Product Reviews by KVR Members

"Big no no" with full price.

"Yes" for discounted price.

Very controversial drumkit.

It is modelled drums, but not fully - sample assisted, so it still eats your drivespace yet not ten of gigs. Presets are loading fast though.

It has a lot of control in ways you maybe did not think of, but at the same lacks some usual controls like ADSR/Pitch Envelope.

There is bunch of neat FX, but no transient shaper. But it has easy external bus management/rounting - so you have workaround here.

Sounds good, but main attention on snares, others (especially kicks) have no such variety of controls.

It is almost unbelievable to get desired sound right out of factory presets - you need some knob mangling. Honestly, I do not remember if got immediate results with any drumkit, but it seems MODO needs to be tweaked more.

For the first drumkit - it is very expensive (unless you got it with discount at >50%). For owners of top-tier drumkits like AD/SD/BFD - MODO will not give you much, unless you are totally into process of sound tweaking.

Nevertheless you should trial it.

4 star only in case of discount price <50$. For full price it would be2-3.

Cons:

Despite it has "legato" patches you will not be able to use them - it seems there is no people who know what to do with MP2 CE "legato" articulations. Algorithm of using "legato" mode differs from usual, but what it exactly is... no info in the manual, no info in forums. Supposedly "legato" patches should be used in fast runs - at least in this way the sound makes sense.

Pros:

Full orchestra at decent price. Good sample recording. It is much more usable, than free alternatives (vsco ce, labs, bbc so discovery). It does not allow you to make pure orchestral music, but you can write decent melodies/parts and not only "organic textural pads".

It makes almost no sense for full price - better get more money for more powerful alternatives.I do not see point to buy full version of MP either - you will have higher sample resolution and a bit more articulations with the "non-legato legato".

For discounted price it is good, sometimes very good.

I write this review only because i disagree with 1/2 star rating.

Cons:

Obviuosly it is not perfect software:

1. MIDI export is ridiculous. I use reaper x64 and did not face technical issues, it worked as intended by twisted minds of developers. It works, but you won't like how it does.

2. GUI is outdated, but it is related to all AIR.

3. Highly unlikely you will find any third party libs/grooves for strike.

4. Key mapping is fixed within software (to use MIDI patterns from other soft drums - you can use MIDI key remapping (at least in reaper)).

Pros:

1. Price. I'm not talking about full price - it quite often on sale (discount differs).

2. It is quite fast. I tried Slate Drums (in fact it was choice for me between discounted SSD and discounted Strike). I did not like SSD workflow - it is more "modern" but just did not ignite me in anyway. It loaded samples very slow (or it seemed so for me). Strike was like Flash superhero in comparison (but if you have fast drive - that's not issue, i think).

3. Strike has very fun to experiment possibilities to humanize/randomize built in patterns. Just playing with knobs can give you interesting results. In fact it can somehow explain why MIDI export is so clunky - because built in patterns are not MIDI chunks, but patterns with "variation logic". You can edit them in internal editor.

Overall:

I would not recommend it for full price. In long run it may not be perfect choice. If you can grab it at good price 20-40$ (yes it can go as low as 20 sometimes) - i think it is good point to transit from free drum software to paid.

Absolutely gorgeous sound for Unobtanium guitar with Mithril strings, played by Cyborg from Alpha-Centauri. It has strings, it can be strummed, amplified but it does not sound like something you hear on stage, or near campfire.

Background for my opinion: I'm not a guitar player - only keys. My main music interests: electronic/edm/experimental/hybrid.

I tried to choose my first guitar VI to buy. Of course I wanted to find "most of the most" guitar: realistic, simple and powerful...and inexpensive :) I trialed couple of them: MusicLab, Amplesound...Absolute fantastic edge of technology, but all of them seemed to me like sample archive with several knobs - you can build a music with it, but it is not VI for playing with keys. Okay, okay - it is not rocket science - I got some results with keyboard, but just did not like workflow. Then, I tried AAS Strum GS-2: "Oh, that is not guitar...and this is guitar..and..woah! i'm playing guitar!". One, two... and I just got music sketch and experiment with a result. Tons of sound presets and built-in rhythmic patterns, but you can just strum with keyboard. Or tweak sound in a way you never thought it was tweakable. "Do I really need 100% authentic super guitar sound?"

Pros: Playable fantastic strumming engine, Playground for guitar sound experiments, Built in patterns and FX, Quite realistic as electric rhythm guitar (and fast).

Cons: Not so easy, fast and plausible as acoustic guitar or lead guitar, No scratches/squeaks/slaps.

Forget about cons if you can consider this VI not as guitar, but "guitar-like synth", or "sketching/experimental instrument"