Product Reviews by KVR Members

For me and my ambient taste this is by far the best Mirage library so far.

It really uses the options of the 3 soundsource library with great presets that get you instantly going.

I especially love that there has been really much work and thinking going into the preset naming, so far for me every preset simply sound like I would expect from the naming. That helps so much for finding the sound you are looking for.

Of course this is mainly about pad and drone ambient preset but the few plucks/rhythmic movements/textures are nice and usable too. Interesting that while all pads, athmos, drones and so on all go into one category "pads" there is a small extra texture section.

I have not even come close enough to look into the soundsources (which are not that much and divided again in an unusual way with air/mid/low/vocal) more in detail cause the presets are really capturing attention so far.

What a sad occassion :-(.

And what a beautiful way to remind of one of the greatest devellopers out there who really had passed far to early....

His VST just kind of opened my way to electronic music and my mind to ambient stuff....

And Wheel of fortune maybe was the highlight of his work. I really wonder that no one followed his path till today really....

Really thanks for this, a beautiful rememberance in evryway, the sounds and instruments really give a glance and little inside of his work. And (as usual with your products :-)) a beautiful GUI.

This is a really great synth with not only good sound but really much thinking seem to have gone into the gui to make it as "clear" as possible.

As I am not that big sounddesigner I love especially the randomn button nearly in evry section, I dont think I have seen something like this before.

Only "downer" so far (which is why I only give 4 instead of 5) are the only few presets.

What I would really, really love to see is a preset bank added with the presets of that marvellous demo song (which makes me, next to the great devellopper "history" with lot of real gems) curious to test this out.

For the usual expert sounddesign user this will not be a problem, but as the song just got the sounds I really would like to get me started..... :-).

Since then I will do my best to get something going.....

As all the great stuff from Homegrown sounds it really lives from the.

great and musically usefull randomizers for nearly any of the functions.

and on different levels (whole instrument, pattern, line....). This way.

you get great results in short time by just using the randomizers without.

really understanding whats going on :-). As it is sometimes not so easy.

to get evrything these complex maschines can do this is really a good.

starting point to get into it.

This one is - within the ALL very special libraries from Homegrown sounds.

- special in the way that it combines a great melodic/harmonic sequencer.

with a drum sequencer in one instrument. So to make it short: feed some.

chords in, hit the randomizers till you get something to your liking and.

you have kind of a nearly complete accompaniement sketching track :-). Of.

course this works great together with already existing track to, for.

example to give them rhythm/pulse to a pad or whatever. And the results.

are really sounding great with a special "vibe" :-).

Another important thing for me and different from some of the other.

libraries: it is not based on loops but on waves (it is a kind of.

wavesequencer).

What I had to admit: if you REALLY want to understand this beast and tame.

it you have to take some time. But once you get into it you are ready for.

all the other great Homegrown sounds libraries cause the principles are.

similiar (came from the same genious mind :-)).

Little hint: there is actually a group buy going on till march 17 2019.

where you can get LOTS of stuff for really cheap, worth to have a look .

Hi, .

I like to give you some very first impressions of Abstrung the new library by (in my opinion) much underrated Audiofier:

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/abstrung-by-audiofier.

I already have Sequi2R and the follow up Sequi2R EX (with a lot of expansions included) but skipped over the first version of their new series vesper cause "bells and whistles" just not my sounds.

Now I could not resist the new Abstrung, same concept then Vesper but with "strungs" (Abstrung :lol:) and plucks (my sounds :D).

Took some time with nearly 20 GB download to get evrything working but then I was just overwhelmed :o .

Me, the preset addicted and NO nki-instruments, no snapshots ????

NO, you really dont need. After this I will open my pc an look for this bunch of mini composers where they have been hidden.

NO, thats NOT random, not at all. Evry click brings a new (whatever magic does that trick) well designed preset :o :o :o.

AND: you can choose a sound category from the browser for the random sound generation.

And if you do this it is far more then just a plucks and strings thing.

Choose "spacey" and in no time you have a texture, soundcape, pad, athmophere whatever you like.

Have not come further now, four other categorys waiting to be explored.....

And magic goes on. If you have the sound you like in general there are two alternative ways to go on: use the crystal engine (no, I wont try to explain, you must have a look on yourself) it just adds kind of magic to your sound or use a very polished and feature rich double step sequencer following the root note and scale you choose.

I must admit ad this point as a hobby musician with more enthusiasm then knowledge I never really managed to master Sequi2r in all its possibilities, just to much for me so I am really fine with using the presets and just playing a little bit with the sequencer on first level.

But was makes this series so outstanding is the ease of use:

- choose a soundcategory you like
- use the sound composer (no, I wont call it random cause it just isnt :lol:)
- and then add the magic with crystal or a double sequencer.

Of couse there are a bunch of special fx, I dont think I will need them much but of course they are there and as easy to use as the rest.

So I will go back to magic :party:

Have a look at it if you like, it is really marvellous.

Part 1: Sample Player/Sampler/Rompler (mainly focused on the Wusik Station V8)

I call it Part 1 cause I have not come further then to loose myself in this ocean of ready made sounds. So all the hundreds of modules and modulation possibilities are left for later and maybe a part 2 :-))).

Back to the simple use as a sampler. For the installation process and getting to the point where it sounds (presets in the browser) you have to take a little time and patience for downloading the additional sounds and copy them where they belong to (I just left evrything in the default directory). And you should read the (spare) information coming with the installation files. The quick guide for wusik 4000 still gives the really needed information from 4000 to wusik station V8.

Evrything is simple but maybe a little bit different as the whole thing is :-))). So for example you just have to understand the difference between a soundset and a preset but I am sure you will get it (faster then this old man writing this review here I am sure).

Then the fun begins: someone wrote somewhere (dont remeber where) "it is not Kontakt". NO, it is not, and as far as I am concerned thats why this thing is so wonderful. When you take your journey to the presets (the presets browser is one of the best I have seen so far, only downer: the scroll bar on the right is nearly invisible for me no matter which skin I take) you realize that they are on first level categorized by sounddesigners (dnekm, artvera) or special collections.

And thats the difference to something like Kontakt you really can hear: evry sound here is designed by SOMEONE who puts his heartblood in making THIS special sound. You might like it or not, but it is something special, not just polished common without ups and downs like Kontakt (and comparative). I have bought Kontakt long time ago mainly cause of the available free or very cheap libraries that had this something special, now it seems evrything I need from all this great libraries seems to be there in one place :-))).

Of course it depends on music taste and style, but for my part of the music universum (soundscapes, ambiences, athmospheres, natural and nice sounding things :-)) etc.) it was really like a manifestation.

For a short adjustment of the sound you have two tabs for master and fx, there you can adjust evrything you need for evry involved layer of the sound.

Just as a short hint: Wusik4000 and Wusik8000 goes more deeper into the modular building and modulating of sounds, but thats for (maybe) a part 2.

Thank you William for giving this to the world.

Maybe as intro: definitely nothing for the people who principally hate that kind ("machine composition") of stuff.

It is really kind of an exotic beginning of a software development even for someone who nearly tried all of the available stuff in that corner in the last ten years.

What really makes it kind of hard to rate is that the great ideas you can imagine behind the software are implemented I would say less then 10 %.

So there is the great concept, the easiness of general use, musically not bad results on the pro.

And then the list of features begins which are in the actual state (I think other devloppers would not even have calle it alpha-state....):

- Nearly no editing functions for the developped composition apart of chord editing: that means no editing/re-composing of individual 4 track "patterns", no editing/re-composing of individual tracks in these patterns/song.

- Of course no individual editor for the patterns/tracks/song.

- Not even the possibility to make lets say ten different compositions and copy the best patterns from all the compositions in one track.

- So the only thing left is to copy some patterns and turn some tracks on or off.

Useless to go deeper in detail cause without even some basic editing functions in the current state it is only good for one thing: take what it composes as a whole and so more or less as a yoke for kids. But that for me is not a "Sketch" application without any useable editin functions.

I have bought it for the intro price, hard to say if it worth it (compard to the competitors definitely NOT worth the regular price), I am really hoping that they will work on it and at least ad some rudimentary editing functions (evrything more of course more then welcome). And in my wildest dreams it COULD become a very good and still easy to use application for real song sketching but thats (at the moment) lightyears away.

I am a little disappointed cause the developpers in the past stand for solid work and not some alphas thrown in the market but lets see what time might bring.

So as conclusion: actual more a 3-4 on the scale but with potential to reach the 10.

Just to mention what could be added (that mean not the now obvious missing functions for working as it should but really new addons): melody track (o.k., I know it is called CHORD sketcher :-))), velocity on the tracks....

For european customers (as mentioned in the forum before): really annoying that the payment just dont fit, they change dollar to euro 1 to 1 and then add VAT, so you pay more euros then dollars in the end (no answer from the support to this remark from me send last week...).

EDIT 06.01.2016:

Still no support and no answer to questions, but 1.0.3 update definitely a win, now possibility to edit single instruments/rhythms, thats definitely a lot more fun. So changing the ratin to 6, maybe if further updates improve in same way then from 1.0 to 1.0.3......

Lets see how long this will last until deleted like the first review posted from someone else.

It is really a pity, the ideas that goes into the program, the easiness of handling, could be a really nice program. The three windows for songstructure, pattern editing and chord progressions are great. Simple midi-export, a lot of not explained (maybe only planned ???) things under the hoot (for example VST support), but:

NO SUPPORT AT ALL.

NO USER GUIDE.

NO CHANCE TO REBUILD DEFAULT STATUS OF PROGRAM.

Even for bugs that stop the program from being useable at all. I just lost some important windows (patterns, preset patterns), no chance to restore. No view menue, even uninstalling, cleaning registry and reinstall wont help.

Have asked two questions via contact formular a week ago, before buying: no anwer.

Then cause of the really nice intentions decided to buy.the same.

Asked in two mails few days ago with general questions (user guide etc.): no answer.

Yesterday windows gone, tried to reinstall, searched for possible causes, three mails with screens etc: NOTHING.

And so my conclusion: NO it is not "been a pleasure doing business with you!" like they said in the only mail I ever get with the download link (of course automatically generated.....)