aotihav's Reviews
4 reviews Back to aotihav's Equipboard
93
DIY mastering- or simply a track compressor.
Maximus is a unique hybrid between a mastering suite and track effect, straddling the line without really throwing all its eggs into one basket. Sure, it's not full-fledged enough to replace a mastering job by a pro, and it's not the best limiter/compressor out there, but when used judiciously, it can smooth out a rough mix like a charm. "Judiciously" is the key here, because Maximus is not above taking your frequencies and mangling them if overapplied- especially in a more delicate or finalized mix. ...Manually drawing envelopes is grand as well. Oh, and you can crank this thing to loudness wars levels, of course.
41013
it can be amusing to use maximuse to reshape transient and frequency response in unexpected ways on sampled acoustic sounds.... its faults when overused can be an amusing effect when pushed to the extreme as an insert
93
Look elsewhere for brilliance...
The dryest, tinniest distortion imaginable. The weakest attempts at providing variety. A cacophony that sounds like a three-year old found out how to set up a pedalboard. All this and more can be yours from Image-Line's Hardcore. I've tried to like these FX, I've really tried... but my sole comfort is that they came bundled with my Signature copy of FL and I didn't pay out-of-pocket for them alone. Spend your $100 on Amplitube, Guitar Rig 5, or Peavey Revalver, or search out some of the free VST FX/stompbox sims out there. There are some gems in freebie-land, which is more than I can say for this product.
41013
OMG these effects area riot though! its like my vuddy's rig in the 90s! gobs of cheap pedals and a crappy solid state amp with the shittiest speaker ever.... its ahrd to get these sounds from entry level gear these days as most pedals are at least passable now and the majority of student practice amps have modelling capabilities that sound crappy in a wholly different way. I occasionally just HAVE to use hardcore on DIed guitar as a gimmick, usually in conjunction with a gnarly, solid state-sounding patch on fruity waveshaper....
93
Decent USB mic at an affordable price.
The Samson Meteor packs a pretty chrome punch as an inexpensive, portable studio mic. The downsides? It tends to pick up a LOT of background noise (you're gonna want to cup this one, folks!) and, the USB cable is in quite possibly the worst place- straight out the back at a 90 degree angle, ripe to be jostled and disconnected. Pop filter recommended but not necessary for this beastie.
