Product Reviews by KVR Members

A good sounding acoustic piano with enough tweakability to make it useful in lots of different mixes.

The sound is good quality. Having any control over it is a bonus. Since it's free the mda Piano is worth your time grabbing. I use other samples, I have highly detailed multisampled pianos that are better but not by much.

Pros: great value for money, good sounding with just enough sound editing to make it useful beyond it's modest design
Cons: none

Great synth, simple to use, simple design and a good thing as there is no U/I. In return you get very low resouce use.

The sound has a Roland early 80's timbre although preset programs give a hint at how much can be done with this free synth.

Pros: low resources, great sound, good editing capabilities, it's free
Cons: no interface

If they made an interface I'd pay for it providing it wasn't unreasonably priced. You can't be hurt trying the JX10 so do so and have fun with a good synth.

My score was a bit uneven but if given an overall number by my standards this would be a solid 8.

FEH!

Everyone says what were (Steinberg) thinking. I'm thinking what was I thinking. Horrible value for money, the Wizzo kits are nice.

Not being able to easily create your own kit? What was I thinking? Shareware kicks it's ass. Freeware does too. I realize this was about all that was available initially but that's no excuse for the stupid design. What was I thinking when I actually bought this?

Pros: it works, Wizzo kits are worth some of the cost
Cons: terrible value for money, bad design for making new kits, arrogance to charge substatial money for new kits, beaten in quality and ease of use by freeware.

Editing a text file to create kits. Come on, for those of us that bought this we're almost as much to blame as Steinberg. I feel like a chump admitting I bought this plugin.

If you like string synths this is a great little synth to add to your collection. The sounds are crisp to warm, brittle to lush. For a free plugin you get a nice interface and effective but limited editing.

Pros: great synth string sounds, easy on the processor
Cons: a one trick pony, not much depth for editing

I'm glad I downloaded this VSTi, it was useful almost immediately.

Update...

The more I use Cheeze Machine the more I like it. It's one of the best freeware plugins available even though it's limited to string sounds.

Revision:

The more I've used Rainbow the more I learn about it. Unfortunately this is not a simple synth and by today's VSTi standards to some might not have a sexy interface (although I like it and once you understand what you are doing it is very functional). Rainbow finds it's way into a lot of mixes because of it's animated sounds and basses that can sound ferocious.

Also, the stability issues change with the system you use. On the Celeron 600 box it was orignally tested on stability was an issue where as on a Athlon XP1700 box - using the same midi/audio interfaces - there are no stability issues. Also, patches are available at the company site.

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I judge how much I like a synth in part by concept and execution along with how well it sits in a mix. Whether you consider it difficult to learn will depend on your background in subtractive synthesis, the less familiar the more the Rainbow2 most likely will be simple to work with.

After a few hours work on the demo I was able to make useful sounds from killer to sublime, enough to purchase it for the studio immediately. This is really an extrordinary synth for a reasonable price. Some will find the FM/AM based synthesis engine somewhat difficult but it's very flexible and a good compromise between classic 6 opperator FM and VA analog.

Pros: expressive and varied timbres, decent manual
Cons: slightly different than analog VAs, depending on the program can get resouce intensive

Not a N.I. FM-7 killer but a great sounding and easier to program FM oriented synth. Anyone that doesn't think FM can be warm needs to check out the Rainbow synth.

edited 10/21/02...

This and the Pro 52 are the first VSTi plugins I purchased and still one of my favorites. The PPG 2.3 was a deep and expensive synth that happened to be important in defining a new kind of sound and form of synthesis. It is digital yet has subtractive controls and a gritty but pleasantly warm filter.

The plugin is faithful to the synthesizer with a few improvements for making programming easier. Still this is a complex synth and while the manual tells you what every control does it doesn't explain how to program the PPG Wave 2.v.

Having 8 channel polyphony is fantastic and was one of the first VSTis to do this.

You have heard the sound of this synth if you were listening to pop music in the 80's, watching TV or film as the PPG sound was frequently used.

The sounds are excellent at what they do. Some may miss the point based on the stock presets. Try to get past them. The PPG 2.v can do fantastic pads, weird FX sounds, solid leads and bases too. The idea of working with wavetables, literally many different waves strung together as a 8 bit sample is a bit different from traditional synthesis, it was one of the first synths to use sample data. This is also the reason the PPG Wave 2.v is so capable of unique sounds.

There was an article about the making of the PPG Wave 2.v. It detailed how the actual synth was tested against the VSTi along with users who participated in beta testing the VSTi against their PPG 2.3 synths. The beta team agreed the PPG Wave 2.v was a software clone. So it is safe to say you will not get much close than this to a groundbreaking synth from the past, one that literally changed how designers thought about synthesis. In the same sense the PPG Wave 2.v did the same for VST instrument plugins as did the Pro 52.

There is much to learn which isn't addressed in the manual. That the PPG Wave 2.v is still popular after 2 years, a small eternity for software, tells you how fresh a 20 year old design can sound.

I originally wrote, "Do you need Attack? Probably not." I was wrong. It is totally useful as a drumsynth and for basses, leads and to some degree pads.

Some comments have been made about Attack not being as flexible as some other drum synths. Perhaps it isn't but truthfully Attack is much more than a drum synth and as such should be considered so.

You can create complete songs within Attack. It is easy on your CPU and has a distinct sound to it's synth and drum timbres.

Since it is synthesized timbres (the hi hats as sampled) you'll get a huge variety of drum sounds. Think Korg Electribe ER1 with more programming control but missing a step programmer.

Attack is one of the most used plugins in my setup. Almost any music can benefit from a bit of Attack in the mix.
Generous polyphony, a good synth engine and good presets help you get past the uninspired manual.

Pros: a must have for electronic percussion tweakheads, it sounds great and makes a good synth that sits well in mixes.
Cons: The manual is confusing, interface takes some getting used to.

Revised 3.1.02

Updated 1.8.03

CronoX 2 is a interesting concept, one you might expect to design in something like Reaktor or SynC Modular. The manipulation and use of any combination of VA analog, Time Stamp (sample playback), Loop and Schrader sample slicing in concert with multiple filter types, shared ADSFR envelopes for amplitude, filter and modulation along with LinPlug's now famous modulation matrix makes CronoX a great choice for pads, leads and strangely, percussion sounds.

The filters have a warm sound although I haven't been able to self-oscillate them, but this is a minor quibble. The sound is punchy but not huge compared to something like Pentagon. On the other hand the filters have a nice 80's sound along the Roland Juno synth line. There are 12 & 24db LP, BP and HP filters along with several effects choices. You can use only one effect although using a bit of programming creativity you can cover things like chorus and many modulation effects.

In my first review I said CronoX reminds me of wavetable synths. Well, with the Schrader module and a bit of modulation you'll be able to get microWave type sounds if not quite as in depth editing wise. But for the price, who cares?

The layout is intuitive and the manual is straight forward. It will take some time learning how to get the most out of CronoX 2 but it is realatively easy to learn and has the capability to do just about anything you want.

To say I am totally impressed with version 2 would be an understatement. Sure, you can find similar features in modular synths and even in Orion's 'Ultran' with it's deeper (and more difficult to learn) programming environment, but what may be missing in CronoX 2 is more than made up for with it's smart interface, easy functionality and flexiblity of sound.

It's even economical on the CPU.

A no brainer upgrade and totally worth checking into if you want a taste of more expensive VSTis.

A deep and musical sounding modular synth. Similar to N.I. Reaktor but a bit more complex. Great if you have the time to dig deep and still worthwhile because of the terrific user base and user synths.
Rich sounding pads, impressive capabilites at modeling sound and a decent visual presentation. For the $49 USD there isn't competition. It's a shame there will be no further development. Still, SynC Modular is like a great instrument, it has lots of capabilities that make it worthwhile.

Pros: fairly low CPU useage, excellent sound and effect capabilites
Cons: no longer in development, fairly steep learning curve