modulate's Reviews

Dreamy

It's such a great pedal, dreamy watery chorus/vibrato. Perfect for everything from Peter Hook basslines to Nirvana. It's got a sound and nothing else quite sounds like it.

Legendary Fuzz

It's a classic. Brilliant for that late 80s/early 90s fuzz tone. It's thick, vibey, genuinely great pedal. It's been on my board since I bought it and I can't imagine it not being on my board. It's a go-to.

Of it's time

It was my first real synthesizer. In that sense, it was great but it had it's flaws. Very digital sounding, because it was. Of the era where they got rid of knobs and controls and replaced them with buttons and small LCD screens. It had a few waveforms to pick from but they were basic and very fixed, rigid, digital, dry, however you want to put it, it didn't have mojo. It was full of mostly early 90s sounds that have a little bit of a real sample mixed with another waveform, . It did have a little joystick to blend between sources which was probably it's only great plus point. That provided a degree of motion at least. It's main claim to fame was that sighing sound on Go by Moby. Piano wasn't bad for the time, and a few nice pad/string sounds, flute etc. And a half decent keybed with after touch. It's still sat in my studio with a broken key...I haven't turned it on in a few years. I'm not sure whether it's worth fixing.

Outstanding build quality

The build quality is outstanding. It’s phenomenal, flawless, the fretboard, the frets, everything. It’s a joy to play. The string tension, height etc. It’s the sort of build quality you’d expect from a guitar several times this price.

But I only gave it 4 stars?

The pickups suck. They sounded horrible. I tried it through real amps, I tried it through virtual amps, nothing sounded good. They were harsh, throaty, congested, mid forward. In short they sounded cheap and amateurish. And the pots started to get scratchy way sooner than I would have expected.

So I swapped them out for an EMG 81/85 combo. And it sounds phenomenal. This is exactly what I wished it sounded like. It’s a dream for anything from 80s rock to modern metal. You can even get great blues and clean tones. It is, along with my FSR Strat, one of my two main workhorses in the studio.

Schecter rapidly became one of my favourite guitar brands.

Cheap and kinda good?

It's cheap, flimsy, not very well built - whatever the opposite of robust is, this is it. It flexes, wiggles and it's generally lacking on the physical side. On the flip, it did multiple international tours and survived the abuse.

Sound wise - it's ok, but sorta thin and weedy, like an early VST...you know the ones you stopped using 15 years ago. Kinda gritty, kinda crunchy, but not quite the same grit as a K-Station. A bit nastier than a V-Station in a good way, but not much.

It's horrible to program because of the tiny screen and menus, though it does accept patches from the V-Station VST, although they don't sound 100% exact.

It was the sound of a certain era, early 2000's virtual analogue. Some things were great, some weren't. Worth picking up for silly money, like sub $100/£100, otherwise pass.

Pro level boss

Really really nice sounding bus compressor. Tight, fast and punchy. I can't compare it to a real SSL but it is a very nice software compressor. Maybe slightly more refined than the Waves version (The Waves version has a slight bite to it that I really like for certain things), a smoother, glossier, sound.

Definitely worth picking up if you spy it in the SSL sales. It's absolutely one of the best bus compressors I've found.

Preferred Settings + Usage:

One of the best

Absolute solid performer, it did things nothing else could and comes stacked with a huge selection of wavetables and filters, great modulation, great interface, it's a modern (talking) classic.

Until Serum, this was absolutely the Daddy of VSTs. Spawned a thousand dubstep and neuro tracks, but it's much broader than that, covering everything from FX heavy ambient drones to supersaw trance leads, solid basses, gorgeous pads, if you had to chose one synth, for a long time, this would be it.

Pro level boss

Been using it a long time, whilst I like writing in Live I generally mix and record in Cubase. It's got a pro level feature set and it's a breeze to use, esp for mixing. It's one of the big 3 DAWs along with Live and Logic.

Over the versions it has become more refined with more functionality, but there are some parts of the software that aren't as intuitive as they might be, it doesn't map controllers as well as say Live does...and programming custom templates is laborious. It doesn't import loops as well, it doesn't auto record MIDI as well, so if you are jamming away and want to pull something up you just played, it needs some work compared to how Live does it.

Decent enough selection of stock plugins but I rarely use them, I'm not sure many pro users actually use them, but they are there if you just want things to work straight out of the box.

It does really shine when it comes to handling and organising VSTs, and that's something that will speed up your workflow on it's own. I can organise instruments or synths, effects etc into different folders for different projects, say Scoring or Guitar or Mastering etc.

It does lack a few features of Live and doesn't handle loops as well, so whilst it does absolutely fine with dance music and loop based productions, it's not as quick for me to sketch ideas. Where it really stands out is mixing and editing, where it's excellent. MIDI piano roll editing is great and much better than anything else I've used in terms of features. It's deep, so whilst easy to get started, it has a huge level of depth that can take years to figure out. But it'll do everything you need at a pro level, as indicated by how many AAA users it has.

So 4 stars, it's great, but it's a touch bloated and maybe held back by the fact it's retained features from 20 years ago.

Basic but useful

It's a pretty basic drum pad by today's standards. Essentially a HR16 sound engine, so it's limited but if you are after some 80s sounding drums, it can be ideal...I just hammered the hell out of it for an early EBM style track (think early NIN/Ministry/Nitzer Ebb) and it was perfect for that vibe.

It's simple, it works, it'll even work as a MIDI trigger pad which adds to the usefulness, but don't go expecting anything great in terms of response or dynamics. The pads are hard, small and sometimes cross trigger. Sound wise, it has a fair amount of sounds onboard covering, well, the sounds of an early 90s drum machine. Big rock snares and toms, rock kicks, cymbals, percussion. Not much of interest for the more electronic producer.

It is what it is. It's old skool. It sounds old skool. It plays old skool.

The absolute best pack you can buy

If you are starting out and want a solid collection of industry-standard pro quality instruments and effects, buy this in the biggest version you can afford.

It's that simple.

From electronics to orchestral scoring, IDM to hip-hop, whatever you need, it's in here and what you get is superb.

There are eq's, compressors, reverbs, loads of synths, loops, sample packs, strings, pianos, cinematic percussion, fx, modular synths.

I honestly don't think you could spend a better chunk of money and get better value than Komplete.

It's enough to send you a very long way down the route of a professional setup.

Beat monster

Probably THE drum composer at the moment. Programming beats is so easy on this.

If there are any complaints, it's that the pads are somewhat difficult to program with and get consistent dynamics and really explore the dynamic range it's capable of...mostly you'll end up hitting beats at 127 velocity. They could have been better.

And it's not that intuitive to use...definitely needs a good study of the manual.

Otherwise, bang on. A huge selection of kits and patterns that is constantly being expanded. Sounds great. Easy to program. It's my go to beat maker.

Superb sounding drum machine

I could write a review or just say, this did the Tron Legacy soundtrack.

It has a pretty distinctive sound, part retro, part modern. It's a synthetic drum machine/drum synth. It sounds great. And with the patternarium web site you are able to download AI generated patterns into it, giving a fresh source of beats each month.

Ideal for IDM, Techno and Hip-Hop.

Ok

Nothing wrong with it, seems to do what it should, but I think I prefer the Waves version because it seems to give a bit more grit. It's one of those things that is down to the intangible small differences.

Yes and No

This is a weird one. It was my first guitar, I've had it for 30 years or so, but I fall in and out of love with it on a regular basis. It's largely in the Les Paul mold, shorter scale length, humbuckers etc. Ash body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard.

The neck is probably the main issue, it tapers from the body and ends up very narrow at the nut making chords really difficult to finger. Towards the 12th fret it's actually a joy to play, in fact most places apart from open chords.

Tonally - It doesn't have the oomph you'd expect, nor does it really give you a great rich classic tone. It can get there eventually on a more classic tone, but it does lack a bit of power/sustain for me. The neck pickup is a bit boomy, the bridge, clear but lower powered.

So one of those...sometimes I love it, sometimes it comes with magic, sometimes it doesn't. Funny things guitars.

It's ok

It's an ok synth for the price but I've always found the engine lacking somehow compared to other VA type synths. It just doesn't sound as smooth, classy or rich as many others. Ok, that gives it a certain character, but the K Station had a real dirt and grit and vibe to it that this doesn't.

The capacitive sensing knobs should have given rise to a hugely expressive synth but somehow even that falls short, only doing a limited number of roles on only a few presets.

I always thought this was a synth that promised so much and never really delivered.

Stunning

I've tried a few Juno 106 emulations, including the Roland Cloud, and this sounds absolutely amazing. It's lush, alive, and very analog sounding . We are definitely reaching the age where soft synths no longer sound digital.

Amazing

Brilliant synth, absolute workhorse, AWFUL company that have abandoned their users, ignored them completely and refused to update the software in years rendering it unusable on modern Macs yet continue to sell the TI.

I'll leave you to make your own mind up on whether you want to give your money to such a company.

Possibly the most used soft synth I own

An absolutely stunning sounding soft synth. Diva stands for Dinosaur Impersonating Virtual Analogue, designed to replicate many of the analogue dinosaurs that have become classics from the late 70s onwards...think Roland, Korg, Moog etc. It's not set out to do just one synth, with a modular plug n play setup that allows you to take the oscillators from one synth, the filters from another, the envelope from a third, and mix and match to create your own unique hybrid.

There are plenty of tweeks you can make under the hood, osc stability, voice drift, detuning etc to give you a huge sonic range from modern in your face punch to classic sounding to outright wonky.

Did I mention the sound quality? It's incredible. Truly. THIS is my go-to synth for bass. I've hardly used anything else since. It has a sound and punch and presence I've not found with anything else. How do you express solidity? It's that fatness, punch, oomph, that 'thing' that makes a sound stand out. Of course, you can do thin and weedy, but it's much easier to take a fat synth and make it weedy than taking a thin-sounding synth and making it sound fat. But it doesn't just do bass, it has a fabulous library of pads and leads to die for. Moogy Lead? You've got it. Juno pads? Sure. Weird LFO fx? Absolutely. Whilst it comes with a load of very very respectable presets, programming it is a piece of cake.

Like the Virus TI (the only other synth I find as easy to dial in a sound) it's a dream to program. The interface is simple, clear, and well laid out on several pages so it never feels cramped or difficult to read, or adjust something. It's a pleasure to experiment with. As much as the preset library is great, it's often faster and more fun to knock up something of your own. I tend to make chunky dance music with an industrial edge and this is ideal for that. Bring able to blend in some FM edge to analogue richness is fantastic. I haven't found anything that sounds as good as this.

On weaker systems, it is quite resource-heavy, but in that regard, I've found you get what you pay for...though there are options to switch to Eco modes that reduce the CPU hit without really hitting the sound quality. In fact, sometimes it can sound better. I wouldn't say it ever sounds bad, more different. On a powerful system it will split across multicores if you let it making great use of the available power.

About the only negative I can think of is that I'd like to be able to rename the Favourites banks instead of Favourites 1, 2, 3 etc. That's pretty much it.

Overall: it's a rock solid performer, the best-sounding soft synth for my money if you want a classic analogue sound without necessarily wanting to ape a particular machine. It can give you the vibe of particular machines, but you also have the flexibility to go 'off piste' and mix Roland VCO's with a Korg Filter and Moog Envelopes. It's a no brainer to have DIVA in your arsenal. It's proved to be an absolute workhorse in my studio and gets used more than anything else. I literally can't think of a track I've made since getting it that doesn't use it.

I love it

Beautiful guitar. Great tone. Gorgeous chiming high end. It sounds like a classic Fender with the Fat 50 pickups in. Construction is absolutely perfect. It's a Mexican Strat but it is, in every way I can see, perfect. I'm not sure how you could improve on the build quality. I've seen reviews that say it sounds better than a US custom shop Strat and whilst I can't compare directly, I can't disagree either. It's genuinely a beautiful instrument.

I saw a video commenting on the staggered pole pieces in the Fat 50's. Does it affect the tone? Maybe to a degree, but largely the pickups are set at such an angle that there isn't much difference and if anything, it seems like it tames that slight harshness you can get when you go from the wound to solid strings, meaning you get a wonderful creamy lead sound that's smooth and rich.

Obviously, it's based on the Gilmour black strat. Certainly in terms of looks, but the pickups in that were 60's Fender and a Seymour Duncan SSL on the bridge, so not entirely a copy but you absolutely can get Gilmour style tones from it. Stick it through a Big Muff, chorus and delay and you are a long way there although I think it's far from a one trick pony, with a wide range of tones.

The Don

Really is the Don of samplers. No other sampler comes close in terms of the range and depth of libraries available for it. The scripting language under the hood makes it hugely powerful for things like orchestral libraries. I'm not so bothered about using it for synth sounds, an actual synth vst or hardware will give you more variety, but for orchestral or cinematic, sound fx or deep complex pads, it is unmatched. The same goes for percussion libraries. It is rock solid and almost certainly THE industry-standard sample player.