Product Reviews by KVR Members

Multitrack Studio has one major advantage over other DAWs - it's very straightforward. While other DAWs sometimes feels like you are looking at space shuttle controls, MTS it very intuitive with small number of controls to choose from. When you don't know how to use something hover over it with cursor, press F1 and voila - you get very well written documentation open on exact chapter what you need.

It has built-in general MIDI sounds. These are not most realistic ones but are actually very usable (just keep in mind that these sounds works only on some range of notes similar to real instruments). It also have Hammond-like Wheel organ, chromatic (Sampler - which can play soundfont files) and drum (Matrix Sampler) samplers. You can make whole arrangement using just MTS built-in sounds.

It also have all types of effect types you can possibly need. I rarely load effects VSTs to MTS as everything I am looking for is already there.

It has obviously some downsides too - some things are not possible at all, working with MIDI patterns is very limited, it's basically one man show and it's almost unknown, so there is no big community to ask questions (it's not that a problem as you can figure out a lot of things just by looking at UI and reading help file).

It's not industry standard. But if you just want to do some multitrack recording and you don't want to waste your time by trying to understand some convoluted software UI this can be your tool.

When I started musing around VST plugins I looked for host which would suit my needs. I needed something free that would be usable for live playing or improvisations (as I can't read notes). Fortunately it was time when the Element was just open sourced and it definitely became my home DAW. It's very fast (even on slow machines), has intuitive interface and it's developer is very responsive on Github.

However - it's not built for conventional scenarios. It lacks timeline and all the recording (and sound editing) functions. I actually ended implementing my own four-track recorder VST, but this actually fits my workflow.

So if you are looking for conventional DAW for recording, this is not for you. But if you are looking for something fast for synth improvisations, sounds effect rack or for some modular environment this is your tool.

I was wondering if there was a freeware modular synth. I discovered this gem and was surprised that it even has a polyphony.

It's very well-advised concept and it has very good balance between simplicity and flexibility. Once you get idea about difference of master modules and voice modules (and common section), you are able to create simple polyphonic patches. And there is a lot of patches to steal ideas from.

Definitely recommended, only thing you can loose is your time playing with it.