Product Reviews by KVR Members

I originally tried out eTAP alongside a series of other delay plugins, both commercial and free, in an attempt to find a nice tape delay emulation. In terms of usefulness and quality, I'd say that the eTAP is the equal of the Tape Echo GS-201 and some other commercial plugins, which is a strongly positive recommendation. It doesn't really have that very unique sound of the GS-201, but it has its own flavor that is quite distinctive and musical.

The best feature of the eTAP is the number of excellent presets for approximating a variety of vintage tape machines. Most of the presets are low feedback and help to increase the density of a drum loop or add a nice tape slapback sort of sound to guitar. However, it's easy enough to midi learn the feedback knob for more extreme effects and play with those in real time.

The sound of the delays is free of digital artifacts even when changing settings; the knobs are smooth and could be manipulated in real time. It sounds convincing in a mix with physical instruments (e.g., live drums, guitars, etc.). Because the saturation and tape wow can be controlled by the user, it's quite useful for nice clean delays or for grittier broken down tape machine effects.

I think that Absynth was the first soft synth I ever really understood, so I admit that I'm rather biased towards it. However, I do think that Absynth has some enormous advantages for those who want to develop their synthesizer skills. First and foremost, the graphical envelope displays take a lot of the mystery out of programming parameters. Second, because pretty much any part of any patch can be modified by the graphical envelopes, which makes Absynth extremely programmable.

It is often said that Absynth is not appropriate for bread and butter synth sounds, and I would tend to agree, but I think those who complain about this are missing the point. The reason one would want to use a synthesizer that can create complex envelopes and has a "draw your own waveform" capability is to get outside the typical synthesizer concept. Most synthesizers do tend towards generating very similar output when you push their parameters to the max, but that there are dozens of complex sounds that can be created very quickly in Absynth. It's not perfect to be sure, but for big, spacious moving pads and soundscapes, Absynth is very powerful, easy to use, and flexible.

For starters, it's worth considering what a convolution reverb is (and my review was too short, so I need to pad it a little). Convolution reverbs use impulses usually collected from natural spaces by people popping balloons or using other meants to get a basic example of how the space affects sounds. Then the reverb unit emulates the behavior of the natural space by filtering/damping the sound consistent with the response pattern of the reverberation of the natural space. Convolution reverb is the next step in reverb for those interested in rich, natural sounds.

In my opinion, SIR is the undisputed king of free reverb effects, and I've tried quite a few. There's nothing else in the same class as SIR. The sound is gorgeous, natural, and very morphable in a hurry. One can find dozens of free impulses online to enhance choices. Because most commercial convolution reverbs are quite expensive, this free version is all the more impressive. I've had minor stability issues and it doesn't work for live recording because it has too much latency, so it's not perfect, but it is outstanding for a free product.

My rating does not reflect how much i like Reaktor, because it fails in some respects to be an easy plug and play device. It's the most complex virtual instrument I've ever seen, which is the greatest strength and weakness of the system. If you're like me, and you want to customize every detail of your sound, then there isn't much like it, although Max/MSP or Tera are alternatives. An obvious strength of Reaktor is that if you don't quite agree with the way any part of the program is set up, you can dig into the structure and change it any way you want. Of course, you end up spending a lot of time programming and not as much time playing as you would with a simpler system. That's one drawback.

It is an incredible package straight out of the box if you're willing to take the time to learn about all the elements of the program. The included instruments keep getting better with each new release, including five of the better soft synths (SubHarmonic, Carbon2, TwoOsc, Skrewell, and FM4) four of the better effects (FlatBlaster, SpaceMaster, Grainstates, and Lurker), three of the better rhythm machines (Massive, NewSkool, and Sinebeats) and three of the better sample transformer/playback machines (Travelizer, Scenario, RandomStepShifter) for my purposes on the market.