Product Reviews by KVR Members
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Golden Aset
Reviewed By funkychickendance [all]
April 21st, 2006
Version reviewed: 2.0 on Windows
If you've been intrigued by the family of synths that HG Fortune has developed over the past few years, you're sure to love this one. It's sold by artvera, whose Vera Kinter designed the truly beautiful interface, and whose work as a preset designer has graced a lot of HG Fortune's work.
If you are looking for a synth that can produce inspiring backdrops of sound for movie projects, or pads as underpinnings for ambient pieces, look no further. For $30, it's hard to think of anything else that will do the job as well. With 500+ carefully designed presets and the wonderful 'lazy' button for random resets, you're sure to trip across something that'll fit, in the spectrum from sinister to pastoral.
The themes are outer-spacy, Egyptian, mythological, fantasy-oriented, and named appropriately.
You can get three different GUIs -- gold, bluish, silver -- but the gold one is, for me, the way to go. Museum quality art, and I'm not kidding.
It's incredibly easy to use, and self-explanatory. You'll find time slipping past as you click through presets, trying to decide which to use...how about that? Therapeutic VST-induced meditative states!Read Review
If you are looking for a synth that can produce inspiring backdrops of sound for movie projects, or pads as underpinnings for ambient pieces, look no further. For $30, it's hard to think of anything else that will do the job as well. With 500+ carefully designed presets and the wonderful 'lazy' button for random resets, you're sure to trip across something that'll fit, in the spectrum from sinister to pastoral.
The themes are outer-spacy, Egyptian, mythological, fantasy-oriented, and named appropriately.
You can get three different GUIs -- gold, bluish, silver -- but the gold one is, for me, the way to go. Museum quality art, and I'm not kidding.
It's incredibly easy to use, and self-explanatory. You'll find time slipping past as you click through presets, trying to decide which to use...how about that? Therapeutic VST-induced meditative states!Read Review
M-Tron
Reviewed By funkychickendance [all]
October 13th, 2005
Version reviewed: 031005US on Windows
Developer GForce features a pretty essential range of products, but this was the first I simply had to buy.
The supply chain to the US has been a bit iffy in recent months, but new distributor M-Audio now has it out with retailers.
It's the kind of VST you either love or hate: it does just what it's supposed to do, which is sound like the classic Mellotron, the sound of the Sixties and early 70s. [Yes, I know people used 'Trons long after, but their heyday was earlier].
The latest release is the real deal, containing ALL of the available sounds previously sold as add-on banks, and some that were never commercial in the first place (custom jobs for Yes, Tangerine Dream and Frank Zappa). This adds up to 2GB-plus, and explains why it's no longer a download...
Authenticity being the name of the game, some of the sounds are a bit creaky and wobbly, which adds to the charm. GForce has also added a few 'new' sounds in the same mood (mostly choral).
And for those who say 'What the hell in a chamberlin?' the answer is revealed in the manual, wherein you discover it was a 'Tron predecessor. Its sounds are included, along with some from the defunct Megatron.
The VST behaves very nicely. The GUI is a kind of send-up of studio hardware, complete with cigarette burns and coffee cup rings. It's pretty simple to use. I read the manual AFTER I'd been through pretty much every function 'live.'
If you're an old geezer like me, who remembers when these devices were brand new, and only owned by the nouveau riche and rock elitists, you'll agree that $99 -- what it cost me -- is a fantastic deal.
It knocks the socks off all other 'Tron wannabes I've auditioned. Now all I've gotta do is stop myself from overusing it!Read Review
The supply chain to the US has been a bit iffy in recent months, but new distributor M-Audio now has it out with retailers.
It's the kind of VST you either love or hate: it does just what it's supposed to do, which is sound like the classic Mellotron, the sound of the Sixties and early 70s. [Yes, I know people used 'Trons long after, but their heyday was earlier].
The latest release is the real deal, containing ALL of the available sounds previously sold as add-on banks, and some that were never commercial in the first place (custom jobs for Yes, Tangerine Dream and Frank Zappa). This adds up to 2GB-plus, and explains why it's no longer a download...
Authenticity being the name of the game, some of the sounds are a bit creaky and wobbly, which adds to the charm. GForce has also added a few 'new' sounds in the same mood (mostly choral).
And for those who say 'What the hell in a chamberlin?' the answer is revealed in the manual, wherein you discover it was a 'Tron predecessor. Its sounds are included, along with some from the defunct Megatron.
The VST behaves very nicely. The GUI is a kind of send-up of studio hardware, complete with cigarette burns and coffee cup rings. It's pretty simple to use. I read the manual AFTER I'd been through pretty much every function 'live.'
If you're an old geezer like me, who remembers when these devices were brand new, and only owned by the nouveau riche and rock elitists, you'll agree that $99 -- what it cost me -- is a fantastic deal.
It knocks the socks off all other 'Tron wannabes I've auditioned. Now all I've gotta do is stop myself from overusing it!Read Review
Crystal
Reviewed By funkychickendance [all]
October 8th, 2005
Version reviewed: 2.4.8 on Windows
As others have said, this is a long-established free synth, and yet, it's still one of the most surprising
and pleasing. Usually, I find myself forgiving all kinds of horrible quirks in free stuff, but there's no need to with Crystal. There's basically nothing not to like.
More to the point, there's a helluva lot to be pleased about, and grateful for. I'm kinda new to soft synths -- although I messed with hardware in the past -- so wasn't really prepared for an item like this, which is rich in features. Just the one feature of 'breeding' two separate presets kept me amused for an hour.
Crystal produces excellent pads, that's true. But that's only one aspect. There are many banks of excellent presets by other sound designers, and there's nothing to stop you creating your own. It's just as capable of lead voices as it is of making pads. It's 100 per cent stable, has a pretty decent online manual, and has consistently evolved over the years. It certainly has more tweakability than I know how to usefully employ at present, and always delivers something useful whenever I fire it up.Read Review
and pleasing. Usually, I find myself forgiving all kinds of horrible quirks in free stuff, but there's no need to with Crystal. There's basically nothing not to like.
More to the point, there's a helluva lot to be pleased about, and grateful for. I'm kinda new to soft synths -- although I messed with hardware in the past -- so wasn't really prepared for an item like this, which is rich in features. Just the one feature of 'breeding' two separate presets kept me amused for an hour.
Crystal produces excellent pads, that's true. But that's only one aspect. There are many banks of excellent presets by other sound designers, and there's nothing to stop you creating your own. It's just as capable of lead voices as it is of making pads. It's 100 per cent stable, has a pretty decent online manual, and has consistently evolved over the years. It certainly has more tweakability than I know how to usefully employ at present, and always delivers something useful whenever I fire it up.Read Review
