it's drums and patterns are designed for trance and other 4-on-the-floor dance styles so you get huge kicks, tight snares and lots of useful percussion elements. No matter what your musical style, you are bound to find a top level preset that will make the perfect starting point.

What makes all the Beatmaker plugins so good is that you can put in as much or as little effort as you like, yet you will always get great sounding drums. That means you can start off with a preset and refine your drums as your project progresses, until the finished product is uniquely yours, not just a preset 500 other people are also using. For $69 they are all crazy good value. I already have 3 out of 5 of these plugins and I'll probably end up with al of them.

Let me start by saying I am a big fan of Kilohearts. They make great, innovative products and they are a fantastic company to deal with, which makes it easy to give Phase Plant a solid recommendation. The method of product delivery and update is terrific and makes normally tedious admin easy. When Phase Plant was released I already had a handful of Snap-Ins and their synth plugin, kHs One, so I was confident it would be a decent synth. At first the price was higher than I was willing to contemplate so I didn't download the demo until they had a half-price sale last year. It took me about two minutes with the trial version to decide to spend the money.

I thought Phase Plant (PP) would be good to use in a more stripped back state, with just the minimum number of modules to deal with. My plan was to make a few different set-ups as presets - e.g. a 2 Osc V/A synth, a simple wavetable synth, etc. - almost like a Reaktor type set-up, and then patch those preset layouts as needed in my production work. You can definitely do that and get good results but what I discovered is that you get even better results from more complex set-ups and that PP's architecture makes it really easy to experiment with lots of different things, like placing distortion before the filter or between the oscillators and stuff like that. It's quick and easy and I find it very inspiring.

I started with just the basic set-up, plus the Snap-ins I already had and that was plenty, especially as you still get access to all the other Snap-Ins via the presets. So, for example, if you want to use a particular effect you don't own, just find a preset that uses it and construct your own layout around that. It sounds like cheating but, trust me, doing that makes you earn the privilege and you'll only do it once or twice before you realise it's just easier to buy the Snap-Ins you like and use. Since buying PP I have also bought another 3 or 4 Snap-Ins at full price and an extra 6-8 when they have been on sale for 50% off. I intend to buy everything that goes on sale for half-price until I have them all.

Sound quality is first-rate, no matter which oscillators you use. PP has a crisp high-end and a nicely balanced bottom end, which makes it very easy to work into a mix. Feature-wise, there are literally a million options but one area where I do find it comparatively lacking is in the filter department. A recent update added more modes but they all lack much character. They do the job well enough and you can coax more out of them with some effects but it would be great to see a few more options, especially some modelled filters with different character.

Modulation is easy with drag'n'drop, colour-coded so you can see what is modulation (blue) and what is an audio path (orange). The three separate effects lanes give you lots of flexibility with your signal routing, allowing you to have three separate synths in one or one synth with three times the power. The preset browser is pretty good and there are some excellent presets to fire your creativity. Saving your own presets is a breeze and they get saved into a separate User folder, making them easy to find again.

Overall, Phase Plant can be quite daunting and getting the most out of it can be a lengthy process. But the shear depth of ability and breadth of options available to you make it well worth the time and effort. If I wasn't such a cheap-skate I'd have known this a year earlier and been on board from the start, because it is definitely worth paying full price for. Now that I have a decent library of my own patches, it is one of the first synths I think of whenever I need a new part or want to replace an existing part that isn't working as well as I'd like. It is so capable it can do pretty much anything.

This Kontakt instrument is an absolute cracker! It works in the free Kontakt player so anyone can use it and it offers an incredible feature set. There are three separate instruments in the product. One allows you to play strings like you would on any synth. The second one, String Designer, lets you shape the sampled strings into sounds that are more like a synth. The final instrument, Loop Designer, allows you to choose and play preset pattern loops, as played by the orchestra. They allow you to stack three layers - bass, cello and violin/viola - to create powerful string arrangements for your compositions.

You get 6GB of sample content and the quality is amazing. It includes multiple articulations - sustain, tremolo, pizzicato and staccato - and you can mix between the close and room mics to get the best sound. There are plenty of effects too, including a step sequencer in the String Designer that you can use to modulate certain parameters to create your own synth-like rhythms, It goes way beyond your average string sample set. The Loop Designer also has plenty of loops for you to work with. You can mix and match loops between layers for even greater variety.

The instrument is very deep, you can go crazy creating your own patches and it takes a lot of time and effort to fully explore everything on offer. I was really surprise dhow complex it all is. That said, it's presented in a clear way and I didn't find it daunting at all. Once you have your sounds, playing the instruments is even easier. You use your left hand to set the note you want to play, within a single octave, and then you use the three higher octaves to select your loops. e.g. I might want to play the bass loop that's mapped to the F in bass octave, the cello loop on the B key and the loop on E for the violin. I just have to press those three keys momentarily to select those loops. If I want them to play in the key of G, I press the G key with my left hand. If I go from G to A, it raises the pitch of each of the three loops by two semitones. So you play your melody with your left hand and you use your right hand to change any of the three rhythms (loops). It's dead easy and very addictive.

NOVO Essentials is one of those things that you probably have to experience to appreciate. The demo only includes a tiny proportion of the samples but it will give you a good idea of the potential of the package. If you want orchestral strings in your songs and you can't justify spending several hundred dollars on them, this thing will more than get you up and running. I envisage using it for years without having to worry about repeating myself or sounding like everyone else. Highly recommended.

Aparillo is a strange and wonderful beast. It's an interesting take on a well established form of synthesis - FM. Like the classic DX-7, it uses sine waves to modulate one-another to create complex, rich timbres. But where the DX-7 had 8 operators, each with it's own multi-stage envelope, Aparillo uses just 4 operators that share a single ADSR envelope. It's relatively easy to wrap your head around so if you have a bit of an understanding of FM synthesis, you won't have any trouble making a few basic patches with that distinctive FM edge to them. But that's just the start of what Aparillo has to offer because it has 16 copies of this set-up ready for you to modulate and sequence in amazing ways.

The UI gives away the main game - the prominence of the LFOs in the centre of the interface tells you straight away that they are central to what Aparillo can do. Crucially, the interaction of the LFOs adds unique qualities to the results you get from this instrument. The LFOs are used to offset the 16 voices to provide anything from a subtly shifting thickness to the sound or complete mayhem. Add in a simple sequencer that plays off what's happening with the LFOs, sequencing each of the 16 voices in turn, and you've got yourself an absolute monster of a synth. But that's still not the end of it.

Lastly we have the Orbit, which is a dynamic, visual tool for provoking even more modulation/mutation of the sound. It consists of 16 widgets for each of the modulatable parameters, including some effects parameters, plus the Orbiter, which is the control element. As you move the Orbiter around it connects with different parameter widgets and as it gets closer to a widget, the amount of modulation on that parameter increases. You can record the movement of the Orbiter to create a patch that morphs over time in a very natural, organic way or you can set it up statically to add an extra layer of modulation to any parameter(s).

As I mentioned, there are also effects - a filter, a delay, a reverb, a panner and a spatialiser effect that can do some pretty cool things. The effects sound great but they lack a lot of control. e.g. You can't control the delay feedback, which is set quite high, so it's not always useful. They have their uses, though, and as their controls can be modulated, they add a bit extra to the sound design process.

Aparillo is a great synth but it is not without it's limitations. There are a few missing modulation sources. It would be nice to see aftertouch included in a future update, as well as maybe a few key MIDI CCs to add more hands-on control. As it stands, though, there is still plenty of scope for making lots of unique, amazing sounds. It's probably not going to be anybody's go-to synth but when you're after something weird and whacky, it could be just the thing. BTW, the blurb reads like it might be a monosynth but it's not, it also has a polyphonic mode where you can play chords and get all 16 voices per note.

EDIT: I changed the rating to 5 stars when I realised that the Orbit section allows you to add a second modulation source to any or all parameters. I also changed the text to highlight this.

Monoment Bass, while limited in many ways, is a beast! The presets it ships with really dont' do it justice. It's only when you start to play around with it yourself that it reveals its real strengths.

Start with the first preset and you'll see straight away some of the very clever things they have done here. e.g. Every synth I have ever owned or used has had a simple osc mixer to blend the outputs of the oscillators. Monoment has that but it also has the option to use a cross-over so that one oscillator can be your sub with the second oscillator providing all the character above it. It's such an obvious thing but still kinda brilliant. So turn that off and move the mixer all the way to Source A (Osc 1). Now go to the drop-down and start previewing those 2 gigs of sampled content to see just what's actually in there for you to exploit. It's very impressive. To make the point that it is definitely a bass synth, the samples don't go past about half-way up the 4th octave. I assume this is to save disk-space and download bandwidth.

The simplified filter envelope is an interesting thing and I think it's probably the biggest limitation of the synth. It's certainly quick and easy but it limits some of your choices. The filter itself is OK. I really like how big the difference is between the 6 dB/oct and 24 dB/oct modes. It's ostensibly a bass synth so it's low-pass only. The cutoff knob and modulation works a bit strangely. Cutoff sets the maximum amount the filter can be open and all the modulation you add uses that value as a ceiling, where every other synth I have ever used adds all the (positive) modulation to the cutoff frequency.

Elsewhere, the Punch control adds real "punch" (unsurprisingly) to the envelope attack for some hard-hitting basslines. The included effects - distortion, reverb, EQ, multiband compression and spatialisation - all contribute nicely to the polish of the final sound. There is also a kind of third osc that adds analog garbage to the patch and an Age knob that determines how much of it you hear in the output. It's not my thing so I won't say anything about it beyond the fact that it's very subtle. Overall, the sound is very good, thick and huge where it counts - in the bottom end - yet remains easy to control.

The preset browser has come in for some (largely unwarranted) criticism but what people don't seem to notice is that it doesn't just open in a new window inside your host, it opens in a new window all of its own. That means you can drag it outside your host and place it anywhere you like, like on a second monitor. That means you can scroll through presets and make tweaks as you go without having to constantly switch between preset view and your main GUI. If they got rid of the large thumbnails in the window, I reckon this browser would be awesome. As it is, it's still very usable.

There are a couple of other downsides. It doesn't respond to anything other than velocity, so you will need to program any movement or expression into it via your sequencer. 5D expression would be awesome but just a bit of mod wheel response would do. Pitch-bend does work but it's utility is minimal, at best. CPU usage is also rather high for a sample-based instrument.

Monoment Bass makes some wonderful noises and it is stupidly quick and simple to use, once you get used to it's slightly weird ways. The sound is very classy and I have a feeling it is going to feature strongly in my work from now on.

Trueno is a unique beast in several ways. Obviously the concept of putting analogue circuitry into a USB dongle and controlling it all from a VSTi is unique but so is the character of the sounds you get from it. It has a gritty character that you just don't hear in modern synths any more. Listening to the presets takes me back to the early 80s and the sounds I was getting from my Arp Axxe or Korg Mono/Poly. When you start to work on your own sounds, that character shines through even more. Even in paraphonic mode, where you only get one oscillator per note, the sound has a width and depth that surprises.

Another unique thing about Trueno is that it isn't just an analogue synth, it also has a range of digital (additive) oscillators available and you can edit them to create a virtually limitless range of oscillator sounds to work with. The way it works is definitely unique - the USB dongle generates the raw analogue oscillator tones and contains the analogue filter but everything else is done on your computer, via the standalone app or the VSTi plugin. So it's a hardware synth that can also be a bit of a CPU hog at times. Strange but true.

You get 3 oscillators and you can select from the three analogue waveforms - saw, pulse or triangle (plus noise on Osc 3 only) - or multiple digital waveforms on each one. Each osc has it's own gain control and once you get the gain above about half-way, it starts to overdrive the filter, which is where the fun really starts for me. It can get amazingly thick and nasty with little or no effort. The filter itself offers low-pass and band-pass modes and is flexible enough with resonance that is very controllable. Osc 3 can be used as an analogue modulation source, with limited destinations.

For such a small, clean interface, Trueno packs a lot of features. You get dedicated filter and amp envelopes but there are also 4 x modulation envelopes and 4 x LFOs, all with drag-n-drop assignment and straightforward control. It's very intuitive once you take 10 minutes to read the printed manual that comes with the synth.

It's not all roses, I've had a few problems where the sound starts to get distorted and the only way to fix it is to shut down Cubase and restart it. (Unplugging the synth didn't fix it.) It has only happened twice but it was a bit of a buzz-killer both times. That said, it's a small price to pay for a synth with such a great, unique character that is so much fun to work with, it's not even worth knocking a star off for.

Sektor is a good little synth with a real edge to it's sound that elevates it beyond it's seemingly humble feature set. It has great workflow and is so intuitive you shouldn't need a manual to get into it. That said, there are plenty of YouTube tutorials to get you started if you need them.

The synth has two wavetable oscillators, as well as a sample oscillator taken from the developer's Heat Up 3 VSTi. It ships with several gigs of content so there are no shortage of either wavetables or sampled content> I'd say there something like 250 wavetables, a similar number of single samples and more than 100 multi-sampled instruments to choose from, which is enough to cover most people's needs several times over, I suspect. It also comes with a ridiculous number of presets. A good browser makes them relatively easy to find. The wavetable oscillators can have up to 16 unison voices with detune and spread. There is a phase parameter, which means phase modulation is possible, and FM is also offered. There is also an OSC+ page in the central screen that allows you to mess with the unison voices in each wavetable oscillator for some slightly DUNE-style complexity.

The two filters are probably the weakest part of the signal path. They aren't terrible but they are nothing special, either. They do the job you need them to and that's about all. They only run in parallel and you can control how much of each wavetable oscillator is fed into each. One good feature is the Drive parameter, which does add character to the sound without being too over the top.

Modulation sources are plentiful - 3 x ADSR envelopes, 3 x multi-segment envelopes and 4 x LFO. Modulation can be assigned using drag 'n' drop and there is a mod matrix for fine control. Modulation also shows up in the controls so you can see how it is affecting parameter values. It's pretty comprehensive.

Elsewhere you get two racks of effects, each with 9 simultaneous effects. I have found them to be quite usable. There is also a fully programmable sequencer/arpeggiator. The UI is very customisable, with several different skins, choice of colours within each and it is also resizable. Sektor also supports MPE, although I've never put that to the test.

The best part of Sektor, though, is the sound. It has it's own, gritty character. It is very in your face and more than a little bit digital sounding most of the time. Normally that would put me off but Sektor manages to do it in a way that's not as harsh as some other synths. With unison and the OSC+ page it can sound absolutely massive, yet CPU use is very low. On my modest Core i5 dual-core CPU, I can play a three note chord with 16 voice unison on both oscillators and the CPU stays under 10%.

Overall, I think it is a very useful synth that anyone would find plenty of work for. I don't think it would be anyone's go-to synth but it has something a bit different to offer that makes it easy enough to justify owning. At full price it is OK value but it is often on sale and at sale prices it's a no-brainer. The developer is also quite responsive to user's needs and it gets updated fairly regularly with the most requested fixes/features.

I got Thorn cheap as a side-grade from the excellent Tantra effect but even at full price it is an absolute bargain. It would be easy for some to talk for pages about the synthesis method but I'm more interested in the sound that comes out at the end, not what gets put in at the start, so I'll try to make it more of a brief overview of what it's like to actually use.

The two oscillators use spectral (additive) synthesis to create both basic and complex waveforms. You get loads of presets and you can open an editor to muck around with the partials and change the sound, although to my ears you don't get much value from doing that. There is also a Harmonic Filter which removes certain partials, which I assume it is doing digitally, not like a normal filter (because there is also a Comb Filter in the other Filter section). Suffice to say that you have a lot of control over the way the raw oscillator sounds. You get a few options, like detune, pan, volume and unison per oscillator, and each of the three oscillators can be routed to either filter. You can copy/paste settings between oscillators. There is also a separate noise oscillator.

The Filter Section has two multi-mode filters with a great sounding Drive circuit that can add as much meat to the sound as you like. There are around 20 different filter types, that include everything except a notch filter (which you could make by using one filter low-pass and the other high-pass). You can definitely tell the difference between the different filters and you are bound to find one that works for whatever it is you are trying to do. The two filters can be locked together and you have the option of running them in series or parallel.

You get three ADSR envelopes, which include parameters for Key Track and Velocity, plus two MSEGs and two LFO. There is a Mod Matrix for making complex modulation assignments, as well as knobs where it's handy, e.g. envelope modulation of Cutoff. There are 9 high quality effects built in. Of special note is the Distortion effect, which is just about the best distortion I have ever used. It can be very subtle or completely bonkers, depending on the settings. There is also a limiter built into the output section.

There are two separate sequencers in Thorn. The Arpeggio is actually a fairly standard, easy to use step sequencer that works as an offset to the input note. The Glitch Sequencer is something else that really sets Thorn apart. Using both together can give some amazing results. I can't imagine how much more crazy it could get if you also threw the MSEGs into the mix. What's great about using these features in Thorn is that you can make things sound really harsh, like Massive's glitchy sound, or you can keep it smooth and interesting to add a bit of flavour or texture to an arrangement or a sound. It's extremely versatile.

Thorn comes with lots of presets and what I like is that rather than try to dazzle the user with all the capabilities of the synth, many of them seem to have been crafted to allow the user to take them and build on them to make your own sounds. Better still, you get lots of presets for different parts of the synth - there are preset waveforms, presets for the Harmonic Filter, presets for the Arpeggio and Glitch Seq and presets for the MSEGs. This means you don't have to do everything yourself or just use preset sounds. You can very quickly make something that is uniquely yours by combining a few of the existing presets into something new and brilliant (because all your work is brilliant, right?). It's all part of the attention to detail that includes nifty things like being able to shift each sequencer's events left or right to line up with the rhythm you are trying to get. It even has it's own undo/redo.

What I really love about Thorn is that it can have such a great character. The harsher, more digital stuff is good but when it gets all warm and analogue-like it really starts to stand out from the pack. It is great for big, beefy basslines, it has some absolutely sublime pads and the SEQ presets are simply incredible. Best of all, the way it's put together means that you can start creating your own sounds, which will be just as good, almost straight away. It is all so well thought out that everything makes sense from the first time you load it up. Download the trial and listen to some of the presets and you'll see just what I mean. It's so good I have run out of superlatives to describe it so I'll shut up.

I bought a Roli Seaboard Rise about a year ago and it comes with Equator. Obviously it is designed to work with Roli's "5 Dimensions of Touch", which is achieved via MPE, which more hosts are supporting all the time. But don't think that means you have to have an MPE controller to use it because the VSTi works great with or without MPE.

What you get is a six oscillator synth with two multi-mode filters and more modulation options than you'll know what to do with. There are two sample-based oscillators, a noise oscillator and three V/A oscillators with around 50 different waveforms to choose from. The way it works reminds me a bit of Junglist/Hydra for those who can remember those instruments - you get a big, long list of drawn waveforms. The V/A oscillators can be used for FM, with four different algorithms on offer. Overall, it offers an incredibly broad range of options. You get a few samples when you install the instrument and there are more to download. The minimum size of the download is about 760MB and expansion pack adds another 1.2GB or so, which means you are getting a good range of high quality samples to work with.

Both filters are the same, with 13 different types available, covering all the usuals plus a comb filter and a few variations. The filters are OK, they get the job done, without really standing out.

Modulation is a stand-out feature. There are two LFO and five envelopes. The envelopes have four different modes - ADSR, ADR, ADADR and ADA-PR and, along with the LFO, can be synced to host tempo. The LFO have seven different waveforms to choose from. Beyond these features are the five dimensions of touch - STRIKE, PRESS, GLIDE, SLIDE and LIFT. You can set a response curve for each to match your playing style, giving you very fine control over how the instrument responds.

The way you add modulation is really simple - select a source, which is highlighted with an amber border, then go to the parameter you want to modlulate and adjust it's controls. The selected range will highlight in amber (normal settings are shown in blue). Once the modulation is set, the control for that parameter will animate so you can see it working. e.g. If you modulate the cutoff for Filter 1 with Envelope 2, every time you play a note, you will see the cutoff knob jump up and slide back, according to the shape of the envelope. It makes it so easy to see what's going, it is one of the most effective modulation schemes I have ever used. There is also a hidden tab with a "modulation list", which is just like the Mod Matric in many other synths.

The effects section is very good - high quality, great sounding and easy to use. There is a tab for routing everything so it's a breeze to set up complex signal paths to take full advantage of the effects. It's also where you can turn the overall volume of a patch up/down. The final tab is for global settings.

It's not perfect, though, The windows where you adjust the envelopes are far too small, making it hard to get precise values. At least you can zoom the 5D response curve windows (another tab). To be honest, I'd have preferred just two or three envelopes with bigger windows. CPU use is more than reasonable for what's on offer - 3% to 6% for a single voice on my Core i5 2-in-1 and 6-11% for a three note chord.

Overall, Roli have put a lot of effort into making Equator extremely powerful, yet easy to use in a way many other developers struggle to deliver. Almost everything is visible on the front panel, which can be resized by grabbing the bottom-right corner and pulling (it only gets bigger) and those things that are hidden behind tabs are all things you hardly ever need to see. The sound quality is stellar and using it as it is meant to be used, with a Seaboard controller, makes for an expressive experience out of the box that's pretty much unbeatable. But if you want to buy it as a standalone product, you won't get the full experience, which makes it's asking price very steep. If you ever see it for $99, grab it, otherwise think carefully before making a decision.