Product Reviews by KVR Members

As long as you don't expect it to be a typical well-behaved VA suitable for leads and plucks etc., XORbot can be great fun for lovers of exploration.. finding sudden complex resonances and rhythmic patterns emerging out of what are essentially relatively simple ingredients kept me glued to settings-tweaking for a good long time.

Capable of evoking good ol' analog "electronic tonalities" Krellishness, or the more modern naked-binary-flavored madness, should one wish.

Much thanks to FSA for XORbot- I'll try my best to dial in some presets that give hint to the depths possible at some near point in the future.

Minus one star for not allowing MIDI notes to affect the sound.. I'd love to, for instance, have a toggle for "MIDI note to: (0 to 1)(-1 to 1)" conversion, as to potentially unlock yet more madness within these Boolean-based buddies (go grab NANDroid, it's awesome too).

For a VSTi dating from over 10 years ago, this still holds up wonderfully well; if you can run 32-bit plugins and have a hankering for evolving, spacey, mystical pads, Golden ASET is perfect, and still worth the $$. Both the GUI and presets show the difference in being both talented and caring about quality- I'd gladly spend money on Vera Kinter's work any time. A point off for being old and limited to 32-bit Windows. Ease of use, support, and documentation all match the level of sight and sound on offer, she is quick to respond and unfailingly helpful and polite.

Don't let the looks and age of this one fool you- there's a lot more to WhiteLightning than one might think at first glance. The large number of well-organized presets is one clue that the developer didn't just cobble this together in an hour and call it a day, and while tweaking the controls to roll your own might be a bit painful on the eyes after a while, it's still nice to see something slightly different from, and a bit more subtle than, the bog-standard ADSR/LFO arrangement in a VA synth.

Not relying on a gazillion waveforms or filter types to come up with interesting sounds, WhiteLightning proves that sometimes taking a slightly different approach to an old idea can yield satisfactory results.. now if only a talented GUI specialist could give it a badly needed makeover, it might end up a bit higher on people's radar. If you don't have a problem with Win x86-only, and you're willing to explore an older but well-made and creative take on the bread-and-butter VA, I strongly suggest giving WhiteLightning a try. The very dated GUI and 32-bit limitation kept my score from being higher.