jimmarchi1's Reviews

Decent analog style poly with a unique voice.

This synth ahs unique midrange and sounds saturated all the time ina good way. Nice but pretty typical other than the mids which can actually be a bit much for dense mixes. The stripped down freeware version is Pure Pohn which I have too and you should try out. Good stuff, but I seldom go there even though poly synths is where my outboard collection is weak. Now I feel like I oughta arrange a track where this guy can take a central role.

I love PSP

this is a pretty solid lexicon emulation and has the interface pat like a PCM delay. Remidns me of some of the algorithms on the aLex I owned for years I use this guy all the time for bright, clean and slightly crunchy digital delay. A great emulation of a forgotten delay sound.

A great exciter that doesn't emulate hardware.

This is an exciter with separate blends that aren't the usual treble and bass and little else to confuse me. the body seems to affect key mid bands like the frequencies in maxx bass and the upper mids whereas the big 'hit' control seems to be for treble but its very program dependent as if there's an expander built in before it so at lower settings it only enhances the tops of the big transients and then disappears makng it fantastic for cymbals and snares. It doesn't sound like an aphex or BBE, it does its own thing and is very hifi. I don't excite a lot but I will shoot this out with the waves aphex, SPL vitalizer and the freeware le excite plugin (another little known piece of magic) across a channel or the mix buss and set them all up separately so they sound great to me and just cycle between them until I choose one and then remove the 2 losers. Its a toss up. My 3 primary exciters sound sweet in different ways and I use them all when I need that sort of thing. I mostly use exiters for highs like the old aphex units though and will treat my lows on a channel per channel basis with dedicated sub synths, max bass, etc and then I might hook up a bass phase plugin to tighten thigns up on a rhythm section bus that will have all my sounds with heavy action below 200 c/s. But yeah, this is a great exciter and its cool to use on a drum group or a rhythm bus helpingthe body and transients of bass and drums as a group. 5 star plugin all the way. Fab.

I really love this virual moog.

Look, I've never used a Moog Prodigy but I have 2 Moogs. This does a rpetty good job being Moogish and there's just something about this stripped down format that kills. I love playing around with this and use it all the time in tracks even though I have a studio electronics and a sub phatty. I've been told the Prodigy has snappier envelopes than a Model D and I have to say that's true of this emulation, snappier than the SE1 and snappier than Elektrostudio's own Model D plugin. This is a great lead synth and amazing for mono pads and whines that morph into sound effects. It has more cut than the phatty and a different modulation feel than the SE1 and the chorus is nice for turning it stereo even though its non-adjustable. I think this is elektrostudio's most enjoyable synth both for sequences and performance with a controller.... and no one else models a Prodigy.

solid sample based electric piano

This is a rompler with some useful controls and it does one thing, electric piano.... its a nice version.... I also like lounge lizard, mda epiano (aka the epiano on fruity keys) and glue reeds so check those out. They are all fantastic ways to get different flavors of Rhodes, wurli, hohner and FM electric piano sounds into your in the box productions ;-)

super cool sampler thingy

this came with my soundcard back when I got it and its super cool but it doesn't sound like an emaulator or emax, its so fucking pristine and nice so tis not like you can use it to do the emu thing, you can't... but its a great sampler/editor and comes standalone or as a plugin.

Sound is nice but its just not fun.

It has a nice sound that's a different vibe than the analog modelling of Reaktor's more analog blocks and yet the hardware inspired interface is a bummer. Moving imaginary cables around with your mouse is not a lot of fun. I wish they had a more computer friendly GUI for routing like Reaktor or maybe a matrix type of setup where you add a module and it goes into the matrix or something. The sound is pleasing but I just can't discipline myself to use it.

I think its a virtual Poly800.

I ahd a Poly800 and this isn't really right and yet it isn't bad either. Its somewhat korg-like and can be very right for certain sounds. The arp is dead on and the chorus is nice. I like all the tempo sync functions on the LFOs, Arp and built in delay. A full featured freeware DCO modeler that never sounds like a roland. I've definitely made use of this for chord/pad layers in finished songs.

Sounds really cool and its not as popular as massive.

This thing makes some wild additive sounds from cutting leads to strange atmospheres. Intuitive interface and mesmerizing harmonics display.... I like this over massive because hardly anyone uses it and its not played out. I'ms till delving into what this thing does.

almost amazing

this is a fully featured and intuitive pattern state variable filter and trem with joystick control and every bell and whistle you can imagine like tempo sync and level driven filter and amp envelopes, but it falls down because the filter models are not superb and on a lot of sources they sound downright bad. There can be some delay in them too and there's definitely aliasing with extreme pattern and high resonances. On the other hand you really can drive like any parameter with the pattern GUI or automate random controls.... I have a love hate relationship with this effect. Its a lower CPU hit than either Wow filter.... eh, I use it sometimes, lets just say that.

Old homebrew plugins from the birth of VST

I still use the shit out of the MDA plugins I always liked. This guy came up with some low CPU 32 bit VSTs back when VST came out and alter updated them to VST2 and you've been able tog et them for free ever since. Hopefully they will enver disappear because they are just handy as all fucking get out. Some of 'em anyway. Image is a great, basic MS processor and though using native GUI its not intuitive like Waves S1 it gets the job done just fine if you use your ears. Subsynth is just what it says it is. Dub delay is a serviceable, no frills mono dub delay with built in limiter or saturation. Bandisto is a 2 band distortion with a listen function on each band and a simple 2 control system for setting crossovers that I find very useful for adding heavy grind to a limited bandwidth while adding little to no dirt to the rest of the signal.... and you can kinda use it like a program EQ with the individual levels for each band so you can make some rbaod balance adjustments while dirting thigns up. Combo is a shitty speaker sim with hard or soft clipping and a bias control that adds DC offset that can get so extreme that the crossover distortion is unmusical... I actually really like the radio simulation on this guy with plenty of offset, its much different than doing it with EQ and sounds pretty cool and its a trick no one else goes for. I find myself using the aforementioned plugins on delay sends a lot to add color to them.... the rest of the MDA pack is less useful and somewhat forgettable, but you shouldn't discount these old toys.

I originally lsited this as generic tele, then it got emrged with a 'standard tele' which it is not!

My tele is a mutt I made from a lacquered alder fender body of some sort or other and a 60s RI neck. I kitted her out to 59 specs more or less with custom made angeltone early-stagger pickups and a Hovland Musicap on the tone control wired 50s style. I deviated by flipping the control panel to allow easy volume adjustment and by installing a Rutters bridge with his late 50s steel compensated saddles. She absolutely sings.

though I love this telecaster and would NEVER EVER part with her, I haven't named her. She's pretty much a studio guitar, so we're not on a first name basis. You know, cats you tour with are always better buddies than guys you work a session with. Maybe one day she'll reveal her name to me.

I still keep a few of these around...

These were my pick of choice in my early 20s. I gauged up from the red tortexes on everything but acoustic. I still like these and use them sometimes. I'm not as fussy as I used to be though and use whatever is to hand. For awhile I played fignerstyle almost exclusively and stopped caring about picks. Now that I've gotten pick oriented again I just have a little bit of everything and find myself using these picks with my les pauls for some reason.

my favorite nylons

I've tried the la bellas and pretty much everything under the sun and I always come back to Savarez.... they're what my dad always used and they just sound and feel right to me. The 500 ARs are their most recent formulation and they take everything that was great about their strings and refine it with greater consistency.

still in my plugin dropdown

I still have this floating around from when FL wasn't quite up to snuff as my main DAW and I slaved it to Cubase. I seldom use it but its not a bad VSTi at all.

I dunno if you can still get this

the infamous bedroom producer blog put together this drum rompler using some readily available samples of tape/high-end-outboard treated recordings of famous roland machines. The samples are around and theya re nice as hell but this guy puts it into a convenient little VST for when you don't need individual processing. Gives you some basic controls to tweak the original recordings. Worth getting if its still available. if you haven't read the blog you should do so.

its not horrible

this was the 1st 303 emulation I heard besides the standalone 'rubberduck' softsynth that sounded remotely like a 303 and rebirth of course. But this was the first vsti that was faithfully trying to do the 303 sound and nothing else that I can remember. I am sure they've done better since. is till have this since way back and I will still use it as a stand in to block out parts before I fire up a legit bassline hardware synth. Helps me get my ideas together and work out the rest of the sequences and put down guitar and piano performances etc. Next to the bassbot or x0x its pretty thin and stiff I must admit, but it has some of the vibe, particularly distorted. It was a good early stab at capturing acid in the box.

dated but I kindalove it

sim synth never sounded legitimately analog but it has a really unique sound among early analog synth software and for that I love it. I actually use it A LOT! There's a synthetic quality to every aspect of the sound that's plastic and weird and for certain parts its perfect. Music is about context. If you get hung upon what tools you wanna use you will make generic music. Find the stuff that expresses what you're saying even if its something as reviled as simsynth. Maybe there's going to be a retro software synth revival!

fun

I was just screwing with this earlier and you can make some fucked up noises with it. Not incredibly musical but a lot of good clean fun and worth a download. Maybe one day I'll use it in a song, but it can have 3 stars for being fun to play with after work.

a rompler with fitlers and stuff

I actually really like this shitty piece of freeware.... you can get some sounds out of it that are pretty unique and you can get them fast. Nice for making subtle atmospheric chord swirls that you bury in the mix during a breakdown or the 'drop' in a dance number.