Product Reviews by KVR Members
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Elektrik Piano
Reviewed By willum [all]
September 10th, 2004
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows
There's something about the Rhodes piano sound that hits me where no other instrument can. It's adjacent to the spot where the guitar hits me. Elektrik Piano is one of the best virtual instruments I've heard. I was mulling over the thought of purchasing a Rhodes sample set for about $100. It occurred to me that E.P. is a much better value. For about $50 more you get FOUR electric piano sample sets (Rhodes MkI & MkII, Clavinet, and Wurlitzer). There is a cool "vintage" UI, or you can easily load up the sounds in Kontakt if desired. The thing I like the best is that the Rhodes comes very close to the "touch" of an actual instrument (inasfar as that's possible). Higher velocities bring out that grit, which I adore. Hit the Wurlitzer and you'll be having Breakfast in America. I've only been using it for a couple of weeks, and it's pretty stable. The DFD extension makes it fairly economical on CPU as well. I haven't had to use tech support for it yet, but I have other NI products so I have used NI tech support. Not the fastest response time, but they always come through. Yes, it is a one-trick pony. But what's wrong with that? You want some great electric pianos? Look no further. All in all it's an excellent value for the money.Read Review
AmpliTube 4
Reviewed By willum [all]
June 25th, 2004
Version reviewed: 1.3 on Windows
Wow. What else can I say? I have never found any amp emulator, hardware or software, that was able to produce a satisfactory clean guitar tone. That is, until I bought my copy of Amplitube. This is an amazing plugin. Playing my Fender Toronado DE-9000, I have been able to get an astonishing variety of tones. Bright ones, dark ones, evil heavy metal and grunge tones, crystal-clean, jazz-type ones, and spot-on 60's garage. If you've ever used a guitar amp before, it will be very simple to dial in a good tone. The CPU usage is quite low (10% on my P4 2.4 1gb ram, Sonar 3.1.1). Stability is very high, no funky weirdness at any time. Not even a hiccup. However you will want to mute your guitar while changing patches, or you'll get a "pop".
I have played tube amps for years, and I know that no plugin can touch the tone or responsiveness of real amps. Nevertheless, there are several reasons for guitar players who record music on computers to seriously check this thing out. First off, the sound quality is superb. I don't know how they did it, but they did. The touch is not like a real amp, but it comes pretty close. It is very playable, and quite satisfying. Even though the sound doesn't quite match up to "the real thing", consider that you will never have to replace any tubes. Not only that, but for a measly $300 or so you can get a virtual roomful of classic amps to play around with (and it takes way less space). Another nice feature is that you can easily put any instrument through it for subtle coloring or perhaps complete destruction.
It comes with a good assortment of presets, which are designed to demonstrate the breadth of the sounds you can get from this thing. It even has some bass presets. Most guitar players like to see a few examples before adjusting their own settings, so I think there are enough presets for most people. Additionally, the IK website has a user preset section that's pretty well stocked. The main benefit I've derived from the presets is figuring out how to best use the post eq section.
As for tech support, never tried it. The documentation is excellent, covering each feature in detail. There is even a training video on the website. I do agree with the other reviewers in that challenge-response authentication is not ideal. It works, but it's an added pain. While we're on the subject of things I don't like, add in that the delay is not tempo-syncable. That's the worst problem I could find so far, and it's no big deal because chances are you've got at least three tempo-syncable delay plugins installed right now.
All in all, this is the perfect plugin for computer-oriented guitar players. You'll have a nice assortment of tones to use for recording or even just playing (imagine that). I got a copy of T-Racks for free (their special limited time 2-for-1 deal), so I'd have to say it was a tremendous value for the money. I would have bought it anyway, though, because it just sounds so damn good.Read Review
I have played tube amps for years, and I know that no plugin can touch the tone or responsiveness of real amps. Nevertheless, there are several reasons for guitar players who record music on computers to seriously check this thing out. First off, the sound quality is superb. I don't know how they did it, but they did. The touch is not like a real amp, but it comes pretty close. It is very playable, and quite satisfying. Even though the sound doesn't quite match up to "the real thing", consider that you will never have to replace any tubes. Not only that, but for a measly $300 or so you can get a virtual roomful of classic amps to play around with (and it takes way less space). Another nice feature is that you can easily put any instrument through it for subtle coloring or perhaps complete destruction.
It comes with a good assortment of presets, which are designed to demonstrate the breadth of the sounds you can get from this thing. It even has some bass presets. Most guitar players like to see a few examples before adjusting their own settings, so I think there are enough presets for most people. Additionally, the IK website has a user preset section that's pretty well stocked. The main benefit I've derived from the presets is figuring out how to best use the post eq section.
As for tech support, never tried it. The documentation is excellent, covering each feature in detail. There is even a training video on the website. I do agree with the other reviewers in that challenge-response authentication is not ideal. It works, but it's an added pain. While we're on the subject of things I don't like, add in that the delay is not tempo-syncable. That's the worst problem I could find so far, and it's no big deal because chances are you've got at least three tempo-syncable delay plugins installed right now.
All in all, this is the perfect plugin for computer-oriented guitar players. You'll have a nice assortment of tones to use for recording or even just playing (imagine that). I got a copy of T-Racks for free (their special limited time 2-for-1 deal), so I'd have to say it was a tremendous value for the money. I would have bought it anyway, though, because it just sounds so damn good.Read Review
CM-505 is one of my favorite drum synths. It is capable of making a nice variety of electronic percussion sounds, and vintage drumbox emulation. It's easy to use and it sounds great. The cons are that, as another reviewer mentioned, it doesn't hold settings between sessions, and you have to open the UI at the start of a session or you don't get any sounds. My other complaint is that the default mapping for the first kick drum pad is B0 (I use a 61-key controller so it's off the keyboard), but that's easily remedied by changing to C#1. It's stable, it sounds great, and it's free, so what else could you want? I do hope they come out with an upgrade to fix those problems, it really is an excellent piece of freeware.Read Review
Guess I'll jump in and be the first to review Intakt. As they mentioned, it is based on Kontakt, although does not have the routing flexibility or selection of modulations or effects that Kontakt does. Its main purpose in life is to manipulate loops, though it can perform many traditional sampler-type functions (for example, it has excellent time/pitch manipulation features).
Its filters and effects are set up in a chain. The order of these can be changed. You can set up zones with different samples, and several different "modes" can be active. The modulation section consists of a pitch env, ADHSR env, env follower, and two LFOs. The effects section has a filter, lo-fi, distortion, delay, and a master filter. You can change the chain order of these effects (except for the master).
As one would expect from a Native Instruments product, the sound quality is excellent, and the fit and finish is quite nice. There is a printed manual, but it doesn't explain everything you would want to know. If you're strictly looking for a beat slicer, you could do better. Phatmatik Pro is, in my opinion, the very best beat slicer available. I think the two can certainly complement each other. Intakt has a really cool beat rearranger feature, but with Phat you can drag and drop MIDI patterns directly into your sequencer.
The main problems I have with Intakt are the following:
* The LFOs act weird when sync'ed to host tempo. I could not ever figure out which subdivision I was set for. It does not display a value (1/4, 1/8t, etc). The delay effect can also sync, and you can select subdivisions from a pulldown menu, but the UI does not display the correct values, and sometimes it seems like the value does not get set properly. So my major feature request would be to update LFOs to let you explicitly set subdivision values, and fix the odd behavior of the delay.
* It's too easy to lose track of which mode you're editing in. For example, I started out editing a zone, and ended up accidentally switching out of zone edit mode and applying all my changes to a single key. So you need to be mindful while editing.
* No velocity mapping capability.
* The VSTi version crashed on me a few times while loading samples. The DXi version seems to be much more stable.
* In Project5, loading large kits caused my machine to slow down, almost like a hang.
* No demo version (although I have heard that NI has one in the works).
What I like about Intakt is:
* It's fun to use, and you can get some pretty cool sounds out of it.
* Instruments can contain many different types of samples.
* Time stretching/pitch shifting abilities provide excellent utility.
* The 1.01 update gives you, among other things, 1400 new loops and instruments. That's quite a hefty pile of sounds for free.
* They have the most beautiful packaging in the industry. I hated to throw the box out because it was mesmerising.
BTW I'm using Sonar 3.1 (4.4.0 VST wrapper)Read Review
Its filters and effects are set up in a chain. The order of these can be changed. You can set up zones with different samples, and several different "modes" can be active. The modulation section consists of a pitch env, ADHSR env, env follower, and two LFOs. The effects section has a filter, lo-fi, distortion, delay, and a master filter. You can change the chain order of these effects (except for the master).
As one would expect from a Native Instruments product, the sound quality is excellent, and the fit and finish is quite nice. There is a printed manual, but it doesn't explain everything you would want to know. If you're strictly looking for a beat slicer, you could do better. Phatmatik Pro is, in my opinion, the very best beat slicer available. I think the two can certainly complement each other. Intakt has a really cool beat rearranger feature, but with Phat you can drag and drop MIDI patterns directly into your sequencer.
The main problems I have with Intakt are the following:
* The LFOs act weird when sync'ed to host tempo. I could not ever figure out which subdivision I was set for. It does not display a value (1/4, 1/8t, etc). The delay effect can also sync, and you can select subdivisions from a pulldown menu, but the UI does not display the correct values, and sometimes it seems like the value does not get set properly. So my major feature request would be to update LFOs to let you explicitly set subdivision values, and fix the odd behavior of the delay.
* It's too easy to lose track of which mode you're editing in. For example, I started out editing a zone, and ended up accidentally switching out of zone edit mode and applying all my changes to a single key. So you need to be mindful while editing.
* No velocity mapping capability.
* The VSTi version crashed on me a few times while loading samples. The DXi version seems to be much more stable.
* In Project5, loading large kits caused my machine to slow down, almost like a hang.
* No demo version (although I have heard that NI has one in the works).
What I like about Intakt is:
* It's fun to use, and you can get some pretty cool sounds out of it.
* Instruments can contain many different types of samples.
* Time stretching/pitch shifting abilities provide excellent utility.
* The 1.01 update gives you, among other things, 1400 new loops and instruments. That's quite a hefty pile of sounds for free.
* They have the most beautiful packaging in the industry. I hated to throw the box out because it was mesmerising.
BTW I'm using Sonar 3.1 (4.4.0 VST wrapper)Read Review
Microtonic (µTonic)
Reviewed By willum [all]
January 9th, 2004
Version reviewed: 1.0 on Windows
If you like electronic percussion then this is the VSTi for you! MicroTonic is like the best of every vintage drum box rolled into one, and then some. In a word, it's superb. The interface is very intuitive, and it is capable of producing a wide range of sounds from abdomen-thumping bass, crisp vintage x0x cymbals, snares, etc., blips, bleeps, bloops, hisses, statics, clicks, boings, atmospheric washes, and general distorted electronic mayhem. You will not get bored. In addition, it comes with a huge selection of presets, both individual percussion sounds, and entire kits including preprogrammed sequences. The sequencer has 16 steps, each with an "accent" and "fill" switch. You can adjust the measure (1/8, 1/8t, 1/16, 1/16t, 1/32), swing, and fill rate. The patterns can be linked to play sequentially, controlled using MIDI keys, or you can turn off the sequencer and use it as a straight sound generator. The sound generation is simple, but very broad. There is an oscillator and a noise generator, which can be mixed together. The noise generator can be filtered, while the osc has an eq slider. Various parameters can be affected by velocity, which can make for some interesting variations. There are 8 pads, each of which can contain one drum patch. Each pad has a mute button (ctrl+click to solo) Pad muting can also be controlled via MIDI keys.
There are lots of ways to work with MicroTonic, which is a great strength. It's easy to navigate between patches, cut, paste, and exchange, so editing is a breeze. The one quirk about this plugin is its method of saving patches. You can save each individual drum hit as a patch (.mtdp), or you can save an entire kit (up to 8 hits plus 12 sequences .mtpg). In having its own patch formats, it does depart from the traditional VSTi patch saving paradigm, but once you begin using it you will realize this makes it far more versatile. Depending on your host, you can also save programs traditionally (for example, Cakewalk users can still save complete programs using the VST wrapper's patch management facilities, although individual drum patches must be saved as .mtdp files directly from MT).
This is a top-quality plugin, and an excellent value for the money. It has never crashed on me, and I've been using it since its release day (Sonar3 and Project5). I've never had the need to contact tech support. It is super-efficient with CPU usage. The documentation is fairly basic, but good. I didn't have to refer to it much because it really kind of documents itself. The documentation does contain an excellent technical explanation of how the thing works, and all basic features are covered.
If you enjoy electronic percussion, this truly is the VSTi for you.Read Review
There are lots of ways to work with MicroTonic, which is a great strength. It's easy to navigate between patches, cut, paste, and exchange, so editing is a breeze. The one quirk about this plugin is its method of saving patches. You can save each individual drum hit as a patch (.mtdp), or you can save an entire kit (up to 8 hits plus 12 sequences .mtpg). In having its own patch formats, it does depart from the traditional VSTi patch saving paradigm, but once you begin using it you will realize this makes it far more versatile. Depending on your host, you can also save programs traditionally (for example, Cakewalk users can still save complete programs using the VST wrapper's patch management facilities, although individual drum patches must be saved as .mtdp files directly from MT).
This is a top-quality plugin, and an excellent value for the money. It has never crashed on me, and I've been using it since its release day (Sonar3 and Project5). I've never had the need to contact tech support. It is super-efficient with CPU usage. The documentation is fairly basic, but good. I didn't have to refer to it much because it really kind of documents itself. The documentation does contain an excellent technical explanation of how the thing works, and all basic features are covered.
If you enjoy electronic percussion, this truly is the VSTi for you.Read Review
SampleTank free
Reviewed By willum [all]
March 15th, 2003
Version reviewed: LE on Windows
Since I still haven't found a soft sampler that I like, I thought I'd give this a try. Although it's not a sampler per se, I liked the idea of the symphonic instruments, and thought it would be nice to start out with the grand piano. After fiddling around trying to get the instrument to show up, I was finally able to get sounds out of it. It wasn't the best thing I'd ever heard; my Yamaha A3000 16mb grand beat the pants off it for sheer quality. Then while I was messing around trying to access some options, my entire system froze. Not just Sonar, but all of Windows. SampleTank looks like a neat idea, but it doesn't look like it's going to work for me in its present form. I run Sonar 2.2 XL on an Athlon 2400 (MSI KT4 Ultra-SR MB) with Win XP Pro.Read Review
Here are my initial impressions after installing and playing around with Tassman 3.0. The first thing that pops out is that the interface now houses both player and builder. There is a prominent "explorer" tree-style navigation pane to the left. The explorer contains all of the instruments, presets, modules, sub-patches, and everything. All you have to do is double-click to launch an instrument, or drag and drop to select a module, and Tassman switches to the correct mode. It's 10 times better than the old version, in which I was never sure exactly what I was doing.
CPU-wise, Applied-Acoustics has really done a great job. On my AMD 2400+ with 512mb of 266, the DXi hovered between 10-15% for nearly all of the pre-made instruments and settings. I haven't put it to the hard core test yet, but 3.0 appears to be very greatly improved over the previous version in this regard. At this point I realize that I'll probably be using it far more than I did the last version because it's more intuitive.
Now for the part where Tassman really shines: the sound quality is simply amazing. It's expressive, and feels truly musical. The analog synth instruments sound thick and real, but the physical modeling is where the rubber meets the road. The organ and e-piano instruments are the highlight, they're totally convincing. The tube and mallet style instruments are also fantastic. The step and cv sequencers are tons of fun, and seem to suggest some very strange solutions.
Now for the parts I didn't like. First, sub-patches are not very well identified. When you encounter one in an instrument, it's like "what's this thing and where did it come from?" Also, I couldn't figure out how to close unwanted instances of things, so each time I ended my session I got like 5 dialog boxes asking if I want to save changes to whatever stuff was open. Not very intuitive, but hopefully the solution is there.
I can't accurately rate the stability.Read Review
CPU-wise, Applied-Acoustics has really done a great job. On my AMD 2400+ with 512mb of 266, the DXi hovered between 10-15% for nearly all of the pre-made instruments and settings. I haven't put it to the hard core test yet, but 3.0 appears to be very greatly improved over the previous version in this regard. At this point I realize that I'll probably be using it far more than I did the last version because it's more intuitive.
Now for the part where Tassman really shines: the sound quality is simply amazing. It's expressive, and feels truly musical. The analog synth instruments sound thick and real, but the physical modeling is where the rubber meets the road. The organ and e-piano instruments are the highlight, they're totally convincing. The tube and mallet style instruments are also fantastic. The step and cv sequencers are tons of fun, and seem to suggest some very strange solutions.
Now for the parts I didn't like. First, sub-patches are not very well identified. When you encounter one in an instrument, it's like "what's this thing and where did it come from?" Also, I couldn't figure out how to close unwanted instances of things, so each time I ended my session I got like 5 dialog boxes asking if I want to save changes to whatever stuff was open. Not very intuitive, but hopefully the solution is there.
I can't accurately rate the stability.Read Review
This is a pretty nice little synth. It's different, and it sounds great which is why I purchased a copy. It's easy to get really warm/dirty analog-style sounds. The random patch generator is really top-notch. You can choose from "pad", "lead", "bass", or "fx" style patches. I was able to get several useful new patches in a few minutes. MIDI Learn is available on all of the controls; this is a feature I think ALL software instruments should have.
But the part I like the most is that dirty, nasty sound. I love analog grit, and this little sucker puts out a fairly convincing range of those types of sounds. I've never used the original hardware version of this synth, so I can't say whether it's an authentic reproduction. I liked what I heard, though. The price is fantastic, I feel I got more than my money's worth with daHornet. Their online purchasing is quick, too. Within 5 minutes I had the full version up and running.Read Review
But the part I like the most is that dirty, nasty sound. I love analog grit, and this little sucker puts out a fairly convincing range of those types of sounds. I've never used the original hardware version of this synth, so I can't say whether it's an authentic reproduction. I liked what I heard, though. The price is fantastic, I feel I got more than my money's worth with daHornet. Their online purchasing is quick, too. Within 5 minutes I had the full version up and running.Read Review
